THE GREAT CEMETERY IN COLORADO. 475 



are IIyracodo?i, and Aceratherium. It is remarkable that Prof. Cope 

 lias made out seven species of these fossil Rhinocerotidce, which, until 

 the recent discovery of the living hairy-eared rhinoceros (R. casio- 

 tis) at Chittagong, the northern extremity of the Bay of Bengal, was 

 the precise number of the living species known. It amounts to a cer- 

 tainty, then, that our great Western Tertiary was much richer in 

 species, and immensely richer in individuals of these enormous beasts, 

 than is the whole living fauna of the entire world to-day. And what 

 singular relationships did these Rhinocerotidce hold in those Tertiary 

 times ! For there were other animals that held structural alliances 

 with them. One of these the professor has named Miobasileus, the 

 Miocene King. This the learned man doubtless did in respectful 

 deference to a notable personage that had died some time before. It 

 was in fact in the Eocene reign that this individual flourished. So the 

 professor refers to him as Eobasileus / while another savant, deep in 

 the lore of those times, contends that it belongs to a different family. 

 That its place is in the new order Dinocerata seems undisputed. 

 What the true dynasty was is not for " the likes of us to say." Be- 

 sides, we would shudder at any personal attempt to wade this paleon- 

 tological marsh ; and would frankly confess a lack of strength where- 

 withal to cope with a subject so grave as the one which has grown 

 out of these exhumed remains. But, whatever ground there may be 

 as to specific identity or distinction, on these words of Prof. Cope, in 

 his diagnosis of the genus Eobasileus, there is full accord : It " in- 

 dicates a remarkable combination of structure not before known to 

 naturalists. The gigantic size of the typical species (M comutus) 

 adds to its interest, and shows it to have been the monarch of the 

 remarkable fauna disclosed by recent researches in Wyoming." The 

 genus is "established on remains of five individuals of the average 

 size of the Mastodon Ohioticus. . . . From the manner of the occur- 

 rence of the relics, this animal probably went in families, or herds," as 

 do the existing elephants. 



But it is time to return to his Miocene majesty. It was even with 

 Eobasileus much as it has been with other ancient monarchs. He had 

 a wicked way of lifting up his horn. Nay, he lifted them twain ; for, 

 owing to an ophthalmic difficulty which seems to have been constitu- 

 tional — like some modern patriarch, who, when he wants to look upon 

 his household with aspect of authority, doth push his spectacles high 

 up on his head — so this king of the beasts ! when he wished to feel, 



"lam monarch of all I survey ; 

 My right (who shall dare) to dispute ? " — 



that is, when he desired to look up and around, like a king, with brow 

 austere — he tossed those spectacular horns on high, and backward. 

 The fact was, his supremacy lay in his horns. And herein were some 

 disadvantages. "Uneasy is the head that wears a crown." Each 



