EDITOR S PREFACE. IX 



Jones, Thomas D. Jones, Cyrus McCormick and Stanley McCormick, 

 of Chicago. 



Several officers of the United States Government took a very helpful 

 interest in the expeditions and rendered invaluable aid, making the way 

 plain before them and securing for them the recognition of the Argen- 

 tinian officials, of whose courtesy Mr. Hatcher speaks gratefully. Hon. 

 James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture ; Hon. David J. Hill, Assistant 

 Secretary of State ; Hon. George Gray, Justice of the United States 

 Supreme Court ; Dr. C. Hart Merriam, of the Department of Agriculture, 

 and Mr. W J McGee, of the Bureau of Ethnology, have a large claim 

 upon our gratitude for repeated and most valuable assistance. 



Appreciative mention should also be made of the kindness of Messrs. 

 Busk and Jevons, New York agents of the Lamport & Holt line of 

 steamers, and of Messrs. W. R. Grace & Co., who aided the expeditions 

 in very material fashion rn the matter of passenger fares and freight 

 charges on their steamships. 



In the spring of last year (1901), the editor of these volumes found it 

 necessary, in the interest of the publication, to visit the Museums of La 

 Plata and Buenos Aires and study the collections there gathered. He is 

 glad of this opportunity to express his feelings of profound, gratitude to 

 those who did everything in their power to render these investigations 

 helpful and satisfactory. 



Dr. Florentino Ameghino, now Director of the National Museum at 

 Buenos Aires, but then living at La Plata, permitted the freest possible 

 use of his great private collection of Patagonian fossils, a collection which 

 is especially valuable because it contains by far the largest number of 

 the type-specimens of the genera and species named from Patagonian 

 formations. 



Dr. F. P. Moreno, Director of the La Plata Museum, then in London 

 as a member of the Argentinian Boundary Commission, placed his mus- 

 eum and all its resources unreservedly at the disposal of the visitor, who, 

 living in the building for several months, enjoyed its hospitality in the 

 most literal sense of the word. The Secretary of the Museum, Sr. R. 

 Catani, and the Curators, Dr. Santiago Roth, Professor R. Hauthal, Dr. 

 R. Lehmann-Nitsche and Sr. Carlos Bruch, were indefatigable in their 

 assistance, and most hearty thanks are due to each and all of them for 

 countless instances of helpful kindness. 



