GEOLOGICAL AGE OF MAST. ARVERXENSIS. 



61 



' Conspectus ' of British fossil species which I have already 

 cited. They are there arranged under the head of Eocene, 

 and excluded from the Miocene fossils. Cetacean remains 

 have been met with in abundance hi the Pliocene deposits of 

 Italy, under circumstances which leave no doubt that they 

 are of the same age as the land quadrupeds found associated 

 with them. I have already mentioned the case examined by 

 myself, where the skeleton of M. (Tetraloph.) Arvernensis, 

 covered with marine incrustations, was found in the ' Pan china 

 inferiore ' of the lower Val d'Arno near Leghorn, associated 

 with the entire skeleton of a whale referred by the Italian 

 naturalists to Physeter, and with Dolphin remains. A still 

 more remarkable and conclusive instance is furnished by the 

 rich and well-known deposit of Pliocene Mammalia investi- 

 gated by Cortesi in the Sub-Apennine deposits near Piacenza. 

 Monte Pulgnasco is stated to attain an elevation of about 

 1,700 feet above the level of the Adriatic, 1 and near it there 

 are lower elevations, Monte Zago and Delia Torazza. The 

 upper beds in all three alike, to a great depth, consist of red- 

 dish calcareous sands full of marine shells ; and below these 

 there are beds of blue clay ('Marna cerulea'), also loaded 

 with similar shells, both being of the Sub-Apennine Pliocene 

 age. Cortesi discovered in the blue clay, at different points, 

 nearly entire skeletons of extinct whales, referred by Cuvier 

 to the Rorquals (Balcenoptera Gortesii and Balcenoptera Cu- 

 vierii 2 ), and of Dolphins allied to Phoccena Orca, but differing 

 in the form of the cranium (Phoccena Gortesii* and other 

 species unnamed) . Near the summit of Monte Pulgnasco, in 

 the overlying stratified sands, the greater part of a skeleton 

 of the Val d'Arno Elephant, E. (Loxod.) meridionalis, was 

 discovered ; and upon Monte Zago the original skull, together 

 with many other bones, of the individual Rhinoceros upon 

 which Cuvier founded his Rhinoc. leptorhinus as distinct from 

 R. tichorhinus. The Rhinoceros skeleton was found hi the 

 sandy strata, but resting immediately upon the blue clay, and 

 with upwards of 200 feet of strata above it. I was enabled, by 

 the kind permission of Dr. Emilio Cornalia, to examine the 

 fine collection of these Monte Pulgnasco remains deposited in 

 the Natural History Museum at Milan, including, among 

 others, the palate specimen of the Elephant described by 

 Cortesi, 4 which I found to be identical with E. (Loxodon) 

 meridionalis of the Val d'Arno and fluvio-marine Crag. 



Here are two cases of the association of Pliocene Cetacea 

 with terrestrial Mammals, under circumstances where extra- 



1 Cortesi, Saggio Geolog. 1819, p. 72. 

 1 Diction. Univers. d'Histoire Natur. 

 torn. ii. p. 443. 



3 Op. cit. torn, iv.'p. 634. 



4 Cortesi, of. cit. p. 68, pi. vi, figs. 

 1,2. 



