NO. 3 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, IQI5 29 
away as curiosities by people of the vicinity. These were, however, 
for the most part recovered. Mr. Pattison, recognizing the value 
for public exhibition of such a specimen if properly handled, and 
judging correctly that the greater part of the skeleton might be 
secured by an experienced collector, very generously packed and 
shipped the bones then in his possession to the National Museum, 
at the same time extending an invitation to the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution to send an expedition to his farm to recover, if possible, the 
remaining parts of the skeleton. A small appropriation was set 
aside for this purpose, and the first expedition to the Pattison 
farm, under the direction of J. W. Gidley of the National Museum, 
was undertaken in June, 1915. This resulted in securing the lower 
jaws, most of the remaining vertebrz and ribs, parts of the pelvis, 
and a few more limb and foot bones. The undertaking was too exten- 
sive for the funds then available, and Mr. Gidley was obliged to return 
to Washington before the search was completed. Most of the bones 
secured on this trip were found in working over the material thrown 
out by the steam shovel on either side of the ditch at the time the 
dredging was done. 
In October a second appropriation was made available, and Mr. 
Gidley again visited the locality of the find, this time completing the 
work which resulted in securing from the undisturbed deposit at 
the bottom of the ditch the last of the missing sections of the vertebra] 
column, several more foot bones, and other important fragments. 
At this time it was necessary to sink a coffer-dam across the 
ditch, which is about 20 feet wide, and at this place contains about 
six feet of water and mud before coming to a hard sand bottom. 
Mr. Gidley thus was enabled to study the formation and make an 
accurate estimate of the conditions of deposition of the skeleton. 
On assembling in the laboratory the bones of this skeleton received 
from all sources, it has been found that, with comparatively little 
artificial restoration, a much more than usually fine and complete 
specimen of the American mastodon can be assembled. This is now 
being mounted and will soon be placed on exhibition as one of the 
striking features of the Fossil Vertebrate Hall. 
PALEONTOLOGICAL AND STRATIGRAPHIC STUDIES IN THE 
PALEOZOIC ROCKS 
Dr. E. O. Ulrich, associate in paleontology in the U. S. National 
Museum, was occupied for several months during the field season 
of 1915, under the auspices of the U. S. Geological Survey, in a 
study of the Lower Paleozoic deposits of the Mississippi Valley. He 
