32 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



In the fall of 1928, Dr. H. T. Stearns, of the United States Geologi- 

 cal Survey, sent to the National Museum for determination a small 

 collection of fossil bones obtained at various localities in the Snake 

 River Valley, and reported some prospects observed in his ground- 

 water survey work of the general region. These specimens and re- 

 ports gave such promise of good results that an expedition, which was 

 placed in my charge, was organized by the Smithsonian Institution, 

 for the following spring. Accordingly, leaving Washington on June 

 24, 1929, I proceeded to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where I had previously 

 arranged to meet Doctor Stearns. The following few days were spent 

 in reconnaissance trips by automobile which covered the major part of 



Fig. 24. — Smithsonian Expedition camp at the edge of the desert near the 

 Old Oregon Trail, Snake River, Idaho. Boxes of fossils in foreground 

 ready for shipment. 



the valley and included such localities as McCammon, American 

 Falls, Twin Falls, and on westward to Bliss, a small town about 

 180 miles farther down the valley than Idaho Falls. Several pros- 

 pects were thus examined and later more thoroughly explored. For 

 this work a field party was organized in which I had for assistant 

 Mr. C. P. Singleton, the discoverer of the important Pleistocene 

 fossil locality, at Melbourne, Florida. The rest of the party in- 

 cluded, as occasion required their services, Mr. Elmer Cook and 

 Mr. F. V. Conklin, the men who first reported one of the good locali- 

 ties to Doctor Stearns, and Mr. Frank Garnier, all resident in the 

 region of our work. 



The purpose of this expedition was primarily to obtain good col- 

 lections of fossil bones from the more important localities with a view 



