FORETGK INTELLIGENCE. 
273 
to the low level of the valley hereabouts, the excavations have not been 
very deep, except in parts worked for ballast. In these spots bones and 
teeth of the ElepJias primigemns, Bos primigenius, Cervus tarandus, and 
JEquus have been found : and also some fragments of a tusk of Hippopo- 
tamus major. No doubt many valuable specimens were flung into the 
ballast wagons, as a whole acre of gravel was excavated to the depth of 
several feet at Summerhouse Hill, and removed by railway trucks to form 
approaches for bridges and viaducts. At this spot the bones were all ex- 
ceedingly brittle, and we believe but few have been preserved entire. 
Last week some large portions of the bones of EhpJias primigenius have 
been taken out of the lowest gravel of the Biddenham Pit, close to the 
spot where flint-implements were found last year ; and a molar tooth of 
that animal, which exceeds in size any that have been found whole in that 
vicinity. This specimen has a grinding surface of eight inches in length, 
and 3| inches in widih ; and the length at the base is fifteen inches. The 
roots of the tooth were very friable, and a great portion crumbled away, 
but the specimen notwithstanding weighs 17^ lbs. It is in the collection 
of Mr. James AYyatt, F.G.S., Bedford. 
FOEEiaX INTELLIGEXCE. 
* Silliman's American Journal of Science ' for Xay has an abstract from 
Capt. Eeynolds's forthcoming Eeport to the United States Government of 
Dr. Hayden's remarks On the Period of Elevation of the Eanges of 
the Eocky Mountains near the Sources of the Missouri Eiver and its 
Tributaries." The evidence, Dr. Ha3'den considers, makes it clear that 
the great subterranean forces which elevated the western portion of the 
American continent were called into operation towards the close of the 
Cretaceous period, as that the gradual quiet rising continued without 
a general bursting of the earth's crust until after the accumulation of the 
Tertiary lignite deposits, or at least the greater part of them ; after the 
fracture of the surface commenced and the great crust-movements began 
to display themselves, the whole country continued rising, or at least, 
though there may have been periods of subsidence or repose, there 
was a general upward tendency that has continued even up to the present 
time. 
There is also, in the same number, a paper by Sir W. E. Logan, "On 
the Quebec Group and the Upper Copper-bearing Eocks of Lake Su- 
perior," and a " ]S'otice of the Eocks between the Carboniferous Limestone 
of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the Limestones of the Hamilton 
Group," by Mr. Alex. Winchell, the State geologist of Michigan. 
A descriptive account of two sections made across the bed of the Scal- 
disian system, and of the overljnng strata near the city of Antwerp, 
illustrated with plates, has been communicated by M.Dejardin, Captain of 
Engineers to the Belgian Academy. 
In 1861, M. Dewalque described the constitution of the Eifel system in 
the basin of Condi-oz. He has lately added a notice of the same system 
in the basin of Xamur.* The great series of palteozoic rocks well known 
under Omalin's designation of the " terrain anthraxifere," occupy a 
large surface in Belgium, slightly elongated from east to west, and parted 
by the uprise of the schists of the " terrain Ehenan" of Dumont into two 
* Bulletin Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 1862. 
VOL. V. 2 X 
