FOSSILS AT KILLIK AIKE. 53 



many perissodactyl characters similar to those found in the modern horse, 

 that, by some anatomists, it has been erroneously considered as ancestral 

 to the latter animal ; Prothylacinus, a large carnivorous animal exhibiting 

 in its skeleton so many marsupial characters that it has very generally 

 come to be considered as ancestral to the Tasmanian wolf, Thylacinus 

 cynocep/ia/us, as its name implies. Remains of these and many other 

 mammals were to be seen protruding from the face of the cliff, or weather- 

 ing from the surface of the great blocks of rock that had broken away and 

 fallen to the bottom, where they were being rapidly disintegrated by the 

 action of the tides. Truly this vast cemetery, which for untold ages had 

 served as nature's burial ground, was now being desecrated by her own 

 hand, with no one present to remonstrate against her wanton destruction of 

 those remains whose very antiquity, it would seem, should have insured 

 them against such desecration. We are wont to speak of the kindly hand 

 of nature and attribute all our physical ailments, at least, to a disobedience 

 of her laws. As I stood that afternoon and calmly viewed the surround- 

 ing scene, I could not help doubting the full truth of both assumptions. 

 Look whither I would, the scene was one of utter desolation, while the 

 very magnitude of the destruction which was being accomplished on such 

 an enormous scale all about me was emphasized by the power of the tide, 

 as it came rushing in great waves up the river, covering the broad mud 

 flats and rolling in among the bowlders at my feet, compelling me to seek 

 safety at successively higher elevations, where I could at last sit com- 

 fortably and look across a body of water of a depth sufficient for the safe 

 navigation of ocean-going vessels, and where but a few hours previous 

 there had existed only broad, level, mud flats, separated by unimportant 

 streams, which I later crossed on horseback without inconvenience. The 

 effectiveness of these tides as erosive agents was forcibly shown by the 

 enormous power exerted by the great tidal waves as they came plunging 

 forward, frequently presenting a solid front eight to ten feet in height 

 and several hundred yards in length and rolling great stones of from one 

 to two hundred pounds weight up and down the beach and rocking 

 others weighing a ton, or even more, back and forth, when not in a posi- 

 tion of perfect equilibrium, each successive wave carrying away great 

 quantities of material on its retrograde movement. In this manner the 

 four hundred and fifty feet of rocks forming the cliffs which towered 

 above me were being rapidly eaten into and destroyed, and as I looked 



