ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XCVll 



amongst the Carnivora, in which the Lion and the more humble Cat 

 are well known to preserve in leaping a horizontal position, by ex- 

 tending forwards their necks and front limbs, and backwards their 

 hinder legs and tail, and thus to maintain their equihbrium in that 

 direction, which would be destroyed were the animal deprived of its 

 tail, and amongst the Solipedes by the Horse, the neck, limbs, and 

 tail of which are also thrown into a horizontal position in leaping. 

 Well may M. Nodot observe that he cannot comprehend on what 

 principle the English have adopted the barbarous practice of docking 

 the tails of horses ! In all such animals the tail is in great measure 

 a counterpoise ; but in those which are equilibrated vertically, it 

 becomes one of the organs of support, as in the Marsupials, and 

 still more strikingly in the fossil genera which have been the sub- 

 ject of M. Nodot's essay ; and it is therefore curious that animals of 

 so distinctive a type of organization should have been so restricted 

 in distribution, both as regards space and time : and with this 

 remark I shall close my notice of the valuable essay of M. Nodot, 

 which I trust will attract the attention of some of our able palaeon- 

 tologists. 



In my last Address, I commented at some length on the descrip- 

 tion of numerous species of fossil Chelonia found in Switzerland, by 

 MM. F. J. Pictet and Alois Humbert, and which are relics of the 

 organic life of the Mollasse or Tertiary epoch. During the last year 

 the same naturalists have been able to record the discovery of a 

 new species, found in the forest of Lech, near Moirans, in the 

 Department of Jura, the locality being in the French territory. 

 A portion of the carapace, probably the dorsal, was observed pro- 

 jecting beyond the surface of the rock, by the peasants, who reported 

 to the priest of a neighbouring village that it was the impression 

 of the breast of a man ; and his curiosity being excited, he had it 

 carefully extracted, and presented it to M. Girod, the Vicar-general 

 of the diocese of Saint-Claude. M. Pictet has named the fossil 

 Emys Etalloni, after M. Etallon, Professor of the Lyceum of Saint- 

 Claude, to whom he was indebted for the opportunity of examining 

 and describing it. M. Etallon, a zealous geologist, had also explored 

 and studied the highly-fossiliferous rocks which surround that city ; 

 and from the result of his investigations, M. Pictet concludes that 

 the flat on which Moirans has been built belongs to the Upper 

 division of the Jurassic Formation, or Portland Oolite section, — 

 the rock in which the specimen was imbedded having all the cha- 

 racters which distinguish the rocks of that stage in the Department 

 of the Jura and of the Ain. M. Pictet adds that the data are not 

 sufficient to bring it into relation with the Chelonian Limestone of 

 Soleure. 



The dimensions of this fine specimen are as follow : — 



Carapace. . . . Length 1ft. 7-^in. Breadth 1ft. 5in. 



Breastplate . . „ 1ft. 5iin. 



Depth and height between the upper face of the "I fi t . 

 carapace and lower face of the breastplate . . J 7 



