BRITISH MUSEUM (Ni.TURAL HISTORY), 91 



Conservator of that Museum, Dr. Theodor Skuphos, accord- 

 ingly gave much assistance in the arrangement of the work. 

 The necessary leave of absence having been granted him. 

 Dr. Woodward left for Greece on the 30th March, arriving at 

 Athens on the 9th April. Excavations continued from 

 17th April to 18th July, a period of 89 days, and the total 

 area of the bone-beds uncovered was about 400 square metres. 

 No complete skeletons were discovered, but good remains of 

 nearly all the genera and species of extinct Mammalia 

 known from Pikermi were obtained, while a few specimens 

 may represent new forms. An extensive collection was left 

 for the Athens University Museum, while 47 large cases were 

 packed and safely despatched to London, where the speci- 

 mens are now being prepared for exhibition. After leaving 

 Pikermi Djl\ Woodward was invited by Mr. Frank Noel to 

 examine similar bone-beds which he had discovered near 

 Achmet Aga in Northern Euboea. Preliminary diggings 

 showed these deposits to be as rich as those of Pikermi, 

 and the Trustees hope to avail themselves of Mr. Noel's 

 permission to excavate on his estate on some early occasion. 



Geological Exploration in Egypt. 



At the beginning of January Dr. C. W. Andrews was 

 granted three months leave of absence for the benefit of his 

 health, and subsequently two months special leave were 

 added for purposes of collecting and exploration. During 

 his stay in Egypt, Dr. Andrews was enabled, by the courtesy 

 of Captain Lyons, Director of the Egyptian Survey, to visit 

 several localities of great interest from a palaeontological 

 point of view. The first of these journeys, which was taken 

 in company with Mr. T. Barron, of the Egyptian Geological 

 Survey, was to Mogara, a small oasis about 150 miles west 

 of Cairo. This was reached after seven days' march across 

 waterless desert. In this locality bones of Lower Miocene 

 vertebrates had been previously collected, and on the present 

 occasion several forms, including Mastodon aff". angustidens, 

 were obtained for the first time. The return journey was 

 made by way of the Wadi Natrum, where some very frag- 

 mentary remains of Lower Pliocene vertebrates were collected 

 on the hill called Gart-el-Moluk, where Captain Lyons and 

 others had previously obtained them. 



Later, a visit to the Fayum in company with Mr. H. J. L. 

 Beadnell, also of the Egyptian Geological Survey, resulted 

 in fhe discovery of early forms of Proboscidea, Sirenians, 

 Zeuglodonts, a remarkable marine snake, and a Python-like 

 serpent of gigantic size. These all occurred in rocks of 

 Middle Eocene age. Later on a more prolonged visit led to 

 the discovery of further Proboscidean bones of the greatest 

 interest at a rather higher horizon. The genus, to which the 

 name Palaeomastodon has been given, seems to have been 

 the direct forerunner of Mastodon, and it therefore appears 



