SCIENTIFIC SUMMAEY. 
113 
the Val d’Arno in Tuscany), and that he was contemporary with these 
huge animals anterior to Elephas primigenius and the other mammals 
whose debris have been found associated with the remains or indications 
of man in the gravels or Quaternary beds of great valleys, and in caverns. 
7. Finally, the Saint-Prest beds supply as yet the most ancient European 
instances in geologic times of the co-existence of man with the extinct 
species of mammalia. 
The Geolog?/ of New Zealand . — Professor Hochsetter has returned to 
Vienna with an immense stock of fossils collected in these islands ; his 
collection is without doubt the most extensive which has yet been brought 
to Europe, and it is said that Dr. Zittel will be intrusted with the naming 
of the Mollusca proper and Echinodermata, whilst the labour of naming 
the Brachiopods, Ammonites, Belemnites, Foraminifera, and plants, will 
devolve on other distinguished palseontologists. The oldest fossiliferous 
rock in these islands is apparently of a grauwacke character, and con- 
tains in great abundance two distinct species of Monotis, M. Richmon- 
diana and M. decipiens, and also, more sparingly distributed a species of 
Spirigera. The stratum next in order, as we pass upwards, contains 
Belemnites and Ammonites (a new species of the latter), together with 
a species of Ancella, a Placunopsis and other Jurassic fossils. The 
strata which succeed the foregoing have been subdivided into two sections, 
an upper and lower ; of these the latter possesses no existing species, 
although many of the present genera, — as, for example, Ostrea, Pecten, 
Ilemipatagus, Scliizaster, Brissus, and Nucleolites : owing to the absence 
of any living forms, this group is correlated with the oldest of European 
Tertiaries. The second subdivision is most fully represented on the 
southern island, and is characterised by a fauna related to that of 
Australia at the present day ; indeed, man}^ of the species are identical 
with those now living. This section is equivalent to the more recent 
European Tertiaries. — Vide <£ Proceedings of the Imperial Geologic Insti- 
tute of Vienna, 1863.” 
Fossil Bones from the Caverns of TouL — In the neighbourhood of the 
latter locality a series of caves and fissures exist in the Oolite. M. Husson, 
in examining the geology of these caverns, found the following remains, 
whose relations were determined, through the assistance of M. Godron, at 
the Museum de Nancy: — 1. Several jaws of a species of bear (Ursus 
speloeus). 2. Femurs, humeri, ribs, vertebrae, and other remains of the 
same animal — undetermined. 3. Teeth and bones of a liyeena (Hyaena 
spelaea). 4. Numerous coprolites, probably of a hyaena. 5. The cannon 
bone of the hind-leg of a ruminant, probably of some deer. 6. Teeth and 
part of the jaw, probably of a boar. 7. Coprolites of an undetermined 
insectivorous animal. 8. Several portions of jaws and various bones, not 
yet determined, and belonging, some of them, to the diluvium, others to a 
modern period. — e< Comptes Rendusf August 10. 
The Volcano of Aconcagua. — We find, from a report to the Academy of 
Sciences on the “ Memoirs of M. Pissis,” that this mountain, heretofore 
regarded as volcanic, is not really so at all. It is composed from the base 
to the summit of stratified rocks. The lowest are porphyries of the same 
description as those met with on either side of the Andes, and those at the 
YOL. III. — NO. IX. I 
