66 



THE FOSSIL SLOTir AT BIG JiONE CAVE, TENN. [Jan. 15, 



while its position at this depth in the cave refuse would testify to its 

 presence in America before the coming of Columbus, were entomolo- 

 gists not sufficiently sure that it had not followed the white discov- 

 erers in their ships across the Atlantic. 



Near by were found bedded in Layer 3 small pieces of bark, nuts, 

 grass, twigs, and plant fibre unidentified, pieces of horn beam seed, 

 Cai'pinus caroliniana (see Fig. 25 object 5); a seed of the blue ash, 

 Fraxinus quadraiignlaia ; two shellbarks, Hicoria ovata, and four 

 fragments well gnawed by rodents ; a gnawed bitternut, Hicoria 

 minima, showing orifices for extracting the kernel made by a small 

 rodent ; and six pieces of the acorn of the pin oak, Quercus 

 palusiris (for all of which see Fig. 25). Judging by the absence 



Fig. 25 (actual size). -^Objects which reached their position in the cave earth 

 before the advent of the sloth bones, i. Shellbarks, Hicoria ovata. 2. BitternHt, 

 Hicoria mifiima, gnawed by rodents. 3. Acorn of pin oak, Quercus palusiris. 

 4. Fragment of seed of blue ash, Fraxitius quadrangulata. 5 and 6. Nut and seed 

 of the hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana. 7. Lower jaw and bone of the bat, Ade- 

 lonycteris fusca. The background consists of the characteristic ingredients of 

 Layer 3. 



Brazilian caves ; and Marsh gives two species oi Nyctetestes and one of Nyctetheriuni 

 from the Eocene of the United States (see Catal. de Mamiferes, Tronsaert, Paris, 1879, 

 extr. Rev. et Mag. de ZooL, 1878). 



