Notices of Memoirs. 3M 
Equisetites, Caulopteris, Aithophyllum, Haidingera, and Taxites ; the 
second by that of Araucarites and Taxodites; and species of one 
fauna are not found in association with those belonging to the other. 
2. That the genera Tazxites and Araucarites, species of which have 
not hitherto been found below the Lias, occur also, and very abun- 
dantly, in rocks of Triassic date. 
3. That the occurrence of the genera Athophyllum and Haidin- 
gera, characteristic of the Bunter, in the ‘Lower Sandstone’ of 
Recoaro, leads to the inference that all the rocks between the mica- 
schist and the Jurassic strata, in the valleys of the Leogra and of the 
Agno, belong to the Trias.—H. M. J. 
Discovery of a New Geological Epoch in the Quaternary Forma- 
tions —MM_ Garrigou and L. Martin have forwarded to the French 
Academy a long paper upon the epoch of the Aurochs, and that of 
the Reindeer, as established by their attentive study of the cave of 
Lourdes, in the Hautes-Pyrénées. Two years ago this cave was the 
subject of an interesting and detailed investigation by M. Alphonse 
Milne-Edwards, of which the results were published in the ‘Annales 
des Sciences Naturelles. M. Lartet and A. Milne-Edwards visited 
this Quaternary formation, studied its fossils with great care, and 
described it as belonging to the age of the Aurochs; and they 
have proved in a-very satisfactory manner that man inhabited 
this cavern during that paleontologic epoch. MM. Garrigou and L. 
Martin have recently visited the same locality, and the results they 
now make known are very singular. The careful examination of the 
bones collected at the upper part of the cavern already explored by 
the naturalists above-named gave results identical with those of 
MM. Edwards and Lartet. The presence of bones of the Aurochs, 
the existence of bones of domestic animals, some bones that had been 
gnawed by a dog, the presence of nearly the entire normal amount 
of gelatine in these bones, their comparatively light colour, the dis- 
covery of a bone delicately sculptured, all prove that the authors 
were dealing with the epoch of the Aurochs, of which man must have 
been a contemporary ; and also that this upper portion indicates a 
geological epoch essentially different from the lower strata in the cave. 
As regards the lower portions of the cavern, the presence of bones 
of the Reindeer in abundance, great quantities of its horns, coarsely 
ornamented objects, flint implements, &c., the reddish-brown colour 
of the bones, the entire disappearance of their gelatine, and their 
property of adhering to the tongue, all indicate a more ancient epoch 
than that alluded to above. This epoch, according to MM. Garrigou 
ond Martin, is that of the Reindeer,* which the authors formerly dis- 
covered in the cavern of Izeste. The cavern of Lourdes thus fur- 
nishes us with the first example of the superposition of two succes- 
sive palzontologic ages belonging to the Quaternary epoch.—T.L.P. 
* See M. Lartet’s determination of the ‘ Reindeer Period,’ in his account of the 
Aurignae Cave, Ann. Se. Nat. vol. xv. p. 231.—Eprr. 
