16 



REPORT ON THE REPTILES AND FISHES. 



By Samuel Garhan. 



About one third of the year has heen devoted to field work in 

 some of the Western Territories, in continuation of the explora- 

 tions of the past years. Four species of snakes and as many of 

 lizards, with many valuable duplicates, make up the total number 

 of recent species obtained. Among the fossils there are a num- 

 ber of Pythonomorph Saurians and some fishes from the upper 

 Cretaceous and lower Eocene, and a few turtles from the Miocene. 

 The mollusks and birds are represented to some extent, but the 

 bulk of the fossil collection belongs to the mammals. Of the latter, 

 there are mice and other rodents, pigs, deer, and camels. A con- 

 siderable number of individuals belonging to several species of 

 horses were collected from the lower Eocene to the upper Plio- 

 cene inclusive. The more recent of these were found in such sit- 

 uations as to suggest the cause of extinction to have been a very 

 severe winter, much more extensive and severe than those that 

 occasionally, at long periods, are met with in the same section of 

 country in modern times. If a winter so severe as to sweep away 

 the cattle and horses were to visit the region, it would leave their 

 remains crowded together in canons, gullies, ravines, and other 

 sheltered places in the Bad Lands, very much as the Pliocene 

 mammals are found. As if from freezing, the shafts of the larger 

 bones are generally splintered. From the lower Miocene, or Bronto- 

 therium beds, only such things were taken as would supplement the 

 collections made in 1880 and 1881. If it had been desirable to 

 duplicate to any extent, enough was discovered to have made the 

 collection three times as large. As it is, sufficient material was 

 brought away to represent five genera of the Brontotheridae. A 

 complete skull of a species of Megacerops forms one of the largest 

 and heaviest specimens. The genus Rhinoceros is represented 

 by several species from the Miocene and Pliocene. A discovery 



