200 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Tertiary ancestral stock which also gave rise both to the Balaenopteridae (fin whales) 

 and to the Balsenidse (right whales). 



The department of ichthyology and herpetology has just received through 

 exchange from the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Australia, an interesting series 

 of specimens of fishes and reptiles from the Australian region. 



At Rancho La Brea near Los Angeles, California, is a series of ancient asphalt 

 pools covering many acres, which contain thousands of skeletons of a great variety 

 of extinct animals of the Pleistocene epoch. Ground sloths, sabre-tooths, extinct 

 species of wolves and many other animals are heaped together in amazing profusion. 

 To the Section of Biology, New York Academy of Sciences, Dr. Matthew recently 

 described his visit to Rancho La Brea, touching especially on its probable origin, 

 and on the way in which the remains of the entrapped animals had been dissociated 

 and intermingled. He also exhibited some of the fossils from this formation which 

 had been secured in exchange from the University of California through the coopera- 

 tion of Professor J. C. Merriam. 



The cover of this number of the Journal is designed from objects of antiquity 

 and historic value in the Morgan gem collection. Babylonian cylinders dating from 

 4000 to 400 b. c. are combined in the border, an enlargement of a portion of a fifteenth 

 century turquoise inscribed with two thousand words of the Koran forms the inner 

 band, and an agate axhammer of ancient workmanship occupies the lower left-hand 

 corner. The cylinders are engraved with figures and names on various minerals 

 such as lapis-lazuli, jasper, chalcedony, steatite, hematite and agate. The ax- 

 hammer of banded agate was in the possession of Cardinal Borgia while at the head 

 of the Propoganda, was acquired from the Countess Ettore Borgia by Count Michael 

 Tyskiewiez for 15,000 francs ($3000) and purchased by Tiffany and Company soon 

 after his death. It found its way into the Museum's gem collection through the 

 generosity of Mr. Morgan. 



The Berlin Museum has for some years past conducted explorations in the 

 dinosaur beds of German East Africa. These explorations, financed upon a far more 

 liberal scale than those of American museums, have secured splendid collections 

 of dinosaurs from that region. While the preparation and study of these collections 

 will doubtless take some time to complete, the preliminary reports which have been 

 published indicate that they will equal or surpass anything that has been found in 

 this country. The largest of these East African dinosaurs, distinguished by an ex- 

 traordinary length of neck and fore limb, is probably related to the imperfectly 

 known Brachiosaurus of this country and much exceeds the Brontosaurus or 

 Diplodocus in the size of these parts. With this were found partial or nearly com- 

 plete skeletons of numerous smaller dinosaurs, and various other remains. Three 

 successive faunae have been distinguished by the German geologists, and it is hoped 

 that much may be learned as to the evolution of these extraordinary reptiles. 



The total cost of the expedition is stated at 180,000 marks ($45,000) up to 1912, 

 most of which was raised by private subscription. An additional sum of 50,000 marks 

 has since been voted by the Prussian government. This liberal support attests the 

 widespread interest in scientific progress displayed by the German people and in 

 particular their interest in these records of the past history of the world. Yet as Dr. 

 Edward Hennig, from whose description [Am Tendaguru, Schweizerbart'sche 

 Verlagsbuchhandlung: Stuttgart, 1912] the above facts are mainly taken, remarks, 

 the amount is small in comparison with the cost of say the German Antarctic expedi- 

 tion for which 1,500,000 marks were subscribed. 



