The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-03-10
COLLECTING FOSSILS.
A s'Dalles City Natural Science Associa.
tion'' Should Be Formed.

EDITOR CHRoNIcLE-In yesterdays is
sue of your paper you state that Prof.
Irelan, Estate geologist of California, is
coming to Oregon s'for the purpose of
enriching the collections of his state
with the product of our fossil beds;''
and that his trip will be a successful
one there can be no doubt; for, al
though this region has been looked over
for many years, the nature of the forma-
tions here are such that the rains,
SHOWS and frosts of each winter expose
new specimens to the eye of the col
lector. The Princeton college expedi--
tion of '89, with which the writer was
connected as collector and guide, was
the last that has worked in this region,
and since that time there have been sey-
eral winters of heavy rains and SHOWS,
which have doubtless restored many of
those leaves, thus torn from the records
of ages long past, to be deciphered and
again recorded by man among the arch
ives of the present.
1t is fact to be regretted that the
greater part of all the fine specimens
discovered in Oregon have been carried
away to swell the collections of museums
in other states, most OF which have
museums of their own. This is all the
more deplorable when we know that the
things thus taken away can never be
duplicated, for the reason that they are
found no where else in the world.
have been connected with this work
for. on1 Sc -, =
locality in Eastern Oregon that has not
been explored by me. The first work
done in the John Day rivers region was
by Prof. Condor in 1870, and that was
the first work in the fossil fields of East
ern Oregon. AS the localities were not
well known then, comparatively few
specimens were secured. In III the
Yale college expedition came out and
made small collection, but in '72 work
was commenced in earnest, and it was
at this time that 1 began work for Yale
college museum, under the direction of
Prof. .. G. Marsh, and from then until
'78, with one or two other men, was
kept constantly at work, each year send
ing away great quantities of beautiful
specimens to grace the shelves of Pea
body museum at Yale college In the
spring of rs the Piute and Bannock In
dians got up a little expedition into the
John Day country. but it was not fossils
they were looking for. They were after
horses, cattle, and the scalps of settlers.
AS two expeditions into the same re-
gions, with such divergent objects, could
not well agree, we fossil-hunters gave
the Indians the field and helped the
settlers save their property. In the
spring of '79 I again took up the work
under the direction of Prof. E. D. Cope,
of. the Academy of Sciences, Philadel-
phia, and the next year for the
United States Geological Survey, direct
ed by Prof. Marsh, then s. paleontolo-
gist. During all these years we procured
many tons of material of the very great
est interest to the world of science, all of
which has been taken from the state
and forever lost to it. It is true, that by
careful and systematic work, many of
these specimens could in time be dupli-
Gated, but it would take many years of
labor to replace them all in museum
of our own and perhaps very many of
them will never be found again. Each
winter for all time to come these things
viii continue to be exposed to view, but
each year will make them less plentiful.
Since there is apparently no interest
.