Page:The Geologist, volume 5.djvu/131

Rh to our commonest plesiocetes; but, in the conformation of the drum of the ear, in characters of the fragments of the inferior maxillary which had not been recognized, as also by the vertebræ from different regions of the body, this cetacean differed notably from all that the Crag Sea contained. We are able even to add, that it had nothing in common with the Balænodon of Owen.

"The Balænodon of Lintz is rather a ziphioid, and we doubt much if the tooth which has been assigned to it belongs really to that animal. The tympanum of this pretended Balænodon indicates the existence of characters far removed from the whalebone-whales of the Crag, and ally it to the Hyperodon or the ziphioids. For the rest, we believe we have recognized, among the undetermined bones in the Museum of Lintz, fragments of the inferior maxillary remarkable for their height and their great flatness, and which leave hardly any doubt on the subject. Since our journey, this Balænodon has been designated in our manuscripts under the name of Aulocete, on account of the cranial furrow.

"In the same sea of Upper Austria is found also a delphinoid which is unknown to science; but unfortunately it is represented by a single tooth.

"In the fine Museum of Stutgart we have found yet two other remarkable cetaceans of the same sea, the Arionius servatus of H. von Meyer, . . . and a new ziphioid that we hope soon to see described. The latter has the seven cervical vertebræ isolated; and the drums of the tympanum, still in place, are remarkable for their form, their large size, and, above all, for the great thickness of their solid walls. . . But of all the inhabitants of the seas of that age, undoubtedly the most interesting are the fossil sirenians known under the name of Halitherium. They inhabited the coasts, or rather the embouchures of rivers, which they could ascend some distance at need. To judge of them by the numerous relics found in different localities, at Darmstadt amongst others, these strange animals inhabited in abundance the Sea of the Molasse, whilst the Crag Sea has not harboured any of their remains. In the present creation we see the sirenians chiefly in the tropical regions. The Senegal and the Amazon foster them abundantly. The finest skeleton known of the Halitherium is in the Museum of Darmstadt; it shows the pelvis and a femur, of which the extremity is lodged in a cotyloid cavity. We are pleased to learn that Dr. Kaup, by whose pains so many paleontological treasures have been connected together, proposes to model completely this important relic of the ancient world. The Sirenians lived together with the Squalodons in the Sea of Lintz; but it is probable that these bones at Darmstadt belong to individuals which had mounted high up the river, and which thus are found far from the other marine animals. It is possible, also, that the waters below which these sands were deposited at Lintz and Darmstadt were brought by two opposing streams, like the Rhine and the Danube of the present day. . . All the bones at Lintz have been found in a thick bed of coarse sand, situated immediately below the quater-