210 SKETCHES OF GREAT I OX. 



that we are indebted for our knowledge of the details of 

 the geology of these remote and wilderness regions to the 

 energy and science of two young geologists, Messrs. Meek 

 and Hayden, and especially to Mr. F. B. Meek, for the pro- 

 duction of paleontological results which vie in thorough- 

 ness and exactitude with the best work ever done in any 

 country. In the department of mammalian paleontology 

 Dr. Leidy is our great authority — the Owen of America. 

 These regions were first visited in 1850 by Mr. Thaddeus 

 Culbertson, under the joint auspices of the Smithsonian 

 Institution and his brother Alexander. Later researches 

 were instituted by Professor James Hall, and by Dr. D. D. 

 Owen while in charge of the geological survey of the 

 Northwest, under the auspices of the general government. 



Such are some of the phenomena of the Age of Mam- 

 mals. It was an interval of time when, on all sides of the 

 globe, progressive improvements had brought our earth to 

 a condition suited for higher existences, and the reptiles 

 which reigned in the preceding age were beckoned into 

 the background or driven to extinction. Who that has 

 observed the indications of gradual but systematic ad- 

 vance in animal forms through the ages of the world can 

 resist the conviction that man was contemplated as the 

 termination of the perfecting series ? 



It is a curious fact that so many genera now extinct 

 from the continent, but living in other quarters of the 

 globe, were once abundant on the plains of North Amer- 

 ica. Various species of the horse have dwelt here for 

 ages, and the question reasonably arises whether the wild 

 horses of the Pampas may not have been indigenous. 

 Here, too, the camel found a suitable home ; but he has 

 disappeared before the intellect dawned which could do- 

 mesticate him and utilize his instincts. On the Oriental 

 continent the higher types of quadrupeds were now exist- 



