4 PROCEEDINGS OP THE NATIONAL MUSEUM VOL.81 



In their final excavating work before abandoning operations, the 

 Carnegie Museum collectors uncovered two partially articulated sau- 

 ropod skeletons. When these facts were communicated to the offi- 

 cials of the Smithsonian Institution, plans were immediately made 

 to take up the work in order to secure a mountable skeleton of one 

 of these huge reptiles for the national collections. It was my privi- 

 lege to be placed in charge of this expedition. 



I arrived at the quarry about the middle of May, 1923, and a pre- 

 liminary survey showed that of the two skeletons partly worked out 

 in relief (see fig. 1) the one bearing the field designation No. 355, 

 although lacking the neck, appeared to offer the best basis for an 

 exhibition skeleton. At the time it appeared to be beautifully sup- 

 plemented by a second specimen with the cervicals present and of 

 approximately the same size, but later, after preparation in the lab- 

 oratory, this neck was found to pertain to the genus Barosaurus and 

 therefore was no longer available for our purposes. 



Regular work in the quarry was begun during the latter part of 

 May and proceeded continuously up to August 8, in which time all 

 of No. 355 and the parts needed of the second individual, were col- 

 lected and packed for shipment. The three men employed — J. T. 

 Kay, E. M. York, and Golden York — all with experience in this 

 kind of collecting, together with the skillful assistance of N. H. Boss 

 from the National Museum, were largely responsible for the success- 

 ful outcome of the operations. Difficulty was encountered in han- 

 dling by primitive methods and in the subsequent arduous work of 

 boxing and transporting the immense blocks of stone inclosing the 

 bones. The largest block quarried containing the sacrum with at- 

 tached hip bones weighed nearly 6,000 pounds when ready for ship- 

 ment. The transportation of the boxes to the railroad involved 

 a haul by teams of 150 miles across country and over a range of 

 mountains 9,000 feet above sea level. However, 34 large boxes, 

 having a combined weight of 25 tons, were safely transported to the 

 Museum. 



Position of the skeleton in the ground. — The specimen lay on its 

 left side. The vertebral column was articulated beginning with the 

 fragmentary centrum of the fifteenth cervical back to and including 

 the fifth caudal. The cervical end of the column was protruding 

 from the outcropping ledge of rock, and if the anterior cervical 

 vertebrae were originally present, they had long since been eroded 

 away and destroyed. The remaining part of the tail had been car- 

 ried to the eastward and lay extended at right angles to the thoracic 

 part of the skeleton, as clearly shown in the quarry diagram. (See 

 fig. 1.) In all, 32 caudal vertebrae were recovered, all being in 

 articulated sequence except for the dislocation between the fifth and 



