

ELOTHEEIUM : HIPPOrOTAMUS. 



245 



. 



> 



E. ingens, of the Manvaises Terres of White River, Dakota, although it would 

 appear to belong to a larger individual than the remains referred to the lat- 

 ter, if not to a yet larger species." No trace of this animal has been found in 

 the gravel deposits except the above-described tooth. A number of teeth, 

 however, were obtained by Rev. T. Condon in the valley of Bridge Creek, a 

 tributary of the Columbia River, which were referred by Dr. Leidy to the 

 genus Elotherium, and described under the name of E. hnperaior* Of these 

 specimens it is said that it a is not improbable that part or the whole pertain 

 to the species named Elotherium superbam from an isolated incisor tooth found 



in Calaveras County, California. " 



Another species is represented by a single fragment of a tooth or tusk 

 belonging to some large animal, which is said to have come from the Buck- 

 eye Tunnel, under Table Mountain, the position of which has already been 

 described. From its appearance and partially fossilized character it would 

 seem probable that it was obtained from this or some other position under 

 the If 



ava. 



The fragment is about two inches long and consists of a portion 

 of a tooth split through the centre, its diameter being about an inch and a 

 half. Of this specimen Dr. Leidy only says in his notes : " Uncertain. Ap- 

 parently the fragment of an incisor or canine of some large pachyderm, not 

 the mastodon or elephant, and probably allied to the hippopotamus." 



The analysis of this specimen, by Mr. Sharpies, gave the following re- 

 sults : 





Phosphate of lime 



Carbonate of lime . 

 Fluoride of calcium 

 Oxide of iron 

 Water and organic matter 



67.89 

 8.74 



16.97 

 2.34 

 3.03 



98.97 



The amount of fluorine given above is quite remarkable, as it considerably 

 exceeds that previously obtained in the analyses which have been made by 

 chemists of the teeth and tusks of various animals. 



The only other animal remains which have come into the possession of the 

 writer, appearing without doubt to have come from deposits positively prior 

 in age to the basalt, are such as have also been found in an uncertain posi- 

 tion : that is to say, where it is impossible to tell whether they were or were 

 not deposited prior to the cessation of eruptive action in the Central Sierra. 

 It will be proper, in the first place, therefore, to enumerate all the species 



* In Contributions to the Extinct Vertebrate Fauna of the Western Territories, p. 217. 









