SECRETARY'S REPORT 21 



At the request of the Institute de Antropologia e Historia, Dr. 

 W. F. Foshag, head curator of geology, on detail from the National 

 Museum, traveled to Guatemala and devoted 3 months to a study of 

 the mineralogical composition of Meso-American archeological jade 

 objects in the Museo de Antropologia at Guatemala City, the well- 

 known Rossbach collection in the Municipal Museum at Chichecasten- 

 ango, the Robles collection at Quetzaltenango, and the Nottlebahn 

 collections. As part of a project relating to the mineralogy and geo- 

 chemistry of saline mineral deposits, Dr. George S. Switzer spent 3 

 months investigating the origin and occurrence of rare sulfate minerals 

 at The Geysers and Island Mountain, Calif. 



Paleontological field work financed from the income of the Walcott 

 bequest brought new materials from Panamd, Cuba, and the United 

 States to the collections. The four field parties studying problems 

 in invertebrate paleontology in the United States comprised the fol- 

 lowing: Dr. G. A. Cooper, W. T. Allen, and Alwyn Williams, visiting 

 Commonwealth Fellow from Wales, collected lower Middle Ordovician 

 brachiopods at various localities in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, 

 Temiessee, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico; 

 Dr. A. R. Loeblich and W. T. Allen carried on field investigtaions in 

 the Lower Cretaceous of Oklahoma and Texas; lower Middle Ordo- 

 vician strata in Pennsylvania and New York were examined by Dr. 

 Cooper and Mr. Williams; and David Nicol visited Upper Cretaceous 

 and Tertiary beds in North Carolina and Vu-ginia. Dr. C. L. Gazin, 

 curator of vertebrate paleontology, assisted by F. L. Pearce, searched 

 for Paleocene mammals in the Puerco and Torrejon horizons in the 

 San Juan Basin of New Mexico, and later in the season transferred 

 the field work to the Lower Eocene Kjiight formation in the vicinity 

 of Big Piney and LaBarge in western Wyoming. At the invitation 

 of the Museo Nacional de Panamd and with the cooperation of the 

 Panamanian Government, Dr. Gazin, with Dr. T. E. White as assist- 

 ant, proceeded to Herrera Province where they achieved considerable 

 success in the excavation of remains of the giant ground sloth Mega- 

 therium. A part of this collection will eventually be returned to Panamd 

 for display. Associate Curator David H. Dunkle was highly success- 

 ful in obtaining an excellent series of fossil fish and ammonites from 

 the Jurassic Jagua formation in the Pinar del Rio region of western 

 Cuba. 



PUBLICATIONS 



During the fiscal year 1949-50, 29 publications were issued: 1 Annual 

 Report, 2 in the Bulletin series, 22 in the Proceedings, and 4 numbers of 

 the Contributions from the United States National Herbarium. A list 

 of these is given in the complete report on Smithsonian publications. 



