ROCKY MOUNTAIN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
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aeontology, Professor Marsh, hundreds of specimens of 
fossil mammals and birds previously unknown. Profes- 
sor Huxley had an opportunity of examining this rare 
collection when in America last summer, and on his 
return to Great Britain took a public occasion to speak 
in glowing terms of ''his good friend" the Yale Pro- 
fessor, and declared that his achievements had already 
largely extended the area of knowledge." The Black 
Hills and the calcareous rocks in that wonderful region 
betw^een the Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, 
which was once a shallow sea, contain thousands of fos- 
sils as perfectly preserved as though they were encased 
in a bed of plaster-of-Paris. It was in this region that 
Mr. Marsh found the two splendid specimens of fossil 
birds, perfectly preserved, with unmistakable teeth. 
His fortunate and important discoveries have sup- 
plied the missing links of extinct species of the horse. 
Already his cabinet contains thirty distinct species of 
the equine tribe. Other explorers are also reaping a 
rich harvest in this new field ; Prof E. D. Cope's dis- 
coveries being scarcely less important to science than 
those already referred to. This rich deposit of fossils is 
destined to throw much light upon the stratification as 
well as the early forms of animal life in North America. 
As yet it has been but partially explored, and the dis- 
co\'eries actually made have not been fully given to the 
public. If the flint-flakes observed in the gravel-beds of 
Colorado and Wyoming prove to be true ''finds," and 
the voyage to which, together with the return, occupied three years, 
is conjectured by some to be identical with our California, or some 
other gold-bearing region of America ; and the conjecture is as plaus- 
ible as any other that has been suggested of the location of that 
region. 
