76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Nov. 19, 



but on closely examining the spot in company with M. Bravard the 

 palaeontologist, and with M. Croizet, I became convinced, and both 

 these gentlemen are now of the same opinion, that the deposit in 

 question passed continuously under the lava, containing beneath it 

 the same fossils as in the meadow. This fact was made clear by a 

 cave serving as a wine-cellar excavated artificially under the lava ; 

 and it has since been more completely established by the investiga- 

 tions of M. Bravard, who will, I believe, soon publish an account of 

 several sections and of the fossil remains. I have little doubt that 

 the current of lava itself once extended farther northwards towards 

 the river, and covered part of the bone-bed which is now exposed. 

 The only fossils which I collected on the spot consisted of the jaw 

 and teeth of a species of Arvicola, and the molar of a horse, which 

 Mr. Owen has since examined, and remarks that it agrees precisely 

 with the third lower molar of his Equus fossilis from the caves of 

 Oreston (see ' British Fossil Mammalia,' p. 387, fig. 145) ; showing 

 the same difference from the corresponding tooth in the recent horse 

 in its narrower transverse diameter, which he has figured in his 

 ' British Fossil Mammalia.' The other species found in the same ar- 

 gillaceous sandy bed are referable to the genera Sus, JBos, Cervus, 

 Felis, Cards ^ Martes, Talpa, Sorex, Lepus, Sciurus, Mus and Lago- 

 mys. The bones also of a frog, snake and lizard, and of several 

 birds are associated : in all no less thaji forty-three species have been 

 brought to light, all closely allied to recent animals, yet nearly all of 

 them, according to M. Bravard, showing some points of difference, 

 like those which Mr. Owen discovered in the case of the horse above 

 alluded to. Several recent land-shells, such as Cyclostoma elegans. 

 Helix hortensiSf H. nemoralis, H. lapicida, Clausilia rugosa^ and 

 others, accompanied the bones. M. Croizet has also mentioned to 

 me the horns of a rein-deer found in the meadow. It is highly pro- 

 bable that these animals may have been drowned by floods which 

 accompanied the earthquakes and eruptions by which the Puy de 

 Tartaret was formed : at all events, we may affirm that they belong 

 to the alluvial formations of the river-bed and river-plain which ex- 

 isted at the time of the flowing of the lava of Tartaret, and they 

 consequently give an exceedingly modern geological date to that 

 lava, though we must still infer, that the current was produced at 

 an oera when the mammiferous fauna was very distinct as a whole 

 from that now inhabiting Auvergne. 



That the current which has issued from the Puy de Tartaret may 

 nevertheless be very ancient, in reference to the events of human 

 history, we may conclude from the fact, that a Roman bridge of 

 such form and construction as continued in use down to the fifth 

 century, but which may be older, is now seen at a place about a 

 mile and a half from St. Nectaire. This ancient bridge spans the 

 river Couze with two arches, each about fourteen feet wide. These 

 arches spring from the lava on both banks, showing that a ravine 

 precisely like that now existing had already been excavated by the 

 river thirteen or fourteen centuries ago. The bridge is still in use, 

 but the arch on the right side of the river has been half blocked up 



