74 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
be easily raarlc by the Englisb Tessels which 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. Paubrt'e in the Jurassic formations at St. Valberg. 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 Foziere, 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, Batrachosauri, Labyrinthodonts, &c. 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-Rhin), 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 
the larger marks, others, belonging evidently to some smaller animal, 
and showing four digital impressions ; the author thinks these must be 
attributed to a species of palmipede. A third species of footprints was 
likewise observed, consisting of a star-like impression formed by four 
