78 
PEOCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
Dr. Kinahan, the Bev. Mr. Symons, Mr. Baily, Mr. Salter, Mr. Page, 
have made some valuable palaeontological communications. 
Palaeontology is now assuming so important a position in the world 
of science, and so many valuable discoveries are continually rewarding 
the researches of our English friends, that it may not he uninstruetive to 
enumerate some of the more remarkable results during the past year. 
Professor de Mulot describes the discovery, by Messrs. Ehlmann and 
Jahn, of remains of the gigantic elk (Cervus euryceros or megaceros ), 
in association with the works of human industry. They were found in 
1856, near a small lake near Mooscedorf (Canton of Berne), which was 
being drained, in a bed of peat three or four feet thick, together with 
fragments of pottery, stone chisels, stone arrow-heads, pieces of cut 
hones, and perforated bears’ teeth, without any trace of metallic objects, 
and also carbonized grains of barley. There were also found in the same 
locality many fragments of bones both of domesticated and wild ani¬ 
mals, viz., horned cattle, horses, swine, dogs of various sizes, goats, 
sheep, cats, elks, stags, aurocks, hears, wild boars, foxes, beavers, tor¬ 
toises, as well as several birds and other animals still undetermined. 
These details are interesting in order to determine the age of this animal, 
which appears to have evinced so remarkable a partiality for the climate 
of this country. 
Captain Spratt, B. jST., discovered in a tertiary formation at Salonica, 
of fresh-water origin, some fossil vertebrae of a serpent. Professor Owen 
considers it an extinct species, different from any of those existing at 
present in the south of Europe; and that it was between ten and twelve 
feet in length. The vertebrae offer many points of resemblance to those 
of the rattlesnake and viper, but there are no certain grounds for the 
conclusion that it was a poisonous reptile. The traditions of ancient 
Greece point to large serpents, and the discovery of these remains sug¬ 
gests the importance of attempting to trace in the superficial deposits of 
that country evidences of the existence of the lion or other large beasts 
of prey, which Hercules and the other heroes are said to have destroyed. 
Professor Owen describes some bones of the Dicliobure ovina, an 
anaplotheirod quadruped from the upper eocene marl of the Isle of 
Wight; also some remains of the Dichodon cuspidutus, an extinct mam¬ 
mal from the eocene sand of Hudwell, Hants, and also at Alum Point, 
in the Isle of Wight. 
Dr. Falconer describes two species of Plagiaulax from Purbeck. This 
is a marsupial animal, and is only one among many species of extinct 
mammalia, the exuviae of which have been found in the dirt-bed of Purbeck. 
It is to be hoped that this locality will he adequately examined and 
illustrated, as Mr. Beales, resident there, is a most valuable practical ex¬ 
plorer, and a systematic discription of the remains found there by Profes¬ 
sor Owen would he of the utmost value. To omit minor discoveries, 
Messrs. Wyville Thomson and Salter describe several new varieties of 
the Acidaspis from the Silurian strata of Ayrshire and Shropshire. 
Mr. J. W. Kirkby also describes some curious Crustaceans and 
Chitons from the Permian strata of Durham. 
