48 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1963 



ama, collecting not only specimens of fossil woods but also conven- 

 tional herbarium specimens and associated wood samples in the fossil 

 localities for comparison with the fossil flora. An abundance of fossil 

 woods was found on the Azuero Peninsula, particularly in the environs 

 of the village of Ocu. Two other localities for fossil woods, both 

 on the isthmus proper, were discovered, one near the town of La Mesa 

 and the other near Colorado, a tiny settlement southwest of Calobre. 

 Petrifactions from the two new areas superficially resemble those 

 from Ocu. 



Dr. G. A. Cooper, head curator of geology, in company with Drs. 

 Thomas G. Gibson and Druid Wilson of the U.S. Geological Survey, 

 in October visited a fossil site near Hampton, Va., known as Rice's 

 Pit. Although this has become a very popular place for collecting, 

 Dr. Cooper and his party obtained some good material, especially of 

 the smaller fossils. Mr. and Mrs. William M. Eice, who own the pit, 

 and Mrs. George Webb, a neighbor, donated examples of the rarer 

 species. 



For a month beginning late in April, Dr. Cooper was occupied 

 in a revisionary study of the stratigraphy of the Glass Mountains 

 in the vicmity of Marathon, Tex. He was assisted by Dr. Richard 

 Grant, of the U.S. Geological Survey, and Jolin L. Carter, museum 

 teclmician. The trip took them to a number of places not heretofore 

 visited by geologists and accessible only with great difficulty. The 

 objective was to verify new views on Glass Mountains stratigraphy 

 which had been developed as a result of work done on the brachiopods 

 therefrom. 



Dr. Cooper and his party spent a day at the end of May in the 

 Chmati Mountains south of Marfa, Tex., looking for certain types 

 of fossils reported to occur in that locality. From here they went 

 to Van Horn, Tex., which they used as a base for forays into the 

 Sierra Diablo, Guadalupe, and Apache Mountains. 



Early in September, Edward P. Henderson, associate curator of 

 mineralogy and petrology, and Roy S. Clarke, Jr., analytical chemist, 

 attended an informal conference in the British Museum (Natural His- 

 tory) on methods of chemical analysis of meteorites. Before and after 

 the meeting they inspected the museum's collections of meteorites and 

 tektites and conferred with staff members about problems of organiza- 

 tion, equipment, and scientific procedure. 



In the Netherlands, Messrs. Henderson and Clarke visited the Uni- 

 versity of Utrecht and Prof. G. H. R. von Koenigswald, who has one 

 of the world's finest tektite collections. Arrangements were made with 

 him for an exchange. In Mainz, Germany, they discussed mutual 

 problems with the staff of the Max Planck Institute. Dr. H. Wiinlce 

 of the institute showed them a new shipment of tektites from which 



