1921] Merriam : Palaeontolocjical Research on the Pacific Coast 253 



difficult work of interpreting this record has already been made, but 

 the labor required to obtain adequate understanding of the history 

 of this region must stretch far into the coming centuries before the 

 end will be in sight. 



The next four or five decades will see great advances in interpre- 

 tation of detail in sequences of local faunas. We shall finally build 

 up a system in which our West Coast correlations will become con- 

 sistent with themselves. At the same time there will be a reaching out 

 to obtain an interpretation of local evolution through knowledge of the 

 great waves of world migration of organisms, and through better 

 understanding of the complicated physical history of this planet. In 

 time our storj- will be fitted into that of America in the large and 

 ultimately it will become an interpretable part of the complicated 

 record of life progress for the earth as a whole. Only the beginnings 

 have been made — the real problems are yet to be solved — the broader 

 contacts are still to be made. 



As I conclude the thought uppermost in my mind concerns 

 especially the part which our western work should have ultimately 

 in assisting to interpret the world scheme of evolution, but in framing 

 a vision of the larger use of the materials in process of accumulation 

 we must remember that this object is to be attained only through 

 cooperation and assistance of our colleagues across the continent to 

 the east and over the ocean to the west. 



