70 Kansas Academy of Science. 



the family of the Oredons, which have a considerable range in size. 

 These animals are now entirely extinct and show characters belong- 

 ing both to deers and pigs. Primitive horses of several genera 

 are common, as are also various camels and rhinoceroses. Primi- 

 tive pigs, cats and dogs are found here, but we were not fortunate 

 enough to secure many specimens of them. Rodents of various 

 kinds are not uncommon. 



There is not a little dispute about the age of the beds and the 

 manner of their deposition, but the consensus of opinion seems to 

 be that they are Miocene lake deposits. From the nature of the 

 beds and the contained fossils, it would appear as though the lake 

 were shallow and subject to frequent filling up with ashy deposits. 

 The character of the material and the condition of the skeletons 

 embedded in it would seem to indicate that the animals had fallen 

 into a muddy place that later had been cracked by drying, and then 

 once more had been subjected to a mud flow that had filled up the 

 earlier cracks. Only a very careful study of the whole region, after 

 the manner of that conducted by Merriam, would make it possible 

 to determine the nature and sequence of the changes that were in- 

 volved in the laying down of these interesting deposits. 



Our party spent the greater part of the summer in the Turtle 

 Cove region and then descended the river into the Haystack Valley 

 locality. A short time was spent here, and then we took our way 

 over the mountains to make the bend of the river where Bridge 

 creek flows into it. In this historical collecting ground we had no 

 success, and were obliged to end up the season with the least suc- 

 cessful expenditure of our time. We left the John Day basin on 

 the west side, after having traversed it from one end to the other, 

 and, from the elevated plateau that bounds it, looked back upon the 

 broken and serried ridges through whose valleys we had been wan- 

 dering. It was a sight to be long remembered, and I believe there 

 are few like it elsewhere. We reached a branch railroad at Shaniko 

 and here shipped the greater portion of our freight. Final disposal 

 of our team and wagon was made at The Dalles, on the main line, 

 and from this time on we were in civilized surroundings to 'which 

 there attaches no interest. 



