Dictated

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

WASHINGTON, D. C., July 14, 1894.

Prof. O. C. Marsh,
Yale University, New Haven,
Connecticut.

My dear Professor Marsh:-

I have finished my paper on the Potomac Formation and sent it in for publication in the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Survey. It will contain a number of diagrams illustrating the stratigraphy. I send you inclosed photographs of the three principal ones, from which you will see how the several members overlie each other; to you this will be clear without further explanation and as it will be a year or more before my paper appears I thought it might interest you to have my general results in this form.

The vertebrates, as well as the silicified wood, the cycadean trunks, and a rich flora of ferns, cycads, and conifers, all come from the two lowest members, the James River and the Rappahannock series. I have been much over the ground between here and Baltimore and have satisfied myself beyond a question on this point.

ing to the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous. Very probably I shall go to Bologna and let Capellini show me the collection of cycad trunks that he and Solms-Laubach have recently described.

Thanking you in advance for the favor, which I assume you will grant, I remain,

Dictated

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WASHINGTON, D. C., March 19, 1898.

Prof. O. C. Marsh,
New Haven, Connecticut.

My dear Prof. Marsh:-

I was very sorry to miss seeing you in Washington, but I did not know about the cycads. I have just finished describing all the cycads in my hands from the Black Hills, and the descriptions with figures, are going into a paper which I am now preparing for the Nineteenth Annual Report and which must be in by the 1st of June. I make 11 species out of the material. It is altogether probable that you have a number of additional ones and it would almost a pity to go to press without including them, if you are willing.

I have talked with Mr. Walcott about it and he advises me to go on at once and see you and find out what can be done. It takes considerable time to describe cycads, but the probability is that the greater part of those you have will belong to some of the species described and I can name them up for you at sight. The new species I should like to describe for this paper and have them photographed for illustration. I could probably do all this at New Haven

but I could do it much better if I had them here. Mr.
Walcott thought perhaps you would be willing to let them
come on, that matter however can be best settled after I see
what you have. Nothing would need to come but the new
species, and only the best specimens of them. The question
of a subdivision would be an after consideration, but it is,
as you know, a settled policy to have a type permanently
left here.

I have my orders and shall probably be there Tuesday
night or Wednesday morning of next week, 22d or 23d, when I
shall hope to see you and talk the matter over.

Very sincerely yours,

Dictated

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 12, 1898.

Prof. O. C. Marsh,
Yale University, New Haven.

My dear Prof. Marsh:

When can I have the photographs and the
weights of the specimens ? I cannot complete descriptions
without them.

Dictated

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WASHINGTON, D. C.

April 16, 1898.

Prof. O. C. Marsh,
Yale University,
New Haven, Conn.

My dear Prof. Marsh:

The lists and both sets of views have arrived. The views are fine, admirable in fact, with a very few exceptions. The little new species No.84 is not as well defined as it should be. I think it was exposed too long, but being small he could take it to his studio, where he will have better advantages, and experiment with it until it is perfect. He might do the same with No. 53, which is also very small.

There is only one other that I would recommend being done over, that is No. 74. The picture does not bring out the relief and gives no idea of how the specimen really looks. It has a lot of horns on the back, which do not show. I suppose it wants a stronger sidelight, and then the focus was not exactly right.

As I expected, in working up the details, I find a few omissions, really only three, which is less than I supposed. These are Nos. 33, 50, and 64. I do not see how I can help getting a new species out of these three, and it should of course be illustrated.

No. 33 should have about three views, one broad side, the side that is complete, then a base view, and finally a view into the broken interior of the opposite side. For No. 64 the directions will be about the same, as that is also broken at the top and side. No. 50 is a mere fragment and wants a view of the exterior with the best definition possible. It wants to stand right side up, but I am afraid no one there can tell what right side up is. If you will compare the scars on it with those on 64 you will find them just alike and that will determine the right side up.

With thanks for promptness, I am,

Yours very sincerely,

Dictated

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 4, 1898.

My dear Prof. Marsh:

I wish you would hurry up the photographer about those additional pictures. All the rest are mounted and if I cannot get them one of the new species will be without illustration. With regard to the little specimen No. 84, perhaps we had better have a view of the base in addition to the side view. I have got to devote a whole plate to it anyhow and will need another figure to fill up the plate.

The only other thing needed to enable me to complete the descriptions and general work on the Yale collection is additional data with regard to localities. The data you furnished are wholly inadequate, being exceedingly vague and generally uncertain. I need to know exactly where every specimen came from, or at least as much about it as anyone knows, and I want in all case to know who the collector was or the person who knows most about the manner in which they were originally obtained; his address so that I can communicate with him and get the most complete details

possible. The results are going to be published in the
Annual Report of the U.S.Geological Survey, and the only
justification for such a publication is that it shall con-
tain all the facts that can be made useful by the geologists
in the future areal mapping of the regions from which the
material comes. I have consulted with the Director with
regard to this matter and I am only stating to you his
position, which, of course, is my own also, and I do not see
how there can be any other.

The Yale collection, so far as I know it, is virtually
a large series of specimens without labels, and by common
consent, in all branches of natural history, a specimen
without a label is worthless. This is particularly the
case with regard to geological specimens, upon whose exact
geographical position and precise location all geological
considerations depend.

I sincerely hope that you will furnish me with this
information at the earliest possible moment so that the
report may not be delayed. It must go in as early as the
first of June, and if I cannot have the data mentioned at
an early day the Yale collection will have to be treated
as if it did not exist. The Director is decided upon this
point, and so far as I am personally concerned, I am not

willing to take any part of the responsibility for the con-
cealment of the facts. I am unable to see what is to
be gained on the part of anyone by such concealment, and I
believe that the data are obtainable to a degree which would
be fully satisfactory.

One more matter. I agree fully with what you said
about the importance of publishing these new species in ad-
vance of the appearance of the Annual Report, which will
undoubtedly be a year and a half hence. The only source
of apprehension that I can see is that Professor McBride
may be working up his collection. He, as you know, describ-
ed the first species from the Black Hills, but so crudely
that he mixed two MN species up under one name. You say
he refused to sell you his collection. This looks as
though he might be engaged upon it, and if he should come
out soon with a report before mine appears it would utterly
ruin the whole thing. I do not however agree with you that
the American Journal of Science is the proper place to
publis h such a paper. It would be a long descriptive
paper and wholly unsuited for that Journal. We have an ex-
cellent medium here, the Proceedings of the Biological Society
of Washington, in which I published the Maryland species,
and we are very exact about dates, giving the precise day

of publication. Moreover we have facilities for quick work,
and papers often appear within a few days from the time they
are submitted. I presume I could get it out in a week from
the time I sent it in. I have the Director's permission
to publish these descriptions there in advance, but of course
this does not include the new species from the Yale collection
unless you also consent to it. I expect to put the paper
in the printer's hands next week and would like to know
right away whether to include the Yale species.

Very sincerely yours,

( Copy )

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

DIVISION OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

NEW HAVEN, CONN.,

May 6, 1898.

Dear Professor Ward: -

I send you by this mail photographs of Cycads you requested, and which I mentioned in my letter to you last evening. The one you asked for in your last letter, to complete your plate of the small Cycad, ~~has been~~ being printed to-day and will be ~~ready to~~ with the others send to-morrow; then you will have all you asked for in the way of photographs.

I wrote Mr. Wells yesterday to give you all the information you ~~wished~~ needed about the localities and specimens he collected for Yale University, but a letter from him this morning states that he is just starting for a trip to the North to be gone several weeks, so you may not get a prompt reply from him ~~if you write now.~~ I will look over his letters when he was collecting, and if they contain any information of importance about special localities, I will send it to you.

I do not know who Stilwell's collectors are that sent him the Cycads I have. If you write to him direct, he will probably tell you, and I will see ~~also~~ what I can do.

I send you by this mail a small piece of a fossil plant, which ~~will interest you.~~ It is from the Ceratops beds of Colorado, and was found with remains of that genus, although not strictly in place. It looks like a piece of Cycad to me, but as you are the authority on that subject, I will let you decide. It was sent to me, among some fragmentary

( Copy )

Department of the Interior

Division of Vertebrate Paleontology

New Haven, Conn., May 18, 1898.

Dear Professor Ward: -

I wrote you May 5th in reply to yours of the 4th inst. about photographs and localities, and again on May 6th when I sent all the photographs you requested; and also sent by the same mail a specimen of fossil plant from Colorado, which we thought of some interest, but up to the present time I have had no reply from you.

I should like to know whether the photographs I sent were satisfactory, and if the fossil plant was received.

The collection of Cycads I mentioned to you from the Blackhawk locality have not yet arrived. They were shipped May 3d, and weighed 3000 lbs. A second collection from the same locality is also on its way to New Haven, having been shipped May 11th. The collection weighs about 1500 lbs., and was also collected by H. F. Wells. This collection will also be at your service when received.

I not only wrote to Wells to give you all the information you wished about the Cycads at New Haven, but also telegraphed him to the same purport, and asked him to send this information to you without delay. I suppose he has done so, as he had plenty of time to do this before he started North.

Dictated

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 19, 1898.

Prof. O. C. Marsh,
Yale University.

My dear Prof. Marsh:-

I have scarcely looked up from my work
since I wrote you last, as I must get the Black Hills paper
in in time for the Nineteenth Annual, and it is a great deal
work, many unexpected things coming up to be done.

The photographs arrived in perfect order and are sat-
isfactory. I have worked them into the plates with the
rest.

As regards the specimen from the Ceratops beds (No. 140,
diamond No. 1871a). It certainly is an interesting thing,
but I very much doubt whether it is a cycad. I have shown
it to Dr. Knowlton, who has examined a great deal of fossil
wood of all kinds and he is also puzzled with it. It resem-
bles some kinds of palm wood and yet it differs from anything
of that kind known. The only way to settle it, if it can
besettled, is to cut it and make microscopic preparations.
That may reveal its true character. Dr. Knowlton has not
got time now to do this but may do it some time.

I have received one letter from Mr. Wells containing

valuable information about the localities. His statements
are rather general, but as he is going away they will have
to answer for the present. Your No.5 comes from a different
place from the rest, viz., a mile and a half southeast of
Minnekahta station, which is on the other side of the Chilson
creek drainage. You will notice that it looks different
from any other, being completely chalcedonized or turned to
quartz and white. I had full notes about it and recognize
his description of it without a doubt. All the rest he
says were from the "Old Place". This must be somewhat
different from the place where I was, because I got just
about everything there was anywhere near there at that time,
still it must be near there. He confirms your statement
that No.1(at least one specimen) was found two miles and a
half or three miles west of Sturgis.

He mentions the invoices that he has just sent you from
the Blackhawk locality. I am in a sort of quandary about
what to do with regard to them. I am obliged to you for
asking me to describe them and I very much want to do so and
they ought to go into this paper. As soon as they arrive
and you can get them numbered please let me know and I will
see what can be done. I do not know whether there is any

money, but will find out, and then the question will come
up whether I will have time. I think I could do the work
in a week, but it would involve at least another week's work
here and delay the report not less than two weeks, probably
more; but I am getting well through and may have time.

I have got far by all that and would have to go back and in-
sert it anyhow, so I may as well finish up now and see how
much time is left.

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Dictated

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WASHINGTON, D. C.

June 1, 1898.

Professor O.C.Marsh,
Yale University, New Haven,
Connecticut.

My dear Professor Marsh:

You can look for me early Monday
morning, the 6th, to describe the cycads. I shall probably
go on Sunday.

Dictated

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

WASHINGTON, D. C., June 27, 1898.

My dear Prof. Marsh:

The photographs are received. The first lot came on Thursday (23d), and the second not until late Saturday after noon. I waited to examine both sets before writing. In general they are very good, even better than the first lot, but there are a few that might be considerably improved, and it happens that some of these are the most important of all. For example, the first or side view of the large trunk No. 100 does not show the arrangement of the scars as clearly as it should over the one small area where they are perfectly clear, viz., on the lower right hand corner of the picture. I was very particular to impress Mr. Filley with the importance of having that area brought out to perfection whatever might happen to the rest, but with all his efforts he got it a little out of focus or else the light was too bright on that part; at any rate it is not clear as you can see for yourself.

This is the critical point in the illustration of the spec-

ies; and, although I know how much trouble it is to put that
large specimen into position again, still I think it would
repay the effort. I am sure he can make it good if he
tries, but it may require some experimenting.

Another is that beautiful specimen No. 105, the first of
the three views taken on the smoother side. Nothing could
be clearer than the structure of this trunk, with its ex-
actly diamond shaped scars, the picture shows them but not
as well as it ought to.

The only other one I will mention is the little new
species No.118. I know those scars are very clear and I
am sure that a much better definition can be got than the
one we have, viz., the first of the three views taken of
that specimen, broadside.

I do not think Mr. Filley would expect you to pay him
for taking these over inasmuch as, from a scientific point
of view, they may be regarded as failures. It is certainly
as much to your interest as to mine to have these specimens
illustrated to the very best advantage. They have all been
mounted and will probably go in before I can get the new
prints, but it will be very little trouble to hunt them up
and substitute a better photograph from the one now in.

I am sorry to make you any further trouble, but it is
not my fault.