Report of the President 55 



per cent, being rock specimens, approximately ninety per 

 cent, invertebrate fossils and about one dozen fragmentary 

 specimens of vertebrate remains. One of these consists of a 

 lower jaw with three teeth and two vertebrae of a new species 

 of primitive sirenian which Curator W. t>. Matthew has iden- 

 tified as IHalitherium antillense n. sp. The department cooper- 

 ated with the New York Academy of Sciences and the Porto 

 Rican government in conducting this survey. When the work 

 of identification and description has been completed and the 

 results published in the Annals of the New York Academy of 

 Sciences, one set of the specimens will become the property of 

 the Museum, another will go to the Porto Rican Government 

 and a third set, if there should be one, will go to Columbia 

 University. It has been arranged that Dr. T. Wayland 

 Vaughan of the United States Geological Survey will identify 

 and describe the coral specimens. 



In May, 1915, letters were received via Denmark from the 



Crocker Land Expedition. These supplemented the meagre 



„ , T , ^ .. . reports of the Crocker Land party 



Crocker Land Expedition , . __ , , , , 



received in November, 1914, and asked 



that a relief ship be sent northward in the summer of 19 15. 

 Accordingly the " George B. Cluett," belonging to the Gren- 

 fell Association, was chartered for the trip and left Battle 

 Harbor on the 26th of July, with Curator E. O. Hovey in 

 charge, and Captain George Comer of East Haddam, Con- 

 necticut, serving as ice pilot. 



The next news of the party came on 8 October, when a 

 letter was received from Curator Hovey, dated Godthavn, 

 Disko Island, Greenland, 4 August, 1915, in which Dr. Hovey 

 said that the vessel had had a successful trip to Disko Island 

 and that the party expected to reach Etah in ten days. Noth- 

 ing further was heard from the relief expedition until a cable- 

 gram was received on 10 November from Mr. Knud Rasmus- 

 sen, the Danish explorer, stating that the "Cluett" had 

 arrived at North Star Bay, about 125 miles south of Etah, on 

 12 September, after thirty-five stormy days crossing Melville 

 Bay, and that she had not dared proceed to Etah on account 

 of autumn ice. The cablegram stated that the motor boat at 



