BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOHN BELL HATCHER. XXIII 



The difficult} 7 , it seems to me, lies in the want of a realization of the fact that different conditions prevailed simultaneously 

 over different though often adjacent regions and caused the simultaneous deposition of different materials. Along the streams 

 and about the shores of the greater bodies of water deposits of sandstone would predominate, while in the quieter waters, 

 and especially offshore, the finer materials would be thrown down to form the clays and shales of the same series. Wherever 

 we find these shore deposits constituting the Jurassic strata we encounter the same difficulty in separating the Jura from the 

 Dakota, for sedimentation there seems to have been continuous throughout the two periods, and we are brought to the question 

 as to the equivalents at such localities of the Lower Cretaceous. Could not the rocks of these two formations, in part at least, 

 represent the fresh-water and land equivalents of the marine deposits belonging to the Lower Cretaceous ? Fresh-water and 

 marine conditions must have always prevailed, as at present, at the same time over different parts of the earth's surface, 

 though thus far there has been little attempt on the part of geologists and paleontologists to correlate them, each series having 

 as a rule been assigned to a distinct period in the time scale, though it is none the less certain that every marine formation has 

 been accompanied by contemporaneous though more constricted fresh-water deposits, and that remnants, at least, of most of 

 such deposits are still preserved can hardly be doubted; indeed, we may be quite positive that every fresh-water or eolian 

 deposit of whatever age has its marine equivalent, and the writer sees no reason why the lower members of the dinosaur beds 

 of Garden Park should not be the equivalents of the marine Baptanodon beds farther north, while the upper dinosaur beds of 

 the same region and the entire series of dinosaur beds farther north would become the equivalents of the marine Lower Creta- 

 ceous. That the lowermost dinosaur beds of Garden Park are of an earlier age than those of Como Bluff, in southern 

 Wyoming, and Piedmont, S. Dak., as well as of the other localities lying to the north, will, I think, be clearly demonstrated 

 when we come to make a comparative study of the dinosaur remains from each. From the foregoing remarks it will readily 

 appear that in the Garden Park region the problem of separating the Jura from the Cretaceous becomes a difficult one; the 

 top of the Dakota becomes the natural dividing line, whether considered lithologically or paleontologically, and I have no 

 doubt that these difficulties will be further enhanced by the discovery of dinosaur horizons throughout the entire upper series 

 of sandstones and shales which we now consider as belonging to the Dakota. This is almost sure to follow as a reward for a 

 patient and careful search in these beds, and will be most welcome as adding one more link in connecting the long gap which 

 at present exists between Jurassic and Laramie dinosaurs. 



2. GEOGRAPHY AND NARRATIVE. 



14. Patagonia, November, 1897. 



15. The third Princeton expedition to Patagonia, October, 1899. 



16. Explorations in Patagonia, November 18, 1899. 



19. Some geographic features of southern Patagonia; with a discussion of their origin, February, 1900. 



20. The Carnegie Museum paleontological expeditions of 1900, November, 1900. 

 23. The lake systems of southern Patagonia, March, 1901. 



36. Field work in vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum for 1902, November 7. 1902. 



45. Vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum, October 30, 1903. 



48. Narrative and geography: Reports of the Princeton University expeditions to Patagonia, 1903. 



The explorations in Patagonia afforded Hatcher an opportunity for exhibiting his rare 

 ability as an explorer, geographer, and field naturalist. He published five papers, culminating 

 in his splendid volume entitled "Narrative and Geography." Many portions of this work, with 

 their combination of observations upon nature in all its aspects, remind one strongly, in philo- 

 sophical method of treatment and in style of presentation, of Darwin's "Voyage of H. M. S. 

 Beagle." It is impossible to briefly summarize this magnificent work. 



His preliminary papers, "Some geographic features of southern Patagonia, with a discussion 

 of their origin," "Explorations in Patagonia," and "Lake systems of Patagonia," the last 

 treating of his discovery of several new lakes, are all covered in more extensive form in the 

 Narrative. 



The following extract is from an appreciative notice by W J McGee: 



Returning from the trip into the interior, Hatcher, with his companion, made a voyage through the Strait of Magellan 

 and about Tierra del Fuego, in the course of which many new observations were made on the natural history, geology, paleon- 

 tology, and ethnology of the region. The various routes traversed are indicated on Hatcher's map, through which an idea of 

 the extent of the journeys may be gained. He returned to Princeton in July, 1897. 



As indicated by his article, Hatcher's energies were by no means limited to the collection of specimens; indeed, he utilized 

 his opportunities for geographic, geologic, and ethnologic study in a notably successful manner. The geographic results 

 are stated summarily, though with excess of modesty, in the paragraphs prepared for this magazine, while the preliminary 

 results of the geologic and paleontologic researches appear in several articles in the American Journal of Science and the 

 American Geologist. 



