FOSSILS OF LA BREA RANCHO. 



By The President. 



Our Academy is the owner of an aggregation of mounted Fossils 

 which is unique among the collections of the world's Scientific Bodies 

 and this, with a large portion of our Library, numbering about 3000 

 bound volumes and pamphlets, is now upon exhibition in the Museum 

 at Exposition Park. 



It is generally known that the original excavations of these fossils 

 were carried on under concessions made by Mrs. Erskine M. Ross to 

 this Academy of Sciences, to the University of California and to the 

 Los Angeles High Schools and that the work proceeded thereunder 

 during a period of about two years. 



So many inquiries have been made as to the discovery and ex- 

 humation of said fossils, and such a desire manifested to learn the 

 conditions under which they were placed in the Museum, owing to 

 certain articles heretofore published in our Bulletins, that I have 

 thought it not only expedient but opportune, at this time, again to 

 place upon record a statement of the the position of this Academy as 

 the legal owners thereof. 



These fossils were excavated from the Brea pits adjoining the 

 City, and mounted at an expense of about $3500.00 paid from the 

 Treasury of this Academy. Our Bulletin of January, 1910, contains 

 an elaborately illustrated account of our labors in this behalf. 



*0n February 7, 1910, with two other corporations and a private 

 association, we entered into a contract with the County of Los An- 

 geles, whereby we agreed to place these fossils upon exhibition in a 

 Building about to be erected by the County. After the construction 

 of said Building we caused them to be transported and erected in 

 the wing assigned for our sphere of activities, and there they have 

 remained to the present day. In addition to what is there shown, 

 we have in the basement under said wing, a very large number of 

 boxes filled with fossil remains of the fauna of the quaternary age, 

 which can be assembled and mounted, producing many numbers of 

 exact fac-similies of those upon exhibition. 



We have at no time parted with the ownership thereof, nor have 

 we done anything to induce a belief that we have permanently dis- 

 posed of them by gift or otherwise. On the contrary, the records of 

 our Academy show that we have been careful to perpetuate the fact 

 of our ownership, and that we parted with the physical possession 

 thereof only as a loan. 



On July 3, 1912, at a meeting of our Board of Directors, a Com- 

 munication was unanimously adopted, addressed to the Board of 

 Governors of the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science 

 and Art of which the following is a copy, to-wit: 



*See copy thereof on page 83. 



