Geological Papers. IS 



in all directions, like the mud in the bottom of a puddle after the 

 water has evaporated. 



It has always been a problem to account for the great number of 

 animals represented, and the fact that the bones are all scattered. 

 No two bones are in their natural position ; all parts of the skeleton 

 are mingled in the greatest confusion. One would of course be 

 forced from his observation of this region to agree with Doctors 

 Matthew and Hatcher as to the fact of the deposition of these 

 bones in the flood-plain of a running stream of water and not in 

 great lakes, as was believed by the older geologists. The only way 

 the writer has been able to account for the intermingling of all the 

 bones of the skeletons on the bottom sandstone layer is, that as this 

 sand when thoroughly saturated with water would become quick- 

 sand, the bones, scattered through the fourteen feet above where 

 they now lie, would sink in it until the impenetrable bottom layer 

 was reached. When the land had not been cut by drainage chan- 

 nels one can readily believe that the above idea would account for 

 the mingling together indiscriminately of the bones of the many 

 skeletons. .What caused the death of such vast numbers of rhi- 

 noceroses ^n this place is a question not easily answered. The au- 

 thorities quoted believe that during great floods all the animals in 

 the vicinity sought the highest point they could find to escape 

 death, but at last their eflPorts were in vain, and they were drowned 

 in the flood that covered every inch of land. After maceration 

 took place the bones might have been scattered by other floods. 

 Another and equally plausible theory of the writer is that the ani- 

 mals were buried beneath a great sand-storm that tore lose the fine 

 sand of the flood-plain and scattered it in suffocating volume over 

 the frightened multitude, which had sought safety or courage by 

 herding together. One can readily agree with the gentlemen re- 

 ferred to, that, during the Upper Miocene time, there were many 

 watercourses separated by slightly elevated divides and broad flood- 

 plains. Possibly here and there were small lakes where the dense 

 vegetation had clogged some sluggish stream. During a rainy 

 season the whole region for many miles might be converted into 

 lakes and the animals driven from their haunts, and, worn out in 

 efforts to escape, would at last suceumb to the inevitable. Another 

 thought in this connection is, that the land was not then elevated 

 above the sea-level more than a few hundred feet. Now it is 3000 

 feet. This would account for the tropical climate, the slow, slug- 

 gish streams, bordered everywhere with swamps, filled with rushes 



