Edward Drinker Cope. — Frazer. 115 
north. * * * We usually get breakfast about sunrise, and noon for 
an hour, and take a nap in the shade, if there is any. We have very 
little twilight in this latitude but night comes on soon; so we go to 
bed about nine o'clock. * * 
Since leaving Big Spring we have seen but two springs, and but 
two running streams. Numerous stream channels full of sand come 
down from the staked plains, but the water is below the surface and 
has to be dug for. 
We have made several camps on dug water, and sometimes it is 
good and sometimes bad. It is sometimes salty and sometimes soda- 
ish in taste. * * * 
I never saw so many prairie-dogs, as it is one continuous town 
from Big Springs here (100 miles). I executed a goodly rattlesnake 
by slipping a twine noose over his head, and I have him, with various 
other snakes, lizards and fishes, etc., in alcohol. Lizards are num- 
erous, and one I caught, a large green Crotaphytus, bit me his best; 
but he only cut the skin a little." * * 
"Mount Blanco, Crosby Co., Tex., May 29, 1892. * * After 
leaving Espuella we camped at a beautiful spring, where on 
an overhanging ledge, about 500 pairs of white fronted swallows were 
building their mud nests. It is the same species that used to build on 
my barn at Thorndale in the Chester valley. Here we had owls and 
mocking birds and scissor tails, and water-snakes and numerous other 
wild things. 
All that we obtained keeps up the great difference between the 
fauna of the Trias and that of the Permian below it, that prevails in 
other parts of the northern hemisphere. 
On White River we had good water, or would have had but that 
a dead steer or cow lay in it every little way. Many hundreds were 
lost here during the late drought and many of them tottered to the 
water, lay down and were unable to rise again. 
Yesterday we moved up here and spent part of the day exploring 
the bad lands of Mont Blanco. We had better success than hitherto. 
We found in part of a day; parts of a Mastodon; teeth of several 
horses or one species; lower jaw with all the teeth of a large camel; 
and a huge turtle, 3 feet in width, certainly new. There are odds and 
ends of other things, and I haven't much doubt but that we will make 
a good haul. The horse is Equus simplicidens Cope, and it keeps its 
characters perfectly. The camel belongs to Plianchenia (Cope)." * 
"Mont Blanco, Texas, June 5, 1892. * * We have taken out thus 
far 13 species, two of them turtles, the rest mammals. The mammals 
are mostly large, including Mastodons, camels, horses, and sloths. Of 
Mastodons we have three species of which two are probably, one cer- 
tainly, new to science. The camels and horses are all new. One of 
the camels is as large as the living species; another is larger. One of 
the horses has teeth equal to that of a modern horse, another species 
is no larger than an antelope. The sloth is as large as a cow. * * 
I found sure enough that the people were mostly orthodox Friends 
