228 Notices of Memoirs — Eeinkardfs Bone-Caves of Brazil, 



translation, we shall here restrict ourselves to giving in the author's 

 own words the general conclusions with which he sums up the most 

 important results of his careful studies on the subject. 



" 1. During the Post Pliocene epochs, Brazil was inhabited by a 

 veiy rich Mammalian Fauna, of which the recent one might almost 

 be said to be a mere fraction or a crippled remnant, as many of its 

 genera, even families and sub-orders, have vanished, and very few 

 been added in more recent times. 



"2. During the whole Post Pliocene epoch the Brazilian Mam- 

 malian Pauna had the same peculiar character which now distin- 

 guishes the South American Fauna, compared with that of the Old 

 World ; the extinct genera belonging to groups and families, that 

 to this very day are peculiarly characteristic of South America. Only 

 two of its genera, the one extinct (Mastodon), the other still living 

 (the Horse), belong to families that in our epoch are limited to the 

 Eastern Hemisphere. 



"3. All the Mammalian orders were not in the same degree richer 

 in genera in former times than now. The Bruta, Ungulata, Pro- 

 boscidea, and, lastly, the Ferse, have relatively suffered the greatest 

 losses. Some orders, for instance the Chiroptera and Simiee, number 

 perhaps even more genera now than formerly. 



"4. The Post Pliocene Mammalian Fauna of South America 

 differed much more from the modern one, and was especially more 

 rich in peculiar genera, now extinct, than the corresponding fauna of 

 the Old World. 



" 5. The scantiness of great Mammalia — one might say the dwarf- 

 like stamp impressed upon the South American Mammalian Fauna 

 of our days, when compared with that of the Eastern Hemisphere, was 

 much less observable, or rather did not exist in the prehistoric Fauna. 

 The Post Pliocene Mastodonts, Macraucheni^, and Toxodonts 

 of Brazil, its many gigantic Armadillos and Sloths could well rival 

 the Elephants, Ehinoceros, and Hippopotami, which during the same 

 period roamed the soil of Europe." X.A. 



I^:EA^I:E^ws. 



NouvELLES Eecherches sur les Animaux Vertebres dont on 



TROUVE LES OSSEMENTS ENFOUIS DANS LE SOL ET SUR LEUR COM- 

 PARAISON AVEC RES ESPECES ACTUELLEMENT EXISTANTES. Par 



Paul Gervais. Ire. serie. Illustrated by 50 plates and numerous 

 woodcuts. Arthur Bertrand, Paris, 1867. 4to. 



THIS work, of which we have the first five numbers before us, is 

 announced to be completed in thirteen parts, each of 24 pp., 

 accompanied by four lithographic plates and woodcuts. 



The first division of the work treats of the Antiquity of Man and 

 the Quarternary Period 



After giving a short history of the opinions that have beeen ex- 

 pressed since the attention of geologists was first turned to this 

 subject, the author recounts some of the discoveries which led scien- 



