342 BUFFALO LAND. 



on foot by Dr. Turner, Prof. INIudge, Prof Marsh, W. 

 E. Webb, and the writer. Careful examinations of 

 the remains discovered show that they are all to be 

 referred to the reptiles and fishes. We find that they 

 lived in the period called Cretaceous, at the time 

 when the chalk of England and the green sand marl 

 of New Jersey were being deposited, and when many 

 other huge reptiles and fishes peopled both sea and 

 land in those quarters of the globe. The twenty-six 

 species of reptiles found in Kansas, up to the present 

 time, varied from ten to eighty feet in length, and 

 represented six orders, the same that occur in the 

 other regions mentioned. Two only of the number 

 were terrestrial in their habits, and three were flyers ; 

 the remainder were inhabitants of the salt ocean. 

 When they swam over what are now the plains, the 

 coast-line extended from Arkansas to near Fort 

 Riley, on the Kansas River, and, passing a little east- 

 ward, traversed Minnesota to the British Possessions, 

 near the head of Lake Superior. The extent of sea 

 to the westward was vast, and geology has not yet 

 laid down its boundary ; it was probably a shore now 

 submerged beneath the waters of the JSTorth Pacific 

 Ocean. 



Ear out on its expanse might have been seen in 

 those ancient days, a huge snake-like form which rose 

 above the surface and stood erect, with tapering 

 throat and arrow-shaped head ; or swayed about, 

 describinc; a circle of twentv feet radius above the 

 water. Then it would dive into the depths, and naught 

 would be visible but the foam caused by the disap- 

 pearing mass of life. Should several have appeared 



