PRACTICAL VALUE OF THE EXCURSION 



strous mammalian bones, remnants of Nature's efforts in pre- 

 paring the various beasts of the present time; the gravel-spread 

 and boulder-dotted terraces of the Pleistocene age, records of the 

 former floods wrhich worked so faithfully to humble the pride of 

 the rising Rockies, and convey their grandeur to beautify and 

 enrich the plains of the Mississippi — all these are now vivid 

 realities in the minds of all who rode over them and worked 

 about them with this expedition. 



2. It will furnish substantial contributions to science. It 

 is not yet time to sum up results in this line. Months and per- 

 haps years may pass before we know what new species have 

 been found, what conclusions are reached by many minds 

 brought face to face with that wonderful region. It was not an 

 unknown region. Many bright minds had already traversed it. 

 Yet some new discoveries may be, at least, hinted. Numer- 

 ous deciduous leaves were found mixed with abundant marine 

 forms in the Fox Hills beds. A considerable fauna of fresh- 

 water invertebrates was found in the dinosaur beds of the Jurassic. 

 TTiis will no doubt be fully presented by those more closely 

 identified with the discovery. The opinion that the Fox Hills 

 group is but a sandy local development of the Fort Pierre will 

 be strengthened by the work of the expedition, and furthermore 

 it may appear that the Laramie is but a local fresh water stage 

 of the same. 



Several additional new features have been revealed in the 

 dinosaur bones unearthed by this expedition. 



3. It has and will promote popular interest in science and 

 education. This is not only by the public press and the pictures 

 and fossils scattered by the members of the expedition throughout 

 the country, but by the individual articles and lectures and by 

 the proposed illustrated history. 



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