EXPLORATIONS OF JOHN BELL HATCHER FOR THE PALEONTOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS 

 OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, TOGETHER WITH A STATEMENT 

 OF HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICAN GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 



By Henry Fairfield Osborn. 



I. SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATIONS. 



While working in the mines of Iowa, John Bell Hatcher a had made a small collection of 

 Carboniferous fossils. These he brought to New Haven in 1880 and showed to Prof. George J. 

 Brush, who later introduced him to Prof. Othniel C. Marsh. After graduation from the Shef- 

 field Scientific School he impressed upon Professor Marsh the fact that he wanted to collect 

 and study fossils — that he was willing to work at almost any salary. Marsh recognized his 

 ability and planned to send him at once into the western field. Thus was started Hatcher's 

 career in paleontology. 



Hatcher began his first collecting tour on June 25, 1884, near Long Island, Kans. Here 

 he was for a tiihe associated with Mr. Charles H. Sternberg in work in the upper Miocene deposits 

 of the Loup Fork, but after an apprenticeship of a month he began to collect independently. 

 He remained in Kansas until late in November, then traveled south, and spent the winter 

 months until the latter part of March, 1885, around Wichita Falls, Tex., collecting Permian 

 reptiles. These collections are in the Yale Museum. 



In 1885 he made a second tour to and about Long Island, Kans., collecting chiefly in the 

 upper Miocene formation as field assistant on the United States Geological Survey. During 

 the two seasons in this region he sent to Professor Marsh, partly for the Yale University Museum 

 and partly for the National Museum, through the United States Geological Survey, a large 

 number of boxes containing chiefly Miocene rhinoceroses. Little or none of this material has 

 .yet been described. 



In the meantime Professor Marsh was planning his monograph on the lower Oligocene family, 

 the Brontotheriida?, for which he' had already collected some materials. The variety and rich- 

 ness of these animals were still unknown and unsuspected. Marsh assigned to Hatcher the 

 further assembling of material for this monograph, a task which he accomplished with extraor- 

 dinary success. During the seasons of 1886, 1887, and 1888 he spent fifteen months in the 

 field and collected 105 nearly complete Titan otlierium. skulls and many portions of skeletons 

 and disarticulated bones, besides the remains of many other associated animals. These were 

 collected chiefly for the United States Geological Survey. In 18SS he extended his exploration 

 from Long Pine to Chadron, Nebr., and to the vicinity of Hermosa, S. Dak. Here he laid the 



"John Bell Hatcher was born at Cooperstown, Brown County, 111., October 11, 1861. He died July 3, 1904, while engaged in the prepara- 

 tion of this monograph upon the Ceratopsia. Other purely biographical matter will be found in the obituaries by Scott, McGee, Holland, 

 Schuchert, Eaton, and Osb'om as follows: 



Scott, W. B . John Bell Hatcher. Science, new ser., vol. 20, No. 500, July 29, 1904, pp. 139-142. 



Holland, W. J. In Memonam: John Bell Hatcher. Ann. Carnegie Mus., vol. 2, No. 4, 1904, pp. 597-604. 



Eaton, George F. Obituary in Am. Jour. Sci., 4th ser., vol. IS, August, 1904, pp. 103-164. 



Schuchert, Charles. John Bell Hatcher. Am. Geologist, vol. 35, No. 3, March, 1905, pp. 131-141. 



McGee, W J. Hatciier's Work in Patagonia. Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. 8, No. 11, November, 1897, pp. 319-322. 



Osborn, Henry F. John Bell Hatcher, his life and works. "In preparation. 



The writer is also indebted to Messrs. Charles Schuchert, T. W. Stanton, and O. A. Peterson for their kind revision of the present article. 



