THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



terest, because, contrary to usual practice, the body had been 

 enclosed in a rude box made by placing about it thin slabs of 

 stone, and the cist thus formed had been covered with jagged 

 fragments of rock, over which earth was spread. This doll-like 

 carving of antler is considered to be one of the finest pieces of 

 prehistoric art ever found in Northwestern America. 



On the whole the expedition may be considered particularly 

 fortunate in getting archaeological data and material which tend 

 to prove the occupation of the Yakima region by a people of a 

 hitherto unknown culture. 



DEPARTMENT OF VERTEBRATE PAL/EONTOLOGY : 

 FIELD EXPLORATIONS IN 1903. 



HE past summer was a very successful season for 

 the Department of Vertebrate Palaeontology. 

 Five expeditions were in the field, three for 

 fossil mammals, two for fossil reptiles, and all 

 have met with much success. The objects of 

 the expeditions were: 



1. Jurassic Dinosaurs. The great Bone Cabin Quarry in 

 Wyoming continues to furnish fine specimens of these gigantic 

 extinct reptiles. For this season the prize specimen, found by 

 Mr. Kaison, is a complete skull and the jaws of a great Amphibi- 

 ous Dinosaur, hitherto one of the especial needs of the collection, 



2. Cretaceous Reptiles. Two years ago Mr. Harry Dougherty 

 of Hat Creek, Wyoming, discovered part of a fossil skeleton not 

 far from his ranch. This specimen was purchased for the Mu- 

 seum by Professor Osbom, and through Mr. Dougherty's courtesy 

 our representative was able to look over the neighborhood where 

 it was found. It seemed to promise well for further discoveries, 

 and accordingly Mr. Barnum Brown was sent out last spring to 

 explore it. He found a number of complete skeletons of Mosa- 

 saurs fifteen to twenty feet long, and incomplete skeletons of 

 Plesiosaurs forty feet long. These were great carnivorf)us mar- 

 ine reptiles, the Plesiosaurs with long snaky neck, while the 

 Mosasaurs were more compactly built. 



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