74 THE GEOLOGIST. 



be easily made by the English vessels wbieb frequently visit the 

 Canary Islands, would be more likely to decide the important question 

 than the examination of ancient oolites with a view to discover some 

 organic remains that might be attributed to the eggs of insects. 



In my last article I mentioned a curious discovery of footprints made 

 by M. Daubree in the Jurassic formations at St. Yalberg. Since then, 

 the celebrated naturalist, M. Paul Gervais, has brought forward some 

 interesting facts of a similar kind. In a short paper addressed to the 

 Academy of Sciences, he describes some footprints of extinct animals 

 found in strata corresponding to those observed by M. Daubree. The 

 impressions he speaks of have been recently discovered by himself and 

 some friends at Eoziere, near Lodeve, in the south of France. They 

 were observed on the surface of slabs of sandstone alternating with beds 

 of marl, and are exactly similar to the footmarks found some years ago 

 at Hildbourghausen in Saxony, at St. Valberg in France, and, as 

 M. Paul Gervais remarks, resembling those formerly discovered at 

 Storton-Hill, near Liverpool. The learned author observes, that until 

 further evidence can be furnished as to whether these footprints belong 

 to mammalia or reptiles, he will maintain the opinion of those naturalists 

 who consider them as being owed to large amphibious animals, whose 

 bones and teeth abound in certain parts of the Trias beds. These am- 

 phibious reptiles are those which Owen, de Munster, Jaegar, Fitzinger, 

 Hermann Meyer, and other naturalists have described as large Salaman- 

 ders, Mastodonosauri, Batraehosauri, Labyrinthodonts, &e. Paul Gervais 

 himself, and Hermann Meyer, first made known the remains of these 

 animals in France, in the variegated sandstone near Soultz-les-Bains, 

 (Bas-Ehin), and in the Muschelkalk at Luneville, and Fleming 

 (Meurthe). 



The characters of the footprints observed by Paul Gervais, near 

 Lodeve, answer to the form of animal described by Kaup as Chirotherium, 

 or Chirosaurus Barthii. The details given by the author as to the con- 

 figuration, the strata, and circumstances in which they were found, &c., 

 are precisely identical to those related by M. Daubree (see our last 

 paper). Like the latter, M. Paul Gervais has observed by the side of 

 llio larger marks, others, belonging evidently to some smaller animal, 

 and sliowing four digital impressions; the author thinks these must be 

 nttril)utea to a species of palmipede. A third species of footprints was 

 hkt>wisc observed, consisting of a star-like impression formed by four 



