48 



THE FOSSIL SLOTH AT BIG BONE CAVE, TENN. [Jan. 15, 



3, and hence to the later time belong the sloth bones here shown. 

 One after another they were found in the dry manure, which, lying 

 invariably under Layer i above described, I have called 



LAYER 2. 



{^2 to 2\ feet thick. See Fig. 4.) 



As we worked forward through this layer with shovel, hands 

 and trowel to where it thinned out and the saltpetre earth now 

 removed had formed the foothold beyond it, we found it to 

 consist almost entirely of well-preserved, dry excrements of the 

 cave rat, Neotoina magisier, which, intermixed in lesser quan- 

 tity with coprolites of porcupines, Erethizon do7^satus, formed the 

 conspicuous ingredients of the mass. In consistency like a bin 



Fig. 5 (x >4 ). — First bone found (in Layer 2, depth.about 18 inches), epiphysis 

 or unknitted end of the humerus of a young sloth, Megalonyx. Photographed, 

 resting upon the characteristic rubbish of Layer 2 found around it. i. Bat's 

 ]?L\S', Adelonycteris fusca. 2. Hickory nut and fragment gnawed by rodent, 

 Hicoria glabra. 3. Excrement of large mammal, possibly sloth. 4. Felted 

 hair of bats, rats and porcupines mixed with a woolly fur, possibly belonging to 

 the sloth itself. 5. Bones of the bat, Adelonycteris fusca. The background 

 is composed of a mass of dry coprolites of cave rats, brown dusty earth, and 

 fragments of hard cave clay, " petre dirt." 



