432 
TiTE GEOLOGIST. 
Geological Age of the Australian Fauna. — Mr. Ludwiof Becker, 
in the Transactions of the Philosophical Institute (now the Eoyal Society) 
of Victoria, contributed a paper on the age of the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms of Australia relatively to that of the rest of the world, in which 
Professor Phillips's belief that the fauna and flora of the Australian con- 
tinent is that of the long-past Oolitic age, is supported, and additional 
proofs given of its correctness ; the result finally arrived at by Mr. Becker 
being, that " the existing Australian fauna is the oldest living animal 
kingdom ; that a great number of trees and flowers, planted in Oolitic 
times, are still blooming in Australia ; and that the present external form 
of this portion of the earth is the oldest aspect of the earth preserved in 
these times." As these opinions have been, to a certain extent, contested 
by Mr. David Page in his eloquent little work on the ' World's Life-Sys- 
tem ' (8vo, Lond., 1861), it is interesting to find them supported by a geo- 
logist resident at the Antipodes. 
Sepaeation of the Isle of Wight. — Sir, — Might I again trouble you 
with the question about the date of the separation of the Isle of Wight 
from the mainland. 
I have never yet met with any specific statement of the supposed time 
of the occurrence, and should like to know how far science supports the 
curious passage in ' Diodorus Siculus,' which is supposed to allude to that 
island ; but where the writer states that in his day, at low tide, the channel 
between the island and the mainland was dry, and passable for carts and 
ti-ciffic. — A Constant Eeader, Lymington, Hants. 
FOREIGN IXTELLIGEXCE. 
The Baron I'Espine, medical inspector of the waters of Aix, in Savoy, 
has communicated a note to the French Academy, " On the Eecent Disco- 
very of Lacustrine Dwellings in the Lake of Bourget, near Chambery." 
The lake is about ten miles long and two broad, and, amongst other 
objects found in the exploration of its depths, he records a fragment of 
coarse pottery formed of black clay, and similar to the Celtic vases in the 
collection of M. Boucher de Perthes. 
Excavations have been recently made in the grotto Da Portel, in the 
commune of Coubens (Arriege). The grotto is sitmited at four hundred 
metres above the sea, and has but one entrance, at the extremity of the 
Bois de la Peyrade. By M. Troyes' labours here there have been brought 
to light a few fragments of pottery, ancient and modern, and a few 
bones of sheep and dogs near the surface. At a further depth the bcnas 
of bears of three distinct sizes, two of which were at least equal in 
stature to the horse ; the third was much smaller, but different from the 
bear of the present day.* The other remains comprised those of dogs, 
wolves, hyasnas, pigs, a large kind of ox, reindeer,! and another ruminant, 
probably antelope. % Three implements of human manufacture have been 
* Query, TJrsus spelceus, prisons, and arctoidens. 
t Remains of reindeer have been found in the bone-cave of Aurignac. 
X Query, the chamois {Antilope rupicapra), remains of which have been found at 
Massat, and in the Pfahlbauten of Switzerland. 
