216 
Proceedings' of Learned Societies. 
insects, which, in their turn, support a peculiar genus of qua¬ 
drupeds, the Myrmecophaga (or ant-eaters). In closing this ' 
part of his subject, the Professor noticed the armour-like, osseous 
skin of the armadillos, which live at the foot of trees, and are, 
therefore, extremely liable to blows from falling boughs, &e. 
In other parts of the world, where vegetation is abundant, the 
quadrupeds related with it are generically distinct from those of 
South America. This adaptation of species to locality having 
impressed ilself strongly on his mind in regard to the present 
globe, the Professor stated, that he early applied himself to 
inquire whether—4. The extinct species of mammals were loca¬ 
lized like the present races. —For this purpose he formed a full 
and correct catalogue of thefossil remains of mammals in our island. 
He then gave a rapid sketch of the successive races of the extinct 
mammals, as they have been traced by the fossils in the ascend¬ 
ing series of strata in England and Scotland. The first examples 
of this class are found in the limestone slate of Stonesfield, at the 
base of the middle oolite. These fossils were remains of small 
insectivorous, and probably marsupial, quadrupeds, associated 
with remains of beetles, vegetable fossils, shells, arid fishes allied 
to the Ceslracion. These recall many of the characteristic fea¬ 
tures of actual organic life in Australia. During the long period 
which followed the formation of the Stonesfield slate, and which 
has permitted the subsequent, successive, and gradual accumula¬ 
tion of enormous masses of sedimentary rocks, viz. great oolite, 
cornbrash, forest marble, Oxford clay, calcareous grit, coral rags, 
Kimmeridge clay, Portland stone, Wealden, gault, greensand, 
chalk, no trace of a mammalian fossil has been found. In Eng¬ 
land we first obtain evidence of that class of animals in the 
debris of some continent, poured out by vast rivers upon the 
surface of the chalk, forming masses 1000 feet in depth - the 
Plastic and London clays. Here are remains of great Tapiroids, 
as Lophiodon and Coryphodon, and smaller pachyderms, like 
peccaries— Hyracotherium. Here, with boa constrictors, are 
turtles, sharks, fossil palms, and other forms of tropical vegeta¬ 
tion. At the same period there were alternating freshwater and 
marine deposits in continental Europe, filling up a vast excava- 
