﻿Fossil Mammals of Australia. 365 



come under their observation ; and for this purpose illustrations of 

 the osteology and dentition of existing Marsupials are given, more 

 especially of species of the fainilies of the Kangaroos (Macropodidce) 

 and Wombats (Fhascolomyidce) . 



Of the genus Diprotodon, indicated, in 1835, by a fragment of lower 

 jaw with an incisor of a young individual, fossil evidences since re- 

 ceived, and described in this work, have enabled the author to give 

 a restoration of the skeleton of the largest species (D. australis). 

 Of the genus NototJierium much of the skeleton is restored and three 

 species defined — N. Mitchellii, N. Victoria, and N. inerme. 



An extinct genus (Fhascolonus) , of the Wombat family, is founded 

 on fossils indicative of a species which attained the bulk of a Tapir ; 

 and evidences of five extinct species of Pliascolomys are adduced 

 from fossils more nearly the size of the existing Wombat. In 

 addition to larger species of the existing genus Macropus, e.g. Macr. 

 Titan, the author adduces characters of the dentition and limbs re- 

 ferable to seven extinct genera of the Kangaroo family. 



II. — Note preliminaire sur le terrain Silijrien de l'ouest de 

 LA Bretagne. Par Dr. Chas. Barrois. (Ann. de la Soc. Geol. 

 du Nord, vol. iv. p. 38.) 



IN this paper the author pursues a similar course with regard to 

 the Silurian, to that which he took a short time since with the 

 Devonian deposits of this district.^ 



The stratified deposits in this locality rest on the Gneiss of Brest, 

 and are divided by the central granite plateau of Brittany into 

 two great masses, a northern and a southern, each of which is again 

 subdivided into eastern and western basins, and it is the Silurian 

 beds in the western basin of the southern mass — the Finisterre basin 

 — that are here treated of. They consist of a series of schists, 

 sandstones and quartzites, and may be tabulated as follows, com- 

 mencing with the Gneiss de Brest, then follow in ascending order : — 

 Mica-schists ; Phy Hades vertes de Douarnenez : Poudingues et Schistes 

 rouge lie-de-vin du Cap la Chevre ; Gres blancs des Montagues 

 Noires a Scolitus linearis ; Schistes de Morgat a Calymene Tristani, 

 the most fossiliferous division of the group ; Schistes et Quartzites 

 de Plougastel. The last named have been classed by some previous 

 observers as Devonian ; but are considered by M. Barrois to be of 

 Silurian age, and the equivalents of the '• Gres blancs sans fossiles " 

 of Dalimier in the Rennes and Cotentin basins. 



M. Barrois maintains that these Silurian beds of the Finisterre 

 basin exhibit precisely the same divisions as in the better studied 

 regions of the province ; the modern ideas of their true stratigraphy 

 being founded on misconceptions as to the real age of the schists 

 and quartzites of Plougastel, whilst a large fault running down the 

 valley of the river Elorn and the estuary of Brest has been entirely 

 overlooked. — B. B. W. 



^ Ann. de la Soc. Geol. du Nord, vol. iv. p. 59; Geol. Mag. June, 1877, p. 280. 



