(h) Mr. N. H. Brown, in 1914, discovered in the Carboniferous rocks to the east of the Wind River Mountains, near Lander, Wyoming, a single fragment of an amphibian. The writer was accompanying Mr. Brown at the time of the discovery and there can be no doubt that the fragment was amphibian; the location of the beds was such that no later age than the Coal Measures can be assigned to them.
(i) Dr. J. A. Udden ([577]), in 1912, announced the discovery of an amphibian in the Des Moines formation of Iowa. These remains were identified by Dr. Charles Eastman as Pleuroptyx clavatus Cope. Since the Des Moines is probably nearly contemporaneous with the Mazon Creek shales of Illinois, the discovery does not extend the geological range to any extent, but is of interest as it adds another note to our knowledge of the geographical distribution of the Amphibia in the Coal Measures.
(j) The Gurley collection of the University of Chicago possesses a single cervical vertebra of some amphibian (?). The vertebra is unlike anything previously described and represents a new form ([plate 22, fig. 2]) which may be designated Proterpeton gurleyi, new genus and species. The material was collected near Danville, Illinois.
(k) Deposits have been discovered in Pennsylvania in which are found the remains of amphibians and reptiles, very similar to those from Vermilion County, Illinois, Cowley County, Kansas, and the Texas Permian. The remains ([plate 18, fig. 2]) were found in a thin stratum below the "Ames" limestone, and are therefore in the Coal Measures, fairly well below the top. The fossils, as described by Case ([94]), consist of fragments which he ascribes to pelycosaurian reptiles and to temnospondylous amphibians. The genus Eryops ([94]) is recognized in several fragments and a nearly complete dorsal vertebral centrum. Other types of Amphibia are likewise represented.
(l) The ironstone nodules, in which the Mazon Creek fossils ([plate 1]) occur, are found in the shale which forms the roof of the Morris or "No. 2" Coal of Illinois, which "lies probably somewhat lower than the horizon of the Lower Kittanning Coal of Pennsylvania" ([599]). "The nodules of iron contained in the Coal shales on the banks of Mazon Creek near Morris, Illinois, generally contain organic nuclei, and thousands of beautiful specimens have been obtained there. They are usually fragments of fern fronds, but are sometimes shells, crustaceans, myriapods, scorpions, spiders, cockroaches, ... fishes" ([498, p. 214]), and amphibians, of which 10 species are at present known.
MOODIE
VIEWS ALONG MAZON CREEK, ILLINOIS.
1. A nodule weathering out of the shale, at the head of the hammer. Most of the nodules at the so-called "lower beds" contain specimens of Neuropteris.