2 SYMPOSIUM 



extinct vertebrates not set forth with equal fulness in the previous 

 article. The tender of this manuscript was accompanied by a 

 very cordial invitation to visit the deposits at Vero and make 

 independent examination. Similar invitations were extended to 

 representatives of the Smithsonian Institution, the National 

 Geological Survey, and other institutions and individuals interested 

 in the subject. This opportunity for co-operative inspection 

 before publication fell happily into the policy of the Journal, 

 especially as the crowded state of its columns did not permit 

 immediate publication. While the Journal of Geology does not 

 hold itself immediately responsible for the conclusions advanced 

 by its contributors, it desires, so far as possible, when the issues 

 are vital, that all tenable aspects of interpretation shall be placed 

 before its readers that they may form their own conclusions on the 

 amplest available basis. 



A conference was finally arranged for the last of October, in 

 which there participated Dr. A. Hrdlicka, anthropologist of the 

 United States National Museum; Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan, 

 geologist in charge of the coastal plain investigations of the United 

 States Geological Survey; Dr. O. P. Hay, special student of 

 Pleistocene vertebrates; Dr. G. G. MacCurdy, anthropologist 

 of Yale University; and Dr. R. T. Chamberlin, as representative 

 of the Journal of Geology. The members of the conference en- 

 joyed the guidance and assistance of Dr. Sellards; his assistant, 

 Mr. H. Gunter; and his local colleagues, Mr. Isaac M. Weills and 

 Mr. Frank Ayers, whose courtesies were unbounded. The visits of 

 these special students were only partially concurrent, that of Dr. 

 Chamberlin extending from October 23 to 28, that of Dr. Hrdlicka 

 from October 25 to 30, that of Dr. Hay from October 25 to 31, that 

 of Dr. MacCurdy from October 25 to 29, and that of Dr. Vaughan 

 from October 27 to 30; hence, while all met upon the ground, their 

 examinations were largely independent. The present assemblage 

 of the several statements of these visiting investigators into a 

 symposium, in connection with the paper of Dr. Sellards — revised 

 after the conference — was arranged without specific knowledge 

 of the conclusions of any of the visiting parties, except, of course, 

 those of the Journal's own representative, and the independence 



