FOREIGN COBRESPONDENOE. 
287 
2.46 ; lime, 0.81 ; oxidulated manganese, 0.39 ; soda, 1.92 ; potash, 
0.56 ; graphite, O.lo ; nickel, 0.20 ; and sulphur, a trace. 
Hydrochloric acid reduced it into undecou! posed silicates, 43.3, and 
decomposed silicates, 56.7 ; these last giving, by means of further 
operations, a per centage of silica, 19.5 ; magnesia, 11.2; oxidulated 
iron, 24.4 ; nickel, 0.2 ; lime, 0.7 ; and sulphur, a trace ; so that they 
may be considered to be a mineral substance analogous to olivine, with 
a very large proportion of oxide of iron, as occurs in many other 
meteorites. The per centage of the insoluble portion is : silica, 
50.49; magnesia, 36.84; lime, 1.88 ; alumina, 5.71; soda, 4.45; and 
potash, 0.59 ; representing, according to Sartorius von Walters- 
hausen, an aggregate of 82.17 of magnesian woUastonite, and 17. 
of anorthite, with the difference only that these two minerals as 
they generally occur are decomposable by acids. 
Mr. Haidiiiger added some remarks on the theory of meteorites, 
tending to prove that the opinion of the formation of meteorites by 
immediate aggregation of the gaseous or extremely subtle matters 
dispersed through the cosmic spaces, is, in all probability, very far 
from the truth. A tempei'atuve of from 50° to 91° cent, (as calculated 
to exist within these spaces) is a very unfovourable condition for the 
crystalline arrangement of material atoms. It is more probable that 
a reaction from the interior to the surface is going on within an 
already formed aggregate of substance, which, by mutual and opposite 
pressure, and with the assistance of heat (a natural consequence of 
it), shapes the component particles into a stone-like compound. 
Subsequent eruptions may then have detached and thrown off minor 
portions of the whole, and of these some reach the surface of the 
globe. Humboldt, in his " Cosmos," alludes to the improbability of a 
sometimes highly developed crystallizing process going on during the 
brief time of the passage of meteorites across the terrestrial atmo- 
sphere. 
On the Fossil Jf amnialia of the Vienna Tertiary Strata. By Professor 
E, SuESS. Read before the Imperial Academij of Sciences, Vienna, 
June, 1858. Communicated hy Qoxs'St MAiiscHALL. 
The supposed complete identity of the faunae of the Leitha lime- 
stone, the Congerise-beds, and the sands of Belvedere (Vienna), does 
not really exist, although a few species are found throughout the 
whole series. The species of Uip-potlierium and Sus peculiar to the 
Congerise-beds and the Belvedere sands ai-e nowhere co-existent with 
the Psephophorms and the Cervidce of the Leitha limestone. Dinotherium 
seems to be common to both these faunae. The remains of mastodons, 
long ago identified with the species, from Eppelsheim, described by 
Professor Kaup (for instance, the ramus of a lower jaw, found by 
Count Breunner, near Kremms, in Lower Austria, and figured by 
Cuvier as Mastodon angmtidens, the two rami of a lower jaw, and 
