80 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1959 
pottery and an abundance of sheet-copper fragments. This party 
broke camp and returned to the Lincoln headquarters on August 12, 
after 9 weeks in the field. The Caldwell and Golden parties shared 
a joint field camp, situated adjacent to the sites under excavation. 
The practice of using joint field camps of two or three parties 
each has, in the past two seasons, proved very economical and efficient. 
Combining of activities and expenses of several parties and the con- 
sequent reduction in total quantity of field equipment, vehicles, num- 
ber of cooks, and other expenses constitute a major saving. Having 
several archeologists in a single camp is of great help in discussions 
pertaining to excavation methods and general archeological 
interpretations. 
During the winter months two very brief Missouri Basin project 
field parties were at work in the Missouri Basin. William N. Irving 
visited the Merritt Reservoir area and the nearby vicinity in north- 
central Nebraska from December 2 through December 7. This one- 
man party made extensive examinations of a number of the small 
Sandhills lakes for possible localities in which to collect fossil pollen. 
This was in connection with building a master pollen profile which 
will aid in interpreting the archeological sequences at sites in the Big 
Bend Reservoir and other reservoir areas in the central portion of 
the Missouri Basin. A second purpose of the trip was to determine 
whether recent construction activity in the Merritt Reservoir area was 
endangering any previously unknown archeological remains. The 
potentialities for collecting fossil pollen looked very favorable, but 
actual collecting had to await colder weather when the lakes would be 
frozen over. No new archeological material that would be disturbed 
by work within the Merritt Reservoir area was noted. 
The second wintertime River Basin Surveys field party within the 
Missouri Basin consisted of William N. Irving and Lee G. Madison, 
who were in the field from January 19 through the 30th. This party 
was accompanied by Dr. Paul B. Sears, pollen specialist from Yale 
University, who kindly volunteered his services in order to assist in 
this important aspect of the salvage program. The group visited the 
vicinity of the Big Bend Reservoir area and collected an extensive 
series of pond-deposit samples for pollen analysis. Dr. Sears has 
kindly agreed to analyze these samples for fossil pollen, and in fact 
has already begun such analyses. At least one core sample has pro- 
vided a long pollen sequence, and others look promising. If a master 
profile can be established from these and other sampies, it will assist 
greatly in identifying the vegetations and climates of past ages. By 
superimposing the pollen samples from archeological sites excavated 
in the Big Bend and other related reservoir areas upon this master 
pollen profile, climatic and ecological contexts can be determined for 
