664 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
characteristic in the corresponding bones of the ape, will not fail 
to receive attention. He says—‘‘In some of the tibiæ the amount 
of flattening surpasses that of the gorilla and chimpanzee, in each 
of which we found the short 0.67 of the long diameter, while in 
the tibia from Michigan it was only 0.48.” Similar comparisons 
of the other bones, particularly of a large number of crania and 
of the pelvis, are equally suggestive, and render this one of the 
most valuable of the reports issued by the trustees.— Henry GIL- 
MAN, Detroit, Michigan. 
Tue Taxis Stone: A New Trmuimevar.— A trilingual stone 
recently discovered in excavations made at Tanis, on the eastern 
or Pelusiae branch of the Nile, has been deposited in the Museum 
of Egyptian antiquities at Cairo. It is a perfect stela, about six 
feet high, two and a half feet broad, and a foot thick, the summit 
arched. The inscriptions cover one entire face and most of one 
side; hieroglyphics occupy about three-fifths (the upper portion) 
of the face, the Greek version the remainder, while the Demotic 
translation covers scarcely more than two-thirds (the upper part) 
of the left side. The letters are small, closely crowded, and all 
perfect and sharply cut, the stone not having been defaced in the 
slightest degree ; in the extent and perfection of the inscriptions, 
it is, therefore, much superior to the “ Rosetta stone.” Plaster 
casts of the Tanis stone have recently been taken, and copies 
sent to the museums of London and Berlin; and through the in- 
tercession of the American consul, Col. Butler, at the instance of 
Rey. Dr. Lansing, one of the American missionaries stationed at 
Cairo, a copy is now preparing for Monmouth College, in Illinois. 
— S. H. SCUDDER. 
GEOLOGY. 
Remarks ox Fosstt VERTEBRATES FROM Wyominc. — Prof. Leidy 
remarked that the collection of fossils presented at the meeting of 
the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science, August 8, by Drs. 
J. Van A. Carter and Joseph K. Corson were of unusual inter- 
est. They consist of remains mainly of turtles, with those of 
mammals and crocodiles, and were obtained from the Tertiary 
deposits in the vicinity of Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory. 
The great abundance of remains of turtles, of many species 
and genera, of fresh-water and terrestrial habit, obtained in Wy- 
