Editorial 





The article in this number of the Bulletin, by Professor 

 James Z. Gilbert, Chairman of our Zoological Section, will be 

 received with absorbing interest, not only by members of the 

 Academy, bu1 by all Scientific Institutions which receive our 

 publical ions. 



The wonderful deposit in La Brea Rancho of fossils of 

 extind fauna of the Pacific Const has attracted the attention 

 of zoologists throughoul the whole extent of America, and so 

 greal has been the desire to secure specimens from this field, 

 that the mosl noted Scientific Bodies in the land, from the 

 Smithsonian Institution, through the Long lisl down to the 

 small College, have applied for permission to excavate in this 

 unique store of treasure. 



.Mrs. Erskine M. Ross, the owner of the Rancho, imbued 

 with the local patriotism of our Native Sons and Daughters, 

 and thoroughly appreciating the value of these discoveries 

 as illustrating the history of this region before the advent of 

 man, has refused to allow these remains to be taken from 

 California, and by her direction only this Academy of Sciences, 

 the State University and the Los Angeles High School will be 

 custodians of 1 lies,-' fossils. This, as well, for the education of 

 ,,in- youth, and the study by all interested in the geology and 

 zoology id' this State, as a memorial to Major Hancock, one 

 of the' earliest American settlers, and progressive citizens of 



Los Angeles. 



I,, the early Spanish adobe life of Los Angeles, when 

 lumber was an impossible factor, the roofs of the buildings 

 were covered with a natural waterproof material, called Brea, 

 composed of the dried or hardened mixture of asphaltum and 

 sand or gravel. Upon the Rancho of .Major Hancock, bul a 

 tVw miles from the city, were large deposits of this Brea, snr- 

 rounding springs of water, side by side with the continual and 

 bountiful flowing asphaltum. Prom this place most of the 

 roofing material of the city was taken, and gradually a little 

 lake was formed by the excavations, composed of water and 

 asphaltum. through which the natural gas of the underworld 



