26 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 9 



tary canyons, Las Animas County, and to brief inspection of several 

 open sites in Baca County, heart of the "dust bowl," where three 

 open camp sites were visited. From badly blown fields local col- 

 lectors claim to have taken Folsom and Yuma artifacts and, in one 

 instance, remains of an extinct camel. Miscellaneous flints, scrapers, 

 knives, projectile points, and hammerstones were gathered, but 

 nothing of demonstrably ancient date. On one site were small scat- 

 tered piles of burnt and cracked stones; others showed black soil 

 areas suggestive of hearths. All sites examined were near dry 

 watercourses or on old dried-up shallow lake beds. In general it 

 was found that (1) local rock shelters are mostly small and shallow, 

 giving little promise of producing cultural remains as old as Folsom 

 or Yuma are usually believed to be; (2) local collectors unanimously 

 aver that such ancient remains are exceedingly rare in the cave and 

 canyon country, though many occur in the sandy blown-out region 

 from Baca County north; (3) occasional rock shelters do contain 

 cultural vestiges, which, while apparently not geologically ancient, 

 certainly merit careful scientific scrutiny before untrained excavators 

 destroy the record. On June 8, 1939, Dr. Wedel returned to central 

 Kansas to continue work of recovering an outline of the various 

 prehistoric and historic Indian cultures. 



Henry B. Collins, Jr., at the request of the National Park Service, 

 spent a short time in checking the purported site of the former 

 Chickasaw village of Ackia, near Tupelo, Miss. During this brief 

 investigation he was able to verify the documentary records con- 

 cerning this important village, which played an important role in 

 the decisive battle of Ackia. 



Biology. — The Presidential cruise of 1938 in the U. S. S. Eotiston 

 resulted in the addition of important collections to the National 

 Museum. At the invitation of President Roosevelt, Dr. Waldo L. 

 Schmitt, Curator of Marine Invertebrates, sen-ed as naturalist on 

 this cruise, which covered 5,888 miles in 24 days, from July 16 to 

 August 9, Fourteen stops were made for fishing and scientific col- 

 lecting, distributed in the territories of five different nations : Mexico 

 (Baja California and Socorro Island) ; France (Clipperton Island) ; 

 Ecuador (Galapagos Islands) ; Costa Rica (Cocos Island) ; and 

 Colombia (Old Providence Island in the Caribbean). About 10,000 

 specimens were obtained, including 250 specimens of fishes represent- 

 ing 60 different species. More than 30 new species, subspecies, and 

 varieties of animals and plants were discovered. Outstanding among 

 them was a new genus and species of palm from Cocos Island, which 

 was named Rooseveltia franJdiniana by the describer. Dr. O. F. Cook, 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture. Throughout the 

 cruise the President took an active part and a lively interest in the 

 collecting. 



