Year: 1874

Did the results obtained justify the expenditure
the time the trouble! Yes. amply. The bones OBJ
tanned are those of tropical animals, of the miocene
era. There are nearly two tons of these fossils;
most of them are rare specimens illustrative of en-
tire classes of Quadrupeds of which all that is known
has been asce;taned within very few years; some
of the bones are those of ANIMALS entirely new to
science. The brontOtherium Is one of the larger
ouadrupeds whose remains are entombcd in the bed
Of this miocene lake. 1t large as an elephant
and bore q general resemblance of form to that
animal hut differed in many essential particulars.
Its shorter limbs were like those of the rhinOcerOs
its nose was adorned with pair of huge horns


placed crosswisc. Its skull is yard in length. 1t
had no tusks or long proboscis such the elephant
possesses; but its nose was probably elongated and
flexible. like the snout of tapir In fact its head
and neck were so long that it had no need OF an
elephantine proboscis. These animals must have
lived together in herds. Probably their remains
were washed into the lake by freshet and thus
were buried in the mud with which the lake was
finally filled, which now has hardened into stone.
Among other remains found are those of animals
nearly allied to the rhnocerOs the camel, and the
horse of to-day. 1t is not necessary to burden this
page with their scientific names which would con-
vey ideas of their form characteristics to most
readers. The stratum in which the fossils lay was
of the lowest mocene and could only have been
reached by the upper miocene and the pliocene
above that, having been washed away by a water
course in this gully. Hence the locality of the
deposits was narrow, and the expedition able to
get at and remove them entirely. careful exam
ination of the surrounding region showed that
nowhere else had any watercourse cut deep enough
TO lay bare this stratum.


Aside from the novel points obtained concerning
specific fossils. the expedition has made an i'm
portant determination respecting the geology of the
region. The fact was ascertained that the miocene
lake was of more limited extent than has hitherto
been asserted, although larger than all the great
lakes of the Northwest at the present day would
be il combined in one. Its northern limit was the
southern slope of the Black Hills; its western mar.
gin the Rocky Mountains; its southern limit near
the northern line of Kansas. Long after this lake
was filed and dried, another tropical lake covered
the same region, having the same boundaries at the
north and west, but extending southwark even to
Texas. The sands and clay deposits of this more
recent lake basin Of the pliOcene age they are
of great thickness in places not less than 500
feet. No nconsiderable part of the beds
which Prof. Hayden has regarded as be-
longing to the miocene or lower lake formation
proves to be of the pliocene or upper lake. the mio
Gene being only visible in occasional depressions
where the pliocene has been washed away. All or
nearly all the high table lands from the White
River to Arkansas formed of the deposits Of the
pocene lake; it has proved rich in organic remains,
especially in fossil horses but all the animals
found in it differ from those Of the lake below as
we'll as from those now living. Many obscure and
some contested points in science will be determined
by the material which Prof. Marsh's expedition Of
1874 has gathered. and the Indians have already
found compensation for their medicine" ravished
to adorn the shelves of Yale's new museum.