SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. P. 41. PROFESSOR KERSTEN has found distinctly formed crystals of prismatic Felspar on the walls of a furnace in which Copper slate and Copper Ores had been melted. Among these pyrochemically formed crystals, some were simple, others twin. They are composed of Silica, Alumina, and Potash. This discovery is very important, in a geological point of view, from its bearing on the theory of the igneous origin of crystalline rocks, in which Felspar is usually so large an ingredient. Hitherto every attempt to make felspar crystals by artificial means has failed. See Poggendorf's Annalen, No. 22, 1834, and Jameson's Edin. New Phil. Journal. P. 88. An account has recently been received from India of the discovery of an unknown and very curious fossil ruminating animal, nearly as large as an Elephant, which supplies a new and important link in the Order of Mammalia, between the Ruminantia and Pachydermata. A detailed description of this animal has been published by Dr. Falconer and Captain Cautley, who have given it the name of Sivatherium, from the Sivalic or Sub-Himalayan range of hills in which it was found, between the Jumna and the Ganges. In size it exceeded the largest Rhinoceros. The head has been discovered nearly entire. The front of the skull is remarkably wide, and retains the bony cores of two short thick and straight horns, similar in position to those of the four horned Antelope of Hindostan. The nasal bones are salient in a degree without example among Ruminants, and exceeding in this respect those of the Rhinoceros, Tapir, and Palæotherium, the only herbivorous animals that have this sort of structure. Hence there is no doubt that the Sivatherium was invested with a trunk like the Tapir. Its jaw is twice as large as that of a Buffalo, and larger than that of a Rhinoceros. The remains of the Sivatherium were accompanied by those of the Elephant, Mastodon, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, several Ruminantia, &c. It is stated (p. 88) that there is a wider distance between the living Genera of the Order Pachydermata than between those of any other Order of Mammalia, and that many intervals in the series of these animals have been filled up by extinct Genera and Species, discovered in strata of the Tertiary series. The Sivatherium forms an important addition to the extinct Genera of this intermediate and connecting character. The value of such links with reference to considerations in Natural Theology has been already alluded to, p. 114. P. 106. Since this work was in the press, the author has seen at Liège the very extensive collection of fossil Bones made by M. Schmerling in the caverns of that neighbourhood, and has visited some of the places where they were found. Many of these bones appear to have been brought together like those in the cave of Kirkdale, by the agency of Hyænas, and have evidently been gnawed by these animals; others, particularly those of Bears, are not broken, or gnawed, but were probably collected in the same manner as the bones of Bears in the cave of Gailenreuth, by the retreat of these animals into the recesses of caverns on the approach of death; some may have been introduced by the action of water. The human bones found in these caverns are in a state of less decay than those of the extinct species of beasts; they are accompanied by rude flint knives and other instruments of flint and bone, and are probably derived from uncivilized tribes that inhabited the caves. Some of the human bones may also be the remains of individuals who, in more recent times, may have been buried in such convenient repositories. M. Schmerling, in his Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles des Cavernes de Liège, expresses his opinion that these human bones are coeval with those of the quadrupeds, of extinct species, found with them; an opinion from which the Author, after a careful examination of M. Schmerling's collection, entirely dis sents. P. 135. The Dinotherium has been spoken of as the largest of terrestrial Mammalia, and as presenting in its lower Jaw and Tusks a disposition of an extraordinary kind, adapted to the peculiar habits of a gigantic herbivorous aquatic Quadruped. The Author has recently been informed by Professor Kaup, of Darmstadt, that an entire head of this animal has been discovered at Epplesheim, measuring more than a yard in length and as much in breadth, and that he is preparing a description and figures of this head for immediate publication. P. 446. In the conclusion of our chapter on the remains of animals of the lowest order, we noticed Ehrenberg's discoveries of the internal organization, and almost universal presence in the Air and Water, of microscopic living Infusoria, little expecting that before this work had issued from the press, they would also be found in a fossil state. In the London and Edin. Phil. Mag. Aug. 1, 1836, p. 158, there is an extract of a letter sent by M. Alexander Brongniart from Berlin to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, announcing that Ehrenberg has also discovered the silicified remains of Infusoria in the stone called Tripoli (Polierschiefer of Werner), a substance which has been supposed to be formed from sediments of fine volcanic ashes in quiet waters. These petrified Infusoria form a large proportion of the substance of this kind of stone from four different localities, on which Ehrenberg has made his observations; they were probably living in the waters, at the time when they became. charged with the volcanic dust, in which the Tripoli originated. It is added in this notice that the slimy Iron ore of certain marshes is loaded with Infusoria, of the genus Gallionella. L'Institut, No. 166. END OF VOL. I. ERRATA. VOL. I. Page 48, Note, for Chapter read Cordier. 55, 1. 2, for organized read organic. 63, Note, 1. 1, for Brogniart read Brongniart. 75, Note, 1. 25, for upper read lower. 95, Note, 1. 17, for reason read reasons. 123, 1. 5, for Molte read Monte. 142, Note, for Cowper read Cooper. 155, l. 14, for Ilium read Ileum. 254, 1. 21, for contains read contain. 264, 1. 2, for Paleontology read Paleontology. 282, 1. 14, for figs. 4. 5. read figs. 3. 4. 291, 1. 19, for Myliobatis read Myliobates. 379, Note, 1. 5, for calcerous read calcareous. 391, 1. 2, for Brogniart read Brongniart. 420, 1. 23, for fig. 2a read fig. 2, a. 431, 1. 29, for Pl. 52, fig. 2, read Pl. 52, fig. 3. 432, 1. 8, for Pentacrinite read Pentacrinites. 435, Note, l. 7, for Pentacrinite's read Pentacrinites. 439, Note, 1. 3, for 13 read 14. 470, Note, l. 1, for Greswell read Creswell. 470, Note, l. 14, for in our Pl. 56, fig. 1, read in Count 481, Note, 1. 9, for dycotyledonous read dicotyledonous. 528, Note, 1. ult. for Herzothum read Herzogthum. VOL. II. Page 46, 1. 19. for Myliobatis read Myliobates. C. Whittingham, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane. |