1880. ] On the Age of the Laramie Formation. 565 
voluntarily assured me that the year before she was “ nigh /’eat 
kout of ’ouse and ’ome by them sparrows!” 
The naturalist traveling through England is much assisted by 
her museums. Though, after a hasty review of its natural his- 
tory department, I flattered myself (but then in flattery there is 
often deception) that the British Museum did not have so fine a 
collection of birds as has our Boston Society, yet with some of 
the local museums I know nothing in this country to,compare. 
Salisbury, for instance, a town with no large population, had a 
museum, which, purposely and wisely local in character, instead 
of attempting an ostentatious display, confused and vastly incom- 
plete, of a world-wide gathering, had, in its ornithological depart- 
ment, a simple, thorough and admirable collection of British 
birds, which artistically, taken all together, were the best mounted 
I had ever seen, What an easy Natural History to read, and what 
a pleasant guide-book to that neighborhood! At Torquay, if I 
remember right, the collection was still more local. I wish that 
our people would be content, outside of their great central muse- 
ums, to imitate these examples. I fear that they are too eager, 
ambitious, and fond of show; though perhaps, should I spend five 
months in traveling through the towns of New England, I might 
in this matter be agreeably disappointed. To the proper protec- 
tion of living birds, however, and to the reasonable preservation 
of Nature, the American people certainly pay no sufficient heed. 
70: 
ON THE AGE OF THE LARAMIE FORMATION AS 
INDICATED BY ITS VEGETABLE REMAINS. 
BY: J. STARKIE GARDNER, 
if SHALL confine myself to such inferences which bear on the 
question of the age of the Laramie formation, as have been 
drawn from a consideration of the British Eocene floras alone. 
In the first place it is desirable to consider carefully the extent 
of the gap between the Cretaceous and the Eocene formations in 
Europe, as it is probable that a portion of the strata whose age 
in America is disputed, belong to this interval. The discussion 
itself and all the arguments brought to bear seem to render this 
Solution possible, 
The completely different character of the fauna of each, which 
