74 ME. E. B. NEWTON ON FOSSILS FEOM MADAGASCAE. [Feb. 1 89 5, 



During 1854 an anonymous author x reported the discovery, by 

 some French naval officers, of lignite-deposits containing plant- 

 impressions on the Island of Nossi-Be and at neighbouring localities 

 in the north-west. These deposits were stated to be of, probably, 

 Secondary age. 



In the following year Herland 2 called attention to a recent lime- 

 stone with Nummulites which he had found bordering parts of the 

 coast-line of Nossi-Be, during his survey of that island. 



M. Guillemin 3 in 1866 described very fully the coal-districts in 

 the north-west, but made no allusion to the presence of fossils, and 

 therefore no statement as to the age of the beds. The occurrence 

 of Secondary fossils in the southern parts of the island was announced 

 by M. Grandidier 4 in 1867, and one of the specimens was described 

 in the succeeding year by the late Paul Fischer 5 as a Jurassic 

 species, under the name of Nerincea leiogyra. 



MM. Crosse and Fischer 6 during the same year noticed some 

 terrestrial shells of Quaternary age which had been collected by 

 M. Grandidier near Cape Ste. Marie, in the extreme south. They 

 were found associated with JEjjyornis-rem.ains in the sand- 

 dunes which here rise to a height of 142 metres (466 feet), the 

 species being closely allied to those existing on the island at the 

 present time. They were determined as Buliminus Grandidieri, 

 C. & F., B. subobtusatus, C. & F., B. Favannei, Lamarck, Helix, sp., 

 and Cyclostoma (Ot&pomaT) Grandidieri, C. & F. 



M. Grandidier, 7 in 1871, mentions that he had, during 1865 

 and 1866, collected fossils belonging to the Carboniferous epoch on 

 the north-western coast at the Bay of Passandava, but states that 

 they were accidentally destroyed by fire, together with his notes, 

 sketches, and other valuable data made during that period. [The 

 nature of these fossils is not stated ; they probably consisted of 

 plant-remains from the lignite-deposits which have been regarded as 

 of Secondary age.] 



The first reliable proofs of an Eocene fauna were obtained by M. 

 Grandidier from near St. Augustine's Bay, on the south-western 

 coast, and the specimens were identified by Fischer 8 in 1871 as 



Alveolina (like) ovoidca, d'Orbigny, or subpyrenaica, Leyinerie. 

 „ longa, Czjzek. 



1 ' Decouverte de Lignite a Nossi-Be et sur la cote occidentale de Madagascar,' 

 Annales des Mines, ser. 5, toI. vi. (1854) pp. 570-576. 



2 ' Essai sur la Geologie de Nossi-Be,' Annales des Mines, ser. 5, vol. viii. 

 (1855) p. 335, pi. v. (map). 



3 ' Notice sur une Exploration geologique a Madagascar pendant l'annee 

 1863,' Annales des Mines, ser. 6, vol. x. (1866) p. 277. 



4 ' Notice sur les Cotes sud et sud-ouest de Madagascar,' Bull. Soc. Greographie, 

 ser. 5, vol. xiv. (1867) pp. 384-395. 



5 ' Note sur la Geologie du sud de Madagascar,' Bull. Soc. geol. France, 

 vol. xxv. (1868) p. 398 (not figured). 



6 ' Note sur quelques especes nouvelles de Madagascar recueillies a, l'etat 

 fossil©,' Journ. Conchyl. (Paris) vol. xvi. (1868) pp. 180-187, pi. vii. figs. 1-3. 



7 ' Madagascar,' Bull. Soc. Greogr. ser, 6, vol. ii. (1871) p. 88. 



8 ' Sur 1' existence du terrain tertiaire inferieur a Madagascar,' Coniptes- 

 rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, vol. lxxiii. (1871) p. 1392 (no figures given). 



