DESCRIPTION OF VERTEBRATE FOSSILS FROM THE TERTIARY 

 FORMATION OF JOHN DAY'S RIVER, OREGON. 



Through the Smithsonian Institution, at the suggestion of Professor S. F. 

 Baird, a collection of fossils was submitted to the examination of the writer 

 by Rev. Thomas Condon, of Dalles City, Oregon. 



The fossils were discovered by Mr. Condon mainly in the valley of Bridge 

 Creek, a tributary of John Day's River, one of the branches of the Columbia 

 River. Some additional fossils from the same locality were also placed in my 

 hands by Professor H. S. Osborn, of La Fayette College, Easton, Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



With the exception of a single turtle-bone, the fossils consist of remains of 

 mammals. In general appearance and condition of preservation they resemble 

 those of the Mauvaises Terres of White River, Dakota. They are nearly all 

 specimens which have been found lying loose on the surface of the country, 

 and are, therefore, more or less weathered, or much injured by exposure. A 

 few of the fossils are imbedded in, and the cavities of others are filled with, 

 a hard, compact, homogeneous rock of a bluish-gray hue. The rock appears 

 to be an indurated marl, and contains abundance of lime. It bears a near 

 resemblance to the matrix of the fossils of the Mauvaises Terres of Dakota, 

 except that it is more compact and harder. 



The zoological character of the fossils is such as to render it probable that 

 the formation to which they belong is of contemporaneous age with the Ter- 

 tiary deposit of the locality just named. 



The greater number pertain to a species of Oreodon larger than any of 

 those from White River, Dakota, and about the size of Merycochoerus proprius 

 of the Niobrara River, Nebraska. 



A number of the fossils appear to belong to some of the same species as 

 those of the Mauvaises Terres, as Oreodon Culbertsoni, Agriochcerus antiquus, 

 and A. latifrons, heptomeryx Evansi, Anchitherium Bairdi, and Rhinoceros 

 occidentalis. 



The collections further contain remains of a second species of Rhinoceros, 

 two species of Elotherium, &c, generally too scanty or imperfect to ascertain 

 positively whether they pertain to species previously characterized 



