the Army and Navy, and it is believed that the results have been of great benefit to the service.

Several biological and ethnological expeditions to various parts of the world have been held in abeyance, although some already in the field have continued in operation on a limited scale. It is expected that after the war there will be greater activity in these lines than ever before.

Accounts of some of the more important researches are given here and others are reported upon in the Appendix.

GEOLOGICAL WORK IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

Geological field work has been carried on by me in the Rocky Mountains for several years past, particularly in the study of Cambrian and pre-Cambrian formations. The more important results of this work have been described in my paper on "Evidences of Primitive Life" in the Smithsonian Report for 1915 and in various pamphlets of the Institution. Investigations during the summer and early fall of 1917 were carried on at the now well-known "Burgess Pass" fossil quarry, discovered by me in 1910. Fifty days were spent at the Burgess Pass camp, 3,000 feet above Field, British Columbia, where a section in the quarry of about 180 square feet was taken out. This practically exhausts a quarry which has given the finest and largest series of Middle Cambrian fossils yet discovered and the finest invertebrate fossils yet found in any formation in any country. More than one and a half tons of specimens were trimmed out at the quarry, carried by pack horses to camp, and thence by rail to Washington.

A few days were taken to verify a geologic section near Lake McArthur, and then the Vermilion River trip was begun. Following down the Bow River, we crossed to the south side near Mount Castle and camped at Vermilion Pass. Lower down the valley on the eastern side near the mouth of Ochre Creek, Syncline Peak shows remnants of the compression and folding that accompanied the uplift of the mountain massif, now cut by erosion into hundreds of mountains, ridges, and canyons.

From Vermilion River the party followed a new forest ranger trail up Tumbling Brook to a small, beautiful glacier beneath the great eastward facing cliffs of Gray Peak.

Wolverine Pass is a broad, rolling area at about timber line. On its southwestern slope the northeast branch of Moose Creek begins, on the north slope the headwaters of Ochre Creek, and on the southeast the drainage is to Tumbling Brook, a branch of Ochre Creek. The views from the upper slopes northeast of the Pass are among the finest in the Canadian Rockies. Mount Drysdale, on the right,

rises 2,200 feet above the Pass, and Mount Gray, on the left, 1,800 feet, the altitude of the Pass being 7,200 feet. Tumbling Glacier, on the left of Mount Gray, is formed from snows blown over the cliffs from the westward. On the right of Mount Drysdale the eastern side of the great Washmawapta snow field may be seen; in the distance, through the Pass, the dark Beaverfoot Range, and beyond it, in the extreme background, the snowy peaks of the Selkirk Ranges. A late September storm drove us back from Wolverine Pass to the Vermilion River, where below Ochre Creek a search was made for moose. On October 1 a great bull, a cow, and young were brought down and their skins, skulls, and horns secured for the National Museum collections.

RESEARCHES ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE TRILOBITES.

In my laboratory work for the past 45 years I have been on the watch for evidence bearing on the structure and organization of fossil trilobites. The study of a small and unique series of specimens secured at Burgess Pass since 1910 has so greatly increased our knowledge of these interesting animals that a special paper, accompanied by 28 plates of illustrations, is now in press, to appear in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.

GEOLOGICAL WORK IN THE APPALACHIAN AND OHIO VALLEYS.

During the summers of 1916 and 1917 Mr. Frank Springer continued his researches upon the fossil echinoderms of the Ohio Valley with a view to obtaining further material and information for the completion of a monograph upon the Silurian crinoids of that area which he has now in preparation. His assistant, Dr. Herrick E. Wilson, collected in the vicinity of St. Paul and of Madison, in Indiana, proving for the first time the presence in the latter locality of the crinoidal faunas of both the Waldron and the Laurel formations. One object of the present field investigation is to obtain further light on the relations of the Silurian faunas of the Chicago and southern Indiana areas with those of western Tennessee. Mr. Springer acquired by purchase all the echinoderms in the large collection of Mr. John F. Hammell, of Madison, Ind., which included that made by A. C. Benedict from the Indiana Silurian, containing the types of a considerable number of species. This material has been added to his collection of fossil echinoderms now deposited in the National Museum.

GEOLOGICAL WORK IN MARYLAND.

Dr. Bassler, of the division of invertebrate paleontology in the National Museum, reports that, in company with Assistant Curator Dr. C. E. Resser, he made some investigations in the Frederick and

Hagerstown valleys of Maryland with the object of securing for the exhibition series large examples illustrating the various types of conglomerate. Two fine, large masses of the well-known Triassic limestone conglomerate were obtained with little difficulty, but equally good examples of the siliceous variety were secured only after much hard labor, owing to the ready disintegration of the rock on exposure. Efforts were finally successful, however, and there was also secured a mass of the so-called "edgewise" conglomerate several feet in diameter, which will well illustrate the phenomenon of intraformation conglomerate described by me a number of years ago. This last was obtained where the steeply dipping lower Ordovician beds outcropped in such a manner that the desired material could be blasted without fracturing. All of such conglomerates are the result of ancient mud deposits of tidal flats becoming sun cracked when exposed to the air. The dried edges of the sun-cracked areas become tossed about by the wind and the fragments finally accumulate in layers which ultimately are hardened into rocklike conglomerate. Conglomerates usually indicate the base of a formation, but this particular kind may occur at any place within a formation, whence I applied the specific name " intra formational" to them.

GEOLOGICAL WORK IN CENTRAL KENTUCKY.

After the conclusion of geologic work in the Appalachian Valley in the early summer of 1917, Dr. Bassler proceeded to central Kentucky, where he spent several weeks in explorations for suitable exhibition specimens covering the general subject of stratigraphic paleontology. It was especially desirable that such phenomena as stratification, the occurrence of fossils, and unconformities should be illustrated in the Museum, and especial efforts were made to secure specimens exhibiting these features. Much discrimination was necessary in the selection of these objects, as it was essential to obtain specimens of such size as to be appreciated by the public and still not too large for the available space, which is somewhat limited. This difficulty complicated the work, but the selection finally made was extremely satisfactory. In his account of the work Dr. Bassler says:

The early Paleozoic coral reef near Louisville, Ky., from which a section 6 by 10 feet in dimensions had been quarried and placed on exhibition during the summer of 1916, was revisited and several additional layers of highly fossiliferous shale and limestone were secured. These have now been added in their proper position to the coral-reef mount, so that this single exhibit now illustrates the subjects of stratification in general, horizontal strata, change of lithology from limestone to shale, the occurrence of fossils in these types of sediment, and the phenomenon of fossil coral reefs for which the exhibit was primarily planned.

The most valuable result of the summer's work was achieved at Elkin, Ky. Here a single limestone slab, 6 feet long and several feet wide and thick, show

ing an unconformity distinct enough to be appreciated by the layman, was quarried out and shipped to the museum without breakage, where it now forms a most instructive exhibit. The outcropping limestone ledge, several feet in thickness, is composed of a distinctly white lower portion and a dark-colored upper part, the head of the hammer marking their line of contact. This line also marks an unusually clear unconformity. Both of these layers are rich in fossils, those of Early Black River (Lowville) age occurring in the lower white rock and those of Early Trenton in the upper dark material. Since at other places in the United States 500 or more feet of strata of Middle and Late Black River age intervene between these two layers, it is shown that Kentucky was a land area during the deposition of the Middle and Upper Black River strata. This is also evidenced by numerous worm burrows extending downward from the top of the white limestone. When the material was in the condition of soft mud and exposed at the surface, the worms burrowed into it, as they do in the soil to-day.

The phosphate localities near Wallace, Ky., were next visited, in order to obtain illustrations of the gradual phosphatization of limestone and the types of fossils in phosphatic strata. Here it was discovered that phosphate rock occurs only along the joint planes of the limestone. Surface water passing along these joint planes leaches out the calcium carbonate of the phosphatic limestone, leaving the calcium phosphate content behind.

GRASSES OF THE ADIRONDACK AND WHITE MOUNTAINS.

During the month of August, 1917, Mr. A. S. Hitchcock, systematic agrostologist in the Department of Agriculture and custodian of the section of grasses of the division of plants in the United States National Museum, visited the Adirondacks in New York and the White Mountains in New Hampshire for the purpose of studying their flora, especially the grasses of the alpine summits. Mr. Hitchcock reports as follows:

In the Adirondacks headquarters were at Lake Placid, from which point excursions were made to the summits of Whiteface and McIntyre, the highest peaks in the group with the exception of Mount Marcy. It was impracticable to reach Mount Marcy without the use of a camp outfit. This peak rises to a height of 5,344 feet, but Mount McIntyre is nearly as high (5,112 feet). Both McIntyre and Whiteface extend above the timber line and support at the summit an alpine flora.

The White Mountains reach a somewhat greater altitude than the Adirondacks, Mount Washington, the highest peak, being 6,293 feet. In the Mount Washington group there are several peaks whose summits are above the timber line. The alpine florá of these peaks and of the peaks of the Adirondacks are similar, and include plants that farther north are found at a lower altitude or, in the Arctic regions, even at sea level.

Four days were spent investigating the flora of the peaks. The ascent was commenced at Crystal Cascade on the east side, whence the trail led up Tuckerman Ravine to the Summit of Mount Washington, thence down to Lakes-of-the Clouds where there is an Appalachian Mountain Club hut for the accommodation of climbers. From here the head of Oakes Gulf was explored. The second day was spent along the trail from Lakes-of-the-Clouds to the Mount Madison hut, going by the way of the Westside and Gulfside trail, which passes near the high peaks of Clay, Jefferson, and Adams. The return trip to Lakes-of-the

Clouds hut was made on the third day, descending 3,000 feet through the Great Gulf by the Buttress trail and ascending again by the Six Husbands trail to the Alpine Meadow. On the fourth day the descent was made by way of Huntington Ravine over a little-used and difficult trail.

There are nine species of grasses that may be considered to be alpine. A few others extend from the lower zones into the alpine region. Most of the alpine species are circumpolar and extend southward in the mountains, one to the high peaks of western North Carolina and two through the Rocky Mountains even in South America. One species, Poa laxa, is abundant on the upper cone of Mount Washington, extending quite to the summit, and comprises almost the only vegetation of this area. This is a European species which is found in North America only in the region of Mount Washington and on a few of the higher peaks of New England.

The forest flora of the mountains consists mainly of white pine, white spruce, larch, aspen, and white birch. Toward the summits of the peaks the dominant tree is the balsam fir, which near timber line becomes a straggling shrub.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES ON OLD AMERICAN FAMILIES.

In continuation of his researches on old American families, Dr. Hrdlička, of the National Museum, in 1917, visited Yale, Virginia, and Harvard Universities. The last two were visited on the occasion of the "Teachers' Course," which brings to these institutions many adult individuals of old American parentage from a large territory. The total number of subjects examined, mainly for pigmentation of hair, and eye and skin color, amounted to over 1,000, all of whom were Americans of at least three generations on both the paternal and maternal sides of the family. Dr. Hrdlička says:

The results which are now being elaborated for a report are of uncommon interest. They show a number of important facts of which we had no previous reliable knowledge. One of these is, in brief, that there is no increase in the proportion or grade of pigmentation as we proceed from New England southward, and no increase in blondness as we proceed northward from the Carolinas and Virginias. Another striking result shows that there are localized peculiarities in pigmentation, especially that of the hair, but that in every case these can be traced to the ancestry rather than to the environmental conditions. The latter nevertheless appear to have been active in general in reducing the total proportions of blondness.

So far as the color of the eyes is concerned there were found unexpectedly, in all the areas, a large proportion of "mixed" colors; in other words, eyes in which more or less marked traces of brown coexist with various shades of blue, green, or gray.

Three cases were encountered in which the color of the two eyes was markedly different. Pure beautiful blues and browns were few in number.

THE MOUNTAINEERS OF TENNESSEE.

During the latter part of July, 1917, Dr. Hrdlička made a trip to eastern Tennessee, for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the characteristics of the population of these regions, which in large part is of old American stock but has long existed under disadvantageous