THE CENTURY'S PROGRESS IN PALEONTOLOGY 



the "bad lands" of western America seem inexhaustible. 

 And in the Connecticut River Valley near relatives of 

 the great reptiles which Professor Marsh and others 

 have found in such profusion in the West left their 

 tracks on the mud flats since turned to sandstone; and 

 a few skeletons also have been found. The bodies of a 

 race of great reptiles that were the lords of creation of 

 their day have been dissipated to their elements, while 

 the chance indentations of their feet as they raced along 

 the shores, mere footprints on the sands, have been pre- 

 served among the most imperishable of the memory- 

 tablets of the world. 



Of the other vertebrate fossils that have been found 

 in the eastern portions of America, among 'the most 

 abundant and interesting are the skeletons of masto- 

 dons. Of these one of the largest and most complete is 

 that which was unearthed in the bed of a drained lake 

 near Newburg, New York, in 1845. This specimen was 

 larger than the existing elephants, and had tusks eleven 

 feet in length. It was mounted and described by Dr. 

 John C. Warren, of Boston, and has been famous for 

 half a century as the " Warren mastodon." 



But to the student of racial development as recorded 

 by the fossils, all these sporadic finds have but incidental 

 interest as compared with the rich Western fossil beds 

 to which we have already referred. From records here 

 unearthed the racial evolution of many mammals has in 

 the past few years been made out in greater or less 

 detail. Professor Cope has traced the ancestry of the 

 camels (which, like the rhinoceroses, hippopotami, and 

 sundry other forms now spoken of as " Old World," 

 seem to have had their origin here) with much com- 

 pleteness. 



119 



