450 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vOL. 45 



As a result of this trip sixteen boxes of European fossils have 

 arrived at the National Museum — a good nucleus for comparative 

 studies with the American faunas. 



A Noteworthy Crinoid 



Frank Springer, Esq., of East Las Vegas, New Mexico, recently- 

 presented to the United States National Museum a slab, nearly five 

 feet square, covered with the Uinta crinoid (Uintacriniis socialis 

 Grinnell). This slab is a piece of one mass originally fifty feet 

 long by twenty feet wide, and was collected by Mr. Springer in 

 the upper part of the Niobrara foraminiferal chalk (Upper Creta- 

 ceous), near Elkader, Logan county, Kansas. The slab shown in 

 plate cm has about 140 bodies or crowns of this crinoid, but orig- 

 inally there were several times as many, because the slab, three- 

 eighths of an inch in thickness, is composed of them. This ten- 

 rayed crinoid was a free floating species, and at times probably held 

 itself to foreign objects by its long, slender arms. One specimen 

 on this slab preserves several complete arms having a length of 36 

 inches, but the largest individuals are estimated to have had an 

 arm-spread of 8 feet 4 inches, " a size far exceeding that of any 

 other known crinoid, recent or fossil." 



Charles Schuchert. 



Shields from Western Sumatra 



Dr. W. L. Abbott has recently sent to the National Museum a 

 number of wooden shields from Nias and Batu islands, lying off 

 the western coast of Sumatra. Each of these shields is carved 

 from a single piece of the strong light wood of the oil tree (Diptero- 

 carpits), and consists of an elliptic body, concavo-convex in trans- 

 verse section, with projecting club-like ends. The shield is strength- 

 ened by a midrib on the exterior, which is expanded into a boss in 

 which the hand-grip is excavated. The thin wings on each side of 

 the midrib are strengthened at intervals with a horizontal sewing, 

 of bark cord or rattan strips, through perforations. This sewing 

 is done with two pairs of cords parted to each side at the start ; 

 each pair is then twisted between the perforations, one free end 

 from each pair is passed through the hole in opposite directions, 

 and twisted with the remaining cord as before. This results in 

 what seems to be a continuous two-strand cord extending evenly on 

 both sides of the shield, the holes being hidden. By this sewing the 

 thin wines of the shield are made verv strong with but little increase 



