524 PROCEEDINGS OF THE WASHINGTON MEETING 



vancement of Science at Chicago, in 186S, Marsh went a.s far west as 

 Nebraska and Wyoming, along the route of the Union Pacific railroad, 

 then just opened. . This trip gave him a foretaste of the inexhaustible 

 fossil riches of the Rocky Mountain regions, and thenceforth his energies 

 were mainly devoted to their exploration. Scientific expeditions to the 

 western country were undertakings of considerable magnitude in those 

 early days. There was but one railroad in the United States across a 

 region measuring fifteen hundred miles square. White settlements were 

 sparse and remote. Most of the country was unmapped, and with the 

 exception of a few transcontinental trails, almost the whole western half 

 of the continent, save the regions bordering the Pacific, was a boundless 

 expanse of unknown arid plains, mountains, and valleys. Added to 

 these conditions were the indigenous tribes of war-loving Indians, hostile 

 to the whites. Under such circumstances travel was slow, difficult, and 

 dangerous. It was necessary to have an escort of soldiers and guides, 

 experienced in western life and Indian warfare. 



The first Yale scientific expedition was organized and engineered by 

 Marsh in 1870. The party consisted of thirteen persons besides the 

 officers and men of the military detachments who escorted them from 

 various military posts along the route. They explored the Pliocene de- 

 posits of Nebraska and the Miocene of northern Colorado, then crossing 

 into Wyoming they made collections in the Eocene (Bridger basin), and 

 passing south discovered a new Eocene basin in Utah (Uintah basin). 

 At each of these places many important finds were made. The party 

 next visited California, where minor collections were obtained from the 

 Pliocene. Returning, they spent some time exploring the Cretaceous 

 beds of western Kansas, so rich in the remains of aquatic reptiles, and 

 now famous for having furnished the first toothed birds and American 

 toothless flying reptiles. 



The second, third, and fourth Yale scientific expeditions (1871, 1872, 

 1873) were modeled after the first. New regions in the West were visited, 

 and extensive series of remains of extinct animals were obtained. Coin- 

 cident with these discoveries, Marsh published frequent scientific papers 

 describing and illustrating the more important forms, and paleontological 

 literature was enriched by the addition of more startling and wonderful 

 types of animal life than had been hitherto known from the rest of the 

 world. 



Owing to Indian outbreaks and a general uneasiness in the West, no 

 regular expedition was organized in 1875. Late in the fall, however, 

 Marsh went to the Badlands of Nebraska and Dakota accompanied by 

 an escort from Fort Laramie to the Red Cloud agency. The consent of the 

 Indians was deemed necessary to search for fossil bones in their country. 



