British Association for the Advancement of Science. 125 



at a short distance from Kyson by the red crag. Mr. Owen, on 

 seeing this tooth, was clear that it could not belong to any of the 

 decidedly carnivorous or herbivorous animals, but rather to some 

 one of the mixed feeders, and having compared it with the teeth 

 of the various tribes of quadrupeds included in that division, from 

 the shrews to the monkeys, he found it to differ essentially from 

 all of them, and he finally decided that it was marsupial, and one 

 of the molars of a Didelphis allied to the Virginia opossum. Mr. 

 L. immediately requested Mr, Wood and Mr. Colchester to renew 

 their search in the same sand at Kyson, and they soon found a 

 jaw and tooth, which Mr. Owen refers to a quadrumanous animal 

 of the genus Macacus. The sand containing these remains is 

 referable to the London clay ; and this is the first instance of the 

 fossil remains of quadrumana having been found in a deposit of 

 the Eocene period. Cuvier had previously described a Didelphis 

 from the Eocene fresh- water gypsum of the Paris basin. Mr. 

 Lyell remarked, that the occurrence of an Eocene Macacus proved 

 that the class most nearly approaching to man in its organization, 

 was. not limited, as some had supposed, to an era immediately 

 antecedent to the creation of the human race. He also adverted 

 to the great caution to be observed, when we reason from nega- 

 'tive evidence in geology, as we do, where we infer the non-ex- 

 istence of certain classes of beings, at remote periods, from the 

 mere fact of their fossil remains not having yet been found in 

 ancient strata. 



Mr. Bowman exhibited specimens of fossil fishes from Man- 

 chester, and submitted a communication upon them, from Mr. 

 Binney. Scales and teeth of the sauroid fish, Megalicththys, are 

 found in the low coal shales above the millstone grit in the Man- 

 chester coal field, and as far up as the fresh-water limestones of 

 Ardwick. Remains of Diplodus, Ctenoptychiis, Holoptychus, 

 and Palmoniscus are found in greater abundance, though not so 

 extensively disseminated. Some are found in a rock composed 

 of the shells of a Cypris and a species of Microcotichiis, indica- 

 ting a tranquil deposit of the bed as in a lagoon of a tropical 

 climate. Some specimens are found quite close to the coal, but 

 none have as yet been observed in it. The state of preservation 

 and the position in which the fishes occur, lead to the conclusion, 

 that they have been suddenly destroyed by water highly charged 

 with decayed vegetable matter. 



