The tibia of Trogontherium (Pl. III., Figs. 4, p, y, 5 and 6), besides the superiority of size as belonging to a Rodent larger than the European or Canadian beavers, differs in the much less depth of the cavity (Fig. 6, r), impressing the back part of the proximal half of the shaft in the thicker and more obtuse inner (tibial) border (s) of that concavity: in the stronger antero-posterior sigmoid flexure of the entire bone: and the greater extent of the confluent distal ends of tibia and fibula (w, y). The medullarterial canal (Fig. 6, v) has a similar position and direction. The anterior ridge (Fig. 5, p) is thicker and subsides sooner in Trogontherium: the outer concavity (u), and inner flat or subconvex surface, resemble those in Castor. The inner malleolus is longitudinally grooved as in Castor; its back part (2) is produced: the outer malleolus (y) projects a little above the distal articular end of the fibula.

Calcaneum, Pl. III., Fig. 8. The calcaneum in both Castor fiber and Castor canadensis, Fig. 9, is remarkable among rodents, for both the considerable length and breadth combined, of the hind or fulcral process, which, with the articular part of the bone placed horizontally for renewing and supporting a superincumbent vertical tibia, is so inclined as to seem to be flattened vertically (depressed), rather than from side to side (compressed).1

From the "Forest-bed" of Mundesley, Mr. Gunn obtained a calcaneum (left) of this castorine type, (Pl. III, Fig. 8), equalling that bone of a full-sized beaver in length, but exceeding it in breadth. I assume it to belong to the Trogontherium. The articular part of the bone presents two surfaces superiorly a, b, for the astragalus, and part of the larger anterior surface, c, remains on the fossil for the cuboides. The outer and upper surface, a, is longer and narrower in Trogontherium than in Castor; the inner process, b, is simply concave, not also convex, and flat posteriorly, as in Castor. The fulcral process, d, is broader and thicker, relatively much broader to its length, since in Trogontherium the bone is equally divided between its articular and fulcral parts, whereas in Castor the latter is the largest. In Castor the inner and lower border of the fulcral part is almost straight in Trogontherium by the inclination of the tendinal canal to the under and fore part of the bone; the inner border of the fulcral process is somewhat convex. specific difference is obvious at a glance; the degree of the difference brought out by detailed comparison suggests a generic distinction concurring with that demonstrated by the dentition of Trogontherium.

The

The original or type specimen of Trogontherium has been described and figured by Dr. C. Rouillier, in his "Jubilæum Fischeri," p. 35, Tab. 5. It was discovered at Taganrog, Sea of Azoff.

In the "Quarantine Ravine," near Odessa, in a yellow argillaceous deposit, beneath a thick stratum of "Calcaire d'Ossessa," the " Old Caspian Deposit" of Murchison, various mammalian fossils were

1 Catal. of Osteol. in Surgeon's College, 4to, No. 2193, p. 392.
2 Elephas, Rhinoceros, Cervus, Equus, Hyæna, Ursus.

discovered in 1846, among which were "parties separées de squelette (not specified) d'un animal resemblant au Castor (Trogontherium)."

DESCRIPTION OF THE DOUBLE PLATE III.

3. Distal articular surface, or condyles, ib.

4. Outer side view of femur and tibia (the latter drawn without reversing.)
5. Front view of right tibia and confluent part of fibula.

6. Back view of ib.

7. Distal articular end of ib.

8. Calcaneum.

9.

of the recent Castor fiber (for comparison).

All the figures are of the natural size.

II.-NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE LAKE DISTRICT.

By J. R. DAKYNS, of the Geological Survey.

WISH, through the medium of your pages, to call the attention of Geologists to an important point in the Geology of the English Lake District.

I made a short tour in that district early in December of last year, when I thought I discovered evidence of an "unconformity between the beds of the Greenslates and Porphyry series and the Skiddaw Slates.

1

I walked from Keswick to Buttermere in company with another geologist, whose name I do not feel at liberty to mention, as I could not get him to agree with me in the view I took of the relation of the two sets of beds to one another.

We went by way of Littledale, and crossed the watershed between Robinson and Hindscarth, both of which hills we found to be composed of Skiddaw Slates, and not (as wrongly coloured on Ruthven's map, edition of 1855) of the Porphyry series.

When standing on the watershed overlooking the Buttermere valley, and facing Honister Crag, due south of us, I noticed and pointed out to my companion that the beds of the Crag, which are of the Porphyry and Greenslate series, appeared to lie at a low angle of, perhaps, 30° on the Skiddaw Slates, which on our or the north side of the valley, had their normal dip and strike of from 50° to 70° to the S.S.E., and appeared to have the same on the opposite side.

FIG. 1. ROUGH SKETCH OF HONISTER CRAG, Buttermere Valley.

N.W.

B

S.E.

A. Greenstone.

B. Skiddaw Slates.

The appearance presented seemed to be of the character shewn in 1 Nordmann, Découverte de gîtes riches en Ossemens Fossiles, faite in 1846; Odessa, 8vo., 1847, p. 2.

Fig. 1, where A. represents the Greenstone of Honister Crag lying on the upturned and denuded edges of the Skiddaw Slates (B.); though, as I was not able to examine the rocks on the spot, the appearance may have been deceptive from the effect of fore-shortening.

It put into my head, however, the idea of an unconformity, which I expressed to my companion.

The next excursion bearing upon the question I made alone.

I mapped the line of junction between the Skiddaw Slates and overlying series from near Lowdore, by Grange in Borrowdale, across the western fells by Eel Crags up to Dale Head.

FIG. 2.-BORROWDALE FELLS.

B

A. Greenstone. B. Skiddaw Slates.

In ascending the fells from Borrowdale, I distinctly made out that continually higher and higher beds of the Greenstone series abutted against the Skiddaw Slates, as shewn in Fig. 2, where A. represents the Greenstone lying unconformably on the Skiddaw Slates (B.), and the higher beds of Greenstone overlapping the lower. How far this extended I had not time to make out, but, probably, not far, as Professor Ramsay tells me that he never saw such an unconformity among the old rocks on a large scale.

It also seemed to me that not only were the Upper Beds lying at a comparatively low angle of perhaps 30 deg. on the denuded edges of the highly inclined Skiddaw slates, but that their strike was also different, Unfortunately I had not time nor favourable weather for satisfying myself on these important but minor points.

The line of junction between the two sets of beds crosses the ridge at Castle Nook.

I walked southward from that point along the top of Eel Crags, and got into the next valley between the southern end of those crags and the cliffs of Dale Head, and there to my surprise and joy, I found the Skiddaw Slates in place, with their normal dip and strike of 70 deg. to S.S.E., more than a mile south of Castle Nook, and not more than 500 feet lower, if so much. As the line from Castle Nook to this point runs but little west of south, it is manifest that unless the Skiddaw Slates change their strike between those points from a general east and west to a general north and south direction, or undergo some roll, of neither of which changes did I see any evidence from my various points of view, the upper beds must be resting unconformably on the lower, unless the Greenstone is intrusive, of which also I saw no evidence, but rather the reverse, for I believe it to be distinctly bedded.

It has been suggested to me that I may have mistaken cleavage for bedding in the Skiddaw Slates; but I considered that point at the time. My reason for thinking the planes to be bedding and not cleavage planes is, besides the fact that they looked to me much more like bedding than cleavage, that I saw them rolling about and con

torted in places, which, if I am not mistaken as to the fact, is conclusive against their being cleavage.

NOTE.-I subjoin a third figure to show the lie of the beds along Eel Crags.

In Fig. 3, (A) represents the Greenstone lying on the Skiddaw Slates (B); the line ab separating the two sets of beds, makes an angle of 6° with the horizon; the Skiddaw slates are shown dipping at 60°, as their full dip is not seen.

III.-MAN AND THE MAMMOTH; BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE ANIMALS FOUND ASSOCIATED WITH EARLY MAN IN PRE-HISTORIC TIMES.1

HA

By HENRY WOODWARD, F.G.S., F.Z.S., of the British Museum.

AVING a short time since drawn up a brief statement of the evidences upon which the presumed antiquity of the human race in Western Europe is based, and also some account of the animals found associated with early man in this region, I have ventured to think it may be found of sufficient interest to lay before this Society.

It is based only in a very small part upon my own observations, being chiefly composed of materials gathered from the published labours of my friends and colleagues, who have specially devoted their time and energies to these researches.

The question of primeval man and his contemporaries is now, by common consent, admitted to be one of the most important geological topics which has occupied the attention, not only of men of science, but also of the educated classes generally, in the present day, and notwithstanding the works already published, it may be said that the public mind is still craving for fuller information.

Nor need that craving remain altogether unrelieved, for every month contributes its quota to the general store of published facts and discoveries, and we may ourselves add thereto by careful observations in our own district if we only know how, when, and where to observe for ourselves.

The class of deposits which have yielded the evidence of which I am about to speak, cannot be said to have been altogether previously unnoticed, but it is only during the past ten years that the painstaking, careful investigations of such men as Prestwich, Falconer, Lubbock, Lartet, Christy, Pengelly, Evans, Boyd-Dawkins, Sanford, Dupont, and others of the same high stamp, have resulted in the real discoveries and vast additions to our knowledge of this last chapter of geological history heretofore unwritten, and in which Man and the Mammoth take part.

1 This paper was read before the GEOLOGISTS' ASSOCIATION, on January 1st, 1869, and is printed here by permission of the Council.

Let us for a moment retrace the course of these events. So long ago as 1823, that distinguished British geologist, Dr. Buckland, published his celebrated work, the "Reliquiæ Diluvianæ," in which he described the organic remains contained in ossiferous caverns and fissures, and "diluvial gravel" in various parts of Europe. But the Dean, although so acute a geologist, concluded that none of the stone implements or human remains met with in these deposits could be considered to be as old as the Mammoth and other extinct and foreign animals, with the bones and teeth of which they were associated.

So little was the study of Geology then understood, that the idea of any remains of man being found in deposits older than those attributed to the Noachian deluge was rejected as contrary to Scripture, and generally received opinion.

At this early period, however, 1824, the late Rev. Dr. John Fleming, F.R.S.E., at that time a minister in the Scotch Presbyterian Church, (afterwards Professor of Natural Philosophy in Aberdeen, and latterly Professor of Natural History at New College, Edinburgh,) contributed an article to the "Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," vol. xi., 1824, "On the Influence of Society on the Distribution of British Animals," in which he ably argued against the views of Dr. Buckland, and showed (even from the then comparatively scanty evidences) that there was incontestible proof of the contemporaneity of the human and animal relics found associated together in these cave-deposits, and that they were clearly the remains of the former denizens of the same region, entombed in their present burial places by similar causes to those now in action, and not by any wide-sweeping catastrophe, such as was assumed by the advocates of a universal deluge.

There was (1824-5) a highly intelligent Roman Catholic Priest living at Torquay, the Rev. J. McEnery, who, having examined a certain cavern, known as "Kent's Hole," discovered flint implements of undoubted human workmanship associated with bones of the Mammoth, the tichorhine Rhinoceros, cave-bear, and other mammalia, about the contemporaneity of which he does not seem to have doubted, and the correctness of whose views have been now wellestablished by subsequent investigation.

The next (1833-4) earliest systematic work of exploration we find was carried out in the valley of the Meuse, Belgium, by the late Dr. Schmerling, of Liége, who carefully searched for and exhumed the fossil human and animal remains buried together in the ossiferous caverns around Liége, an account of forty of which he published, with figures and descriptions of their buried contents.

In 1841 M. Boucher de Perthes commenced to collect, and, in 1847, to publish the result of his researches in the gravel-deposits of the valley of the Somme, around Abbeville, and the sight of his collection of flint-implements induced Dr. Rigollot to search the gravelpits around Amiens, which also yielded singular proofs of prehistoric man. Notwithstanding the publication of these discoveries, however, public interest was not as yet aroused, and the French savans of Paris only laughed at Monsieur de Perthes and his researches. Meanwhile English geologists were accumulating facts and ma