ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, cxl 
Talpa, Arvicola, Spermophilus, Lagomys, Lepus, and, according to 
Mr. Waterhouse, Cricetus, or hamster, and others, besides the re- 
mains of a frog, a lizard, and snake, and the bones of several birds. 
Prof. Owen recognized among these remains the Lquus fossilis and 
Tarandus priscus, both extinct species, occurring in the caves of En- 
gland, with the contents of which generally this assemblage of fossils 
of Auvergne is stated to agree very closely. Among the land shells 
found associated with the bones were Cyclostoma elegans, Clausilia 
rugosa, Helix hortensis, H.nemoralis, H. lapicida, and H. obvoluta. 
It was inferred that a similar fauna continued in Auvergne after the 
latest eruptions, the remains of many of the same group of animals 
having been discovered in the clefts of a lava-current at Aubier, near 
Clermont, as modern as that of the Tartaret ; an observation of im- 
portance, since the covering of a bed by the lava-current of 'Tartaret 
would not prove the existence of the animals at the time of its flow, 
as it might have flowed over accumulations of an older date. Mr. 
Lyell remarks that in Auvergne it is possible to distinguish the re- 
lative ages of a great variety of alluviums containing the bones of 
terrestrial quadrupeds, partly from their position beneath lavas of 
different ages, and partly from their occurrence on the sides of val- 
leys which were gradually deepened; ‘‘no flood or return of the 
ocean having disturbed the surface and mingled the fossils of one 
period with those of another, as has happened in England and most 
parts of Europe. The oldest fauna of land quadrupeds in Auvergne, 
—that found im a fossil state in freshwater strata of marl and lime- 
stone, older than the trachyte of Mont Dor,—consisted of species 
of Paleotherium, Anoplotherium, Anthracotherium, Opossum, &c., 
analogous in great part to those of the Paris basin, with some mio- 
cene forms associated, and belonging to an upper eocene group, newer 
than the Parisian tertiaries, or the uppermost freshwater beds of the 
Isle of Wight.”’ ‘‘ Hence,’”’ adds Mr. Lyell, “it follows that the whole 
succession of revolutions in the animate and inanimate creation which 
have occurred in Central France since the land emerged, vast as they 
are in duration, as compared to the era of more modern volcanos, is, 
nevertheless, considerably posterior to the marine clay on which Lon- 
don is built ; this last being one of those tertiary deposits which rank 
as but the monuments of yesterday in the great calendar of geologi- 
cal chronology.” 
To these paleontological notices it may be added, that the mol- 
luses of the cretaceous beds near Geneva have been well-illustrated 
by M. Pictet, in a monograph of high character, and that the fossils 
of the chalk of Aix-la-Chapelle have been described by Dr. Joseph 
Miller. Brachiopods have engaged much attention. De Koninck 
has given a highly illustrated monograph of Productus. M. Barrande 
has described and figured the palzeozoic brachiopods of Bohemia. 
D’Orbigny has commenced his account of the cretaceous brachiopods 
of France, and Mr. Davidson has illustrated many of our British 
palzeozoic forms. We should also mention that the important work 
of Michelin on the fossil zoophytes of France is completed. Mr. 
Toulmin Smith has published a paper on Ventriculites, remarkable 
