SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I93I 7 



land, Austria, and Hungary, and to collect in certain of their classic 

 geologic areas. 



Doctor Springer's last work, " American Silurian Crinoids," a 

 quarto volume published by the Smithsonian Institution shortly be- 

 fore his death, monographed the very complete series of these fossils 

 in his collection, but some of the rare species found in Great Britain 

 where the Silurian strata are typically developed were lacking. To 

 remedy this I spent a week at the British Museum of Natural History 

 in studying the collections and preparing casts of many of the fine 

 fossil crinoids assembled by Dr. F. A. Bather, Europe's leading student 

 of these forms. 



A great similarity of the fossil crinoids in certain formations of the 

 English and American Silurian has given rise to interesting problems 

 of intercontinental correlation of these strata, so that complete suites 

 of fossils of both areas are necessary for future studies. Incidental 

 to the work for the development of the Springer collection arrange- 

 ments were made with the authorities of the British Museum for a 

 mutual exchange of recent and fossil bryozoans and also for obtaining 

 samples of deep-sea dredgings resulting from the Challenger and 

 other exploring expeditions of many years ago. These dredgings will 

 furnish the National Museum with rather complete sets of Ostracoda 

 and Foraminifera described long since and now much needed in the 

 pursuit of micropaleontology by American students. While in Eng- 

 land opportunity was also taken to gain an idea of the Tertiary de- 

 posits of the London Basin and to study the Chalk cliffs along the 

 southeastern coast. In each case samples of the different strata con- 

 taining microfossils were secured for future study. 



After a few days at Versailles, France, spent mainly with Dr. F. 

 Canu in collaboration upon our next joint work (the Tertiary Bryozoa 

 of Australia) I proceeded to Salzburg, Austria, stopping at Zurich 

 and Innsbruck for short periods to get an idea of Alpine structure. 

 Near Salzburg I had the pleasure of meeting two valuable correspon- 

 dents of the Smithsonian, Dr. Othenio Abel and Dr. Curt Ehrenberg 

 of the Paleontological and Paleobiological Institute of the University 

 of Vienna who have their summer home at Mondsee, a glacial lake 

 in the Salzkammergut region. Again one of the rare clear days of 

 the season occurred and through Doctor Abel's kindness I obtained 

 an excellent impression of the Salzkammergut, an area of ancient 

 salt mines in the Austrian Alps, interesting in history as well as in 

 geological structure. Part of the day was spent upon Mondsee itself, 

 in which interesting environment arrangements were made for future 

 interchanges of needed collections. 



