January 23, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



71 



by Prof. 0. C. Marsh. The few representa- 

 tives of this collection visible in the second- 

 floor rooms and in the hall-waj's are alone 

 sufficient to stamp the 

 museum as pre-eminent 

 in this line ; but they are 

 merely an advertisement 

 of what cellar and attic 

 contain. It is not too 

 much to say, that in re- 

 spect to vertebrate pale- 

 ontology (outside of fish- 

 es), this museum is not 

 surpassed in the world. 

 Where other collections 

 own fragments or single 

 skeletons, Professor 

 Marsh boasts scores or 

 hundreds of individuals, 

 while mam' extinct races 

 are known only by their 

 fossil remains in his pos- 

 session. 



This is the result of 

 wisely directed energy, 

 and the ability to spend 

 money promptly and lib- 

 erally. Marsh's frequent 

 expeditions to the far 

 west are well known to 

 geologists. Man}* car- 

 loads resulting from these 



were not only shipped home by himself, but his 

 agents have been forwarding enormous quanti- 

 ties ever since, from Wyoming and Colorado 

 ' quarries.' Just before the holidays, a single 

 instalment of two hundred and seventeen large 

 boxes filled with bones from the western ter- 

 tiaries arrived at the museum, and were stored 

 in the basement lobby for lack of space in any 

 apartment. 



In respect to mammals, a series of fragmen- 

 tary remains, chiefly jaw-bones from the eocene, 

 represent the first primates, cheiropters, and 

 marsupials discovered in North America. No 

 more popularly interesting deduction is likely 

 to be drawn from a study of them, than that 

 which traced the genealogy of the horse from 

 the diminutive five-toed progenitor of the early 

 eocene to the present friend and servant of 

 mankind. There are hundreds of specimens 

 of these little horses at Yale. 



In the class of birds, still rarer treasures 

 ma}* be catalogued. Along the eastern foot 

 of the Pocky Mountains, certain strata of the 

 middle cretaceous period have been exposed, 

 corresponding to Meek and Hayden's ' Number 

 three,' but termed ' Pteranodon beds ' by Pro- 



Fig. 6. — Spiral shell 

 mounted on a wire 

 like fig. 2, c, glued 

 inside, and standing 

 upright in a block of 



WOOD. 



fessor Marsh. These beds consist of fine 

 yellow chalk, well adapted to preserving the re- 

 mains of delicate structures ; and here were gath- 

 ered the skeletons of those remarkable ; birds 

 with teeth' (Hesperornis and Ichthyornis) , 

 upon which Professor Marsh has published an 

 elaborate memoir. These were collected dur- 

 ing his expeditions of 1870, 1871, and 1872. 

 under the greatest perils and hardships ; and 

 they have gradually been added to, until now 

 the museum contains a hundred or more indi- 

 viduals, including twenty species of nine or 

 ten genera. There are fifty specimens of Hes- 

 perornis alone. Several of the most perfect of 

 these are on exhibition ; and, as any intelligent 

 person can comprehend their peculiarities, they 

 never fail to interest thoughtful visitors. 



Another fossil, appealing strongly to popu- 

 lar fancy, is the fine pterodactyl, — that same 

 ' first specimen brought to light ' which showed 

 the bat-like flying membranes attached to the 

 wings and tail. This came from Europe, 

 where these winged lizards are so great a rari- 

 ty in museums, that a fragment of one is highly 

 prized ; but Marsh now possesses from Ameri- 

 can rocks no less than six hundred individuals. 

 Some are of great size, spreading wings that 



Fig. 7. — Bivalve shells mounted on aviues glued behind 

 the hinge. 



measured from fifteen to twenty-five feet from 

 tip to tip. These huge pterodactyls form the 

 new order Pterodontia, and their remains were 



