THE KANSAS UNIVERSITY 

 SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



Vol. X, No. 4.] January. 1917. [tol'xx^I^I. 



On a Collection of Fossil Vertebrates Made by Dr. F. W. 

 Cragin in the Equus Beds of Kansas.* 



BY OLIVER P. HAY. 



IX the sixth volume of the Colorado College Studies, on pages 53 

 and 54. issued at Colorado Springs, Colo., March, 1896, Dr. F. 

 W. Cragin made a brief report on some vertebrate fossils which he 

 had discovered in 1891, in ]\Ieade and Clark counties, Kansas. 

 Later Doctor Cragin became interested in other studies and did 

 not come back to these fossils. These now form a part of the col- 

 lection of Colorado College, and, through the kindness of the 

 honorar}^ director of the museum, Mr. Edward R. WaiTen, the 

 wiiter has been permitted to bring them to Washington and to 

 study them. 



A portion of the fossils were found near the head of Bluff creek, 

 in the western part of Clark county, east of Minneola,and the others 

 along Spring creek, a tributary of Crooked creek, about four miles 

 southwest of Meade, in ]\Ieade county. In this region Doctor 

 Cragin discovered three teiTanes, the lowest of which, vaning 

 from ten to forty feet in thickness, he named the Meade gravels. 

 He recognized that these gravels belonged to what has been called 

 the Equus beds. From them he reported Elephas imperator (?), 

 Megalonyx leidyi, Equus complicatus, E. curvidens, and Auchenia 

 huerfanensis. 



Overhing the Meade gravels there was found a bed of volcanic 

 ash which reached a thickness of thirteen feet. This contained 

 few fossils. It was named the Pearlette. Above this ash bed were 

 found marls, to which was apphed the name Kingsdown. In that 

 region the marls were apparently' not less than 100 feet thick. 

 Only Elephas was reported from them. 



All of the materials of the collection made by Cragin which 

 have been studied by the writer belong to the lowest terrane, the 



*Pub!ished by permission of rhe Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



(39) 



