418 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETT. [June 5, 



From the examination of this list, the peculiar mixture of Plio- 

 cene and Pleistocene species is evident. The Ursus arvernensis, 

 Cervus Polignacus, Hippopotamus major, Rhinoceros etruscus, and H. 

 megarhinus, the Horse, Elephas meridionalis, and E. antiquus were 

 living in the Pliocene age in France and Italy, and probably in 

 Norfolk. The Cave-bear, the Wolf, Fox, Mole, Beaver, Irish Elk, 

 Boe, Stag, Urus and Wild Boar, and the Mammoth have not as yet 

 been discovered iu the Continental Pliocenes, as judged by the 

 standards oiFered by the Yal d'Arno and Southern France, and are 

 more or less abundant in the late Pleistocene age. This singular 

 association seems to me to imply that the Forest-bed fauna is inter- 

 mediate between the two and, from the fact that only three out of 

 the whole series, viz. Ursx(s arvernensis. Rhinoceros etruscus, and 

 Cervus Polignacus, are peculiar to the Continental Pliocene, that 

 it is more closely allied to the Pleistocene than to the Pliocene. 



It is also very probable that this early Pleistocene age was of 

 considerable duration ; for in it we find at least two forms (and the 

 number will probably be very largely increased) which are unknown 

 in Continental Europe, although Pliocene and Pleistocene strata 

 have been diligently examined in France and Germany. The very 

 presence of the Cervus Sedgivickii and C. verticornis implies that 

 the lapse of time was sufficiently great to allow of the evolution of 

 forms of animal life hitherto unknown, and which disappeared before 

 the middle and late Pleistocene stages. The Trogontherimn also, as 

 well as the Cervus carnutorum, both of which occur in the forest- 

 bed and in the gravel-beds of St.-Prest, near Chartrcs, and Avhich 

 are peculiar to this horizon, point to the same conclusion. 



The Cervida; of the forest-bed, in this list, do not represent ap- 

 proximately the number of species : there are at least five, and 

 perhaps six, represented by a series of antlers, which I do not venture 

 to quote, because I have not been able to compare them Avith those 

 of the Pliocenes of the Yal d'Arno, of Marseilles, or of Auvergne. 



Dr. Falconer pointed out that one of the peculiar characters of the 

 fauna of the forest-bed is the presence of the Mammoth ; and the 

 evidence on which he considered the animal to be of Preglacial age 

 in Europe has been fully verified by the molars from Bacton, which 

 are now in the Manchester Museum. They were associated with 

 ElepJias meridionalis and E. antiquus, and are incrusted with pre- 

 cisely the same matrix as the teeth and bones of those species. 



7. M. Labtei's Classification. 



Before we proceed to the examination of the Pleistocene Mammalia 

 of the Continent it will be necessar}'' to ascertain the value of the 

 received classification. 



The late M. Lartet proposed in 1861 (Ann. des Sciences Nat. Zool. 

 1861, p. 217) the following chronological divisions of the Quaternary 

 or Palaeolithic age, or that which corresponds with the late Pleistocene. 

 Acting on the a priori consideration that all the animals found in the 

 caves and river- deposits of France did not invade Europe at one time, 



