DIVISION OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY GILMORE 313 



should have become its property. Schuchert, however, offe(rs the 

 information that Cope received no salary, and for that reason claimed 

 the fossils as his own. This was not an unusual practice in those 

 days, as I am told that some of the early ornithologists and biologists 

 worked under similar arrangements. Some of the Bridger and 

 Green River fossils of this year are in the National Museum's pale- 

 ontological collections, but an unknown number were evidently re- 

 tained by Cope and are now in the American Museum of Natural 

 History, New York City. 



After Cope's death, on April 12, 1897, his entire collection of 

 vertebrate fossils was purchased and presented to the American 

 Museum of Natural History. Included were many specimens col- 

 lected by the Hayden survey that were in Cope's hands at that time. 

 Obscurity in the proof of o^vnership led the National Museum au- 

 thorities to accept a compromise settlement whereby in 1908 a se- 

 lected collection of 99 duplicate specimens, including a mounted 

 skeleton of the type of Hoplophoneus rohustus and having an esti- 

 mated value of $3,250, was sent by the American Museum of Natural 

 History to Washington, D. C. This collection consisted of representa- 

 tive specimens from the following formations: Puerco, Torrejon, 

 Bridger, Oligocene, Miocene, and Permian of North America; 

 Pampean and Santa Cruz of South America, 



In 1874, Prof. E. D. Cope was engaged by the War Department as 

 paleontologist to accompany the United States geographical and geo- 

 logical survey west of the 100th meridian under the leadership of Lt. 

 George M. Wheeler. It was on this expedition that he assembled the 

 classic materials from the Upper Miocene and Lower Pliocene of the 

 Santa Fe marls in the Rio Grande Valley and the Wasatch Eocene 

 specimens from along the course of the Gallinas River in New Mexico. 

 All these fossils were shii^ped to Philadelphia for Cope to study, but 

 after publication of his report ^- they were transferred by the War De- 

 partment to the custody of the National Museum. They formed a 

 most important contribution to the paleontological collections of that 

 time because of the considerable number of type and figured specimens 

 included. 



In 1877, Dr. A. C. Peale, who acted as geologist for the Green River 

 division of the Hayden sun^ey, was instrumental in bringing together 

 a considerable collection of Eocene Green River fishes. These were 

 transferred to the National Museum but later were sent to Professor 

 Cope at Philadelphia for study and description.^^ The collection re- 

 mained there until after his death, being returned to the National 

 Museum bv the executors of his estate in 1898. 



'"Rep. U. S. Geogr. and Geol. Surv. West of the 100th Meridian (Wheeler), vol. 4, pt. 2, 

 lS-7. 



" Rep. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr. (Hayden), vol. 3, 1884. 



