1897. 



THE FOSSIL SLOTH AT BIG BONE CAVE, TEXX, 



00 



crement had become hardened and caked together just under the 

 bones, into what it seemed reasonable to suppose had constituted the 

 foothold of the cavern when the extinct animal appeared. Objects 

 found in it, therefore, a further series of nuts, seeds, twigs, leaves, 

 bat jaws, and fur described below, together with the dry carcass of 

 the window fly, were to be reasonably regarded as older than the 

 sloth. 



How may we 

 better account for 

 the character and 

 position of this 

 crust, than by 

 supposing that it 

 represented that 

 portion of the 

 once lower floor 

 where the carcass 

 of the animal had 

 for a time rested 

 and into which 

 the juices had fil- 

 tered, caking to- 

 gether the copro- 

 lites during the 

 consumption o f 

 the flesh by rats 

 and porcupines ? 



This not im- 

 probable suspi- 

 cion was strength- 

 ened when we 

 considered the 

 number of bones 

 found at the spot, 

 not simply the 

 twelve exhumed 

 by us, but those 



previously excavated by Priest and Johnson, now in Prof. Saf- 

 ford's possession, and we may add the eighteen other remarkable 

 cartilaginous specimens, presumably from the same spot, at the 



Fig. 14 (x Yz ). — The tenth bone found (in Layer 2, depth 

 about 8 inches). Dorsal vertebra more wasted than most of the 

 other specimens. Discolored by a preservative preparation 

 applied since its excavation. The signs of rodent gnawing 

 are not shown in the photograph. 



