206 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



Four species of the rhinoceros have been described by Prof. E. D. Cope 

 from the Loup Fork Group of Colorado and Kansas under the genetic name of 

 Aphelops. I quote from the Bulletin of U. S. Survey: "The dental formula is, 

 Incisors |-i-, Canines \, Premolars ^^ , Molars |, Digits 3-3. Nasal bones with 

 persistent suture, weak — not supporting horn. This genus occupies a position 

 intermediate between Aceratherium, Kauf., and Rhinoceros, Linn. It agrees with 

 the former in the presence of incisor and canine teeth, and in the absence of in- 

 dication of nasal horn, but differs from it in lacking the fifth digit of the anterior 

 foot. In the last respect it is identical with Rhinoceros, differing from it in char- 

 acters already mentioned." We procured specimens of the Polydactyle horse in 

 this locality, as well as part of the lower jaw of a Mastodon. It resembles Prof. 

 Cope's M. Produclus, described in Lt. Wheeler's reporc as from the Loup Fork 

 Group of New Mexico. " In this species the underjaws are prolonged into a 

 beak, which bears two powerful tusks." I imagine that they might have been 

 used by the animal for digging up succulent roots, in the vast swamps through 

 which he wandered. Although mastodons have been described in Europe with 

 inferior tusks they are certainly unique. 



In the vicinity of our first camp, we worked several days and procured about 

 two hundred teeth, a number of perfect bones from various species and individ- 

 uals. In one place the bones and teeth were scattered and evidently worked in 

 by a stream, as they were packed in between pebbles in a kind of mortar, the 

 bed resembling the so called "concrete" of the west. Many of the bones were 

 water-worn, and they lay through the matrix without any system. A rhinoceros 

 tooth often close to that of a horse, or of some other species and bones of 

 different species, are indiscriminately mixed. These animals had doubtless died 

 on the shore and high water had rolled the bones along with pebbles; the water 

 holding in solution chalk and sand that had cemented them together, when they 

 found a resting place in the deep waters of the lake. The specimens were often 

 so closely wedged in between the pebbles that it was hard work to get them out 

 without breaking them. 



Another camp was made on Beaver Creek near Cedar Bluffs, north of Ober- 

 lin, where some beautiful collections were made of bones and teeth of the horse, 

 camel (?), rhinoceros and a carnivore. One set of underjaws of a horse had most 

 of the teeth in position. The canines were about the size of a small goose-quill. 

 We got also three perfect toes, /. e., the metatarsals, of one limb. The central 

 one was twice as large as the lateral ones. A number of small bones, and teeth 

 of various species were washed out of a denuded knoll, the material of which 

 seemed to be composed largely of chalk. The bones were white, and the teeth 

 showed the plications of the colored enamel. Near this camp we found the un- 

 der-jaws of a young mastodon, showing the milk dentition. It was in loose soil, 

 grass- roots penetrated the specimen in various directions, consequently it was im- 

 possible to save them in perfect shape. 



On South Beaver, Rawlins County, we found a locality (through the kind- 

 ness of the surveyor of the county) rich in fossil land turtles. We collected about 



