THE GREAT CEMETERY IN COLORADO. 477 



on the contrary, he carried a forehead most rascally high, and sur- 

 mounted by a pair of horns that were murderously straight and sharp. 

 Prof. Cope speaks of this species as 4 the most formidably armed, and 

 as presenting a most outre appearance in life. It can be scarcely 

 doubted that his eminence was held in great consideration by the 

 Symborodon people, and that they gave him a wide berth when he 

 went out to take a constitutional. 



Another of these beasts enjoys the name of Symborodon trigono- 

 cents. His horns were three-sided, like a bayonet. To be sure, they 

 were short, and rolled outward, which made them harmless in com- 

 parison with the former. This was a large beast, but not so large as 

 Symborodon bucco. 



The smallest of these creatures was Symborodon acer. Poor little 

 fellow ! How they must have looked down upon him ! He was not 

 as big as the Indian rhinoceros. But he had his own revenge for this 

 condition of sub-mediocrity. His horns were very long and round. 

 Indeed, he could boast of this accomplishment. And it was notable 

 that he always kept the fact plainly before his eyes. He had the 

 longest horns of them all, and carried them one on each side of his 

 nasal extremity ; and it was generally understood that, when Symbo- 

 rodon acer turned up his nose, he meant mischief. 



Speaking 'of the above group, says Prof. Cope: "Thus it is evident 

 that Symborodon is a true perissodactyle, allied to the Rhinoccridm" 

 To have discovered and worked out this one group alone should give 

 a man glory enough for one lifetime. And yet we are far from having 

 exhausted the list of ungulates. There are Oreodon, two species ; 

 JPoebr other ium, two species ; Septomeryx, and many others, all cloven- 

 footed beasts ; and about these we have said nothing. 



But there is still one mammal to be mentioned ; and thereby hangs 

 a tail, for it is a monkey. It is a little fellow, but with a big name you 

 may depend, as witness — Menotherium lemurinum. Unless his name 

 mislead, he was a nimble beast, and, with the lemur instinct, a night- 

 prowler at that ; for his anatomy connects him with the Lemurs, the 

 lowest of the monkeys, and, if we mistake not, there were Nasuan re- 

 lations also, 1 as with those fossil monkeys obtained by Cope, in the 

 Eocene strata in the Bridger beds on Black's Fork, Wyoming. 



Thus much for these new mammals, so remarkable in numbers and 

 character. But the reptiles were largely represented also ; for there 

 were serpents, lizards, and turtles, found in those Colorado beds. Of 

 the snakes, one, a Neurodromicus, was as large as the black snake ; 



1 Both Profs. Marsh and Cope have collected fossil quadrumana from these great 

 Western graveyards. For a remarkable confirmation thus afforded of a generalization 

 made by the present writer, see article " Coati-Mundi," Popular Science Monthly, De- 

 cember, 1872, page 136, in connection with "Fossil Monkeys," in idem for August, 1873, 

 page 519. It is worthy of remark, also, that recent anatomical studies of the Lemurs, 

 by the younger Milne Edwards, afford additional confirmation. 



