New-York tribune., 1873-06-14

Utah Tbere yere also minor trips during
this expedition TO Green River IN "yO-
ming. and to the Smoky River IN hahsas'
which were productive OF Valuable RESULTS
The third expedition started IN the summer
Of 1871 and again explored the Smoky hlver region
in Kansas, the Green River Basln above mentioned
a,d investigated two basins, likewise of the ter
| tarv age. one in Idaho and the other in Oregon
The fourth was a trip with a comparatively small
Marty in the Autumn of 1872 1t concentrated at St.
Ionis went to Fort Wallace by way of Kansas City,
and. receiving escort proceeded to Smoky Hill
Fork. On this expedition some explorations were
made near Cheyenne, but were interrupted by cold
weather, the thermometer being Is degrees below
zero. Several days were spent in researches, with
varying success, at Crows Creek, Colorado. The
present expedition, upon which Prof. Marsh has al
ready started. consists Of a larger and better
equipped party than any that has preceded it. The
expedition is expected to require an absence OF SIX
months, and provided neither Sioux nor Modocs In
terfere with it, may be expected to produce results
of the highest value to science.
EXPERIENCES OF EXPLORERS.
No attempt will be made in the present letter to
give separate details Of tho expeditions or their
results 1t will be noticed that the localities which
proved most fertile in fossils received repeated Wis
its and of course certain classes of discovery were
followed up with more or less success, so that eX-
tinct animals whose characteristics were Dnt par
tally indicated by the discoveries of one trip be-
| came the subjects of more extended description
| after another. In the matter of personal expert
| ences the expeditions were more formidable than
might be hastily supposed. With escort. guides
provision trains, camp-followers, mules, and horses
the scientists become the nucleus of a con-
siderable caravan. In fact on the second
expedition, in approaching the City of
| North Platte, while Pawnee guides led the
way across the treacherOus quicksands of the
Platte River the size and savage appearance of the
party terrified the inhabitants, who in arms to
repel what they supposed to be a raid Of the Sioux
The regions traversed are wild, dangerous and al
most unknown. For days together the march is
over burning sand hills without rocks trees, or sign
of water with the thermometer at 100 in the shade
of the wagons. Fourteen hours at such a tempera-
ture, without water, was one days experience, and
Prof Marsh thinks another such day would have
caused the loss of half their animals if not of some
| of their men. While encamped on the LOup Fork
River the Sioux made effort to cut off and destroy
the party by firing the prairie on both sides of the
| river; but change of wind and thunderstorm in
! tervened in time to prevent anything more serious
than shower Of sparks. Rattesnakes swarm
throughout these arid wastes and the party cOnsid-
cred themselves fortunate that only three draft ami
mails and one cavalry horse suffered from snake
bites Narrow and rugged dehles, and chasms of
unknown depth made travel dOubly dangerous,
where places for cOncealment and ambush were thus
afforded to hostile savages, whose scouts were fire.
Guently discerned watching tho party from
the edge Of distant precipices. OF course these
dangers were much enhanced in cases when
some members of party strayed from the
rest. Such was the fatigue and exposure Of the
| third expedition that the guide, an Indian scout
who had "rOughed it" on the Plains for II years,
was stricken down by fever, from which he did not
recover till long after the trip was over. Scanty
provisions resulted in one case in the distribution of
mule meat, the animal sacrificed having met with
an accident. On other OCCASIONS however, game
was generally abundant. One member of the party
had fright, If not a narrow escape, from a good
sized bear The fourth expedition was surrounded
for days at time at Smoky Hil by immense
| numbers of buffaloes one herd being estimated
| containing $1,000.
| SCIENTIFIC VALUE OF THESE DISCOVERIES.
But this wild Western country, so long regarded rs
| a desert devoid Of human interest is now by the
labOrs of the Yale College parties made historic
ground once peOpled with the most grotesque and
diverse forms of animal life; a Wonderland of
dragons monsters, and chimeras dire. All the
great additions to the Museum of Yale College so
far as vertebrate fossils are concerned, have been
made within the last seven years Great as is the
value of such accumulatons Of new and rare
paleontologcal specimens the most important
result IS in the materials they afford for eucidat
ing the worlds early history. 1t is the
labor of years in which Prof. Marsh is engaged 10
identify class and describe these fossils. Every bone
is the subject a study, and the deductions set
forth in printed documents in which every word is
weighed fit belonged to gospel To Prof Marsh
who is a firm and full believer in the development
hypothesis every newly found fossil is another link in
the long chain leading from the lowest to the highest
representatives Of animal life. These Western disoOv
cries have largely consisted Of those intermediate forms
which needed to I'll gaps in the series; and
hence Of the highest value in the science OF
parative anatomy In the number aud variety OF these
extinct animals, we have material far moro important
than anything Europe has to Offer for the solution Of
the questions that pertain 70 the origin Of existence.
brief glance at the geology Of tho Rocky Mountain
region shows that 1t covered by the sea, at
the period designated by geologist the cretaceous
when the great formation OF chalk took place the
bottom OF this In long subsequent ages, when
this region had emerged from the sea- 1t contained
era immense lakes fresh water The positions these
occupied are designated basins" When lake basins
are spoken of in this letter. existing bodies OF water
are referred to- but merely the geological formation
left by the deposition In these lakes OF the soil
| washed down into them through long ages from
the surrounding hills. These basins now with
the great elevation Of that part Of the continent
| lifted % a position several thousand feet above
sea-evel In vast spaces these formations have been
carried away by denudatng atmospheric influences,
the surfaces down and washed away by the storms
OF another series ages the material carried away
y the rivers that rise in the Rocky Mountains to lay
new floors in modern oceans. But Of the deposits
in the cIetaceous ocean, and OF those the fresh
water lakes. where they capped with harder ma
| al than average. remain The "