140 FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



them to the genus of the seals. But at present, when it is so 

 amply demonstrated that the mammiferous remains inclosed in 

 such a variety of different strata belonged to land animals, we 

 must expect to find among them very few debris indeed of the 

 marine genera. 



In truth, nothing is more rare than the bones of seals and 

 lamantins among the fossils. No remains of the morse, clearly 

 established, have been found ; and if there are rather more of 

 the larger cetacea, they are always found, like those of the 

 lamantins and phocae, in strata evidently of marine origin, with 

 bones and teeth of the usual fishes, and shells, or simply in 

 alluvions very recently abandoned by the sea. 



The only well-authenticated remains of phocae have been 

 found in the neighbourhood of Angers. They consist in the 

 upper part of a humerus, and in the lower part of another of 

 smaller size. They bear all the characters of the genus, and 

 the first seems to have belonged to a phoca, about twice and a 

 half as large as vitulina, and the second to a smaller one. 



Fossil Lamantins. 



Some debris of fossil bones have been found, which the 

 Baron Cuvier has recognised to belong to this genus. The 

 principal portions have been discovered by M. Renou, in a 

 very coarse shelly limestone, of which a part of the hillocks 

 bordering the river of Layon, in the department of the Maine 

 and Loire, is composed. These debris consist of fragments of 

 the head, anterior extremities, and ribs, and they were accom- 

 panied with other fragments which appeared to have belonged 

 to the bones of phocae and cetacea. All these bones were 

 changed into a ferruginous reddish limestone, which was found 

 to contain some fluate of lime. 



These debris of lamantins diifer sufficiently from the ana- 

 logous parts of the known species, to justify the inference of 

 specific distinction. It would also appear that they belonged 

 to a lost species, hke all the mammalia found in similar marine 



