EOCENE FISHES OF WYOMING. 733 



ereed by Cartier in 1534, and occupying the site of modern Montreal, and the 

 ancient stone people of Europe. The author's opportunities for following up a 

 line of investigation initiated by Sir John Lubbock have been exceptionally good 

 and he has not failed to use them, supplementing the data of Hochelaga with 

 facts collected among our present red Indians. In the course of the argument 

 the author throws out some pregnant suggestions; as, for example, the impossi- 

 bility of maintaining the definite nomenclature of archaeology popular ten years 

 ago ; the similarity of the oldest populations of Europe, the river drift and the 

 cave men, to American aborigines; the identity of Schoolcraft Allegans with the 

 Mound-Builders; the anteriority of pohshed stone to rude stone folk; the spoke- 

 like burial in the mounds as an imitation of lying in a teepee with the feet to the 

 fire ; the communal characters of the Swiss palafittes ; the totemic significance of 

 the engravings on bone in the European caves, etc. The portions of the volume 

 designated here as the second book, are an argument to prove that all the events 

 indicated by the discoveries of archaeologists, in river drifts, in caves and in lake 

 deposits, occurred in a few thousands of years. Without trying to follow Dr. 

 Dawson in his discussion, it is but fair to say that his profound knowledge of 

 palaeontology has enabled him to present the brachy-chronic view of archaeology 

 more forcibly than Mr. Southall or any other recent writer who has made the 

 attempt. 



EOCENE FISHES OF WYOMING. 



At a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences, held December i, 1881, 

 President Newberry exhibited some very fine quartz crystals from Herkimer Co., 

 N. Y., and also two slabs of perfectly preserved fossil fishes from the extensive 

 Eocene formation of Wyoming Territory. This formation, which is about 7,000 

 feet thick, shows evidences of three successive deposits, and is exceedingly rich, 

 not only in the remains of fishes, but of birds and mammals. The abundance of 

 fish remains is accounted for by the supposition that the fish were overtaken by 

 some sudden disaster, by which great numbers perished at the same time ; that 

 they floated for a while on top of the great lakes they inhabited, and eventually 

 sank to the bottom. The occasional great mortality of fish in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 where the decaying remains sometimes cover a very large area, to the great an- 

 noyance of travellers, furnishes an analogy to these prehistoric catastrophes, and 

 suggests the explanation that they were caused by the evolution of poisonous 

 gases from the bottom during volcanic eruptions. 



Captain Blake stated that, during the great eruption of Mauna Loa, in 1841, 

 the surface of the water was covered with dead fish for miles. Dr. Martin sug- 

 gested that numbers of small fish frequently perish near the shore by being cut 

 off in lagoons left by the receding tide. As the water evaporates the fish are 

 brought more and more closely together, until, finally, there is not sufficient 

 water to keep them alive. 



