SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANKOL'S COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 



Exi:)lorations for ])aleontoloi4ical material were limited duriiiL;' 

 1919 to two short field trii)s by Dr. R. S. Bassler, Curator of Paleon- 

 tology, who continued th.e work of former years in securing certain 

 large showy specimens of fossils and rocks required for the exhibi- 

 tion series. Dr. Bassler spent a portion of June in southeastern 

 Indiana, first jiroceeding to the locality where at the end of the field 

 season of 1918 he had cached for safe keeping, because of inability 

 to secure help in getting them to a freight station, several large 

 exhibition slabs crowded with brachiopod shells. These s]al)s were 



Fig. 18. — Fossiliferous strata of tlie Richmond formation in south- 

 eastern Indiana. The slah indicated is now un exhibition at the Xatiunal 

 Museum. Photograph by Bassler. 



found undisturbed, but transportation conditions proved ec|ually bad 

 as in the summer before and it became necessary to employ the 

 primitive method shown in figure 17. By the use of burlap covering 

 and an abundant supply of weeds for padding, each slab was finally 

 slid along the rails for a considerable distance to the nearest station. 

 The same area in Indiana, namely, the vicinity of Weisburg where 

 the early Silurian rocks are well exposed, was then exj^lored for fur- 

 ther desirable exhibition specimens. Water worn slabs crowded 

 with animal and seaweed remains are abundant in all the creeks of 



