1889.] Silver Lake of Oregon. 979 
The next day I set out early to explore the ground. I found 
it to be a slight depression, embracing perhaps twenty acres, 
which was devoid of sage-brush, but was dotted with occasional 
plants of greasewood {Sarcobatis vermiciilaris), a fact due to the 
presence of water beneath the surface. The latter was, however, 
perfectly dry, and consisted of a light-colored mixture of sand 
and clay, or a dried lacustrine mud of volcanic origin. It was 
perfectly movable by the wind, and of indefinite depth. Frag- 
ments of bones and teeth w^ere not rare. The most abundant 
were those of the large horse, Eqiius occidentalis Leidy, and the 
Holometiiscus hestermis Leidy. I found also bones and fragments 
of the Elephas primigeniiis, and the greater part of the skeleton 
of a Thomomys. I obtained, in fact, representatives of most ot 
the species previously discovered, including numerous birds and 
fishes. All were on or in the loose, friable deposit. Portions of 
the surface were white with the shells of the Planorbis {Carinifex) 
newberryi Lea, a species which is still living in Klamath Lake. 
Scattered everywhere in in the deposit were the obsidian imple- 
ments of human manufacture. Some of these w^ere of inferior, 
others of superior w^orkmanship, and many of them were covered 
with a patine of no great thickness, which completely replaced 
the natural lustre of the surface. Other specimens were as bright 
as when first made. The abundance of these flints was remark- 
able, and suggested that they had been shot at the game, both 
winged and otherwise, that had in former times frequented the lake. 
Their general absence from the soil of the surrounding region 
added strength to this supposition. Of course it was impossible 
to prove the contemporaneity of the flints with animals with whose 
bones they were mingled, under the circumstances of the mobility 
of the stratum in which they all occurred. But had they been 
other than human flints, no question as to their contemporaneity 
would have arisen. Similar flints have been found by Mr. W. T. 
McGee in beds in Nevada, which he regards as of identical age 
with that of Silver Lake (the " Equus Bed ") ; but whether diag- 
nostic vertebrate fossils are found at that locality, does not appear 
to be known. The probability of the association is, however^ 
greatly increased by the discovery, by Mr. Wm. Taylor, of paleo- 
