406 THE PEABODY MUSEUM. 



The list of these discoveries could be greatly extended, but even a mere- 

 catalogue of the novelties would be much too long for this letter, since it 

 would include more than 300 animals new to science, about 200 of which 

 Prof. Marsh has already described in technical publications. In general, it 

 may be stated, that a very lai^ge number and variety of animal forms are 

 here collected which enable men of science to trace the connection between 

 the strange creatures of early geological eras and the animals that are liv- 

 ing to-day. The changes of form which constitute the life history of the- 

 earth are displayed by these fossils in the order in which they actually took 

 place. Until these specimens were found and their characters determined,, 

 the story of the development of our existing animals conld only have been 

 surmised ; no Old World fossil remains supplied the deficiencies of the series,, 

 and indeed the evidence was far from conclusive that the change from one 

 form of animal life to another took place in Europe. At all events, these 

 fossils of the West demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt, concerning cer- 

 tain groups, as to when, where, and how the change did actually occur. In 

 that respect this collection of "fossil vertebrates" is absolutely unrivaled. 

 It also contains, however, a considerable number of European fossils that 

 are of the rarer kinds, or have some specialty that makes them valuable,, 

 such as the famous Eichstadt pterodactyl that Professor Marsh secured by a. 

 cable dispatch, and by paying a sum of money which (as Prof. Agassiz him- 

 self said to me) had the effect of raising the price of fossils throughout 

 Europe. In the lithographic stone that holds the pterodactyl's remains,, 

 there appears the imjoression of the stretched membranes' that served the 

 animal as wings, like those of the bat. But there is not room here to go into- 

 these interesting details. The arrangement of the cases is somewhat similar 

 to that of the osteological display ; their fossil contents, when the siDecimens. 

 are all placed, will be somewhat as follows : Primates (chiefly monkeys and 

 lemurs); Mastodon, Mammoth ; Dinocerata, Brontotheridse ; Perissodactyls. 

 (horse and rhinoceros families, etc.); Artiodactyls (camel, pig, deer families,, 

 etc.); Carnivora; Tillodontia ; Bats, Rodents, Marsupials, etc.; Turtles; 

 Dinosaurs ; Mosasaurs ; Plesiosaurs , Ichthyosaurs ; Crocodiles, Lizards, etc.;. 

 Fossil Fishes ; Pterodactyls and Pteranodons; Cretaceous Birds; (Hesper- 

 ornis, Ichthyornis, etc.); Tertiary and Post-tertiary Birds. The last-men- 

 tioned division may include extinct birds of the present epoch, which are 

 here represented by about a dozen skeletons of the dinornis or moa (being a 

 much more complete series than is owned by any other museum, with the 

 possible exceptions of that in the British Museum and one in New Zealand);, 

 several skeletons of the great auk, and various remains of the dodo. The 

 perfect skeleton of the gigantic Irish elk, as the animal is extinct, will prob- 

 ably find place in this room; but certainly none of the cases can contain 

 this fine specimen, since the spread of its antlers is thirteen feet and two- 

 inches. — N. Y. Tribune. 



