POMEL ON THE PALEONTOLOGY OF AUVERGNE. C5 



largest is identical with that of the breccia of Cette, and the other re- 

 sembles the Water Rat ; while the two remaining seem identical with 

 the small species of the country. The first is found at Coudes and 

 Neschers ; the second at those places and also at Champeix and Obiere ; 

 and the third and fourth only at the first two places. 



Insectivora of the genera Talpa and Tlrinaceus occur at Coudes and 

 Neschers, but cannot be determined. However, a Hedgehog found at 

 Peyrolles differs from the recent one by greater size, stronger limbs, 

 and more powerful molars {Erinaceus major, Pomel) . 



M. Pomel says nothing of the remains of Batrachian and Ophi- 

 dian reptiles, fishes, or birds, as they are not suificiently marked. 



In this association of genera and species it is easy to recognize the 

 most recent fossil fauna, found in calcareous breccias, caverns, recent 

 alluvia, and the true erratic diluvium subsequent to the most recent 

 tertiary beds. Several of these species, it will be remarked, are 

 common to the Elephantine and Diluvial faunas of M. Bravard, and 

 these are often the very species which impart to the group its peculiar 

 aspect ; as for instance the Arctomys citilus and the Reindeer, which 

 prove the conditions of climate during these two periods to have been 

 identical ; the Canis speI(Eus and C. Neschersensis, the Felis of the 

 size of the Chittah, the Cervus intermedius, the Campagnols, the 

 Sheep, the Bos primigeniuSy the Horse, &c. &c. If the large 

 species are wanting, on whose absence M. Bravard lays stress as 

 marking a distinction between his two faunas, that circumstance de- 

 pends on the conditions under which the bones were buried and 

 preserved. Thus, at Coudes the bones are found in a matrix of differ- 

 ent degrees of coarseness, filling fissures of slight depth in a bed of 

 travertine, which crevices are not of dimensions to admit any but small 

 fragments of bones ; so that it is impossible to expect to find in them 

 the Elephant, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, &c. If any importance 

 were laid upon the great number of small species which are found, 

 unmixed with the remains of larger, at Neschers and Coudes, M. 

 Pomel explains it by showing that their accumulation is due to birds 

 of prey : at these places the bones of the Campagnol, Shrewmouse, 

 Rat, Mole, birds, frogs and snakes are found agglutinated together 

 in balls of the size of a small hen's egg, and crossing each other in all 

 directions, in a manner exactly resembling the excrements of recent 

 predaceous birds. 



It has been stated that diluvial species are found under the lavas, in 

 their crevices, and in the conglomerates which abut against their escarp- 

 ments. It is clear therefore that these species hved both before and 

 after the last volcanic eruptions. Nothing in the aspect of the country 

 gives reason to believe that since those eruptions any important change 

 in the surface has taken place : least of all is there ground to admit 

 of those great catastrophes which are supposed to have changed the 

 features of the surface of the globe, and to have destroyed its inha- 

 bitants. Nevertheless, it is at this period previous to all history that 

 this race were driven from Auvergne. If Man were contemporary 

 with them (of which there is no proof), it is impossible to attribute 

 their destruction to him ; since at the present day, with his improved 



