GEOLOGICAL AGE OF MASTODONS. 



47 



deposit and its organic contents is attended with some diffi- 

 culty. The loose incoherent sand of which it is composed is 

 spread otit horizontally like the Loss, and the margin thins 

 out to spread over a portion of the ' Lower Miocene ' 

 Mayence Basin ; so that where the beds are in contact the 

 fossil remains of the two are liable to be confounded. But in 

 all its leading features the Mammalian Fauna of Eppelsheim 

 resembles that of the Falunian deposits of France and 

 Switzerland. 



I shall now consider the relations of the Pliocene fauna in 

 which the Crag Mastodon occurs. M. (Tetraloph.) Arvemensis, 

 as here defined, had a wide range of habitat in Europe, 

 embracing Italy, France, and England. The principal locali- 

 ties in which it has been found are — in Italy, 1 the Val d'Arno 

 (in great abundance), associated with the Elephant called E. 

 meridionalis by Nesti (Loxod. meridionalis) , Rhinoceros lepto- 

 rhinus, 2 Hippopotamus major, with species of Tapirus, Sus, 

 Equus, Ursus, Hyama, Felis, Machairodus, &c. ; in the marine 

 'Panchina inferiore,' of the Lower Yal d'Arno, an entire 

 Mastodon skeleton was found along with those of extinct 

 Whales ; 3 in Piedmont and Lombardy, in various localities in 

 the Sub-Apennine strata along the Valley of the Po, but more 

 especially in the Astesan, Romagnano, and Duchy of Piacenza, 

 along with the M. (Triloph.) Borsoni (M. Buffonis of Pomel), 

 a well-marked ternary-ridged species, first brought to notice 

 by Abbe Borson, and the extinct Elephants E. {Loxod.) meri- 

 dionalis, E. (Loxod.) priscus, and E. (Euelephas) antiquus, and 

 Rhinoc. leptorliinus, Hippopotamus major, &c, which occur in 

 some places in fluviatile deposits along with species of Helix, 

 Paludina, and Glausilia, and in others in marine deposits 

 along with sea-shell's; in France, in various parts of the 

 southern Departments, in Pliocene strata, such as the marine 

 sands of Montpellier and its vicinity, the Yalley of the Phone 

 near Lyons and Trevaux, the Yivarais, Velay, Auvergne, &c. 



Great diversity of opinion holds among the French palse- 



1 ' The Florence Museum is not so rich 

 in Mastodon as in Elephas meridionalis. 

 But what I saw, viz. six lower jaws, were 

 all of Mast. Arvemensis. The characters 

 were very well marked. The beaks 

 were all short, nearly horizontal, and 

 never inclined downwards or elongated ; 

 and they never showed any trace,.in young 

 or old, of inferior tusks. They have in 

 the Museum one superb tusk, found 

 alongwithaskeleton, about 9 feet long by 

 about 4i inches in diameter, the section 

 nearly round, and the curved direction of 



the tusk nearly as in the existing Indian 

 Elephant, The tip is very much flat- 

 tened (not conical), but as I could not 

 see it close enough, I could not deter- 

 mine whether this was owing to a layer 

 of enamel. The Mastodon skeleton was 

 found along with a small Balsena and 

 covered over with oyster-shells. — Letter 

 to M. Lartet, Florence, July 17, 18."j6.— 

 [Ed.] 



' 2 Rhinoceros Etruseus, Falc. — [Ed.] 

 3 Savi e Meneghini sulla Geolog. 

 Stratigraph. della Tuscana, p. 508. 



