1^80.] LAND-SHELLS OF MENTON. 95 



for the way in which he has placed his magnificent collection of 

 European land-shells, by far the finest in existence, at my disposal 

 for examination, and still more for the exceedingly kind way in 

 which he has been good enough to carefully examine these Menton 

 Mollusca, and to give me his opinion concerning their correct identi- 

 fication. 



The land-shells of Menton belong to three distinct periods, or 

 phases, of our Quaternary Epoch ; and none of them I regard as true 

 fossils ; I would define as such only forms which existed in prior 

 epochs. 



1. Cave period (phases e'ozoique et dizoique, possibly both, of 

 Bourguignat, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1877, pp. 11-15, also Ann. Sci. 

 Geolog. vi. p. 37). 



2. Intermediate period, or Zone of H. paretiana (? phase 

 trizoique, Bourguignat, I.e.) 



3. Present period (phase ontozoique, Bourguignat /, c). 



1. Cave Period. 



This, which I consider, without doubt, by far the oldest of the 

 existnig shell-faunas of Menton, presents many interesting features. 

 These extinct or subfossil mollusks, which were evidently then 

 exti'aordinarily abundant, prove that the climate, in that remo'te age, 

 was very cold and damp, similar to that which at the present day 

 characterizes the peaks of from 3000 to 5000 feet altitude, which form 

 here the backbone, as it were, of the Riviera— a good number of the 

 species being actually identical, and most of the others of more or 

 less allied forms. Scarcely any are the same as or even allied to the 

 species which now hve along the Riviera itself. Did these land- 

 shells live before, after, or at the same time as Prehistoric Man, the 

 Tiger, Rhinoceros, gigantic Stag, &c., whose bones have been 

 discovered by Monsieur Riviere and others, in such great profusion 

 m the celebrated Menton red caves (" balzi rossi "), quite close 

 to which these mollusks are buried 1 For my own part, after a lono- 

 and careful study on the spot, I am quite convinced that these 

 shells do not belong to a more recent date, and I am unable to draw 

 any immediate conclusions as to the age of my mollusks and 

 Mons. Riviere's mammals &c. 



The extinct shells which I found belonging to this period seem 

 to me to be of two somewhat different ages ; certainly they present 

 considerably different aspects, ag will be seen further on. The less 

 ancient, apjiareutly, of the two were undoubtedly contemporaneous 

 with man, Cervus elaplms, &c. ; the rest seem to me older, and may 

 have lived at the same time as the more ancient inhabitants of these 

 Caves, the Tigers, Rhinoceroses, &c. 



All the localities wliere I found these extinct shells, with the one 

 exception already mentioned, undoubtedly belong to one and the 

 same age, be that what it may They are all characterized at a 

 glance, by the more or less red colour of the earth, containino- 

 numerous, usually rather small, stones ; here and there, at the bottom 



