Fkbeuaky 14, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



273 



-University to tlie region of the Musselshell 

 river in Montana, the writer suggested to Pro- 

 fessor W. B. Scott the possibility of finding 

 fossil mammals in the Fort Union beds which 

 are so well developed in the Crazy Mountains 

 and vicinity. It was his idea that in a coun- 

 try where the Laramie, Livingston and Fort 

 Union beds occur and attain a considerable 

 thickness, the long-sought ancestors of the 

 placental mammals of the Puerco might be 

 found. 



In the region where the camp was estab- 

 lished, near Fish Creek, to the eastward of the 

 Crazy Mountains, the writer had found, dur- 

 ing the previous year, near the top of the 

 series of rocks so beautifully exposed in this 

 region, many fossil deciduous leaves. Many 

 of these were in a hard, fine-grained sandstone 

 and were excellently preserved. Below the lay- 

 ers of sandstone containing the best leaves 

 were dark or gray shales in which were car- 

 bonaceous matter, plant impressions and dis- 

 torted gasteropod shells, interstratified with 

 layers of quite hard gray sandstone, which were 

 often ripple marked. Still lower were dark 

 gray shales with concretions, and bands or 

 lenses of limestone containing fresh-water 

 Bivalves and Gasteropods. The concretions 

 are brown (ironstones) and break in angular 

 fragments. The shales are partly soft and 

 fine-grained and in part sandy. 



During the greater part of last summer the 

 writer was collecting for the Princeton Muse- 

 um and was with the Princeton party during 

 their stay in this region. In August, while 

 ascending the butte from which leaves had 

 been procured the previous year, and examin- 

 ing the dark shale beneath the sandstone 

 cap, he found fragments of a tooth, which, 

 when put together looked like the ca- 

 nine tooth of a mammal. Near it a premolar 

 was found that at once settled the matter. It 

 appears to belong to a small species of Panto- 

 lamhda. This level was followed and care- 

 fully searched. Several teeth of Euprotogonia 

 were found and fragmentary remains of one or 

 two more mammals, besides teeth and frag- 

 ments of jaws of crocodiles. This exposure 

 was small. Afterward on another side of the 

 butte, ravines which exposed the shales at 



about the same level were examined, and 

 other bones and teeth were found. 



These mammalian remains, which are now 

 in the Princeton Museum, have been exam- 

 ined by W. B. Scott, M. S. Farr, and W. D. 

 Matthew, as well as by the writer. One or 

 two have been specifically determined and all 

 agree that the beds belong to the Torrejon 

 horizon. The fossils determined are: 

 Mioclcenus acolytus (Cope), 

 Anisonchus close to A. sectorius, 

 Euprotogonia, 

 Pantolanibda ( ?), 

 Psittacotherium (?). 



This is a very interesting discovery, as here- 

 tofore Torrejon mammals have been found 

 only in a limited area in New Mexico, and 

 the beds have been searched with the greatest 

 care, 'on hands and knees,' with a scientific 

 zeal to know more of the peculiar mammals of 

 this age. 



The importance and interest of the dis- 

 covery are doubled by the fact that everything 

 seems to indicate that these are the Fort 

 Union beds, the exact position of which has 

 been uncertain. The collection of fossil leaves 

 that was made in the summer of 1900 has been 

 sent for with a view to the accurate determi- 

 nation of the species. As the Fort Union flora 

 is a characteristic one it is confidently believed 

 that the plants together with the mammals 

 will settle the position of the Fort Union for- 

 mation beyond controversy. 



Earl Douglass. 



Princeton, N. J. 



ENGINEERING NOTES. 

 EccLES^ a small town in England, has in- 

 troduced the automobile fire-engine. It car- 

 ries five men, three hundred feet of hose and 

 standpipes, ladders, jumping sheet, etc. It is 

 driven by an electric motor at a speed, on a 

 smooth and level pavement, of about fifteen 

 miles an hour. It climbs heavy gradients and 

 is reported to be preeminently satisfactory. 

 The self-propelled steam fire-engine has often 

 been built, in the United States and abroad, 

 and has sometimes proved satisfactory, though 

 usually too heavy. The electric machine has 

 at least one peculiar advantage in its instant 



