K(/ui-.s in-:i)S OF tjik oregon desert. 
and western continent. General and slow 
now rniled .States, lorininK ‘ period, gradually obliterated that sea, 
co:.t ra„gL of the Paeifle were 
aii<l the valley of tla . 1 changes were 
j.rfiH,l With the •'I’l'*'"' “ to the eastward of the MiasiMippi Kiver 
..ill Iwing e„~.U,ldun»g tl e ,„^tward, in the great Plateau Kegion, 
„,e Chiei among then. wen,, those great 
north aad^ath of the Uiatah Hou..tai„a; but the ones 
.Itt-t -nwt u. aawl hen- are th,»e that gradnally fonnrf ,n On..gon. hoi owing 
,.l»„„..nt Chang... that tooh plaee i:" .d 
caiUKHi the dmiiingv i i i i *i 
WAS slowly depresseil, thus creating once more enormous Miocene lakes where the 
iiilniKl cn*ta 4 H-««is sea formerly e.visted. Then followed the formation of the Coast 
miip* of iiumiitnins rnumMi hy the crushed up, complicated upfolding of the ancient 
M>A<lNittntii of the then I’ucific (Vean,— the long land-wrinkle thus produced finally 
remniiiiiig ns the afon'said mountain range. Once more the region of the Plains 
WAS «|e|m*ss«nl, eMending tlie givut Pliocene lakes already e.xisting, and bringing 
alMiiit «»ther nMiinrknhle cliaiiges. As the time for the Quak^rnary i^riod approached, 
or in the lnt«T tertiary time, shiw upheaval of the continent again ttxik place, and 
ohiitemlion of the lake sysUnns over much of the area we have been considering 
was iiiniigtinite4l. /\tri /ntsstt with these scenic topographical changes were the 
gnwhini evoliitioiuiry onos (hat tisik place in the various faume of the tertiary as a 
whole. TIm* vertehmte wries appmnehed more and more closely its character as 
we an* n«»w eiinhled t«» study it in n*cent times. Large and cumbersome forms in 
alt the various classes, in many instances jxiorly suited to their several eiiviron- 
menta, €ir their eiivinnnnents as a whole, wei*e slowly disappearing through e.xtiuc- 
tioii,— while others, |M‘rhnps of more pliable organization, lingeix*d along through 
fta'iMie and MI«sH*ne time, to finally |K*rish in the Pliocene. 
1 hnaigli the pn>vious lalstrs of Professor Cope, and from what we have been 
enahhMl u. bring out in the pivsent pa|,er, one can, I think, succeed in picturing to 
the inmd what must have lieen a daily scene, during certain season.^, at one of those 
"P. “• for !..sta..cc, the old Orogoniai. Foauil Lake 
of I'iloreiie tune. 
kimwn problematical whether man was 
and a whni’ .7. 7 « i« demanded to decide whence came, 
' ,1 ;r "nplements of human manufacture, commingled as 
found in the n-niJr i;rnrof?i:erkr‘*'i^ 
"nh':r„:;:;ifLk!Thre„fheC:s^^^^ 
