made hideous the night, while the sailing condor, the snaring eagle 

 and the swooping hawk ami birds of song made lively the air the 

 livelong day. What happened to disturb this daily hum of animal 

 life no tongue can tell, and only the vivid imagination of man can 

 Conjecture. The coast gradually rose to a higher level, the mountain 

 spurs reached down to the sea and cu1 off the passage to the north 



and south, while the deserts id' the east and the waters of the west 



prevented the escape. The drouth occasioned by the rise of the 

 land and consequent decrease of water supply, resulted in scanty 

 Vegetation and scarcity of water. The large animals could not sur 

 vive the drouth, hence one after another, year after year passed 

 away. Many of these in their search for food and water found 

 their grave in the tar pools and let't their record there. Tin' beasts 

 id' prey found each struggling victim a ready source for food, they 

 themselves now and again, falling a helpless prey to those that fol- 

 lowed. The great feathered tribe, not slow to see an opportunity, 

 flew down and partook of a ready meal. These, too, striving here 

 in their eagerness for food, would lose their balance, touch a foot, 

 dip a wing, or drop a tail into the tarry mass, until they, in their 

 turn became record-makers in the world's history. 



Nature, relentless and implacable, swerves not from her steadied 

 course and yields no fixed law. Thus passed away a fauna as remark- 

 able as it was abundant; and apparently as suddenly as a catastrophe 

 and as completely as a total extinction. 



The age to which the Brea deposits nave been referred is early 

 Quatenary, Pleistocene. The whole region has been a flood plain of 

 deposition during which time the accumulation id' fossils took place. 

 Subsequently a gradual rise in the land occurred, resulting in mak- 

 ing the region a plain of erosion, which it is today. This erosion 

 uncovered the deposits to such an extent that the prehistoric bones 

 are found from the surface down, as far as the digging has reached, 

 (22 feet). No continuous record of fauna from the Pleistocene to 

 the present has yet been found; on the other hand a sudden break 

 occurs at the ver\ surface and in the deposits yet covered with the 

 lasers of soil above and all specimens seem to belong to one group 

 of a single time. 



< die interesting evidence lending support to the idea that this 

 deposit is Pleistocene and that too probably the early (lower), is 

 the presence of the Imperial elephant (E. imperator), which Prof. 

 Richard S. bull has said "appeared in the lower Pleistoeene (Eqmis 

 of Sheridan beds)". Although this tooth was found in the lower 

 level of the diggings, yet other finds must be made and a better 

 correlation of the Pleistocene deposits in general must be worked 

 out before the exact location (lower, higher, or middle) in the 

 Pleistocene can lie determined. 



Three id' the specimens figured in this paper were not obtained 

 by the writer. The elephant tooth, (E. primogenus) found on San 

 Miguel Island, was loaned by Prof \V. A. Fisk of Occidental College. 

 The mastodon .jaw (M. Americanum) and the elephant tooth (E. 

 columbi) were found near [nglewood in the diggings of the outfall 

 sewer, and were loaned by Mr. Homer Hamlin, Los Angeles. The 

 back portion of a skull (Teratornis californicus) from the Brea beds 

 was loaned bv Prof. T. H. Miller of Los Angeles State Normal School. 



Alv thanks are due to these gentlemen for their kindness. 



51 



