8 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



The next objective was the Vienna Basin and Hungarian Plain for 

 the purpose of securing echinoderm fossils and washings, with micro- 

 fossils from the various Tertiary formations of these classic areas. 

 It should be explained at this point that in Europe there are various 

 basinlike areas which were flooded by the sea during the era pre- 

 ceding the present and that these preserve rather complete records 

 of the life of the time, particularly of the microscopic organisms that 

 abounded in the sea then as now. These basins, now uplifted often 

 high above the sea, are usually occupied by large rivers on whose fer- 

 tile flood plains people have settled in great number. Accordingly 

 we have these basins named after large cities such as London, Paris, 

 and Vienna, each of which has become a center for geologic research. 

 In the United States these same marine Tertiary rocks were depos- 

 ited along the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains and the Pacific Coast. 

 In the last two areas these rocks are the source of economically im- 

 portant products such as oil and gas, in locating which it is necessary 

 to have a knowledge of the microscopic fossils found in the strata. 

 Such fossils from the various European basins have been described in 

 great detail but in most cases these accounts published years ago are 

 accompanied by such diagrammatic drawings that in the refinement 

 necessary in present day work it is usually impossible to recognize 

 these European species from their illustrations. Collections from the 

 type localities must therefore be obtained and studied before accurate 

 work can be done upon the corresponding American fossils. Such 

 collections are now being assembled in the National Museum as a 

 result of trips like the present one and are being rapidly studied by 

 specialists so that within a short time the National collections can be 

 employed in the accurate study of the American species. 



The study of the geology of the Vienna Basin and Hungarian Plain 

 is greatly facilitated by the use of the steam-boats of the Danube 

 Steamship Company. Boarding the boat at Linz, Austria, for Vienna 

 we pass first through beautiful meadow lands and then mountain scenes 

 with granite outcrops as the river skirts the edge of the Bohemian 

 massif of igneous rocks to the north. The Danube now narrows and 

 we are passing the rocky region of the Struden or Swirls, once a 

 dangerous passageway for the navigator and now an area with ruined 

 castles and churches on either side as in the Rhine Gorge and equally 

 rich in legend. Soon in the distance high up on the rocks are seen the 

 towers of the ancient monastery of Melk, a medieval town well known 

 as the site of the Niebelungenlied. Before reaching Melk however the 

 Ruin Whitenegg on the ridge contrasts strongly with the modern 



