PURSUING MICROFOSSILS 



By R. S. BASSLER, 

 Head Curator of Geology, U. S. National Museum 



During the last quarter of a century the Smithsonian Institution has 

 fostered the study of three groups of micro-organisms, the Bryozoa, 

 Ostracoda, and Foraminifera, originally as a contribution to pure 

 science, and later, when their value in determining oil and other zones 

 in the earth's crust became evident, as a distinct aid to economic 

 progress. In this work the Institution has had the valuable assistance 

 of two collaborators, Dr. Joseph A. Cushman of Sharon, Massachu- 

 setts, the well-known authority on Foraminifera, and Dr. Ferdinand 

 Canu of Versailles, France, one of the foremost students of post- 

 Paleozoic and Recent Bryozoa. Since 1909, it has been my privilege to 

 be associated with Doctor Canu, not only in research on the Bryozoa, 

 but also in building up the Museum's study series of this class. 



Our first extensive work, based on the Tertiary rocks of North 

 America, was prepared under the joint auspices of the Smithsonian 

 Institution and the United States Geological Survey. Its purpose was 

 to work out a classification for the group, and also to learn the strati- 

 graphic occurrence of the numerous American species to further their 

 utilization in geologic work. Our later studies have included both the 

 Mesozoic and Recent faunas, while there was recently completed a 

 monographic study of the Philippine fauna in which many of the post- 

 Paleozoic genera are described and illustrated. 



Our collaboration has been carried on almost entirely through corre- 

 spondence, and it was not until the past summer that Doctor Canu 

 found an opportunity to make his first visit to the United States. 

 Meeting in New York upon his arrival early in June, we immediately 

 started on a field trip through the New England States, during which 

 we combined the collecting of Recent bryozoans along the coast with 

 explorations for suitable exhibition material from the igneous rocks 

 of Massachusetts and Maine. We were fortunate during part of our 

 trip in being the guests of our friends Dr. and Mrs. J. A. Cushman. 

 They took us by automobile to the various areas we wished to study, 

 and most kindly entertained us at their home in Sharon, also the site of 

 the Cushman Foramini feral Laboratory. This laboratory is of such 

 interest to scientific students that I am including an account of its work 

 and aims, furnished me by Doctor Cushman : 



