MUSEUM NEWS NOTES 117 
Tuer Department of Invertebrate Paleontology has recently placed 
on exhibition several interesting series of fossils. Among these may be 
mentioned about fifty specimens of Crinoids, or “sea lilies,’ from the 
famous beds of Lower Carboniferous age at Crawfordsville, Indiana. 
These are part of a particularly fine set that was received with the 
Cope Collection, presented to the Museum by President Jesup. An- 
other noteworthy collection is the series of Unios from Hell Creek, 
Montana, presented to the Museum by Mr. Barnum Brown. ‘These 
Unios are of latest Cretaceous time, that is to say they are millions of 
years old, but they are so much like the “fresh water clams” which 
inhabit the rivers and lakes of the Mississippi basin at the present time 
that the region in which they occur is undoubtedly the original home of 
our living forms. ‘The present Unios are the shells from which are 
obtained the fresh water pearls of commerce. A little series of fossils 
from Grantland, 82° 37’ north latitude, was brought back by the Peary 
Expedition in 1906. ‘The fossils are of Carboniferous age and prove the 
existence of a mild climate in these far northern regions in Palzeozoic 
‘ 
time. 
Dr. D. Le Sover, Director of the Zodlogical Gardens, Melbourne, 
Australia, and delegate of the Colonial Government to the Seventh 
International Zodlogical Congress, gave an illustrated lecture at the 
Museum on Monday evening, September 9, under the auspices of the 
New York Academy of Sciences. His subject was ‘The Wild Animal 
Life of Australia,” and he presented a series of remarkable and interest- 
ing photographs illustrating the strange animals of Australia and their 
home surroundings. Dr. Le Souéf’s collection of such photographs 
was made by himself and is a result of wide experience in the field. It 
is considered the most complete in existence. 
Proressor MarsHauu H. Savitie, Honorary Curator of Archeology, 
arrived in New York September 10 on his return from Ecuador, where he 
had devoted about three months to field work in the coast region. He 
had most excellent success in collecting, and obtained a large quantity of 
material illustrating the Pre-Columbian life of the region, a region which 
is practically unknown to the scientific public. Mr. George H. Pepper 
of the Department of Ethnology, who accompanied Professor Saville, 
remained in Ecuador for additional work and returned to New York 
October 2. 
