442 H. Lydehher — Notes on Fossil Carnivora and Rodentia. 



In any case, it is very interesting to find the oldest rocl<s of Africa 

 presenting the same mineral characters with those of Europe and 

 America. 



The rocks quarried by the ancient Egyptians at Assouan or Syene, 

 for buildings, obelisks and statues, seem to have been principally 

 the red granite and different varieties of dioritic rocks ; and the 

 latter they obtained not so much from regular quarries as from pro- 

 jecting masses, the ruins of dykes exposed by denudation, and which 

 had the double advantage of being free from cones and of consisting 

 of material of proved durability. Illustrations of their working in 

 such exposed masses may be seen in several places near Assouan. 

 The thick granite veins often contain, as is not unusual in such 

 masses, detached fragments of the schists and gneisses which have 

 been caught up in them, and these are not infrequently to be seen 

 in the sculptured Egyptian blocks. The gneissose rocks themselves 

 occur very rarely as the material of sculptures. 



Having noticed at the Boulak Museum a statue of Cephren, the 

 builder of the second pyramid, in a stone which seemed to be a 

 gneissose anorthosite, I had expected to find some indication of the 

 Norian formation in Upper Egypt. In this I was disappointed, but 

 was afterwards informed by Brugsch Bey that he had reason to 

 believe that the stone in question was obtained from the Eastern 

 hills between the Nile Valley and Kosseir on the Eed Sea. It is 

 not unlikely, therefore, that in these hills some representative will 

 be found of the Norian or Labradorian series to fill up a portion of 

 the gap existing between the two crystalline series at Assouan. 



III. — Notes on Some Fossil Carnivora and Eodentia. 

 By R. Lydekker, B.A., F.G.S., F.Z.S. 



HAVING nearly completed the manuscript of a catalogue of some 

 of the Orders of Fossil Mammalia in the Collection of the 

 British Museum, I have thought it advisable to give a brief pre- 

 liminary notice of some rather interesting points in connection with 

 the structure and distribution of a few forms of Carnivora and 

 Eodentia ; in which orders I have now gone through the entire 

 collection of specimens. I also notice one specimen to which I have 

 assigned a new specific name ; and another which does not belong 

 to the collection of the British Museum. Several of the more 

 interesting specimens will be illustrated by woodcuts in the forth- 

 coming catalogue. 



CAENIVORA. 



Heepestes minimus (Filhol). 

 A ramus of the mandible of the small carnivore from the 

 phosphorites of Cay lux agrees so closely with the mandible of the 

 existing Indian Herpestes nipalensis, both as regards size and structure, 

 that there seems every likelihood of its belonging to the same genus. 

 The specimen agrees with a fragmentary mandible described by 

 Filhol ('Ann. Sci. Geol.' vol. vii. art. 4, p. 150; vol. viii. pi. xx. 

 figs. 334, 336) under the name of Viverra minima. This specimen 

 will be fiicured. 



