206 FORMATIONS OF THE MAUVATISES TERRES. 
forms of the extinct animals of the Mauvaises Terres, which lived, as we have seen, 
during the dawn of the tertiary period; bearing in mind the fact that at the time 
they flourished in Nebraska, the Alps were just lifting their heads out of the ocean, 
how strange must it appear to the reflective mind, that the comparative anatomist, 
at this day, should be able to read their history—to restore them by minute descrip- 
tions, and thus embody them to the imagination as in their pristine and animated 
condition. Yet far more vividly do these facts come home to the individual who 
beholds and handles the specimens themselves. Some of them, disencumbered of 
the enclosing matrix, are still in such a perfect condition, and present so fresh an 
appearance, that the light is reflected back from the enamelled surface of the teeth 
with as much brilliancy as from highly polished steel. Were it not for their pon- 
derous character, and their strange physiognomy, one might well suppose them to be 
the bones of recent animals, which had been bleached but for a season. 
