The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-24
BACK FROM PATAGONIA
Professor John Bell Hatcher of
Princeton University.
VISITED INDIAN TRIBES
EXPEDITION SUCCESSFUL IN OBJ
TANNING RARE SPECIMENS.
Tons of Material Discovered For the
Department OF Paleontology,
Which Will Rank With the Best
In the World-New Scheme to
Educate the Chinese.

Princeton, n. J., Aug. 2S.-Professor
John Bell Hatcher of the department
Of geology and paleontology in Prince
ton university, has just returned to
Princeton from an eight months expe-
dition to Patagonia. where he has been
making researches in geology and pale
anthology. Professor Hatcher and his
assistant. Mr.. Peterson, left New York
on Dec 3, and a few months later es-
tablished their headqu lrters at Sandy
Point, on the coast of the Straits OF
Magellan. They went inland among
the Indian tribes and explored the
plains and mountains of Patagonia ly-
ing between the forty-sixth and fifty
third parallels.
The expedition proved successful, es-
pecially in obtaining many rare speci-
mems of fossils, vertebrate and inverte-
brate. A large collection of ethnolog-
ical, geological and botanical specimens
which they also gathered, and several
points in the science of geology and
paleontology, which have hitherto been
the subject of controversy, will be def
nitely settled, il is said by these Speci-
mems.
On this expedition Professor Hatcher
discovered the first mesozoic mammals
ever found in Patagonia, and obtained
which will rank with those in the best
museums of the world Just before
leaving the country he had some
twenty cases of these invertebrates
shipped to the United States. They will
be brought to Princeton University and
prepared for exhibition in the geologi-
cal museum.
While the expedition has, on the
whole, been brilliantly successful, the
department of paleontology deserves
especial mention. The quantity of ma
terial obtained is so great that it has
to be expressed in tons, and the quality
of the collections is remarkably good.
The invertebrate fossils will receive the
careful attention of DR.. Ortmann of the
university museum, and he will have
some of them on exhibition within a
few months, but the preparation and
study of the enormous collection of
fossil mammals and birds will require
several years of work.
What especially character:ZeS these
collections is not only the extraordinary
number of the genera and species OBJ
tanned. but the remarkably perfect
preservation of the specimens. Almost
every genus is represented by one or
more complete skeletons and forms
hitherto known only from fragmentary
facts, may now be studied in all their
parts.
Professor Hatcher has also made COL
lectionS of marine and fresh water in
vertebrateS which have proved to be of
unexpected value. He gathered large
number of cryptogamic plants which
are already in the hands of specialists.
and a partial account of Them has been
published.
The expedition has also been import
ant in its contributions to geography by
the discovery of moUItains, lakes and
rivers which have never before been
named or recorded on any map. Photo
graphs were taken depicting physio-
graphical features of that country. and
these may be used b. Professor Hatch
err in an illustrated lecture. He will
remain in Princeton several months,
and direct the work of preparing the
Patagonian collection. He expects to
continue his researches in Patagonia,
and will probably sail for that region
some time in 1900.