INTRODUCTION 



IN 1884 the then Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Professor S. F. 

 Baird, submitted to the author for examination a small collection of fossil 

 bones, which had been received from Dr. John C. Neal, of Archer, Alachua 

 County, Florida, and had been discovered in his vicinity in the adjoining 

 county. Correspondence on the subject was opened with Dr. Neal, who, with 

 the desired information, sent to the author some additional specimens. The 

 fossils proving to be of great interest, on directing the attention of the Director 

 of the U. S. Geological Survey, Major J. W. Powell, to their discovery, he 

 authorized an examination of the locality whence they were obtained. With 

 this object in view Mr. William H. Dall and Mr. L. C. Johnson, officers of the 

 Survey, in succession visited the place and procured considerable collections 

 of fossils, which were directly sent to the author for investigation. 



The fossils were obtained from clay-beds, mostly on the plantation of J. 

 M. Mixon, in Levy County, ten miles south of Archer; while others were 

 derived from Hallowell's place, ten miles north of Archer. Brief notices of 

 the fossils have been given from time to time in the " Proceedings of the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia," 1884, 118; 1885, 32; 1886, u, 

 1887, 309. Most recently Professor Marsh directed his ablest assistant, Mr. 

 J. B. Hatcher, to visit the locality, where, at Mixon's plantation, he made an 

 additional collection, which was likewise sent to the author for investigation. 



The collection of fossils for the most part received on these occasions in 

 1885, 1887, and 1890, amounts in bulk to about the contents of half a dozen 

 barrels. They consist of isolated bones and teeth, with numerous fragments 

 of others indiscriminately mingled together. Mr. Dall remarks that the bones 

 are found usually mixed without order, but adds that parts of one skeleton 

 have several times 'been found in nearly their natural positions in relation to 

 one another. In collecting the fossils at Mixon's plantation, Mr. Johnson 

 states that trenches were cut in the bone-lead 'down to the bottom rock to a 

 depth of from two and a half to six feet. The bones were found thickly dis- 

 tributed from the surface to the bottom, but without order. Mr. Hatcher says, 



