ANCIENT AMERICA.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 37, 13 July 1874, Page 3

ANCIENT AMERICA.

[From the “ New York Tribune. I ’] For the past twenty years or more the various expeditions to the Far West have been accumulating the materials which will enable the geologist to reconstruct the physical history of these now barren treeless plains. Numerous cemeteries of the ancient inhabitants have been discovered, whose remains have been more or less disentombed by the action of the elements. It is now known that a vast chain of fresh-water lakes covered the surface of this continent to a greater or less extent, from the Mississippi to the Pacific coast, and from the Arctic Sea to Mexico. Some of these lakes were of enormous size. The great ancient lake basin, know as Mauvaises Terres, or the “ Bad Lands,” covered a large portion of Nebraska, Dakota, and Colorado, an area of 100,000 to 150,000 square miles. As far back as 18511 the writer visited one of these far-famed bone deposits on the White Earth River, in Dakota, near the north - eastern base of the Black Hills. It is one of the wildest and most desolate regions on this continent. It has been very appropriately named by the Dakota Indians Ma-Koseotcha, or “ Bad Lands,” which signifies a very difficult country to travel over; not only from the ruggedness of the surface, but also from the absence Tof any good water, and the small supply of wood and game. It is only to the geologist that this place can have any permanent attractions. He wends his way through its wonderful canyons among some of the grandest ruins in the world. It resembles, indeed, a gigantic city fallen to decay. Houses, towers, minarets, and spires may apparently be seen on every side. These fantastic piles assume the greatest variety of shapes when viewed in the distance, and not unfrequently the rising or the setting sun lights up these grand old ruins with a wild, strange beauty. In the summer the sun pours its rays on the bare white walls, which reflect them on the weary traveller with a double intensity, not only oppressing him with the heat, but so dazzling hia eyes that he is not unfrequently affected with temporary blindness. It is at the foot of these ruins that the fossil treasures are found. In ths lower strata we find the teeth and jaws of a hyopotamus, a river horse much like the the hippopotamus, which must have lived in the marshes that bordered this lake. Here, too, the titauotherium, a gigantic pachyderm, was associated with a species of hornless rhinoceros. Higher up in some of these lake sediments thousands of turtles -were imbedded, and are preserved to the present time with surprising perfection, their harder portions being as complete as when the animals were swimming about in the tertiary waters hundreds of thousands of years ago. They vary in size from an iacn or two across the back to three or four feet. Associated with remains of turtles are those of a number of ruminants, all belonging to extinct genera, and possessing peculiar characters whicn ally them to the deer and the hog. Indeed, Dr Leidy calls them ruminating hogs. Like the domestic species, they were provided with cuttingteeth and canines, but the griudingtcelh were constructed after the same pattern as those of all living ruminants. The feet of these animals were provided with four

toes, and none of them possessed horns or antlers. They appear to have existed in immense numbers, and to have lived in great herds like the bison of the West. Remains of more than 700 individuals of one species have been already studied and described by Dr Leidy. Their enemies were numerous, among them were wolves, hyrenodons and sabre-toothed tigers. In the summer of 1857, while the writer was attached to the exploring expedition under the command of Lieutenant Warren, he discovered on the Niobrara River another of these remarkable graveyards, in which was entombed a fauna closely allied to yet entirely distinct from, that on White River, and plainly intermediate between that of the latter and of the present period. Several species of extinct camels and a great variety of the horse family characterised this fauna. One of the horses was about the size of the common domestic animal, while another allied form, about the size of a Newfoundland dog, was provided with three hoofs to each foot, though the lateral hoofs were rudimental. Dr Leidy has already identified twenty-seven species of the horse family, which are thus known to have lived on this continent prior to the advent of man—about three times as many as are now found living throughout the world. Among the carnivores there were several species of foxes and wolves, five varieties of the cat family, and three species of hyaena. Some of the skulls of the tigerlike animals exhibited the marks of terrible conflicts with the hyaenas. Among the rodents were a porcupine, small beaver, rabbit, mouse, &c. The pachyderms, or thick-skinned animals, were very numerous, and are of the greatest interest from the fact that none of them are living on the continent at the present time. Five species of rhinoceros are found ; a mastodon, an elephant, and numerous forms allied to the domestic hog, varying in size from that of the African hippopotamus down to that of the domestic cat. From the discovery of this group of extinct animals we may draw the inference that Nebraska and Dakota were the homes of a race closely allied to those inhabiting Asia and Africa at the present time. From their characteristics we are led to believe that the climate during that period was considerably warmer than it is now. The inference is also drawn that America, instead of being, as it is usually called, the “ new world,” is really older than the eastern hemisphere. The discoveries in Kansas and Wyoming are still more wonderful. During the past summer Professor Cope has occupied considerable time, under the auspices of the Survey, in exploring another of these wonderful graveyards of a long past period, from which he baa taken the osseous remains of more than 100 species, more nearly resembling those of White and Nebrara Rivers, but most of them specifically distinct. At least 70 species are new to science, ranging from the size of the mole nearly to that of the elephant ; 16 species only are reptiles. Many forms of the insectivorous animals related to the mole, and of very small size, have been procured. The delicacy and minuteness of these fossils are surprising. Gnawing animals or rodents, left numerous remains of 18 species, some not larger than the domestic mouse. Some were the predecessors of the rabbits, others of squirrels, and others of mice. Of cloven-footed quadrupeds a great many species have been found. Some very nearly intermediate between the deer and the hog in structure. Like the latter, they had no horns. They were about ns large as sheep. Others were about the size of grey squirrels, being the smallest of this class of animals ever discovered. Several species of horses were living during the same period. Their bones and leelh arc found in abundance. The rhinoceros abounded in Colorado in former days, no less than seven species having been procured by Professor Cope. One of the specimens is a perfect skull, with teeth complete, and covered with the moss-like crystallisation seen in the moss agate. But the most remarkable monsters of the past, whose existence has been disclosed by the present Survey are a series of horned species related to the rhinoceros, but possessing some features in which, according to Professor Cope, they resemble the elephant. They stood high on the legs and had short feet, but possessed osseous horns, in pairs, on different parts of the head. One of the largest species had a huge horn over each eye | while another had one on each side of the nose, and more than a foot in length, resembling on the back part of the head the ox, &c. A third one, of larger size than the last, had rudimental horns on the nose. Still another was about as large as the elephant. Its cheek bones were enormously expanded, and its horns were flat. A fifth species had triangular horns turned outwards. Carnivorous species were not rare in this ancient world, and served then as now to check the too rapid increase. Of the 14 species of carnivores known, there were tiger-cats and dogs as large as the black bear, but probably much more carnivorous in their propensities | while some of the cats had remarkable canine or eye teeth. In a new Bpedies, the size of a panther, these teeth greatly resemble those of a shark. There Were also many reptiles—such as turtles, lizards, snakes, &c.

The fossil plants which have been collected by the survey, and arc now in process of elaboration by Professor Lesquereux and t)t Newberry, will teach an equally instructive lesson in regard to the ancient history of our Great West. We now know that those broad, treeless plains were once covered with dense forests, resembling in their luxuriance those of the central or southern portions of our continent at the present time. Groves of palms waved broad leaves over the ground, some of which had a spread of 12ft. At the present time the true fan palms are found only within the tropics. Many of our native ornamental trees and shrubs are the lineal descendants of the tertiary species, and so nearly resemble the ancient forms that it is difficult to distinguish them. Professor Lesquereux says that among the genera found to be indigenous to our continent are the Virginia creeper (A mpelopis) and the mulberry {Moms'). Both the fossil species are in intimate affinity with the living ones. They are seen everywhere, and known and liked by everybody. The one is the friend of the farmer by its shade, of his children, delighted by the pleasantness of its fruits ; the other adorns our dwellings when allowed to grow in our gardens. And when left to its own work it covers with green foliage the dead trees and the barren rocks, tempering desolation and ruin by hiding them under elegant fringes and garlands painted of the richest colors. It is worth something to know that the origin of the Virginia creeper and of the red mulberry is traceable to the tertiary formations of North America.