DIVISION OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY GILMORE 309 



These same aiitliors (p. 141) call attention to two other Oligocene 

 specimens of this same collection in the paleontological collections of 

 Columbia University. Through the generosity of Prof. G. Marshall 

 Kay, these have since been returned to the National Museum. 



Other parts of these early collections were a very long time in 

 reaching the national collections. In the Annual Report of the 

 National Museum for 1888, it is recorded that a small collection of 

 Wliite River fossils, including the type of Testudo eulhertsoni Leidy, 

 was deposited by Indiana University. The record is not complete, 

 but it appears quite certain that after these specimens had been 

 studied by Leidy they were returned to Dr. David Dale Owen, who- 

 was then State Geologist of Indiana, where he died in 1860. Al- 

 though it is clearly evident that these specimens were Government 

 property, the following statement from the Report of the National 

 Museum for 1891 (p. 10), is at least of interest. 



'•The Owen type specimens of fossils, mentioned on page 759 of th& 

 report of the National Museum for 1888 as having been 'presented' ta 

 the Museum by the Indiana State University through the courtesy of 

 the university, will be retained in the National Museum as a 'deposif^ 

 subject to the order of the board of trustees of the university." 



A fire that occurred in the Smithsonian Building in January 

 1865 burned some stored duplicate Museum materials belonging to 

 other divisions, but nowhere in the records is it found that vertebrate 

 fossils were destroyed. Nevertheless, this conflagration has for years 

 served as a convenient explanation for the absence of certain speci- 

 mens that were missing from the collections. 



In 1858, Dr. James Deane, of Greenfield, Mass., made a request 

 to Secretary Baird for the Smithsonian Institution to publish his 

 manuscript on the fossil footprints of the Connecticut Valley. 

 On account of the expense involved, and the fact that the manuscript 

 was unfinished, the Secretary was unable to approve the project. 

 Through the generosity of friends and the cooperation of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, this work was privately published in 1861, shortly 

 after Dr. Deane's death, under the title "Ichnographs from the Sand- 

 stone of Connecticut River." 



In 1859, Dr. J. S. Newberry, as geologist, accompanied the topo- 

 graphic expedition for the exploration of the San Juan River and 

 Upper Colorado under the leadership of Capt. J. N. Macomb, U. S. 

 Army. The type specimen of the sauropod dinosaur Dystrophaeus 

 videmalae Cope was collected by Newberry in southern Utah, and it,, 

 with other vertebrate fossils obtained, was deposited in the Smith- 

 sonian paleontological collections. 



The Museum's early r*ecords regarding the fossils collected by 

 Dr. F. V. Hayden and his geological exploring parties are very in- 



