REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 25 



Museum now has an important series of Permian and Pennsylvanian 

 fossils. 



As the field expedition in vertebrate paleontology into the Upper 

 Cretaceous and Paleocene regions of Utah, under Dr. C. L. Gazin, 

 associate curator, extended well into the present year, only brief men- 

 tion was made of it in last year's report. The party succeeded in ob- 

 taining some unusually good material of the smaller mammals, the most 

 outstanding being the lower jaws and fragmentary parts of the skeleton 

 of the rare Stylinodon, and good specimens of the larger forms such as 

 Hyrachyus and Paleosyops. Other interesting materials are a large 

 slab of turtle remains, which will make an interesting exhibition piece, 

 and a small collection of Paleocene mammals from the Alma forma- 

 tion in western Wyoming. 



Starting early in June 1942, C. W. Gilmore, curator of vertebrate 

 paleontology, led a party to explore the Oligocene rocks of eastern 

 Wyoming and western Nebraska, where good progress in the discovery 

 of mammalian remains has already been reported. Mr. Gilmore had as 

 assistant the experienced collector George H. Sternberg, and was ac- 

 companied also by Alfonso Segura Paguaga, of the Museo Nacional, 

 San Jose, Costa Rica. The account of operations will be carried in 

 next year's report. 



In continuation of former field work in Mexico, Dr. W. F. Foshag, 

 curator of mineralogy and petrology, returned to that country in Feb- 

 ruary, under a cooperative arrangement with the United States Ge- 

 ological Survey and with the Board of Economic Warfare, to direct 

 further strategic-mineral work. At the end of the fiscal year he was 

 still in the field. 



From March 17 until May 15, 1942, Dr. Eemington Kellogg, curator 

 of mammals, with Watson M. Perrj^go, scientific aid, as assistant, was 

 engaged in excavating Rampart Cave, in the lower cliff-forming mem- 

 ber of the Middle Cambrian Peasley limestone, on the south side of the 

 lower end of the Colorado River canyon, in the Boulder Dam National 

 Recreational Area, Ariz. This was a cooperative project, undertaken 

 by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service. The 

 latter agency detailed Edward T. Schenk, senior geological foreman, 

 Samuel D. Hendricks, assistant engineer, Dr. Gordon C. Baldwin, 

 archeologist, Ray Poyser, boat pilot, and seven men from the Boulder 

 City Civilian Conservation Corps camp for intervals of varying length 

 to assist in the work. The party obtained skeletal remains of ground 

 sloths, mountain goats, pumas, marmots, skunks, and several species 

 of birds, lizards, and snakes. Part of the cave was left undisturbed 

 as a display for visitors, if it should seem desirable to develop it for 

 that purpose at some time in the future. 



