48 



BRITISH AND EUROPEAN FOSSIL MASTODONS. 



ontologists as to the association of the mammalian species 

 among which M. (Tetraloph.) Arvernensis occurs in French 

 deposits. I shall refer briefly, on the present occasion, to the 

 disputed cases at Montpellier or its vicinity, and in Auvergne. 

 De Christol l has described the marine sands of Montpellier 

 and the gravel-beds of the contiguous basin of Pezenas as of 

 the same age. From the latter he procured remains of 

 Elephant which he ascribed to the Eleph. meridionalis of 

 Nesti, Hippopotamus major, two species of Equus, one of Bos, 

 and two of Gervus. Gervais, on the other hand, insists that 

 the gravels of Pezenas are of the age of the Diluvian fauna 

 (Pleistocene), the sands of Montpellier being Pliocene. To 

 the former 2 he attributes Elephas primigenius, Hippopotamus 

 major, two species of Equus, Bos priscus, and Gervus martialis ; 

 and to the latter 3 Mastodon brevirostre (Tetraloph. Arvernensis) , 

 Rhinoceros megarhinus, Tapirus minor, with species of Sus, 

 Cervus, Ursus, Macliairodus, Halitherium, Hoplocetus, &c. M. 

 Gervais does not admit Elephant remains in the Pliocene 

 fauna of Montpellier ; but there are two circumstances which 

 diminish the authority of this opinion upon the subject — the 

 first being, that he refers all the fossil elephants found in the 

 South of France to the Mammoth, E. primigenius of the Dilu- 

 vian fauna, of which he considers E. meridionalis to be a va- 

 riety ; the second, that he does not admit that any species of 

 fossil Elephant have been discovered anywhere in Pliocene 

 strata in Europe. He considers that in the instances asserted 

 by Croizet, Christol, Marcel de Serres, and others, Mastodon 

 bones have been mistaken for those of Elephant. 4 But, put- 

 ting aside the disputed French cases, it will be seen in the 

 sequel that there are undoubted instances of the occurrence 

 of remains of Mastodon and Elephant in the same strata in 

 the Sub-Apennine beds of Italy and in the Crag of Norfolk. 

 In Auvergne and the Velay, the lacustrine and regenerated 

 alluvial strata of all ages, from the Miocene up to the Post- 

 Pliocene, have undergone such complicated disturbances from 

 successive volcanic eruptions, that great difficulty has been 

 experienced in separating the members of the various faunas, 

 more especially of the subdivisions of the Pliocene and later 

 period. The utmost diversity of opinion holds among the 

 paleontologists who have paid most attention to the later 

 types of the fossil Mammalia of Auvergne, regarding the 

 groups of species which were coexistent at different times. 

 Without going into details, I may observe that Bravard has 

 endeavoured to make out three distinct faunas after the 



1 Annales des Scien. Natur. 2 s6r. torn. 

 iv. p. 193. 



2 Paleontol. Franc,, torn. ii. descript. 



PI. xxi. 



3 Op. cit. torn. ii. descript. PI. xxx. 

 * Gervais, op. cit. torn. i. p. 36. 



