174 
PROFESSOR FLOWER ON A NEWLY DISCOVERED 
solidified, rather fine gravel. The lowermost strata, as a rule, were formed of the sand- 
stone with concretions ; the middle, of the soft yellow sandstone, which aloneappeared 
to contain organic remains ; and the upper, of the gravelly conglomerate and hard clay. 
Nearly the whole of the lower portion of the cliffs, as well as all the principal deposits 
of fallen blocks, were examined by us in the course of the walk, and we met with 
numerous small fragments of bone ; but very few specimens of any size or value occurred, 
and the generality of these were in such a state of decay as to crumble to pieces when 
we attempted, although with the utmost amount of care that we could bestow, to remove 
them from the surrounding mass. To add to this, the matrix in which they were 
imbedded was so exceedingly soft as not to permit of being split in any given direction. 
The first fossil of any size observed by us was a long bone, partially protruding from a 
mass, and dissolved into fragments in the course of my attempts to remove it. At some 
distance from this a portion of what appeared to be the scapula of a small quadruped, 
with some vertebrae, occurred; and further on one of the party (Mr. Vereker) directed 
my attention to a black piece of bone projecting from one side of a large block near its 
centre. This, which was carefully removed at the expense of a large amount of labour, 
with a considerable amount of the matrix surrounding it, by three of the officers, to 
whose zeal in rendering me most valuable assistance in my work I shall ever feel deeply 
indebted, afterwards proved to be a most valuable specimen ; for on carefully removing 
more of the matrix when we returned to the ship, I found that it was the cranium of a 
quadruped of considerable size, with the dentition of both upper and lower jaws nearly 
complete. As no other specimens of importance were discovered, we reembarked 
towards the close of the afternoon.” 
The grey, soft, arenaceous matrix in which the specimens are embedded is very 
similar to that surrounding the remains of tJesodon , found in the same locality by 
Admirals SuliVan and Richards about twenty years previously, but is less indurated and 
of a paler colour. The exact geological age in both cases appears to be a matter of 
uncertainty ; but they are probably of earlier date than the superficial deposits in which 
Macrauchenia and Toxodon have been found. 
The specimens were placed by Dr. Cunningham for identification and description into 
the hands of Professor Huxley, who, having unfortunately been preoccupied by other 
engagements, has kindly deputed to me the duty of presenting an account of them to 
the Society. A brief mention was made of their existence in the Professor’s Presidential 
Address to the Geological Society for 1870*, where they are alluded to under the very 
appropriate generic designation of Homalodotlierium, which, with a slight modification, 
I gladly adopt. 
However perfect the skull of the animal might have appeared when first discovered on 
the banks of the Gallegos, nothing of it remained when the specimens came into my 
hands, except fragments of alveoli around the roots of the teeth and a considerable portion 
of the rami of the lower jaw. The other specimens of bone received were in such a 
* Quarterly Journal of tlie Geological Society, vol. xxvi. p. lvii. 
