EXPEDITION TO COLORADO FOR FOSSIL INSECTS 201 



the Brooklyn Institute may be willing to iindertake a study of the 

 beetles (Coleoptera), of which a fine series was secured. 



The fossiliferous formations at Florissant are shales forming 

 the bed of a shallow lake of unknown age, but probably Miocene, 

 and long since drained by upheaval and distortion. The climate 

 of the region about Florissant at that remote period, to judge 

 from the character of the fossils, was similar to that of the Gulf 



FOSSIL STUMP OF SEQUOIA TREE NEAR FLORISSANT, COLORADO 



States at the present time. There was a rank growth of huge 

 Sequoias, long-leaved cotton-woods, Planera, rushes and ferns 

 around this placid body of water. Some of the fossilized stumps 

 of the Sequoias may still be seen near the point where Scudder 

 made his excavations. Insects swarmed in the vegetation and 

 were carried out into the lake by the wind, rain and small streams, 

 and drowned in great numbers. Their tiny bodies sank to the 

 bottom and were gradually entombed in fine ashes, mud and 

 sand. The ashes were of volcanic origin and must have been 



