26 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



pottery and an abundance of sheet-copper fragments. This party 

 broke camp and returned to the Lincoln headquarters on August 12, 

 after 9 weeks in the field. The Caldwell and Golden parties shared 

 a joint field camp, situated adjacent to the sites imder excavation. 



The practice of using joint field camps of two or three parties 

 each has, in the past two seasons, proved very economical and efficient. 

 Combining of activities and expenses of several parties and the con- 

 sequent reduction in total quantity of field equipment, vehicles, nmn- 

 ber of cooks, and other expenses constitute a major saving. Having 

 several archeologists in a single camp is of great help in discussions 

 pertaining to excavation methods and general archeological 

 interpretations. 



During the winter months two very brief Missouri Basin project 

 field parties were at work in the Missouri Basin. William N. Irving 

 visited the Merritt Reservoir area and the nearby vicinity in north- 

 central Nebraska from December 2 through December T. This one- 

 man party made extensive examinations of a number of the small 

 Sandhills lakes for possible localities in which to collect fossil pollen. 

 This was in connection with building a master pollen profile which 

 will aid in interpreting the archeological sequences at sites in the Big 

 Bend Reservoir and other reservoir areas in the central portion of 

 the Missouri Basin. A second purpose of the trip was to determine 

 whether recent construction activity in the Merritt Reservoir area was 

 endangering any previously unknown archeological remains. The 

 potentialities for collecting fossil pollen looked very favorable, but 

 actual collecting had to await colder weather when the lakes would be 

 frozen over. No new archeological material that would be disturbed 

 by work within the Merritt Reservoir area was noted. 



The second wintertime River Basin Surveys field party within the 

 Missouri Basin consisted of William N. Irving and Lee G. Madison, 

 who were in the field from January 19 through the 30th. This party 

 was accompanied by Dr. Paul B. Sears, pollen specialist from Yale 

 University, who kindly volunteered his services in order to assist in 

 this important aspect of the salvage program. The group visited the 

 vicinity of the Big Bend Reservoir area and collected an extensive 

 series of pond- deposit samples for pollen analysis. Dr. Sears has 

 kindly agreed to analyze these samples for fossil pollen, and in fact 

 has already begun such analyses. At least one core sample has pro- 

 vided a long pollen sequence, and others look promising. If a master 

 profile can be established from these and other samples, it will assist 

 greatly in identifying the vegetations and climates of past ages. By 

 superimposing the pollen samples from archeological sites excavated 

 in the Big Bend and other related reservoir areas upon this master 

 pollen profile, climatic and ecological contexts can be determined for 



