The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-20
Sixty Colleges Will Be Enriched
by Accessions of Bones.
SPECIMENS IN ABUNDANCE
Many Remarkable Finds Made in the
Newly Opened Quarries-Discovery
of Remains of Huge Dinosaur.
Double BATTERED" Animal.

lege year by unprecedented accessions
OF fossils, professors and students from
as many institutions having just spent
month collecting the bones and vege-
table remains of millions of years
from the hillsides of Wyoming. AL
most a hundred enthusiasts came to
this city as the guests of Wilbur c.
Knight of the state university, and the
work of Quitting was done under his
direction. Late in July a long caval-
cade wound it's leisurely way out of
Laramie for a 40-days' wandering in
the wilderness.
The visible results of the collecting
tour are evidence that every scientist
labored to good effect in the interests
of his institution. The first field of
consequence was encountered at
Cooper creek Fossils were found
abundant in red sandstone of the Fox
hills formation. Several specimens
We're obtained that are believed to be
new to science. Professor Knight
found variety of pectim and Profess
sors Collie and Todd discovered pieces
of coral, an extremely rare occurrence
in this formation. Mr.. Vincent gath
cred two varieties of deciduous leaves.
This deposit has never been described
as occurring in the Fox hills.
w ME III camp the next Qdy the eX-
petition enjoyed an experience not GUS
tomary during midsummer. The sci
entists picked Alpine flowers on the
edges of snow fields and pelted one
another with snowballs at an elevation
of 5000 feet.
The first shipment to eastern col
leges was made from Rock Creek sta
ton and consisted mainly of shelled
forms of prehistoric life.
The scientists studied with intense in
terest the classic Como bluff, whence
Yale has drawn her dinosaur treas
ures. Twenty years ago Professor
Marsh opened UP these quarries near
Medicine Bow, and placed the field
work in the hands of S. w. Silliston
and w. H. Reed. The former is now
in charge of the natural history de-
partment of the University of Kan
sas, and Mr.. Reed is at present collect
ing for the Carnegie museum. In spite
of the previous thorough prospecting
along the Como exposure several re-
markable finds were made. The party
from the Gustavus Adolphus college of
Minnesota opened the grave of a huge
dinosaur. Several days were given to
the exposure while the expedition
moved on, and the results indicate that
a promising quarry has been located
for next seasons work. Professors
Edquest and Kempe promptly posted a
formal claim to their discovery, which
is sufficient to hold it against all other
scientific prospectors.
Professor Charlton and his assistants
from Baylor university in Texas To-
Gated another dinosaur which becomes
the distinctive property of their insti-
tuition. They also unearthed a plesi-
osaur, the first to be reported from
this formation in Wyoming. Other sci
entists opened a bed of palm leaves
which yielded some splendid examples,
a bed of fossil plants related to our
present trees, and over half a dozen
new fossil invertebrates, chief among
which was a beautiful starfish discov-
cred by Professor Peck of Lafayette
college. Professor Knight found at
this point a saurian of large dimen-
sions that remains as yet unidentified.
None of these animals can be removed
till next season. A choice saurian
tooth was picked up by Professor
was black and brilliantly polished, with
both edges definitely serrated. Every
member of the party secured a sec
ton of a prehistoric squid fish called
the Belmite. This black conical frag
ment resembling a torpedo once con-
tanned ink for defensive warfare.
Specimens of this sepia sac have been
found in Wyoming still preserving the
ink through millions of years. Profess
SCR Beecher of Yale once wrote a label
for such specimen, using the ink it
had preserved so successfully.
The second shipment of specimens
amounted to 80 boxes, averaging 40
pounds in weight.
The expedition moved to the Freeze
Out hills and spent several days in
the heart of the dinosaur region. At
sunrise each morning the hillsides
were covered with enthusiastic scien-
lists hammering at the exposed rocks
or excavating in search of bones. An
hour later they We're struggling down
the hills with huge fragment of a
femur or rib. Among those who were
successful in prospecting at this point
were Professors Yates and Brown of
Coe university and Professor Collie
Professors Knight and Barbour made
a joint discovery of great importance
1t consisted of new fossils in the fresh
water Jurassic. Up to this time no
fossils except dinosaurs had been
found in this formation, but those dis
covered at this camp included lamelll-
branches gasteropods fish bones and
teeth. These throw new light upon this
period and are regarded as among the
most important results of the expedi-
TONS work.
The objective point of the biologists
of the party was the canyon of the Up
per Platte river. This great natural
wonder has slumbered in obscurity in
spite of the activity of the American
sight-seer. 1t Is the last of the great
gorges 20 be examined by scientists,
and no adequate popular or scientific
description has ever been published of
its picturesque grandeur. The first
photographs We're taken by the scien-
lists of the party who had equipped
themselves with cameras. The canyon
is eight miles in length, and as it winds
through walls that are in places over
thousand feet high, it presents a
spectacle only equalled in the Grand
canyon of the Colorado. The Platte
canyon has an advantage over the bet
ter known canyon in it's previous iso-
lation.
Just north of the canyon are located
fine exposures of the dinosaur bed. DIR.
Crook of Northwestern university
made a remarkable discovery of a huge
animal and remained several days be-
hind his associates that he might take
out the remains. Professor Peck of
Lafayette college found the grave of
a huge ichthysaur, and many of the
party collected valuable Jurassic ma