Extract

Plates III. to VI.

Before commencing the present Report, I must express my great obligation to Mr. Bain for the opportunity of studying the extraordinary fossil remains which form its subject, and for the favour which that zealous explorer of South African geology has conferred on me, by coupling, with his transmission of the fossils to the care of the Geological Society, the request that I would undertake their description.

The endeavour to fulfil this request has yielded me the highest pleasure; and here I must state, that it is chiefly by the timely and active assistance of an intelligent workman, skilled in removing from fossil bones their hard adherent matrix, and of Mr. Scharf’s well-known artistic ability in preparing the accompanying illustrations of the fossils, so displayed,—aids, which the President, H. Warburton, Esq., M.P., most promptly and liberally, at his own expense, placed at my disposal,—that I have been enabled so soon to obtain the results which are embodied in the present part of my Report.

The most remarkable character of the fossils selected for description is that which their discoverer, Mr. Bain, has indicated by calling them ‘Bidentals’: viz. the presence of two long, curved and sharp-pointed tusks, which, like those of the Walrus, Musk-deer and Machairodus, descend, one from each superior maxillary bone, and pass on the outside of the fore-part of the lower jaw.

This dental character has hitherto been manifested only by Mammals, and is rare in that class: the species above-cited are