252 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 23, 



4. On the Biscovery of a nearly perfect Skeleton of the Mastodon 

 ANGusTiDENS near Asti in Piedmont. By Professor Eugene 



SiSMONDA. 



[Extract of a letter to Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S.] 



"In the excavations made by cutting the railroad from Turin to 

 Genoa, a skeleton almost entire of the Mastodon angustidens has 

 been discovered, about six leagues from Turin, and not far from Asti. 

 Unfortunately, the remains having been deposited on a sort of plastic 

 clay and covered by porous sand, had been for so many ages exposed 

 to the influence of water vrhich lodged upon the clay, that some of 

 the bones require considerable restoration. But notw^ithstanding this 

 defect, the Royal Museum of Turin may perhaps novf flatter itself, 

 that it possesses the most perfect skeleton of the Mastodon as yet 

 found in Europe. The formation in which it was interred is of fresh- 

 water character, and contains a Helix and a Clausilia belonging to the 

 great ancient alluvial (drift) formation of Italy. I am now preparing 

 a description of these valuable remains, the different parts of which 

 are not yet sufficiently cleaned and detached from the matrix to en- 

 able me to tell you precisely all we possess. I can, however, inform 

 you that the following bones exist. A great part of the upper jaw 

 with the molars, a complete lower jaw, several fragments of the skull, 

 one entire tusk, two metres and a half long, and the larger portion 

 of the other tusk, some cervical vertebrae, and most of the dorsal, 

 almost all the ribs, though much broken, a scapula, the two humeri, 

 one fibula, the two femora, the tibiae, one cubitus, several fragments 

 of the feet, and a part of the pelvis," &c. &c. 



In addition to this. Professor Angelo Sismonda, the well-known 

 geologist and brother of the palaeontologist, writes to Sir R. Murchi- 

 son, that in assisting at the exhumation of this fine relic he more than 

 ever convinced himself that the Subapennine or pliocene marine forma- 

 tion of Italy was very generally succeeded by such a freshwater de- 

 posit, viz. in Tuscany, the Vale of the Arno, Piedmont, &c. 



January 23, 1850. 



J. O. H. Matthews, Esq., F. C. S. Roper, Esq., and S. Clegg, 

 Jun., Esq., were elected Fellows. 



The follovdng communication was read : — 



On the Structure of the Strata between the London Clay 

 AND the Chalk in the London and Hampshire Tertiary 

 Systems. By Joseph Prestwich, jun., F.G.S. 



Part I. 



We are indebted, early in the history of geology, to Dr. Buckland, 

 Phillips and Conybeare, Parkinson, Warburton, Webster, and others 

 for many valuable illustrations and descriptions of separate and de- 

 tached sections, as well as for some more general details of portions. 



