380 Miscellanies. 



terials and pierfected what he had before learned. He has been at 

 great pains and expense in procuring the three or four varieties of 

 the developernent of each species, from its issue from- the egg to its 

 state of decrepitude, as well as those on which may depend the pro- 

 portionate size and the color. From these labors has resulted the 

 finest collection with which we are acquainted. Those species which 

 are wanting, are supplied by good colored figures. Aided by these 

 materials, M. Duclos has executed a complete and methodical des- 

 cription, with a colored representation of all the species and principal 

 varieties of the porcellanous shells now existing in the collections of 

 central Europe. He has considerably increased the number of known 

 species, especially in France, since he extends the whole number of 

 species to one hundred and forty two, of which seventy seven are 

 from New Guinea, California, Seychelles, &;c. Lastly, he has dis- 

 tributed them into three very natural sections; the Alucitated or sleek 

 kinds, the tuberculated and the striated. We hope that this great 

 work may be connected with the materials which Quoy and Gainard 

 have collected by their late circumnavigation, and which have brought 

 to our knowledge a great number of species. The reporters conclude 

 with the hope that Duclos may, as soon as possible, be enabled to 

 gratify the taste of amateurs by laying before them the result of \\\s 

 extensive and expensive labors, which they deem to be altogeti j9f 

 worthy of the encouragement and approbation of the Academy.^ — 

 Rev. Encyc. Dec. 1830. 



4. Bone Caves in JVew Holland. — A collection of fossil bones 

 has been sent to Prof. Jameson, from New Holland, taken from a 

 cave or caves in Wellington Valley, about 210 miles west from Sid- 

 ney. They are found embedded in a red ochreous cement which 

 occurs partially in crevices of the limestone rock, in different parts of 

 the interior of South Wales. The limestone rests on granite, and 

 generally near or under trap rock. The bones are found in a brok- 

 en state, as in caves of a similar character in Europe, and like them 

 they are of animals of very different kinds and sizes. 



It appears from the description, by Major Imrie, of the red ochre- 

 ous cement, containing bones which occur at Gibraltar, and along 

 the^ northern shore of the Mediterranean, that this breccia is of the 

 same kind, both in situ, and character, and that its antiquity is 

 at least equal to, if not much higher, than that of the bones found un- 

 der stalagnite, in caves in different parts of Europe. 



