Some gigantic bones have been exhibited at New Orleans, but the place
where they were found is not mentioned in the communication. They consist
of one of the bones of the cranium, fifteen or twenty vertebras, two
entire ribs, and part of a third, one thigh bone, two bones of the leg,
&c. The cranial bone was upwards of twenty feet in its greatest length,
about four in extreme width, and it weighed 1,200 lbs. The ribs measured
nine feet along the curve, and about three inches in thickness. It had
been conjectured that the animal to which these bones belonged was
amphibious, and perhaps of the crocodile family. It was also supposed
that the animal when alive, must have measured twenty-five feet round the
body, and about 130 feet in length.

_Trans. **Geoloy. Soc._

* * * * *


_The Cochineal Insect._

Our readers are doubtless aware that cochineal, so extensively used in
this country for dying,[1] is a beautiful insect abundantly found in
various parts of Mexico and Peru. Some of these insects have lately been
sent over to Old Spain, and are doing remarkably well on the prickly pear
of that country; indeed, they are said to rival even those of Mexico in
the quality and brilliancy of their dye.

Their naturalization may doubtless be extended along the shores of the
Mediterranean, Sicily, and the different states of Greece. The prickly
pear is indigenous in those places, and by little cultivation will afford