14 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



In this way the Museum has j^rocured in years gone hy three good 

 skeletons of mastodons, one a rare and unique species ; but as yet no 

 skeleton of the mammoth suitable for mounting has l)een secured, 

 although several reports of mammoth bones which have turned out 

 to be of some value have been investigated. A short account of one 

 of these was published in last year's Explorations and Ficld-lVork of 

 the Smithsonian Institution.^ 



More recently two additional favorable reports of such discoveries 

 came to the Museum, one from Curtis, a small town in northwestern 

 Oklahoma, the other from Sarasota, Florida. I was detailed to investi- 

 gate these finds and near the end of March left Washington for this 

 purpose going first to Oklahoma and afterward to Florida. The 

 Oklahoma find was reported by Mr. R. C. Baxter, a resident and 

 proprietor of a newspaper in the little town of Curtis. This gentleman 

 met me on my arrival on March 31st and took me at once to the 

 locality at the head of a little canyon about two and one-half miles 

 north-northeast of the town where investigation was at once begun. 

 This was followed by several days search here and exploration of the 

 surrounding country. It seems not out of place to express here my 

 appreciation of Mr. Baxter's public spirited attitude in the matter, 

 first in reporting his discoveries to the National Museum, and after- 

 ward in rendering what assistance he could in furthering the work of 

 investigation and exi)loration during my stay at Curtis. 



The prospect at the canyon head just mentioned looked promising 

 but on investigation proved disappointing. Many fossil bone frag- 

 ments were scattered along the exposures, but a little digging soon 

 revealed the fact that there was small hope of securing anything like 

 a complete skeleton here, as it was quite evident the fossil-bearing 

 beds, which are of Pleistocene Age, represent rather slowly accumu- 

 lated river channel deposits and the contained bones had been much 

 broken and scattered before their original burial in the sand and clay 

 layers of which the beds are composed. However, a good i^late 

 portion of a mammoth skull containing the cheek teeth, some impor- 

 tant foot bones, ribs, vertebrae, and also a few teeth of an extinct 

 species of horse, probably Eqniis scotti, were collected. At another 

 locality, two or three miles southeast, were later found a jaw and 

 other bones of a rare species of ground sloth belonging to the group 

 known as Nothrotherium, apparently representing a newly discovered 

 species of this genus. 



' Smithsonian Misc. Coll., Vol. 78, No. 7, pp. 48-51. 



