42 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



formations north of Bow Valley, the main objects of this year's 

 work being to determine the correct geologic horizon of the Lyell 

 limestone. Many attempts to do this during the past six years 

 resulted in failure, and it really seemed that these great lime- 

 stone beds were barren of fossils. In measuring geologic sections 

 in the Tilted Mountain Area, however, interbedded bluish-gray 

 layers containing fragments of Upper Cambrian trilobites were at 

 last found, which proved their correct geologic horizon. 



Dr. Charles E. Resser continued his field explorations of the Cam- 

 brian and associated formations. Dr. R. S. Bassler, in cooperation 

 with the geological survey of Tennessee, continued his work in that 

 State, and at the same time made collections of Mississippian fossils 

 for the Museum. Mr. Erwin R. Pohl was detailed for a short time 

 to make collections from the celebrated Rysedorph conglomerate of 

 northern New York, which resulted in a good series of fossils for the 

 Museum. 



In coojDeration with the National Park Service, Mr. C. W. Gilmore, 

 curator of vertebrate paleontology, visited the Grand Canyon Na- 

 tional Park, Ariz., for the purpose of accompanying the Dolieny 

 scientific expedition as an observer to investigate and make col- 

 lections of fossil tracks exposed in the Coconino sandstone and to 

 prepare an exhibit of the tracks in situ by the side of the Hermit 

 Trail leading into the Grand Canyon. His trip was a most success- 

 ful one in all of its aspects, a series of slabs some 2,000 pounds in 

 weight and containing a splendid series of the fossil footprints being 

 collected and shipped to the Museum. Dr. J. W. Gidley, of the geo- 

 logical staff of the Museum, visited the region around Melbourne, 

 Fla., on two occasions during the year and secured an interesting 

 collection of fossils. He also visited Adele, Iowa, for the purpose of 

 studying the geology of a formation in Avhich had been found certain 

 human artifacts. Continuing the practice of previous years, Mr. 

 Norman Boss made several short trips to the Calvert Cliffs along 

 Chesapeake Bay in search of Miocene fossils. 



A movement which promises important results to the Museum was 

 inaugurated in the summer of 1924, when the Secretary of the Navy 

 invited the Smithsonian Institution to participate in a conference of 

 representatives of the executive departments and scientific establish- 

 ments of the Government of the United States for the purpose ol" 

 formulating plans for a naval expedition to undertake investigations 

 in oceanography. Mr, Austin Clark, Dr. AYaldo L. Schmitt, and Dr. 

 Paul Bartsch, of the Museum staff, were designated as representa- 

 tives of the Institution on this occasion, and at the close of the meet- 

 ing Mr. Clark was chosen as representative of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution and its branches on an executive interim committee. 



