LETTER TO THE SECRETARY. XIX 



now being investigated, and will be published in the usual paleontolog- 

 ical reports of the survey. 



FOSSIL ENTOMOLOGY. 



Messrs. S. H. Scudder, of Cambridge, and F. 0. Bowditch, of Boston, 

 spent two months in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, in explorations for 

 fossil insects, and in collecting recent Ooleoptera and Orthoptera, espe- 

 cially in the higher regions. They made large collections of recent 

 insects at different points along the railways from Pueblo to Cheyenne 

 and from Cheyenne to Salt Lake, as well as at Lakin, Kans., Garland 

 and Georgetown, Colo., and in various parts of the South Park and sur- 

 rounding region. 



For want of time they were obliged to forego an anticipated trip to 

 White Eiver, to explore the beds of fossil insects known to exist there. 

 Ten days were spent at Green Eiver and vicinity in examining the Ter- 

 tiary strata for fossil insects, with but poor results ; the Tertiary beds of 

 the South Park yielded but a single determinable insect, but near Flo- 

 rissant the Tertiary basin, described by Mr. Peale in one of the annual 

 reports of the Survey, was found to be exceedingly rich in insects and 

 plants. 



In company with Eev. Mr. Lakes, of Golden, Mr. Scudder spent several 

 days in a careful survey of this basin and estimates the insect-bearing 

 shales to have an extent at least fifty times as great as those of the 

 famous locality at QBningen in Southern Bavaria. From six to seven 

 thousand insects and two or three thousand plants have already been 

 received from Florissant, and as many more will be received before the 

 close of the year. 



Mr. Scudder was also able to make arrangements in person with par- 

 ties who have found a new and very interesting locality of Tertiary strata 

 in Wyoming, to send him all the specimens they work out, and he con- 

 fidently anticipates receiving several thousand insects from them in the 

 course of the coming winter. The specimens from this locality are re- 

 markable for their beauty. There is, therefore, every reason to believe 

 the Tertiary strata of the Eocky Mountain region are richer in remains 

 of fossil insects than any other country in the world, and that within a 

 few months the material at hand for the elaboration of the work on fossil 

 insects, which Mr. Scudder has in preparation for the survey, will be 

 much larger than was ever before subject to the investigation of a single 

 naturalist. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Prof. Joseph Leidy, the eminent comparative anatomist and micro- 

 scopist, made his second visit to the West the past season, under the 

 auspices of the survey. He made a careful exploration of the country 

 about Fort Bridger, Uintali Mountains, and the Salt Lake Basin, in 

 .search of rhizopods. He has been engaged for a long time on a memoir 



