58 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1912. 



only in that they include no type material were 1,020 slabs and 725 

 individual specimens of Middle Cambrian fossils from the Burgess 

 shale near Field, British Columbia, collected by Secretary Walcott, 

 A third deposit of considerable promise from the Institution, although 

 not yet worked up, comprises about -13,000 specimens of Cambrian 

 and Ordovician fossils from Wyoming, Colorado, New York, British 

 Columbia, and Manitoba, collected by Mr, L, D, Burling during the 

 summers of 1910 and 1911, under a grant from the Institution. 

 Twenty-seven type specimens of Silurian fossils from Maine and 69 

 specimens of fossil crustaceans from the Tertiary of the Atlantic 

 Coastal Plain were transferred by the Geological SuiTey. 



An important gift from the Carnegie Institution of Washington 

 consists of 2,275 specimens of fossils collected by Mr. Bailey Willis 

 and Prof, Eliot Blackwelder in China during the expedition of 

 1903^. The Peabody Museum of Natural History of Yale Uni- 

 versity presented, through Prof, Charles Schuchert, a valuable series 

 of Beekmantown fossils, some 2,000 in number, from Fort Hunter, 

 N. Y. ; and as the result of field work by Dr. R, S. Bassler, curator 

 of the division, about 2,000 specimens of Ordovician and Mississip- 

 pian fossils from the Mississippi Valley were secured. Important 

 as representing a little-known region are collections of Tertiary 

 fossils received from the Isthmian Canal Commission and from Mr. 

 D. F. MacDonald, of Culebra, Canal Zone. They comprise between 

 6,000 and 7,000 specimens, and it is believed that their study will 

 settle some of the contested questions of Panama geology. 



The section of vertebrate paleontology obtained, through exchange, 

 a fragmentary, though fairly complete, skeleton of the small Miocene 

 rhinoceros, D iceratherium^ which will be mounted for exhibition. 

 Of exceptional scientific value, as type and figured si:)ecimens de- 

 scribed by Prof. E, D. Cope in 18G9, are seven fragmental remains 

 of fossil reptiles deposited by the North Carolina Department of 

 Agriculture, through ISIr. H. H. Brimley, curator of the State 

 Museum. A contribution from the Smithsonian Institution, con- 

 sisting of the jaws and teeth of the fossil shark Edestus^ is of unusual 

 interest on account of the perfect preservation of the specimen, which 

 adds greatly to our knowledge of this somewhat problematical form. 

 It has been described by Dr. O. P. Hay in the Proceedings of the 

 National Museum. 



The accessions in paleobotany were mainly valuable as furnishing 

 material for exhibition. They include a collection of silicified wood 

 from the fossil forests near Adamana, Ariz., obtained by the head 

 curator in June, 1911 ; and five sections of fossil logs, fragments of 

 fossil wood, and a large slab showing fossil plant remains, collected 

 for the Museum by Mr. Guy L. Wait, of Lewistown, Mont. 



