Jan., 191 7. Annual Report of the Director. 



103 



This camel was remarkable for its size and slender structure, the 

 slendemess being such as to make the skeleton difficult to mount. 

 In order to obtain sufficient rigidity, steel sockets were set in the limb 

 bones at intervals and these served as fastenings for pieces of half-round 

 steel which were placed along the surfaces of the bones. In this way a 

 firm but graceful mount was secured. The base of the mount was made 

 of material imitative of the matrix in which the skeleton was found. In 

 an adjoining case a fore leg of Alticamelus, another American camel 

 remarkable for the size and length of its limb bones has been installed; 

 and in still another case a number of skulls and limb bones of Miocene 

 camels and horses have been placed. All of this material was col- 

 lected by Museum expeditions in the western states. The skeleton 

 of the saber tooth cat in this hall was transferred to a plaster base 

 imitating the matrix from which it was taken. The series of Jurassic 

 mollusks from Patagonia collected by Professor Salisbury has been in- 

 stalled in Hall 36, and a case of Devonian fossils has been brought from 

 Hall 61 and installed in this hall. In the paleontological laboratory the 

 cleaning and mounting of a skeleton of Oxydactylus has been completed; 

 a fore limb of Alticamelus has been prepared and mounted; a skeleton 

 of a small, Miocene, burrowing carnivore found in one of the peculiar 

 corkscrew-like forms occurring in Nebraska has been prepared for 

 mounting; two partial skeletons of the Oligocene three-toed horse, 

 Mesohippus bairdii, have been prepared, as have also a large skull of 

 Diceratherium and fore limbs of the smallest Miocene horse, Merychip- 

 pus ; the mounting of a skeleton of a fossil wolf from the Los Angeles 

 beds has been nearly completed and the skeleton of the saber tooth cat 

 from the same locality has been transferred to a base imitative of the 

 matrix from which the specimen was obtained. 



In the Department of Zoology the reinstallation of the shell exhibit 

 has been continued during the year. Seven cases of shells were installed, 

 10 of the new A-cases now being filled. Of this number 7 have been 

 permanently labeled. Some idea of the amount of work required to 

 install a case may be formed when it is stated that one of those just filled 

 contains 2,829 shells, most of which has to be mounted in a special man- 

 ner and which required 718 tablets and almost the same number of 

 individual shelves for their installation. In the Division of Osteology 

 337 skulls and 12 skeletons were prepared. Three skeletons were also 

 prepared for the exhibition collection. The usual precautions were 

 taken against the depredations of insect pests and all collections were 

 disinfected. Most of the exhibition cases are now provided with devices 

 which permit disinfection without opening the case. In the serial col- 

 lection of mammals on exhibition, rearrangement and elimination of 



