The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1892-05-26
WORE or FOSSIL HUNTERS.
New Specimens for the Museum O!
Natural History.

Natural History.
Some old bones from the Rocky Moul
tains are now on their way to the Amer
can Museum Of Natural History, ant
though nothing yet has been said {
them, it is believed that they will fori
an important addition to the collection
of fossils by which the earliest history {
this country is read by scientific mer
They are the results of the work of fos
sill hunters, who have been making
collection of vertebrate fossils in Ne,
Mexico under the direction of the ney
department of mammalian paleontology
Prof. Henry T. Osborn of the Depart
ment of Biology of Columbia College
curator of the new department at tn,
museum, and under his direction a sys
tematic investigation of the fossil bed
of the Western country is being made
He received few days ago the report O
the expedition and the announcement Of
some of the discoveries which have jus1
been made.
The expedition, which has been col
| Letting these bones since February, hal
had many hardships, and it's work has
been carried on under great difficulties
facts which Professor Osborn says are
common in this country. In letter
which gave some of the results of the ex.
petition, dated April 30 last, one of the
party says:
I'VE have been in sand storms and
snow almost constantly since our depart
ure from New York on March f. But
while it has showed SO very much, the
snow has not been deep enough at any
time, with one exception, to afford a
water supply, and we have in conse-
quence been compelled to use the most
damnable water that one could imagine
This added to the inclement weather.
which may be said to have literally not
only spit upon us and then rubbed it in
but abused US for looking soiled and ruff
fled about it, made life anything but I'M
adulterated pleasure"
Prof. Osborn outlined the work OF the
expedition to a Times reporter last week.
In the service of the museum are DR.. J.
L Wartman, recently of the Army and
Medical Museum at Washington, who
was for many years collector for Prof.
Cope of Philadelphia. He is from Ore>
gon and had his first experience under
Prof. Condor of the Oregon University.
With him is Mr.. H. 0. Peterson, former
ly upon the United States Geological
Survey, also an expert fossil hunter.
although America furnishes the rich
est field Of fossil life on the face of the
globe, collecting is far more difficult
and precarious matter than is generally
supposed" said Prof. Osborn. 1.-The i'm
preston prevails in this country, and to
a still greater extent abroad, that fossils
are readily harvested, and Prof. Gaudry
of the museum of the Jardin DIES Plans
ties, Paris, who visited this country re
Gently during the International Geologi-
cal Congress, was terribly disappointed
when he learned that there were no fos-
sill beds in this country like those with
which he had become familiar in his ex>
lands. He was told that he might walk
all day through the Bad Lands and
find but a few fragmentary bones.
Fossils are, in fact, extremely rare, ex
cept in a few localities, and the collec-
lions at Yale, Princeton, and Harvard
have been secured only at great cost and
because OF the unbounded enthusiasm of
few collectors.
The American Museum party has been
operating during the past few months in
New Mexico in the fossil beds named by
Prof. Cope after the Puerco River. 1t is
in the cannons along this stream that
the fossils are found. The specimens
from this vicinity are extremely impor-
tant, because the rocks lie at the base of
the scene or mammalian period, and con-
tain the remains of the most remote
known ancestors of our modern horses
tapirs, monkeys and other groups which
have long since become extinct.
s'The reason for making the expedition
during the Spring or Winter is that the
country is so arid that work IS possible
only at these seasons, when advantage
may be taken of the occasional heavy
SHOWS for a water supply. The intensely
COId WlANiS OiOW AICb lIOL
the north, then from the south, driving
the sitting sands before them, so that
the surface is described as being blown
from one county to another and then
back again. This has been extremely
trying for the hunters, for often as soon
as fossil has been located, and the work
Of excavation begun, the wind begins a
process of burying it in the sand
1.-The pools which have been used for
washing OUT the fossils are heavily
charged with Puerco mud, which is very
trying to the health and makes pros
longed work almost an impossibility.
I'm some instances this washing out
has produced surprising results, and by
this process the museum party succeed
ed in finding nearly every portion of the
skeleton Of an Indrodon, which is by far
the oldest fossil monkey which has yet
been discovered. In the same way the
museum party, which was working last
Summer in the Bad Lands of the Big
Horn Mountain region in Montana. re-
covered an almost complete skull and
teeth of a member of the cat family. The
lower jaw belonging to this species was
first found in France fifty years ago and
described as Paleonictis, and since then
not trace of it has been found either in
Europe or America until now Our col
lector first found few teeth, and filling
several sacks with earth and rock gath,
cred within radius of twenty or thirty
feet packed them on mule back to river
fifteen miles away. Here the earth was
sifted out under water and all the re-
naming parts We're found. The discove-
ry will naturally arouse much interest in
France, and q description and figure of
the fossil have been sent to the Re0ue
Scientitqate.
1.-THE Puerco collection is now com
plete, numbering over 500 specimens,
which are now on their way East. The
Big Horn collection is receiving the last
processes preparatory to it's exhibition.
During the remainder of this season a
partyawill collect in the much more re-
cent miocene beds and in the older Lara>
mie beds, which Weld the magnificently-