CHAPTER VIII. 



LIFE OF LOWER LAKE REGION. 

 OREODONS. 



The Oreodons, a large and very interest- 

 ing group of mammals, now entirely extinct, 

 were very abundant in the days of this lower 

 lake. They had the molar teeth of the modern 

 deer, the pre-molars or side teeth of the hog, 

 and the incisors of the carnivora. They ranged 

 in size from the stature of the coyote to that 

 of an elk. The type of this animal is finely 

 represented by the head figured on Plate 

 VIII. The characters that mark all the fossils 

 of the lower lake sediments are well shown 

 in the teeth and bones of this head ; they are 

 dense and heavy, the teeth finely preserved 

 and glisten with the luster of agates. Aside 

 from the relation of this head to the life forms 

 of the Miocene period, it is in itself an object 

 of real beauty. And yet it is not as a piece of 



