208 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



crumbling of the elements roll them out of their long rest 

 ing-places, and they lie strewn over the bottom of the val 

 ley. The traveler feels like one walking upon the floor of 

 a long-deserted and ruined vault. Skulls, and jaws, and 

 teeth, and thigh-bones lie scattered around. Death has 

 indeed held carnival here, and this is the deserted scene 

 of his ghastly repast. But what long ages have glided by 

 since these flesh-covered bones were slain and gathered to 

 the charnel-house ! Scarcely a form familiar to the anato 

 mist reveals itself. Here are, indeed, the forms of turtles, 

 large and small, with all the sutures of their protecting 

 carapaces distinctly preserved ; but, though turtles, they 

 are unknown species, and some attain a size which, in 

 their present condition, must weigh nearly a ton. Here 

 lie the bones of rhinoceroses known certainly by their 

 teeth but. different from any existing species. As for the 

 rest of these remains, we do not even know the genera to 

 which they belonged. They present us with strange com 

 binations of characters. One seems intermediate between 

 a tapir and a rhinoceros, while the canine and incisor teeth 

 ally it likewise with the horse. One of the commonest 

 skulls has the grinding teeth of the elk and deer, and the 

 canines of a hog. It evidently belonged to a race which 

 lived both on flesh and vegetables, and yet chewed the cud 

 like our cloven-footed grazers. This has been named Oreo- 

 don. One of the most wonderful of the beings entombed 

 here is the Titanotherium, first discovered by Dr. Prout, of 

 St. Louis. It somewhat resembles a hornless rhinoceros, 

 but is much more massive in its proportions. One of the 

 jaws seen by Dr. Evans had a length of five feet along the 

 crowns of the teeth, and the skeleton of another individual 

 was eighteen and a half feet in length and nine feet in 

 height. Of all the relics uncovered in this ancient ceme 

 tery, it is remarkable that but one carnivorous quadruped 



