208 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



crumbling of the elements roll them out of their long rest- 

 ing-places, and they lie strewn over the bottom of the val- 

 ley. The traveler feels like one walking upon the floor of 

 a long-deserted and ruined vault. Skulls, and jaws, and 

 teeth, and thigh-bones lie scattered around. Death has 

 indeed held carnival here, and this is the deserted scene 

 of his ghastly repast. But what long ages have glided by 

 since these flesh-covered bones were slain and gathered to 

 the charnel-house ! Scarcely a form familiar to the anato- 

 mist reveals itself. Here are, indeed, the forms of turtles, 

 large and small, with all the sutures of their protecting 

 carapaces distinctly preserved ; but, though turtles, they 

 are unknown species, and some attain a size which, in 

 their present condition, must weigh nearly a ton. Here 

 lie the bones of rhinoceroses — known certainly by their 

 teeth — but different from any existing species. As for the 

 rest of these remains, we do not even know the genera to 

 which they belonged. They present us with strange com- 

 binations of characters. One seems intermediate between 

 a tapir and a rhinoceros, while the canine and incisor teeth 

 ally it likewise with the horse. One of the commonest 

 skulls has the grinding teeth of the elk and deer, and the 

 canines of a hog. It evidently belonged to a race which 

 lived both on flesh and vegetables, and yet chewed the cud 

 like our cloven-footed grazers. This has been named Oreo- 

 don. One of the most wonderful of the beings entombed 

 here is the Titanotherium, first discovered by Dr. Prout, of 

 St. Louis. It somewhat resembles a hornless rhinoceros, 

 but is much more massive in its proportions. One of the 

 jaws seen by Dr. Evans had a length of five feet along the 

 crowns of the teeth, and the skeleton of another individual 

 was eighteen and a half feet in length and nine feet in 

 height. Of all the relics uncovered in this ancient ceme- 

 tery, it is remarkable that but one carnivorous quadruped 



