280 On a fossil Ox from the Mississi2Jpi. 



Notes on a fossil skull in the Cabinet of the Lyceum, of the 

 Genus Bos, from the banks of the Mississippi; ivith ob- 

 servations on the American species of that Genus. 

 By J. E. Dekay. Read July 9, 1827. 



Among the many rare and interesting articles contained in 

 that part of the Cabinet of the Lyceum, for which we are in- 

 debted to our associate Dr. Mitchill, is the fragment of a 

 cranium which has hitherto been unnoticed. The label ac- 

 companying it, purports it to be " a petrified occiput, and the 

 horn processes of the American Bison, from New-Madrid, as 

 ejected by the shock of an earthquake in 1812." 



Although a period of fifteen years has elapsed since these 

 convulsions occurred, it is still remembered as a day of horror 

 by the inhabitants of that country. New-Madrid was the 

 centre of its destructive influence, and that flourishing town 

 was sunk and totally destroyed. A spectator of this appalling 

 scene, describes in an impressive manner the following phe- 

 nomena. " The violence of the earthquake having disturbed 

 the earthy strata impending over the subterraneous cavities, 

 existing probably in an extensive bed of wood highly carbon- 

 ized, occasioned the whole superior mass to settle. This, 

 pressing with all its weight upon the water that had filled the 

 lower cavities, occasioned a displacement of this fluid which 

 forced its passage through, blowing up the earth with loud 

 explosions. It rushed out in all quarters, bringing with it an 

 enormous quantity of carbonized wood reduced mostly into 

 dust, which was ejected to the height of ten or fifteen feet, 

 and fell in a black shower mixed with sand, which its rapid 

 motion had forced along ; at the same time, the roaring and 

 whistling produced by the impetuosity of the air escaping 

 from its confinement, seemed to increase the horrible disorder 

 of the trees which every where encountered each other, being 

 blown up, cracking and splitting, and falling by thousands at 



