THE FOSSIL AVIFAUNA OF THE 
393 
ture. Some of these were of inferior, others of superior workmanship, and many 
of them were covered with a patine of no gi’eat 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 remarkable, 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 con- 
temporaneity 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 contemjMjraneity 
would have arisen. Similar flints have been found by Mr. W. T. McGee in IhhIs • 
in Nevada, -which he regards as of identical age with that of Silver Lake; but 
whether diagnostic vertebrate fossils are found at that locality, does not appear to 
be known. The probability of the association is, however, greatly increa.sed by the 
discovery, by Mr. Wm. Taylor, of paleolithic flints in beds of corresponding age, on 
the San Diego Creek, Texas 
This point interested me not a little and when I came to go carefully over the 
great mass of fossil bird bones, every fragment and bone was carefully examined for 
any indications whatever of their former owners ever having 8u.'<tained any 
wounds or fractures of the same, but nothing of the kind was discovered. In this 
connection I would say, though in no way whatever as a counter-argument to the 
remarks of Professor Cope as given above, that it is by no means an infreciuent 
occurrence to find in the old skeletons of the buffalo on our Avestern plains. Indian 
iron arrow-heads sticking in some one of the bones. Bullets are ahso found (KTUpy- 
ing similar places. It would be too great a digression to further discuss such a 
point here, and it but remains to be said, that it yet lies quite within the range of 
possibilities to meet Avith the fossil bone of some large mammal or bird of Silver 
Lake, in Avhicli may be imbedded the point of a flint ari’OAV-head. 
AS TO THE NATURE AND CONDITION OF THIS COLLECTION OF FOSSIL lUKD.S. 
If we select Fossil Lake as an example of the character of the ground in Avhicli 
these fossils AA-ere obtained, it will be seen from Avhat has been said above, that its 
former bottom, formed principally of sedimentary deposit, is noAV dry, hnise and 
very friable. BeloAA^ this at the dejith of a foot or tAA’o aa'C come to AA'ater. 
In one or tAvo instances the fossil skeleton of a single bird, or one or tAvo liones 
belonging to the same individual Avere found in the damp soil just alxive the water. 
The collector had wrapped such in separate parcels, and they aa'cix? easily distin- 
guished by me Avhen received, from the fact that they Avere more or less coven-d by 
a very thin layer of clayey mud. Material of that kind Avas found to lx* jiarticu- 
larly useful and valuable. In the loose and highly mobile surface layer or soil, 
however, the fossil bones Avere more or less mixed up, and AA'ere apparently collected 
'■The Amer. Nat, Nov. 1889, pp. 979, 980. 
