ON THE MAMMOTH AND RHINOCEROS FOUND IN SIBERIA. 9 
as well as the fan-shaped disposition of the stratification of these 
masses cf gneiss-granite, and also their position in the axis of the 
whole chain of the Alps, between totally distinct, slaty, gneissose, or 
granitic rocks, on which, farther from the centre, the Alpine limestone 
is superimposed unconformably, but without disturbance*, whilst 
large masses of these underlying siliceous rocks have again been pushed 
upwards and outwards above this limestone—all these facts, as well 
as many others, indicate that these gneiss-granites in the Alps have 
had an eruptive rather than a metamorphic mode of origin. 
Among the older felspathic rocks, I know none which have a finer 
and more regular parallel texture, or a more decided bedded structure, 
than the granulite of Saxony. When examined with the magnifying 
glass, we may frequently see the very delicate plates of quartz inter- 
calated among the fine-grained felspar with wonderful regularity, and 
in several localities the most beautiful slabs are obtained. We are 
taught therefore by the whole architecture, the position and the 
limitation of the Saxon granulite formation, that it is absolutely impos- 
sible that its beds were originally sedimentary deposits, subsequently 
changed into masses of felspar rock +. On the contrary, we are almost 
forced to adhere to the view long since announced by Weiss, that it 
is of eruptive origin. If this be so, then does the granulite formation 
of Saxony afford one of the most remarkable examples of an eruptive 
rock exhibitmg throughout parallelism of texture and a bedded struc- 
ture. It points further to the probability, that certain gneiss forma- 
tions have had a similar origin, for the varieties of granulite which 
contain much mica are so like gneiss, that it is impossible, in fact, to 
distinguish the one from the other. 
The opinion that, besides metamorphic and hypogene gneiss, there 
also exists eruptive gneiss, cannot therefore be longer considered as a 
wholly unfounded hypothesis. 
(as Ee] 
On the Position in which the Mammotu and Ruinoceros have 
been found im Siperia, from a Letter to Baron A. VON 
Humso.upt from Proressor Branor of St. Petersburg. 
[From the Monatsbericht der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1846, 
B. 222:]| 
Except the individual procured by Adams, no complete specimen 
of the mammoth has ever reached St. Petersburg ; for the skeleton 
in the museum of the Mining Corps, chiefly made up of wood, can 
* That is, without being disturbed by the inferior gneiss, for at a later period 
both rocks have undoubtedly been raised up together. Let any one, for example, 
examine the section of the limestone above Lauterbrun, from Stachelberg to the 
Upper Rotthal, where the lowest beds of the intermediate formation consist of a 
sandstone formed from the collected quartzy detritus of the same gneiss on which 
they rest. 
; The vouchers for these assertions will be found fully set forth in the Geogno- 
stical Description of the Kingdom of Saxony, Parts 1st and 2nd, , 
