REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 27 



The season's work was brought to a close with collecting in the 

 Wabash region of Indiana, where Silurian fossils were obtained 

 from reefy masses near Peru, and in southern Indiana from De- 

 vonian and Mississippian rocks. Although the purpose of this long 

 trip was to build up the weak parts of the study series of invertebrate 

 fossils, equally important was the information obtained for definite 

 placement stratigraphically of the Museum sets of fossils obtained 

 in the days when such correlation was not so accurate. The Lower 

 Ordovician fossils from Nevada and Texas, Permian of Texas, Penn- 

 sylvanian of central Texas, and Silurian from east-central Missouri 

 and north-central Indiana, resulting from this trip, were all new 

 to the collections. 



Dr. E. O. TJlrich, associate in paleontology, in order to further 

 his stratigraphic studies of Appalachian Valley geology and to test 

 certain conclusions before publication, spent the month of September 

 in field work in the southern section of the area, and a shorter time 

 in June in Pennsylvania. Good collections were made, but most 

 important was the information obtained to place stratigraphically 

 the Museum's older sets of fossils. 



In the division of vertebrate paleontology, C. W. Gilmore was 

 detailed early in the spring of 1940 to accompany Earl Trager, of the 

 National Park Service, on a reconnaissance trip to the site of a pro- 

 posed national park in the Big Bend region of Texas. Although no 

 collections were made, the area was determined as a field of much 

 promise for dinosaur remains. The main field operations of the 

 year for this division were conducted by Dr. C. Lewis Gazin, assist- 

 ant curator, who left Washington early in June 1939 to head an 

 expedition into the Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene regions of 

 Utah, a continuation in part of two previous seasons of field work. 

 In the upper Cretaceous along the westerly slope of North Horn 

 Mountain, several partially articulated lizard skeletons and two 

 incomplete ceratopsian skulls were among the specimens collected. 

 In the Paleocene numerous fragmentary mammal specimens, con- 

 sisting chiefly of jaw fragments and teeth, were obtained. As many 

 of the latter represented new forms of multituberculates, taeniodonts, 

 and other primitive forms, this collection contributes much informa- 

 tion to the fauna of the Dragon formation. 



Early in June 1940 Dr. Gazin left to continue the work in the 

 Paleocene of Utah in the vicinity of North Horn Mountain and 

 then to the Eocene of the Bridger Basin of Wyoming. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



Visitors. — A total of 2,506,171 visitors at the various Museum 

 buildings was recorded for the year. Tliis is 271,826 more than 

 the number for the previous year and represents an all-time record 



