commissioners on the 11th day of December, a most eventful day in French history. There is naturally intense feeling, on both sides, but it is announced, on the one hand, that the government "cannot be driven into the trap of closing the churches;" and on the other, the Archbishop of Paris has strongly censured the advice of the intemperate to placard appeals to the clericals to make violent resistance to the officers.

The Coal Land Frauds.-The extraordinary testimony recently given in Salt Lake City before Interstate Commissioner Clark concerning the acquisition of coal lands by the Harriman and Gould railroads in Utah, Wyoming and other places, and the alleged complicity of the General Land Office and certain Senators in land frauds, resulted in the following indictments by the Federal Grand Jury, returned on Friday, December 7:

For Conspiracy to Defraud Government,-The Utah Fuel Company, headquarters in Dooly Building, Salt Lake City; H. G. Williams, general manager of the Utah Fuel Company, Salt Lake City; Robert Forrester, geologist and mining expert of Utah Fuel Company, and W. D. Foster, private secretary of Robert Forrester, Salt Lake City; Alexander H. Cowie, confidential man of D. & R. G. Railroad Company, and Utah Fuel Company, and of Wasatch Supply Company, Salt Lake City; Elroy N. Clark, attorney for Utah Fuel Company, Denver Colo.; George A. Moore, civil engineer, Salt Lake agent for Utah Fuel Company.

For Violating Interstate Commerce Law, -Union Pacific Railroad Company; Oregon Short Line Railroad Company; Union Pacific Coal Company; E. Buckingham, general superintendent O. S. L. R. R. Company, Salt Lake City, James M. Moore, general agent of the Union Pacific Coal Company, Salt Lake City.

For Perjury Before Grand Jury.-Thomas A. Moore, "dummy" of the Utah Fuel Company, Salt Lake City; Theodore A. Schulte, dummy," Utah Fuel Company, Salt Lake City.

For Perjury Before Interstate Commerce Commission.-P. W. Spalding, attorney of Evanston, Wyo., and "dummy" of Union Pacific Coal Company.

The Interstate Commerce Commission are in favor of withdrawing all public coal lands from entry, with a view of ultimately developing them under the control and direction of the Government, which, instead of selling the lands at from $1.50 to $20 per acre to the railroad monopolies, could obtain a revenue of perhaps $1,000 per acre for the 5,000,000 acres of bituminous lands still held by the government. This land leased, or worked on a royalty basis, would be enough to pay all the current exp nses of the Government. This would also break the coal monopoly maintained by the great railways west of the Mississippi, which has caused high prices and useless coal famines throughout the West.

Died.—In St. George, Monday, October 15, Elijah Thomas, born North Carolina, January 22, 1815, a member of the Mormon Battalion, came to Utah in 1848. He filled a mission to South Africa in 1852.-In Castle Dale, Emery county, Sunday, 21st, Caroline A. Larson, wife of Stake President C. G. Larson, born Denmark, 1842.—In Taylorsville, 24th, Susan Sneath Harker, born in England, June 20, 1821, a pioneer of 1847.-In Manti, Wednesday, 24th, James Cook, born England November 13, 1816, a wheelwright by trade, an Indian war veteran, and a resident of Manti since 1854.-In Goshen, same day, Susan Turple Cook, born Nova Scotia, March 17, 1818, came to Utah in 1853.-In Ephraim, Thursday, 25th, Dykes W. Sorenson, born Denmark, November 24, 1852, a leading citizen.- In Nephi, same date, Edward H. Williams, a pioneer of "Parowan, born England,

November 27, 1823, and came to Utah in 1849.--In Warren, Weber county, same date, John Sill, a pioneer of Kaysville, aged 90 years.-In Thatcher, Arizona, the funeral of Olive Woolley Kimball, wife of President Andrew Kimball, was held, 28th. She was president of the Thatcher Relief Society.-In Salt Lake, Sunday, 28th, Mary Ann Morton Pye, born England, May 3, 1854, came to Utah in 1896. In Ogden, same day, Louis Chester Shurtliff, born Ogden, August 19, 1860. -In McCammon, Monday, 29th, Johanna Gutke, mother of Julia Brixen, of Salt Lake, a native of Sweden, in her 74th year.-In Scofield, Tuesday, 30th, Katherine Burrows, born in Virginia, December 10, 1830, and came to Utah in 1852.— In Lehi, Friday, November 2, James Munns, born England, June 14, 1820, joined the Church in 1849, and came to Utah in 1877.-In Parowan, Saturday, 3rd, Robert E. Miller, a pioneer of Parowan, born Scotland, 1826, and came to Utah in 1849.-In Salt Lake City, Sunday, Nov. 4, David R. Gill, Sr., born South Wales, June 1, 1838, came to Utah in 1878, having joined the Church March 17, 1865. -In Beaver, Wednesday, 7th, Daniel Tyler, born in New York, joined the Church January, 1833, was a member of the Mormon Battalion, and was ordained a Patriarch by Prest. Brigham Young, Dec. 10, 1873. He filled many missions, and held many Church offices. -In Oak City, 10th, Henry Roper, born England, Dec. 20, 1822, joined the Church in 1843, and came to Utah in 1859. He was an active Church worker.-In Vernal, 11th, Christina Peterson-Hullinger, born June 3, 1842, walked over the plains in 1864, a resident of Cottonwood until 1883.-In Salt Lake, Sylvester Smith Phippen, born New York, May 20, 1834, joined the Church in 1843, and came to Utah in the early 50's.-In Logan, Wednesday, 14th, Griffeth Charles, father of the first white child born in Logan, 78 years of age.-In Deseret, same day, Eliza L. Whicker, born England, June 19, 1840, came to Utah in 1874.-In Salt Lake City, Friday. 16th, Bishop James C. Watson, for 18 years bishop of the 6th ward, and for 54 years a familiar figure in Salt Lake where he arrived with his parents at the age of six.- In Salt Lake City, 17th, Anna M. Calder, widow of the late David O. Calder, born Isle of Man, 1837, a pioneer of 1847.-In St. Davids, Ariz., 17th, Patriarch George T. Wilson, age 80, one of the pioneers of Mesa.-In Salt Lake City, 18th, Olga Bernhardina Dahlquist, a gifted painter, daughter of Lorentius and Amanda Dahlquist, born Salt Lake July, 31. 1879.-In Provo, same day, Niels Boberg, a resident of Provo for 40 years, born Sweden, May 18, 1831.-In Springville, Monday, 19th, Peter Bell, born England, June 28, 1824, came to Utah in 1852 with the first sugar machinery. He was a veteran of the Indian wars.-In Mendon, same date, Charlotte Leavitt Baker, born Canada, December 5, 1818, joined the Church in 1833. -In Morgan, 22nd, Sarah J. Francis, born England, February 15, 1866. She was secretary of the Relief Society for years, and a faituful Sunday-school worker. -In Manti, Saturday, 24th, Rebecca Wareham, a veteran of Nauvoo, and a faith ful Church worker.-In Tooele, George Albert Lyman, was buried on the 24th. He was born, Fillmore, Nov. 14, 1873. He filled a mission to Kentucky where he baptized 49 people.-In Payson, Sunday 25th, Eliza Grigg, born North Carolina, Nov. 14, 1825. -In Ogden, Tuesday, 27th, William H. Pidcock, born England, January 18, 1832, and an early merchant and settler of Ogden.

Two ancient American horses, Equus scotti (large one), and Protorohippus (small one), the skeletal remains of which are now on exhibition in the American Museum of Natural History, at New York City.

The photograph was kindly furnished by Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, Curator of the Department of Invertebrate Palaeontology.

IMPROVEMENT ERA.

VOL. X.

FEBRUARY, 1907.

No. 4

REVELATION ANTE-DATING SCIENTIFIC

DISCOVERY-AN INSTANCE.

BY FRED J. PACK, A. M., PH. D., PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY, BRIGHAM YOUNG COLLEGE.

[The following article is interesting as showing that the many statements in the Book of Mormon, that horses were abundant on the American continent during Nephite and Jaredite times, were translated by inspiration and published to the world prior to the discovery by Darwin, and other scientists, of fossil remains of the horse on the American continents. It also shows that these statements were made and published in the Book of Mormon at a time when it was generally believed by all that no horses had ever existed on these lands. The article also gives a clear account of the discovery of the fossil remains of the horse in America. The author might have added, further, that more recent investigations have led to the conclusion that America is the original home of the horse. The embarrassing difficulty, however, that the fossil remains are held to be of very much greater antiquity than either Jaredite or Nephite times, still confronts us. But it must be remembered that a too great antiquity may be claimed for most of the evidence relating to the existence of the horse in the western world; and there is also evidence found by Charnay, as quoted by Nadaillac, and referred to in the Y. M. M. I. A. Manual for 1905-6, pages 554-5, that points to a more recent existence of the horse on the American continents. More evidence in this line may yet be looked for, as more perfect and more extensive explorations are instituted. -EDITORS.]