NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 731 
By what influence they finally became extinct, we cannot yet say. 
It has been claimed that they continued to exist down to the ad- 
vent of man, and that he was an agent in their destruction. This 
statement may be true but requires further proof before it can be 
accepted with confidence. The vegetation of the forest bed in- 
dicates a cold climate, thus confirming what we had otherwise 
learned of the habits of the extinct elephant. He was clothed 
with long-hair and wool, was capable of enduring, and probably 
preferred a subartic climate, and was associated in this country as 
in Europe, with the musk ox and the reindeer. We may therefore 
infer that progressive increase in the annual temperature, drove 
most of the animals of the Forest-bed northward, and caused to 
gather on the shores of the Arctic sea, the herds of elephants 
whose remains so much impress ail travellers who visit that region. 
This was probably the scene of the last vigorous and abundant 
life, and of the death of the species; an event consequent, per- 
haps, on the action of local causes, which we shall comprehend 
when we have opportunities of studying the record. One remark- 
able statement in regard to the Forest-bed requires notice. In 
more than one instance, parties digging wells in south-western 
Ohio, have reported not only that they found a black soil and logs, 
but ‘some of the logs bore marks of the axe, and were sur- 
rounded with chips.” These stories I formerly rejected as pure 
fabrications ; but in the light of recent observations, they seem to 
me to be in part true, and not difficult of explanation.— Nature. 
Tue Srructure or Fossi, Cryptrocams.—At the recent meet- 
ing of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 
held at Edinburgh, Prof. W. C. Williamson read a paper in which 
he suggested a new mode of classification of fossil cryptogams. 
He proposes to separate the vascular cryptogams into two groups, 
the one comprehending Equisetaceze, Lycopodiaceze and Tsoetace, . 
to be termed the Cryptogamie Exogene, linking the Cryptogams 
with the true Exogens through the Cycads; the other, called the 
Cryptogamiz Endogen, to comprehend the ferns, which will unite 
the Cryptogams with the Endogens through the palms. He consid- 
ers the fossil arborescent Cryptogams allied to Lycopods including 
the Lepidodendra, Stigmariz, Sigillariz, etc., to be true crypto- 
ms with an exogenous woody axis, and not entitled to the epi- 
thet of Acrogens. They differ from ferns in not having closed 
- 
