blocks of stone, accumulated at the
shore. We find them exposed in the
ledges of sandstone and in the layers
of clays on the tide-flats where twice
daily they are swept clean by the



FOSSIL j/rxr/xa /.\ /WTAaox/A



)39




Camp of first Captain Field Palseontological Expedition at Estancia La Costa, Santa
Cruz, Argentina



advancing and retreating tides. We
find them exposed in the steep faces of
the cliffs where access is difficult and
where the glare of sun on whitened
surfaces sometimes drives one blinded
and dizzy from the task. In this work
there is no fixed rule and no guiding
landmark. The collector must care-
fully, foot by foot and mile b}' mile,
go over the more promising stretches.
In so doing, success in every varying
measure rewards his efforts.

The roadways along this Patagonian
coast in many places run parallel to the
shore but usualh^ several miles inland,
— bej^ond the obstructions offered b}-
estuaries and the bluffs of stream-
valleys. Through long stretches the
height and the steepness of the sea-
wall make approach to the shore im-
possible. Once in ten miles or more our
party found valleys of small streams
which offered passageway for men on
foot and often for saddle-animals.
Once reached, the hard sea-sand at low



tide, offered a. safe and convenient
passageway up and down the shore for
men and for saddle-horses. By this
means, the shore exposures were
worked eight or ten miles each way
from camp bases.

The means of transporting speci-
mens from the shore to the nearest
point for loading upon vehicles, offered
man}^ problems. The specimens were
usually brought together on shore by
man-power and cached above the reach
of tidewater on some bench of erosion
or of landslip. From these points
they were sometimes borne to camp on
saddle-horses. On one occasion the
curved fragment of a broken rowboat
was made use of as a sledge and with
specimens loaded upon it was drawn
along the sand b}^ a horse at the
end of a saddle-rope. Boats on the
open sea were not to be thought
of, but on the estuary of the Rio
Gallegos, a dory was made use of for
this purpose.



:f




W - ''' ;




-j,^^'




Excavating a specimen in the Santa Cruz formation at Rio Coj'le, Argentina







Members of the Captain Field Palseontological Expedition and their host and hostess
at the Meteorological Station, Colonia Sariniento, Argentina



540



FOSSIL HUNTING IN PATAGONIA



541



At the south side of Rio Coyle,
where the stream valley approached
the beach without more obstruction
than a wide stretch of loose gravel, a
hght motor car was brought to the
beach by the aid of man-power. Once
on the hard sea-sand this car was
emploj^ed to speed rapidlj^ along the
tide-fiat for a distance of ten miles
and return with a load of four hundred
pounds of specimens. Returning again,
this operation was repeated five times
between tides, and the accumulated
cargo and machine safelj^ removed
from the beach before the next high
tide.

On the north side of Rio Coyle con-
ditions were less favorable for such
operations. Specimens discovered
some miles from the shore in a w^ide
bush-covered basin, were to be con-
veyed to Estancia Coyle. A consider-
able embankment of sea gravel thrown
up by the waves at high tide prevented
approaching this basin from the shore.
A continuous rim of cliffs some two
hundred feet in height offered a similar
barrier from the land side. The course
of least hazard was decided upon.
With rope and tackle the little car
was let down the steep slope from
above. A road was cleared across the
basin and the specimens conveyed to
the shore. There they were unloaded,
the car again pushed across the gravel
barrier by man-power, and the return
along twenty miles of shore sand was
begun.

In this last undertaking, rapid travel
over hard, wave-marked, sand caused
such a vibration in the car that a break
in the front gear resulted. This
occurred on the second trip of the
morning, with a car loaded with speci-
mens, and only an hour's margin of
safety before the incoming tide would
sweep over these sands to a depth of



thirty feet. The needed "spare parts"
were not at hand. Unless repairs
could be made within the hour both
car and specimens would be lost. The
situation was met by driver and
mechanic hurr3dng ashore, making a
fire of driftwood, and doing a hurried
piece of blacksmithing before the re-
turning tide should overtake them.

The collectors of the party spent the
first winter near Comodoro Rivadavia.
As soon as the rains of late winter
had somewhat abated they broke
camp and set out to reach the Rio
Chico. The locality which the Am-
herst Expedition in 1911 had found so
productive in fossils of the Pyrotherium
zone was the first objective. The
way lay across a pampa two thousand
feet above sea level which had recently
been covered with heavy snow. After
one unsuccessful attempt, and after
spending two nights on the high pampa,
the desired localit}^ was reached.

A single tent protected by thorn-
bush barricades as a shelter against
wind and snow, constituted the camp.
This was located in an open valley
dotted by occasional buttes of the
Patagonian formation. A single butte
a half mile in length had preserved a
section of an old chamiel deposit.
In this butte fossils were found in
limited quantities. The intensive work
of the Amherst Expedition had left
few specimens to be found.

The collectors were impatient to
move on to new fields. A new supply
of plaster of Paris now enabled them
to take out a rare specimen of fossil
bird and other specimens which had
been discovered there. After spending
another week in reconnoissance along
the valley, a move westward to the
region of lakes Coluhuapi and Musters
was decided upon. A flooded stream
and boggy roads made the valle}' of the



542



NATURAL HISTORY



Rio Chico impassable. It was there-
fore necessary to return to Comodoro
Rivadavia and to approach the lake
region from the southward. Renewed
rains again held the party inactive
through the month of October. Valu-
able time was thus lost before supplies
could be forwarded and the move
toward Colonia Sarmiento begun.




V/^^^

^:=i^,:-







One of the great dinosaur bones- of the
San Bernardo Hills, Chubut, Argentina

We camped at the source of the Rio
Chico, where that stream issues from
Lake Coluhuapi ; gray shale bluffs were
observed on either side of a narrow
valley. After an hour or two of pros-
pecting late in the evening of our
arrival, Mr. Abbott returned to camp
to report the occurrence of fossil dino-
saurs in the gray shales. Somewhat
dubiously he also announced finding
evidence that another collector had
been there before us. Together he
and the leader of the party visited the
locality of his discovery next morning,
and found in a small caiion evidence of
earlier work.

Bones of large dinosaurs had been
dug out of the shale of the hillside and



piled up in heaps on a level area at its
btise. Leg bones, pelvic bones, and
vertebrse, all broken into many pieces,
had been carried some distance and
piled up, the pieces of a single bone
constituting a pile. There they were
found, without wrappings and without
mark, to indicate ownership. Subse-
quent rains had washed mud from the
hillside over them; sun, rain, and wind
had weathered them so that they were
now falling into decay. Three or four
thousand pounds in all, this accumula-
tion represented no small labor on the
part of an earlier collector. Inquiry
made of the oldest settlers failed to
reveal who the collector was, or in
what year his work had been done.

Some days later a deserted camp was
encountered near the old fossil-cache.
A ring of stones marked the outlines of
a bush-shelter, or tolda, such as were
earlier constructed by the Indians of
this region, and which are still employed
by the shepherds for temporary camps.
A drift-pick, a shovel, and two ham-
mers, all bearing the mark of a Sheffield
tool-maker, together with a ring-bolt
and the iron handles of a chest, offered
the only clue. The shovel blade was
rusted through from the waters of
rains and of melting snows which had
been caught in its concave surface.
The ashen handle was old and
weathered. The less durable hickory
handles of pick and hammer had
rotted away. Many years had cer-
tainly passed since this unknown
devotee of science had done his work
and had, perhaps, passed on in search
of carts to remove his treasure to a
seaport one hundred miles away. At
any rate, no grave or other mark was
found to indicate that serious mishap
had befallen him.

The outcrops of the Deseado forma-
tion at Lake Coluhuapi offered some



FOSSIL HUNTING IN PATAGONIA



543



promise of fossils. Camp was estab-
lished on the shore of the lake, in an
adobe house, near the home of an
Italian-Argentine fisherman. Saddle-
horses were pi'ocured and search along



of Pyrotherium. Just enough frag-
ments of these animals were found to
add zest to the search. Molar teeth
of the former, having a grinding sur-
face more than three inches square,




Collecting in the Pyrotherium beds, Rio Deseodo, Argentina



the neighboring escarpment was pushed
for several days. In the course of this
work an old cart track leading from the
shore toward the bad-land hills was
discovered, and repaired in places
where washouts had made it impass-
able. The motor truck was then
brought into use to convey the mem-
bers of the party to the scene of the
day's collecting. By frequent use of
pick and shovel this roadway was
extended eight or nine miles into the
bad lands from which point the work
was continued on foot.

In this locality the Deseado forma-
tion has a thickness of perhaps six
hundred feet. This consists of strata
of clays, and of sandstone. In the upper
strata were found the teeth, tusks, and
various bones of the gigantic mammal,
Parastrapotherium. Another large, and
equally strange beast bears the name



broken jaws, and tusks thirty inches
in length, proclaimed the unusual
size and character of this little-known
form. Isolated jaws of the second
great animal had been discovered by
Ameghino forty years ago, but as yet no
complete head has ever been found.

A more prolonged search resulted in
the discovery of a fossil forest. The
first indication of this was encountered
in the form of a fossil pine cone brought
out by the keeper of a roadhouse on the
shore of Lake Coluhuapi. The in-
formant said that this specimen had
been found sixty leagues to the south-
ward. Some time afterward a station
keeper on the south shore of the Gulf
of St. George displayed two similar
specimens which were said to come from
twenty leagues to the westward. Again
at a crossing of the River Deseado
we had seen others which were said to



544



NATURAL HISTORY



come from twelve leagues to the south-
ward. Employing the owner of the
last specimens as a guide, we traveled
four days in a motor car to reach the
goal, and this three months after the
first specimens had been seen.

Having reached the locality in the
vicinity of Sierra Madre y Higa, we
found a considerable number of fossil
trees, some with stumps standing,
others lying prone with broken branches
and cones scattered about them, re-
vealing a forest of fossil Arecaria or
Brazilian pines preserved on the site
where it had grown. A large collec-
tion of these specimens was made.

A more surprising claim was set up
by a gentleman of scholarly training
who reported that he had examined
the skull of a fossil man which had been
found in the Santa Cruzean Formation
at Passo Ibanyez on the Santa Cruz
River. A further claim of a "buried
city" on the shore of Lake Cardiel
had led to another five-hundred-mile
journey with less satisfying results.
The skull of "fossil man" proved to be
only a curious concretion; the "buried
city" a natural lava dike which had
been thrust up through clays of Creta-
ceous age, and had in turn been laid
bare by erosion.

It may be said that the remote cor-
ners of the world are often favorable



sources for extravagant stories. In our
own country. Texas, California, and
Alaska have in turn given out such
emanations. It is not surprising that
Patagonia should have held a similar
position as a source of romance. The
irony of circumstance has decreed
that one of the most improbable of
Patagonian stories should come true.

Rumor in the later nineties reported
that a gigantic animal similar to the
great Argentine sloth, Mylodon, had
been seen in the "jungles' ' of southern
Patagonia. Some time afterward a
peon employed on a sheep farm visited
a cavern near by and brought home and
made a whiplash of a piece of dried
hide which he had found there. As a
result the scientific world was startled
by a report that fresh bones, dried skin,
and other evidence of a Mylodon-like
animal had been discovered at the
Cave of Ultima Esperanza. It was
even asserted that quantities of cut-
grass upon which the animal had fed
were found in the cave. These reports
were substantiated by a group of
Argentine scientists. Their investiga-
tions added to the Hst of extinct
animals the recognized name of
Grypotherium, an animal which is
probably more recently extinct than
the Great Irish Deer of the fourteenth
century.



NOTES



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM
GREENLAND EXPEDITION

The Schooner ''Mokrissey," beuring the'
Greenland Expedition of the American Mu-
seum of Natural History, sailed from New
Ydrk on June 20, 1926, and returned on
October 2, 1926. During this time approxi-
mately eight thousand miles were covered.
The party visited a number of places on the
west coast of Greenland, from Holstenborg
in the south to Inglefield Gulf in the north
(about latitude 77° 30' N.). This being an
"open year," due to a comparatively mild
winter and an early spring, no serious difficul-
ties with ice were encountered. There was
continuous daj'light from the time Davis
Strait was reached in the first days of July
until the first of September when the home-
ward journey was begun.

The collection made for the Museum con-
sisted of mammals, birds, fishes, and inverte-
brates. The most important specimens are
the narwhals, of which several adults, one
young and two foetal specimens, were secured.
These afford extremely valuable material for
exhibition, for the study of the soft anatomy,
and for osteology. — H. C. R.

ASTRONOMY

Dr. Clyde Fisher spoke on "Popular
Astronomical Education in Europe and
America" at the annual meeting of the
American Astronomical Soeietj' held early in
September at the Maria Mitchell Observatory,
Nantucket, Mass.

Plans for the Proposed Hall of Astron-
omy, to be a part of the American Museum
of Natural History as outlined in the Astron-
omy (July -August) number of Natural
History, are developing in an encouraging
manner. In this work Doctor Fisher is aided
by Miss M. Louise Rieker as secretary and by
Mr. Charles J. Liebman, Jr., as assistant.

BIRDS
The Ruwenzori-Kivu Expedition. — Mr.
Frank Mathews, a member of the Ruwenzori
Expedition, who returned to New York City
in September to enter a medical school, re-
ports that Dr. J. P. Chapin and Mr. DeWitt L.
Sage, the remaining members of the Expedi-
tion, are working with success and undimin-
ished enthusiasm. Chapin writes of his
ascent of Mt. Kenia as follows;



"The two parts of the mountain where
birds appeared most numerous are the moun-
tain forest (sul)tropicalj from 5600 to S500
ft., and the groves of large trees just above the
upper level of the bamboos, near 10,000 feet.
The bamboos are relatively poor in birds, and
so of course is the more open country above
the timber line, where, however, there is a
splendid sunbird {Nectarinia johnsioni), a
small thrush {Pinarochroa sordida), a starling
{Cinnamopterus tenuirosiris) , a buzzard (Butea
augur), a swift {Micropus mella africanus, I
think), and possibly a few other birds."

In a letter dated Nairobi, July 1, Doctor
Chapin reports the collecting of complete
material for a habitat group of the bird life
of the great Rift Valley, which will include
ostriches, bustards, jabirus, vultures, franco-
fins, secretary birds, weaver birds, and other
smaller species. This collection, together
with color sketches, diagrams, and photo-
graphs has now reached the Museum.

CONSERVATION
National Parks in the East. — A move-
ment is on foot to purchase from private
interests 600 square miles of virgin territory
on the boundary line between North Carofina
and Tennessee known as the "Great Smoky
Mountains" and to present the tract to the
United States Government for development
and preservation as a national park. In the
Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia about 400,- .
000 acres are also sought for the same purpose.
Since the creation of nineteen national parks
in the West, out of the pubfic land preserves,
more than 2,000,000 people visit them annu-
ally. The establishment of national parks in
the East will place within easy reach of the
congested areas of population these great
natural playgrounds.- — C. A. R.

EXTINCT ANIMALS
The Childs Frick Expedition in the
Mid-Miocene Deposits of Santa Fe^
New Mexico. — The 1926 field party in
charge of Mr. Joseph Rak, assisted as last
year by two members of the Museum's prepar-
ation department — Mr. Charles Falkenbach
and Mr. Charles Christman (who was asso-
ciated with Mr. Rak in the work the past
winter at Barstow) — has enjoyed a particu-
larly successful season, having forwarded
twenty-three cases of specimens to the Mu-



545-



546



NATURAL HISTORY



seum to date. Mr. Frick joined the party in
September and spent a fortnight with Mr.
Rak in a reconnaissance of contiguous areas
and a checking of the stratigraphy.

HISTORY OF THE EARTH
Seismograph Record of Explosion at
Lake Denmark, New Jersey. — The explo-
sions at the United States Naval Ammunition
Depot at Lake Denmark, New Jersey, on
July 10, 1926, were recorded on the seismo-
graph at the American Museum, some thirty-
one miles distant. The wave undulations,
when magnified a hundred times, are less
than one millimeter in ampUtude. Separate
explosions were recorded at 4:28:00," 4:29:30"
and from 4:31:00" to 4:34:00" p.m. Eastern
Standard Time. Another explosion occurred
at 5:06:30" p.m., The record of these local
disturbances has been of service to representa-
tives of the United States Bureau of Mines and
the United States Geological Survey in their
study of the disaster. — C. A. R.

MAMMALS OF THE WORLD

Blue-nose Sheep from the Central
Asiatic Expeditions. — During the past
summer a shipment of 391 mammals has been
received from the Central Asiatic Expeditions.
The most noteworthy specimens, in addi-
tion to 7 argali sheep, 7 ibex, and 6 wild
asses, are a series of Bharal or blue sheep
(Pseudois nahura), a male, a female, and one
young. The Bharal is especially interesting
scientifically and is new to the Museum's
collections. This sheep is distinctive in that
it is closely related to the goats in many
respects. The face glands, which are found
in all true sheep, are lacking in the Bharal,
as in the goats. Another goathke character
is its greater length of tail. However, the
Bharal has glands between the hoofs of the
fore and hind feet, as in the sheep, whereas
the goats have these glands in the fore feet
only.

Morden-Clark Asiatic Expedition. —
This expedition continues to meet with success
in its collection of the large mammals of
Turkestan. A sufficiently large series of Ovis
poll, the spectacular wild sheep of the Pamirs,
has been obtained, and now the expedition is
concerned with working its way out of the
country preUminary to the return home.

Because of pohtical troubles in China, which
prevented carrying out the original plan of the
Morden-Clark Expedition to join forces with



the Third Asiatic Expedition at the close of
work in the Pamirs, Mr. Morden and Mr.
Clark have made plans to cross eastern China
and Mongolia, coming out at Urga about the
end of December. During the return, the
party will spend a month in the Tian-Shan
collecting, where they wiU get ibex and other
interesting specimens of the mammals fre-
quenting this high country.

Akeley Expedition. — Letters from the
field report very satisfactory progress. On
July 19 the party had already secured all of
the material and data for the Klipspringer
Group, accessories, paintings, and animals.
Splendid specimens of girafJe, oryx. Grant's
zebra, and Grant's gazelle have been obtained
for the water-hole group. For the background
of this group Mr. Akeley has picked a superb
scene near the Abyssinian border, one of the
few remaining strongholds of African large
game. Here the members of the expedition
met with the Samburu, the native wandering
herders so well portrayed in Martin Johnson's
motion picture film.

Mr. Eastman and Mr. Pomeroy have been
very successful in their hunting for specimens
of African game. Mr. Eastman secured a calf
buffalo for the Buffalo Group, which was well
under way at the time of writing. Mr.
Pomeroy planned to join Mr. Akeley in a
kudu hunt in Tanganyika at the end of August ,
hoping at the same time to secure material
for a Bongo Group, if the animals^were not too
scarce

MARINE LIFE

Bahama Islands Expedition. — ^Dr. Roy
Waldo Miner has just returned from an ex-
pedition to the Bahama Islands where he
ecured casts of fishes to be used in connection
with the Coral-reef Group for the new Hall of
Ocean Life in the American Museum, and
also sketches for the backgrovmds for the
upper portions of the same group. Mr. John
S. Phipps, of Westbury, Long Island, gen-
erously contributed the use of his yacht,
" The Seminole," and several subsidiary boats.
His son, John H. Phipps, efficiently managed
the navigation of the boats, and through his
skill as a fisherman many specimens were
secured.

Doctor Miner was accompanied by Mr.
Chris E. Olsen and Mr. F. L. Jaques, artist.
Mr. Olsen was assisted in making the fish-
casts by Doctor Miner's son, Roy W. Miner,
Jr. About one hundred casts and color



NOTES



547



.sketches of fishes were made and many
studies of the reef surroundings.

Mrs. Miner also accompanied the expedi-
tion to secure photographs and moving pic-
tures of the Ufe and industries of the Bahaman
natives both at Andros and Nassau. About
loOO pictures and 2500 feet of motion picture
film were obtained.

During their stay the party experienced a
narrow escape from a tropical hurricane.

A more detailed account of the expedition
will appear in the next number of Natural
History.

FISHES

Bering Sea. — During August Mr. J. T.
Nichols made a short trip to Bering Sea to
familiarize himself with the present physio-
graphic, marine, and climatic conditions there,
in so far as they may have influenced the
distribution of fishes or other animals across
this area in the past. His field observations
suggest that the sculpins and salmons were of
Pacific origin and reached the Atlantic across
the Arctic Basin, that the cods gained the
Pacific in the opposite direction, and that this
would have been possible under conditions
not very different from present ones. Fresh-
water carps, on the other hand, probably
crossed from Asia when the physiography and
even climate were quite unlike the present.
There is a considerable seasonal migration of
salmon northward from the Pacific into
Bering. Sea, as evidenced by heavy catches in
traps recenth' placed in the narrow pass
between the Alaska Peninsula and Unimak
Island.

The Zaxe Grey Collection of Game
Fishes. — -Through the efforts of Mr. Van
Campen Heilner, Mr. Zane Grey has presented
to the Museum his large collection of moimted
game fishes, one of the most complete collec-
tions of this kind in the world. The depart-
ment is sending an expert to Lacka waxen,
Pennsylvania, Mr. Grey's eastern home, to
make arrangements for packing and shipping
the collection to the Museum, for exhibition
in the new Hall of Fishes.

The New H.all of Fishes. — Steady pro-
gress has been made in getting ready the new
Hall of Fishes for the installation of exhibits.
Most of the cases are completed. The series
of seven scenes of deep-sea fishes by Mr.
Dwight Franklin are about two thirds done.
The color scheme for walls .and cases has been
worked out and a number of the wall-case



exhibits have been arranged. Models for the
Shark and Sailfish groups have been completed
and work on these groups is in progress.