XV. — On a Fossil Fox found at (Eningen near Constance ; with an 

 Account of the Deposit in which it was iinhedded. 



By RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, Esq. Pres. G.S. F.R.S. F.L.S. 



[Read January 18th, 1830.] 



iHE remarkable fossil quadruped which has given rise to this memoir was 

 found in the quarries of ffiningen near Constance^, in the autumn of 1828^ 

 immediately before my first visit to them. The novel occurrence of an entire 

 carnivorous quadruped regularly imbedded in stone led me to put together a 

 few observations on the deposit which contained it; but 1 deferred the pub- 

 lication of them until the specific character of the animal should have been 

 correctly ascertained. This point has now been accomplished through the 

 scientific labours of Mr. Mantell, and I have since re-examined the locality 

 accompanied by Professor Sedgwick. 



It may be well to preface the following observations by a short sketch of 

 what other naturalists have written on the same subject. 



The quarries of ffiningen are known to have been worked as early as the 

 year 1680; and when tiieir contents were first described and figured by 

 Scheuchzer in his Herbarium DiLiivianum* , so great an interest was excited, 

 that numerous collections were rapidly formed by Gessneiv, Lavater^ Ammann, 

 and other naturalists of the neighbourhood I. 



Up to the beginning of this century various authors have written on the 

 deposit of ffiningeUj or some of its contents ; amongst whom may be spe- 

 cified Andraea, Gessner+, de Saussure§, Razoumofsky ||, and Blumenbach f. 

 Of these works the relation of Razoumofsky is the most detailed. He was 

 followed by Karg of Constance, who in tiie year 1800 published a clear and 

 faithful section of the quarries,, with a very copious list of all the animal and 



* Published 1700. 



t The most complete collection was that made by Professor PfeiflFers, under the patronage of 

 the Bishop of Constance, In the year 1784, and placed in the palace of Mersburg, from whence 

 it has passed to the Grand Ducal museum of Carlsruhe. 



X Lcttres sur la Suisse. § Voyage duns les Alpes, vol. iii. p. 331. 



II Memoires de Vuicademie de Lausanne, vol. iii. H Manuel, und Gotha Magazin. 



