Ch. XIV. j LOWER MIOCENE STRATA— AUVERGNE. 229 



of a Paleotherium has been discovered in Anvergne. But in Velay, 

 in strata containing some species of fossil mammalia common to the 

 Limagne, no less than four species of Paleothere have been found by 

 M. Ayrnard, and one of these is generally supposed to be identical 

 with Paleotherium magnum, an undoubted Upper Eocene fossil, of the 

 Paris gypsum, the other three being peculiar. 



Not a few of the other mammalia of the Limagne made known to 

 us by the labours of MM. Bouillet, Bravard, Croizet, Jobert, Laizer, 

 Robert, Ayrnard, and Pomel, belong undoubtedly to genera and 

 species elsewhere proper to the Lower Miocene. Thus, for example, 

 the Cainotherium of Brevard, a genus not far removed from the 

 Anoplotherium, is represented by several species, one of which, as I 

 learn from Mr. Waterhouse, agrees with Microtherium Renggeri of 

 the Mayence basin. In like manner the Amphitragulus elegans of 

 Pomel, an Auvergne fossil, is identified by Waterhouse with Borca- 

 therium nanum of Kaup, a Rhenish species from Weissenau, near 

 Mayence. A small species also of rodent, of the genus Titanomys of 

 H. von Meyer, is common to the Lower Miocene of Mayence and the 

 Limagne d' Auvergne, and there are many other points of agreement 

 which the discordance of nomenclature tends to conceal. A remarka- 

 ble carnivorous genus, the Hysenodon of Laizer, is represented by 

 more than one species. The same genus has also been found in the 

 Upper Eocene marls of Hordwell Cliff, Hampshire, just below the level 

 of the Bembrido-e Limestone, and therefore a formation older than the 

 Gypsum of Paris. Several species of opossum (Didelphis) are met 

 with in the same strata of the Limagne. The association of such 

 genera as Dinotherium, Tapir, Anthracotherium, and Rhinoceros with 

 those above mentioned, helps to connect the Auvergne fauna with the 

 Upper Miocene, but the species are different from those of the 

 neighboring faluns of the Loire, or those of Sansan, in the South of 

 France. Nor do the Upper Miocene species appear, so far as we yet 

 know, in the overlying volcanic formations of Auvergne, where the 

 quadrupeds hitherto discovered belong either to the older or newer 

 Pliocene periods. 



The total number of mammalia enumerated by M. Pomel as apper- 

 taining to the Lower Miocene fauna of the Limagne and Velay, falls 

 little short of a hundred, and with them are associated some large 

 crocodiles and tortoises, and some Ophidian and Batrachian reptiles. 



Cantal. — A freshwater formation already alluded to, of about the 

 same age and very analogous to that of Auvergne, is situated in the 

 Department of Haute Loire, near the town of Le Puy, in Velay ; and 

 another occurs near Aurillac, in Cantal. The leading feature of the 

 formation last mentioned, as distinguished from those of Auvergne 

 and Velay, is the immense abundance of silex associated with calcare- 

 ous marls and limestone. 



The whole series may be separated into two divisions ; the lower, com- 

 posed of gravel, sand, and clay, such as might have been derived from 



