1917] Merriam-Buwalda: White Bluffs of the Columbia 



259 



The material obtained one to two miles north of Ringold School 

 (loc. 2757) includes upper and lower cheek-teeth and fragments of 

 the skeleton of a horse in which all the characters noted are those 

 of an advanced member of the genus E quits. 



In the upper cheek-teeth the protocone is long anteroposteriorly, the anterior 

 lobe projects far in advance of the isthmus connecting it with the protoeonid, 

 and the inner wall is markedly concave. The fossetts are narrow, and the bor- 

 ders show fairly complicated folds. In the lower cheek-teeth the inner faces of 

 the protoeonid and hypoconid are flat. The metaconid-metastylid column is long 

 anteroposteriorly and broadly grooved internally. The valleys anterior and 

 posterior to the metaconid-metastylid column are narrow transversely, as in 

 Equus. The parastylid is short. A single splint bone representing digit four 

 of the posterior foot is very short, and though the tip is absent the splint narrows 

 so rapidly below that phalangeal elements must have been absent. 



It is difficult to make certain of the specific identity of isolated 

 Equus teeth, but the specimens from near Ringold School are at least 

 as advanced as those of Equus occidentalis from the Pleistocene of 

 Rancho La Brea, and may be even more specialized. 



The assemblage of forms from the White Bluffs near Hanford 

 taken as a whole seems more advanced than any fauna know hereto- 

 fore in the Miocene of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin provinces. 

 Megalonychid sloths are reported from the Pliocene, but are im- 

 perfectly known and of doubtful systematic position. Deer such as 

 are represented in the collection are not known in Miocene beds of 

 the Great Basin province. The earliest reported occurrence of typical 

 deer in the region west of the Wasatch is in the latest Etchegoin 

 Pliocene of the Coalinga region. The fragmentary camel remains 

 might represent late Tertiary. They seem of earlier type than any 

 known to the writers from the "West- American Pleistocene. The frag- 

 mentary equid specimen might be from a late Tertiary or from a 

 Pleistocene form. 



The collection from near Ringold School taken by itself would be 

 considered to represent Pleistocene. 



The question of relative age of the material from the two White 

 Bluffs localities naturally presents itself. There is some suggestion 

 of difference in preservation between the two collections. The fossil 

 specimens from near Ringold School show somewhat less evidence of 

 corrosion and decay. In order to determine whether one collection 

 might have been derived from the strata in the White Bluffs and the 

 other from terrace deposits laid down against them, as reported by 

 Russell 5 in the case of certain other deposits containing fossils at the 



