42 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



forming a stratum 2 J' thick, lias above and below it a bard black clay. 

 Here bave been found partly in the brown-coal and partly in tbe 

 clay bed beneath it, — 



1. Mastodon a^igustidens, Cuv. A whole upper jaw, with four 

 molars and two fragments of tusks, of a young individual. 



2. Tapirus jpriscus, Kaup. Of the upper jaw, one incisor, the 

 sixth and seventh dextral molars ; of the lower jaw, the two canine 

 teeth, the first, second, third, and fifth dextral molars, and the sixth 

 sinistral molar. 



3. Cerviis. A molar very similar to the upper molars of the little 

 Cervus namby, from the Brazils. 



[This reminds us forcibly of Mayence. — Ed. Jahrb.] 



[T. R. J.] 



Fossil Eggs of Snakes m the Freshwater Limesto?ie at Beiber near 

 Offenbach. By Prof. Blum. 



[Leonhard u. Broun's Jahrb. fur Miner. 1849, p. 673-675.] 



In the mineralogical cabinet of Herr C. Bossier, so pre-eminently 

 rich in the natural curiosities of the Wetterau, I noticed several 

 longish egg-shaped bodies, similar to others that I had previously 

 seen at the house of Herr Witte, at Frankfort. And these 

 were so much the more interesting, as some doubt still existed with 

 regard to their origin ; some considering them to be inorganic con- 

 cretions, whilst others regarded them as organic bodies — fossil eggs 

 of snakes or lizards. But no one can doubt that the latter is the 

 correct idea ; for the great uniformity, with respect to shape and size, 

 of the different specimens, and I have seen more than fifty of them, 

 would make them very remarkable as inorganic products, unless this 

 view were supported by other proof. They are 8-10'" long, and 

 5-6'" thick. The ends taper off in so nearly a uniform manner, that 

 one end scarcely appears broader than the other. They are altogether 

 more cylindrical than the eggs of birds. Some specimens are here 

 and there somewhat compressed ; which is easily accomited for by 

 the soft condition of the shell in a recent state. Externally the sur- 

 face is for the most part rough, like a T\Tinkled skin. 



These bodies consist generally of calc-spar ; a thinnish rind of which 

 supports the outer surface, whilst the inside is more or less hollow 

 and covered with little calc-spar crystals. Sometimes an elongated 

 calc-spar, stretching from side to side, occupies the egg. In one 

 specimen some of the calcareous matrix, in which the eggs are found, 

 has penetrated into the inside ; in another it constitutes the whole 

 substance of the fossil. 



The forms exhibited by the calc-spar crystals are a very acute 

 elongated Scaleno-hedron combined with the primary Rhombo-hedron 

 (R^^. R), and a less acute Scaleno-hedron with the acute Rhombo- 

 hedron/ (- 2R^ - 2R.) . 



To enable me to make observations myself on the fossil eggs and 

 the conditions under which they occur, HH. Rossler and Witte had 



