Geology and Mineralogy. 139 
I believe I have demonstrated, by the examination of the bones 
which have been found in the recent deposits in the Mascarene 
for the most part, to extinct species, 
eee for when Europeans visited them for the first time, they 
id not find there any Mammalia, with the exception of some 
Epyornis which Mr, A. Grandidier and I have been able to 
recognize among the fossils collected in the swamps of the south- 
West coast have enabled us to establish the rela ionship which 
Connects these birds with the Dinornis, the Palapterpx, and 
h 
: ra 
M superficial deposits, sometimes in caverns, fragments of bir Is 
Which furnish us with valuable indications of the climatal condi- 
tions of that epoch. Some of these species have now entirely dis- 
4ppeared: others, in conside 
toward the north—for instance, the grouse and the great 
tion, W 
;2nnot invoke the same explanation for birds which have never 
been domesticated. Lastly, we also find in our caves a grea 
humber of species identical with those which now inhabit temper- 
-_ urope—among others, the cock, which was supposed to be a 
hative of India, but which, on the contrary, must have been a con- 
*mporary of the first ages of man. ‘ : 
eliey especially the Middle Tertiary deposits which have fur- 
mshed me with a rich harvest. us in the Department of the 
Allier I have recognized the presence of about 70 species belong- 
§ to very various groups, some of which no longer belong to our 
