October 18, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



497 



the actual coast, pointing out the south 

 side of the Mediterranean connection. 



In a few words, the English Channel has 

 been opened very recently, and no sea oc- 

 cupied its place before. No sea has crossed 

 France or central Spain, and we are obliged 

 to seek for an outlet for the Eastern Sea 

 during Miocene time by way of Germanj^, 

 Galicia and south Russia, or by the north 

 of Scotland. 



During the existence of the Pliocene seas 

 there was no other communication for the 

 Crag seas than the northern one, for the 

 western, the south and eastern sides were 

 undoubtedly shut in by land. 



M. Van den Broeck followed with a note 

 on the present state of our knowledge of 

 the Upper Tertiaiy strata of Belgium. He 

 had determined that the Upper Oligocene 

 strata did not exist in Belgium, but that 

 the Upper Pliocene was probably present 

 there. He concluded that the line of march 

 of the Miocene fauna was from east to west, 

 for Miocene forms present in Belgium were 

 absent from England. That the Miocene 

 formation had been once present in England 

 he inferred from the fact that half the 

 Belgian Miocene fauna was to be found in 

 the Coralline Crag. M. M. Boule described 

 some interesting finds in gravel in France, 

 the deposit containing bones not only of 

 Eleplias meridionalis, but of JE. antiquiis and of 

 the Mammoth, the former being in contact 

 with palffiolithic flints, the latter bearing 

 tusks nearly three metres in length. 



Several American gentlemen either read 

 or sent papers to the meeting, including 

 Professors Marsh, W. B. Scott, E. W. Clay- 

 pole and Mr. E. B. White. The account of 

 Professor Marsh's paper given by the Times 

 is as follows: 



"Professor Marsh described his restora- 

 tions of some European Dinosaurs, and of- 

 ferred suggestions as to their place among 

 the Reptilia. He said that he had exam- 

 ined nearly every specimen in Europe, and, 



from minute comparison with the eight 

 chief American tj'pes, mostly found in the 

 Eocky Mountain regions, had restored four 

 European forms, viz.: Compsognathus, Sce- 

 lidosaurus, Hj'psilophodon and Iguanodon. 

 The Dinosaurs were all land animals, none 

 being known as arboreal or aquatic. They 

 varied in size from that of a chicken to gi- 

 gantic monsters 80 ft. in length. Most were 

 probably carnivorous; the Iguanodon, how- 

 ever, was herbivorous. The Compsogna- 

 thus was found in the Jurassic Solenhofen 

 slates near Munich. Its footprints resem- 

 bled those he had shown Professor Huxley 

 in the mud layers in the Connecticut Val- 

 ley. Huxley considered them footprints, 

 not of birds, but reptilian, and made by true 

 Dinosaurs, and drew a bij)edal animal about 

 the size of a turkey conforming to the size 

 of the footprints. It was a tj^pical example 

 of a true carnivorous Dinosaur. The Sce- 

 lidosaurus was found in the Lias of Eng- 

 land, a quadruped about 30 ft. long, with 

 its back partly covered with a coat of mail. 

 He had restored its fore feet by analogy 

 with tlie quadrupedal Stegosaurus ungula- 

 tus of America, one or two specimens of 

 which he had found, 30 ft. in length, just as 

 the animal had fallen down to die, with 

 every bone in position. The Hypsilopho- 

 don was found in the same geological for- 

 mation. It had an ossified sternum, and in 

 this respect differed from the American al- 

 lied form. Much doubt had been enter- 

 tained concerning the Iguanodon till the 

 wonderful discovery of about 30 specimens 

 in Belgium in their exact position at the 

 time of death. As to the question of the 

 true place of Dinosaurs amongst reptilia 

 there had been great diversity of opinion. 

 The crocodilian form Hallopus was re- 

 garded as a Dinosaur, but it differed from 

 all other Dinosaurs in the long metatarsus 

 and the backward projection of the calca- 

 neum. But there were certain affinities be- 

 tween Dinosaurs and the crocodilian form 



