306 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.90 



prior to 1900, he was able to furnish information that otherwise would 

 have been irretrievably lost. 



EARLIEST VERTEBRATE COLLECTIONS, 1846 TO 1886 



The history of the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology may be 

 said to date from the year 1846, when by act of Congress the custody 

 of the National Cabinet of Curiosities, then in the Old Patent Office 

 Building, was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. The act 

 provided that "all objects of natural history, plants, and geological 

 and mineralogical specimens belonging or hereafter to belong to 

 the United States," and which were then in the city of Washington, 

 should be delivered to the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 and together with new specimens obtained by exchange, donation, 

 or otherwise, should be so arranged and classified as best to facilitate 

 their examination and study. A subsequent act (Sundry Civil Act 

 of March 3, 1879), decreed that "all collections of rocks, minerals, 

 soils, fossils, and objects of natural history, archaeology, and eth- 

 nology, made by the Coast and Interior Survey, the Geological Sur- 

 vey, or by any other parties for the Government of the United States, 

 when no longer needed for investigations in progress, shall be de- 

 posited in the National Museum," 



The vertebrate paleontological material brought together under 

 these acts prior to 1886 was relatively small in quantity and of a mis- 

 cellaneous character, though of much scientific interest because of the 

 number of type and figured specimens it contained. It consisted 

 mainly of fossils collected by the early exploring expeditions, such as 

 the surveys under the direction of the General Land Office, 1849-58 ; 

 the surveys for the Pacific Railroads, 1854-55 ; the surveys west of the 

 100th meridian under the direction of the Engineer Corps of the 

 United States Army, 1874; and the United States geological and 

 geographical surveys under the direction of Dr. F. V. Hayden, 

 1856-72. 



In 1849 Dr. John Evans, an assistant to the eminent geologist 

 Dr. David Dale Owen, was directed to visit the Maiwaises Terres 

 of South Dakota and make a collection of the fossil vertebrate re- 

 mains that up to that time were known only to the Indians, trappers, 

 and a few explorers. Among the fossils obtained, which were later 

 submitted to Dr. Joseph Leidy for study, was the Merycoidodon 

 (Oreodon) of that time. 



In 1853 Dr. Evans, accompanied by Dr. B. F. Shumard, again 

 visited the Badlands while on his way to Oregon for the purpose 

 of making a geological survey of that territory. At this time he 

 made a collection of fossil mammals and turtles, all of which were 

 sent by the Commissioner of the Land Office to the Smithsonian In- 



