P. BECKLESII AND P. MINOR. 



409 



jaws, with one well -pronounced cranium. The most important 

 portion of these are the discovery of Mr. Beetles. 



The explorations have been conducted under a conjunction 

 of unusually favourable circumstances. ■ Sir Charles Lyell 

 gave his sage and long-experienced advice with the deep 

 interest in the case which befits the author of the ' Principles 

 of Geology ; ' Professor Owen aided the good caiise by keeping 

 Mr. Beetles advised of the importance of the additions which 

 he was making to Palaeontology ; and, having had the leisure, 

 from confinement to my rooms by indisposition, to examine 

 the objects as they were successively discovered and forwarded 

 to me, I was enabled to communicate to Mr. Beckles, con- 

 stantly, an approximative opinion as to the nature of each 

 fresh acquisition, and thus encourage him to persevere. 

 Prom his correspondence, apart from the results, I can bear 

 testimony to the rare zeal, minute care, and admirable vigour 

 with which Mr. Beckles has followed up the inqixiry. So 

 productive have his labours been latterly, that hardly a week 

 passes without its regular instalment of a couple of dis- 

 patches of mammalian jaws from Purbeck. 



It is intended that, when the collection is completed, the 

 Purbeck Fossils shall be made over to Professor Owen for 

 description and publication ; and, from what is already 

 manifest, it may safely be stated, that they will furnish 

 materials for one of the most interesting and important of 

 the many chapters which our distinguished countryman has 

 contributed to the record of Mammalian Palaeontology. 

 Without forestalling Professor Owen's detailed results, I 

 may be permitted to state that I have satisfied myself of 

 there being among the Purbeck fossils at least seven or eight 

 genera of Mammalia, some of them unquestionably Marsu- 

 pialia, both predaceous and herbivorous ; and others of them 

 conveying to my mind the impression, so far as the evidence 

 goes, that they belong to the Placental Insectivora, having 

 affinities more or less remote to existing types. 1 .. 



1 Eight genera, comprising at least 

 twelve new species, received provisional 

 names from Dr. Falconer, before the 

 specimens were forwarded to Professor 

 Owen. One was believed to be a minute 

 placental insectivore, closoly allied to the 

 insectivorous genus Evicidus peculiar to 

 Madagascar. Another lower jaw indi- 

 cated an insectivorous mammal of fair 

 size, leaning to the placental, and with 

 affinities to the European Tidpidce. 

 One was allied to the type of the mar- 

 supial Amphitherium of the oolitic slates 

 of Stonesneld, though generically dis- 

 tinct. In this species the jaw, accord- 



ing to Dr. Falconer's notes, had an 

 elongated slender ramus, containing 7 

 uniform back molars in situ, and the 

 empty alveoli of' 4 or 5 false molars in 

 front, together with a prominent laniari- 

 form tooth. The dental formula agreed 

 numerically with that of the Amphi- 

 therium, but differed from it in the 

 double-rowed and complex arrangement 

 of the crown cusps. Two other species 

 (afterwards designated Triconndon by 

 Professor Owen) Dr. Falconer inferred 

 to be carnivorous marsupials. The 

 smaller one was believed to have been 

 nearly as large as the common hedge-hog. 



