504 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 5(J4. 



in diameter, scrobieulate and somewhat ele- 

 vated in the middle. The whole was evidently 

 covered with a dermal shield, and probably 

 each eminence bore a more or less elongated 

 horny spine. How much of the creature was 

 covered by this heavy shield it is yet im- 

 possible to determine; possibly only the pelvic 

 region was so protected, as in Polacanthus, 

 since there is also preserved a series of large 

 bony plates or scutes, each of about the size 

 of one's hand, united transversely with each 

 other, and bearing in the middle a prominent 

 longitudinal keel. In addition, numerous flat- 

 tened bony scutes were preserved, each meas- 

 uring about three inches in diameter. There 

 are no osseous spines. The bones of the 

 skeleton are solid; the front legs are smaller 

 than the hind ones; the dorsal centra are 

 amphiplatyan, 75 mm. in width by 70 in 

 length, with elevated arches, as in Stegosaurus 

 or Polacanthus. The head is small, the teeth 

 in size and form resembling those of 

 Paleoscincus Leidy. The tibiae measure 146 

 mm. in width distally. 



The beds in which this interesting specimen 

 was discovered are composed of dark blue 

 shales, from 30 to 75 feet in thickness, im- 

 mediately overlying and conformable with the 

 Benton Cretaceous. They have been traced 

 continuously for more than forty miles, be- 

 coming thinner to the west, where they plainly 

 show littoral and river disturbances. Two 

 continuous lines near the middle, the upper one 

 of white clay, the lower of ferruginous shales, 

 everywhere permit the exact allocation of the 

 fossils. The associated fossils are three or 

 four species of plesiosaurs, one of them clearly 

 belonging in the genus Polycotylus, hitherto 

 unknown from above the Niobrara; a large 

 species of a teleosaur crocodile; and a half 

 dozen species of small gastropods and pelecy- 

 pods, the latter occurring in myriads, in oft- 

 times massive concretions, about twenty feet 

 above the clay line; plesiosaur bones are some- 

 tim.es found mingled with shells in the concre- 

 tions. The invertebrates are of a fresh-water 

 or brackish-water facies. 



About thirty feet above these shales there is 

 a layer of sandstone containing rarely a 

 species of Ostrea; above which there are about 



six hundred feet of sandstones and shales con- 

 taining many characteristic Pierre inverte- 

 brates and a varied flora of dicotyledonous 

 leaves. Surmounting the whole are not less 

 than two thousand, and more probably three 

 thousand, feet of light-colored Pierre shales. 

 Pox Hills deposits have not been detected, 

 unless in the massive sandstones immediately 

 below the Laramie deposits. 



1 believe that the beds containing the verte- 

 brates are of Niobrara age, and they may pos- 

 sibly represent the Belly River. That the 

 dinosaur may prove to be generically identical 

 with Paleoscincus, known from the Belly Biver 

 and Laramie deposits by teeth only, is not im- 

 possible. I venture, however, to suggest the 

 name of Hailey shales for the beds containing 

 it, and the name Stegopelta landeren-sis for 

 the dinosaur itself. S. W. Williston. 



University of Chicago, 

 September 28, 1905. 



QVOTATIOl^S. 



SHALL THE UNIVERSITY BECOME A BUSINESS 

 CORPORATION ? 



In the settlement of the larger questions of 

 administration — the choice of president and of 

 professors, the fixing of greater questions of 

 policy — may not some council composed of 

 trustees and faculty jointly share the respon- 

 sibility to advantage? Whatever may be said 

 in favor of the sound judgment of the well- 

 trained business man, I can not doubt that he 

 would be a wiser councilor for education if 

 he could hear first-hand the views of devoted, 

 intelligent scholars. On the other hand, will 

 not the scholar profit equally by such contact, 

 and is there any surer way to widen his hori- 

 zon and to give him the experience which 

 ripens judgment than to offer him a share in 

 the responsibility of settling these larger ques- 

 tions, while relieving him at the same time of 

 part of the pressure of the daily routine? In 

 a word, recognition of scholarship in the 

 choice of a president, an adjustment of duties 

 which shall relieve the pressure upon the pro- 

 fessor and student, a better contact between 

 the governing body and the teaching body, 

 with a common responsibility in the settle- 



