NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 63 



ing begins. First, with a large knife the skin is ripped on the upper side of 

 the' body its whole length, then skinned down as far as practicable without 

 rolling it over. The coating of fat that lays between the skin and the flesh, 

 being from one to seven inches in thickness, according to the size and con- 

 dition of the animal, is cut off into " horse pieces " about eight inches wide by 

 twelve to fifteen long, and a puncture made in each piece large enough to pass 

 a rope through. After Jiensing the upper side the animal is rolled over and 

 cut all around as above described. Then the horse pieces are strung on a 

 raft-rope,* which is taken to the edge of the surf and a long line made fast to 

 it, the end being thrown to a boat that lies just outside of the rollers. They 

 are thus hauled through the breakers and towed to the vessel, where they are 

 tried out on board. 



The oil produced is superior to whale oil for lubricating purposes. The 

 individual jield may be less than a barrel with the smaller males and females, 

 but the larger males make from three to seven. Owing to the continual pur- 

 suit of these animals they have become nearly, if not quite, extinct, or have 

 fled to some isolated, unknown points for security. The latter conjecture, 

 however, seems hardly probable, for the Sea-elephant, it is said, has never been 

 found in the north Pacific, ex'cept on the coasts of the Galifornias. 



Notice of some extinct VERTEBRA.TES from Wyoming and Dakota. 

 BY JOSEPH LEIDY, M. D. 



1. Omomys Carteri. 



On several occasions, Mr. J. Van A. Carter, of Fort Bridger, Wyoming, sent 

 to me a number of fossils consisting of small blackened fragments of bones 

 together with casts of fresh water shells, obtained from a tertiary formation. 

 In one of his letters, Mr. Carter remarks that the country in his vicinity is 

 covered with buttes, composed mostly of a gray sandstone, easily worn by the 

 weather, wind and snow. Particular strata of a greenish gray cast contain 

 the fossils. 



Portions of rock accompanying the fossils consist of a crumbly, greenish 

 gray, granular material, with few imbedded fragments of soft and more homo- 

 geneous rock. Some of the specimens contain multitudes of minute whitish 

 concretions having a concentric arrangement. The fossil shell casts for the 

 most part consist of what appear to be a species of Melania and of Planor- 

 bis. The bone fragments consist of remains of teliost fishes but mainlv of 

 reptiles, generally too imperfect for specific identification. The reptilian re- 

 mains, mostly of turtles, indicate several species of Trionyx, Emys, etc. ; a 

 Crocodilian is also represented. 



Among the fossil bones from the same formation, Mr. Carter sent me a por- 

 tion of the cranium of a small mammal reduced to indeterminate fraoments 

 €xcept a few pieces, which indicated apparently the skull of a carnivorous 

 animal about the size and general form of that of the Mink. Fragments of 

 the parietals and contiguous bones adherent to a portion of matrix, exhibit 

 a long, low sagittal crest separating a capacious pair of temporal fosste with 

 surfaces almost as convex as in the Mink. A portion of the supra-occipital 

 and condyles, adherent to another portion of matrix, enclose a foramen four 

 lines in transverse diameter. 



As Dr. Carter informed me that he had obtained the fossil cranium from its 

 position in the rock, at my solicitation he examined the locality for other por- 

 tions of the skull, and had the good luck to discover the greater part of the 

 right ramus of the lower jaw, apparently of the same animal. This specimen 

 indicates an insectivorous mammal, probably belonging to the family of the 

 hedge-hogs. Among living insectivora, described and figured by DeBlainville, 



* A rope three fathoms long, with an eye spliced in one end. 



1869.] 



