EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



The great enterprise of a scientific exploration of Patagonia, which was 

 planned by Mr. J. B. Hatcher, resulted in a remarkable success, because 

 of the indomitable determination in the face of most discouraging obstacles, 

 which was displayed by him and by Messrs. O. A. Peterson and A. E. Col- 

 burn, his two assistants. The reader of Mr. Hatcher's "Narrative" will 

 gain some conception of the difficulties of every kind with which the work 

 was beset, but one must read between the lines to understand how great 

 those difficulties were and how often they seemed to be insurmountable. 

 Only the greatest courage, in union with long experience and unusual 

 skill, could have achieved such distinguished success. 



It should be emphasized that the chief object of the expeditions was to 

 make collections of the vertebrate and invertebrate fossils of Patagonia, in 

 which the discoveries of the brothers Ameghino had so strongly aroused the 

 interest of the scientific world. Some of the most important and far-reach- 

 ing of geological and biological problems had been raised by the writings 

 of Dr. Florentine Ameghino and it seemed most desirable to have a 

 thoroughly representative series of the Patagonian fossils in some museum 

 where they might be minutely studied in connection with the fossils of the 

 northern hemisphere. In this, their principal purpose, the expeditions 

 were brilliantly successful. How large and important the collections are, 

 may be readily seen from an examination of the palaeontological mono- 

 graphs of these Reports, Volumes IV. to VII. inclusive. It is confidently 

 expected that the study of this abundant material (still far from completion 

 at the present date of writing) will bring the definitive solution of some of 

 the problems alluded to above. 



The intelligent collection of fossils involves the determination of strati- 

 graphical succession, and Mr. Hatcher was able to accomplish a great deal 

 of most useful work in this connection, making possible, for the first time, 

 a rational account of the geology of large areas in southern Patagonia. 



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