FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 



299 



heap of coprolites had been got from the Essex Crag, but as to what depth 

 and the exact locality in the deposit this specimen had been embedded I 

 have been unable to ascertain. It was the reading over, about three years 

 since, of the interesting accounts in the ' Geologist ' of the discoveries of 

 M. Boucher de Perthes, which first caused me to look closely over the 

 specimens I possessed from the Essex beds, and I was at once struck with 

 the form of this bone-weapon, as one being fashioned by hand and not by 

 accident. It seems to have been struck from the shank bone of some large 

 animal, and in form somewhat resembles the large flint-pointed implements 

 from Abbeville, and is nearly of the same size. Its length is 4| inches, 

 and breadth 2f inches. 



Believing this specimen to be a true worked one, I will endeavour to 

 prove that it is a true fossil, and of the same age with the coprolites with 

 which it was found. Its colour and density are the same as those of the 

 teeth, shells, and other bones ; it gives, also, the same metallic ring or clink 

 when struck. Its point and edges are a little rounded down and polished 

 by the action of water, as are the various other phosphatic specimens 

 taken from the same formation. It is marked with slight scratches or 

 striae, particularly on one of its sides. 



On the third point, I am not sufficiently acquainted with the Essex co- 

 prolite-beds to make out their exact stratigraphical age ; yet, by the little 

 I have learnt, I am led to think that this specimen, if a truly worked one 

 and of the age of that deposit, is the oldest example known, and may 

 probably carry the age of man nearly as far anterior to the specimens 

 found in the gravels of Abbeville as those specimens date from the present 

 time. 



This is an interesting inquiry and worthy of further research ; and I 

 trust that the noticing of this specimen will be the means of further ex- 

 amples being procured in situ from the same formations. 



Yours, 



J. E. Mortimer. 



Fimber, Yorkshire, July 15th, 1863. 



FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. 



An able article on the former connection between Northern Africa and 

 Southern Europe was communicated, by Professor Edward Suess, to the 

 meeting of the Imperial Geological Institution of Vienna, on the 20th 

 of January last. We have deemed it sufficiently important to trans- 

 late : — 



A letter addressed lately by M. Anca, of Palermo, to M. Senoner, 

 affords me the opportunity of returning again to a subject which I have 

 already treated on, some time ago,* and the reconsideration of which seems 

 to me very proper, not only to show the value of the studies of M. Anca, 

 but the importance also of such researches in respect to the observations 

 which are now being undertaken at Vienna. 



I mentioned in my former article that the researches of my distinguished 

 professional colleague, M. Homes, on the fossil mollusca of the Vienna 

 basin, showed the unexpected concordance of many species of our marine 

 fauna with those which are now living on the coast of Senegambia ; and 



* Meeting of the Imp. Acad, of Sc., January, 1860, p. 159. 



