Se icals Lh Sekedesane bubabehhert hed tees BfME + Vb aa pbint bth mp 4 ot pipes sha eaveccrtdhs ibatsry Rot wanes r te eg anne birt Pybebabb Pate et) AP aHoHpTC HET herd eteettr i: att ie i ate dt batt echaniat ) Patios ahreri chet \~ My Nyhan Fide at) : ab ys aby nent (ye) ‘erie ot Fee, whi bo ob eis Dealt Bil Tepe ated we ceed ok Vat 8 ania Hinsley oy TS Copia tt atten ya bat aired | oe ys 3 arg nit a ney aa otiuy shen oll Webelhen sbpteiodl aged here wiper p tee Nrey sent 4 aihshad aj HA ban ns, ey Pitch ea ape area er mien wy atte NEN hd eee ta shibees gahtae) oat) Pes een a4 eats rian mreyreeyity gotten shes hain yeh he et oe ty he haan) alt af) ied ey hy ae ue ‘ reve ya iataviihes ort at Phan paes a hh eepenpt of ot af wthiedy aati argh) eid: perry hyena “ae is f ee} ' 9B of of vier ye he mpc fe mole gine Sank 4 teeta Tacit rr) ibe ry wad nine itt, Relui ls Ay at ot Aol 4 Heyer Ney Rs eas 4: ey jal hye gerbe ve Nish Nineteen boye nz} Wile pet ok a at a ee ian 1 aA bat a Avett “ i Matta nt Ty ah sylephd eh 4 Wee sb neidit A white r ed feed yee ies ney shy hed jaye vote 5 Perdana ot) pene peeabeet mie sayy "hy iyi) Wan lays usiterl} ) Saucon on tone ny pM Ot NR it Abt Fen NV aes suka iting * ise ee leak ee 1h Mer obsh Hey eos eentl per iyereraat a! SL herthehe yr atta Dafne we see? ie Lae TS 9 nore ap Ve ae woot besth) Saad Pritts Lary peat Sa he es ae eet acne ba beh 3 The Tye Wwe ere ty * NTC yaad oy Pn Da ee Hp ene iss ) Picks scteladg site oo beeny? * week vanes {pew ee teed ypreae wide ter Oe Lote 9 vay Lt Waa on pai! ise wi “ne cbtuah bard sree ida Rai ty pany ang oe Peitianele ae eee a alas care Seep toeenpravensearten erate a rleensend i csesesooee Se neeet so ae ire aatieaett Cai tects seated a: ae ae ba laters et ras inka neiyegtes ‘ armed Hoe a > ed | ore ater ’ ater joao hieteitere pevahe anetossts ae see hehe bets sitar es = oe cat fe hs ype Fee bt it nae ” bajere atytee t Me aie: en Pieters bites n) sen ihdast tt Rept if" eibees A sites eh ee ine ect rites ems ry at m vet bingee's 2 at puerta ace fetes Oa ie ae ante 4 weiter nee pray Nis ee - iA Pam rena eb ane eet Sever} ptt i eee [.} Miri em FOR: THE PEOPER FOR EDVCATION FOR SCIENCE LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY vy an . : i ; 4 j » | ' | ; | ¥ ‘ +) H ; i e i Fis oe ‘A for } ’ i ins lid nt ay ae ah 52, Osborn, H.F. mya Osborn, H.eFs 53. Lucas, FA. 54, Coleman, L.V. 55. Kroeber, AL. 56. Reeds, C.A. Reeds,C oh. Lucas, Fohe Chapin, J.P. Lucas, F.Ae Matthes, F.E. Anthony, H.E. 6 . Osborn,H.F. Wissler,C. Lucas, FA. AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Guide Leaflets No. 52-64 1921-1926 ix The Hall of the Age of Men e Second Edition, Revised 1923 : The Hall of the Age of Man Third Edition, Revised and Emlerged,May 1925 The Story of Museum Groups. Nov. 1921 Plants of Wax. Februery, 1922 Basketry Designs of the Mission Indians. July, 1922 The Geology of New York City and Vicinity (Reprinted from Natural History,Vol.22, pp. 1-15, 1922) The Geology of New York City and Vicinty. (Illustrations vary) Guide to the Hall of Mammals, Oct, 1923 Preparation of Birds for Study. 1923 The Preparetion of Rough Skeletons. The Story of the Yosemite Valley. July 1924 The Capture and Preservation of Small Mammals for Study. November 1925 Mastodons and Manmoths of North America. (Reprinted from Natural History, Vol.25,no.1, and Vol. 25, no. 1» L923, 15%) Indian Costumes in the Unites States... July 1926 Meteorites, Meteors and Shooting Stars. 1926 p< ee oe ree 7 ~ "a toe le 5 seme ee WROTE DUIiet TO Leet AO * tis Pare “ots N@O-SE 0K eteLinad obtuy se eSel.[Ses , } a . ‘ mit 20. 634 oft Yo Link at Tae , ES@L bealved nots BY Boost aa ae Wo sgh eid to LieRey TH), SS8L ye ben's Lat hiro beeived (notdeses atta ay i384 .¥0 .aq4u0%D mueeut to YIOse aT SSOl .yuardet leaW Yo Binal Vali ms Snelling Moleei eit % snyteed yutudesd dA Gal SSef .yiat ‘3 = VOL Lor 30 Gseio iY haa yt oP eH Io ‘ypolood scT yon, £54 y worsted! Maatat mort betataqed) Cr ae OO aie og wyielody dan Yt Eo: AaOY wet to yoelseh ent (gtay arto lfeterlit} sea 9D Alan to Lal aft of ebtaty rere § << Seel . .ybwte st shatd % iwisetaqeyt heh | Snc8leN® dguot tonolte images? Ste > aes esei ylul ,yeliaV oddmogoy srit te ose ont: 1% Jes Afeae Xo solisviseatl bas Siudged ed? _ +S. ghee sel ssdmavoclt vbiuse a9 ‘BLonmay ele er Bditermh AS1ol! to adjommlh baa enobojeai a 5 tan ghsr ORLOV. vot uk tasnlal mort botiiaqes) : (Ser .eSer ¢ P tom eS, Afov bas : ++ SOdeso toting ett oh aendseu: astiat ee 1628S Si Loot? Bas Bae eteht a 86524 7 Z } The HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN is designed to show what we know of Man and his environment during the long period of geologic time in which man rose from a condition of limited intelligence and subordina- tion to the Animal World to his present condition of great intelligence and mastery both of the Animal World and of many of the principal forces of Nature. The exhibit is arranged in an educational manner so as to present very simply, very truthfully, and very clearly, our actual knowledge, and not to confuse the visitor with theories or speculations. The actual fossil remains of Man are represented by casts which are colored as nearly as possible to duplicate the originals which are to be found only in the great museums of Europe. Great pains are taken to secure casts of the very latest discoveries in various parts of the world. The beginning of this collection was a gift of Dr. J. Leon Williams in 1915, and it is constantly being amplified by gifts from other friends and from museums abroad. The models and restorations and mural paintings of man and of the great mammals among which he lived and struggled represent the knowledge of more than a century of exploration and anatomical study by the leading students of Comparative Anatomy, Paleontology from the time of Cuvier in 1790 to the present period NEANDERTHAL MAN Modeled by Dr. J. H. MeGregor on cast of skull found at La Chapelle aux Saints, France, in 1908. hie: a sic y ie TRINIL APE-MAN NEANDERTHAL Man Cr6-MaGnon MAn Pithecanthropus erectus Homo neanderthalensis Homo sapiens Fig. 1. THrer Great Races or Prenistoric Man. Models by Professor J. H. McGregor. The Hall of the Age of Man in the American Museum By HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN Second Edition, reprinted, with additions and changes from Natural History, the Journal of the American Museum of Natural History, for May-June, 1920, pages 228-246. The exhibits in the Hall of the Age of Man are intended to illustrate what is known of the origin, relationships and early history of man, as deduced from his remains and primitive implements, and also to show the animals by which he was surrounded in the early stages of his existence. These animals are shown not only as mounted skeletons but in a series of large mural paintings portraying them as they appeared in the flesh amid their natural surroundings. These paintings are the result of the study of their fossil remains and their careful comparison with related existing animals, a work to which the author has devoted many years of study. Hence they give an accurate and vivid idea of the animals that were the contemporaries of early races of man in various regions of the world. A series of cases in the center of the hall are devoted to the story of man, and that it can be compressed into so small a space is an indication of the scarcity of his re- mains, for here are displayed reproductions of the most notable specimens that have been discovered. It has been necessary to use copies, for the actual specimens are few in number and scattered through many museums in widely separated parts of the world. HE beginning of the Age of Man, some 500,000 years ago, roughly estimated as the close of the Age of Mammals, marks in reality but the beginning of the close of the Age of Mammals. The extinction of the most superb mammals that the earth has ever produced, during the early stages of human evolution, progressed from natural causes due directly or indirectly to the Glacial epoch. With the intro- 3 1 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN duction of firearms the destruction has proceeded with increasing rapidity, and today it is going on, by the use of guns and steel traps, at a more rapid rate than ever. By the middle of this century man will be alone amid the ruins of the mammalian world he has destroyed, the period of the Age of Mammals will have entirely closed, and the Age of Man will have reached a numerical climax, from which some statisticians believe it will probably recede, because we are approaching the pointfof the over-population of the earth in three of the five great continents. Man as a Primate, Case I A few of the more striking points of anatomical agreement between men and apes are illustrated in the first A case, which shows comparative series of skulls, lower jaws, brain-casts and teeth. In this exhibit skulls of the great man apes (at the right in Case I) are placed for comparison with those of some of the known extinct or fossil races of man, each ascending along a line of its own. Copies of the most recent discoveries in various parts of the world are placed in this series; in fact, this entire exhibit is designed to show from time to time our progress in discovery, to present actual evidence in place of theories and speculations, and to show how very limited this evidence is as compared with the abundant evidence in the ancestry, for example, of the horse (shown in the hall of the Age of Mammals). The Ascent of Man Man has a long line of ancestry of his own, perhaps two million or more years in length. The cradle of the human race was, in our opinion, in Asia, in regions not yet explored by paleontologists. One reason that human and prehuman fossil remains are rare is that the ancestors of man lived partly among the trees and forests; this does not mean that they were arboreal; they lived chiefly on the ground.!. Even when living in a more open country the ancestors of man were alert to escape the floods and sandstorms which entombed animals like the horse of the open country and of the plains. Hence fossil remains of man as well as of his ancestors are extremely rare until the period of burial began. The earliest known human remains of the Trinil, Piltdown and Heidelberg races consist principally of portions of skulls, of jaws, and teeth. Individuals of the prehistoric races of Europe are now represented by casts in the Hall of the Age of Man. The museum series ['This refers only to the higher, more recent ancestors of man. The most thorough studies of the anatomy of the foot of man and other primates have brought strong support to the view that the human foot has been derived from an earlier ape-like stage in which the great toe could be used in climbing. W. K. G.] WL) MM “AC Aq podsoyur se sdrysu OL JY} OPBOTPUL SOUT] YOR[G oy y, “Souoz [wpUc Ul o1B (‘O70 IOVOIJY ‘OUDDOSTIC) Joo8 oY, “YS oy} 4V R1OUOS pol[[e puB snoaypidofiuq: JO Sotdods [BIOAOS PUB “Joy OY} VV snoayprd nary “U0}} aypdoyd old de jIssoy Jo syuouseay Mel pu Yoo} SNOTIBA JO S}svo ov SUOUITOOdS JOY}O OY] °g puw Jy UdaMyoq SI (jsvo) Mul SIOq[oploH] oy, O}IYM ULOPOU “TT -[BULOIIO JO 4s UOUSBIY-O1D JO UBUT PfO ‘QT ‘[BUTSTIO Jo 4YsBo (VITBIYSNY) | [BULSIIO JO 4SBO *(S}L eg-xne-o[fodvyy)) pey4 :LOGIL) ITN [ Aq poqonaysuovod (sudovyjunos) [TOYS uMOpyiq “L sour ) doy [[NYS [BUISIIO Jo ySvo ‘Q MLOsaLHoT “Aq Aq sndosyjpunoaypig JO yunq Jo SLOGIL)OIN “H- q Aq} NAJSUOIEL [NYS ‘sndowyjunoaypid ‘Q ‘BI{[IOS SUNOA ‘G ‘BI[WOs o[BUI PO “F foozundurtye “e feuBso *Z SUOqqTIs jo [[NYAS ‘T SHLVNIYUd HHL ONOWVY HOVId SNVIN AML SONY SL “oOBy JYSTBIYS A][BOI}LOA PUB 4INvA YsSty ‘pvoyoroy doojs YIIM ‘opvis YSty Jo st [[Nys WL “owuUBIy [BIyUd,D “ody 9U0}g PIC 24"'T ‘(Suaidps Owory]) We] UOUSIY-010 : ‘ulyo SuIdo[s puv oso OpIM YAIM oAIssBUT AIOA OD} fUOLdOd [Byuody oy} Ul MOLIeU YYstoy UT MOT[BYSs ‘edA} MOT JO ynq azIs ddI] AJOA Jo st [NYS ayy, ‘odoang ‘osy ou04g PIO ‘(Sisuappyplapunau OWOTT) URI [BYIopuvoN “¢e ‘mel UBUINY UMOUY Joy}O AUB UBYy oy] -ode o1our ‘odA} Mo] AIOA JO SI ([VUTSILO oY} UI paAdosodd SI OPIS Joy oy} Yor Jo) Mel ey, “UBUI ULopour jo 4By4 OF Sjied sz Jo yUoUIdOTBAOp oY} UI LOLIoJUT IE] SI4Svo UleIq oY} ‘Ssopoy}AoAou -][Nys Jo odAy Aoysty ATJOULYSIP BV SUIMOYG “puBlsuTT ‘xossng ‘({) sus00r[g reddy ‘(vwosmop sndo.yyuUvoy) UB UMOPIIq *% “SOTJSLIOZOBIVYO OYT[-Ode SUOI]S YAM “[]Mys Jo odA} MOT AOA B SUIMOYQ “BALL ‘oUdD0T[g Jodd yy) ‘(snj9a00 sndo.yyunoayid) Uey-ody [IU *] ‘suoulods 10Y}0O WO1] pol0jsat Syed yySty ‘[eursi10 oy} Ul peyuesoidos syed y.eq LOBIINHOIA “Hf Lossojorg Aq suorjonajsuodoy SHUdAL NVNWOHAH OLYOLSIHAYd YAO AO STHGOW TIOMS Fig. 2. A, B, C, D, skull fragments found by Dawson and Smith Woodward in 1911, 1912. #, jaw fragment found by Dawson in 1912. F, canine tooth found by Father Teil- hard de Chardin in 1913. G, nasal bones found by Dawson in 19138. H, single worked flint found near original skull fragments by Smith Woodward. Jaw one-third natural size; other fragments a bit larger than one-third (distorted somewhat by camera). Fig 3. A, side and top views of jaw of first Piltdown man, with first and second lower molar teeth in place. B, side and top views of first lower molar tooth of second Piltdown man. About three-fourths natural size. “ Fig. 4. The “Heidelberg jaw,’ found at Mauer, near Heidelberg, Germany. About one-third natural size. Fig. 5. Sand-pit at Mauer, near Heidelberg. X marks the spot where the jaw was found, in place and beneath 79 feet of glacial and post glacial deposits. 8 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 9 began in 1915 with the gift of the J. Leon Williams Collection, and has been enriched by additions from the museums of London, Paris, and recently by the Neanderthal man of Krapina, presented by Professor Kk. Gorjanovié-Kramberger, through the kindness of Col. C. W. Furlong; also the Talgai skull from South Australia, presented by Dr. Stewart A. Smith. The earliest known man is the Foxhall man, known at present only by his flint implements, partly burned with fire, found near the little hamlet of Foxhall, near Norwich, on the east coast of England. These flints, discovered in 1921, constitute the first proofs that man of suff- cient intelligence to make a variety of flint implements and to use fire existed in Britain at the close of the Age of Mammals; this is the first true Tertiary man ever found. The Trinil ape-man, the Pithecanthropus of Java is the lowest of the known human or subhuman races. It is called ape-man because it is more human than ape-like. The restored head by Professor J. Howard McGregor, of Columbia University, is designed to show its half human, half anthropoid resemblance, as suggested by the top of the cranium, the only part known, which is far more human than that of any ape cranium, and at the same time far more ape-like than that of any human cranium. It is not impossible that this ape-man is related to the Neanderthal man. The Most Ancient Human Races, Piltdown and Heidelberg A few deep brown fragments of a skull and jaw and one tooth repre- sent all the remains known of the Piltdown man, discovered in England by Charles Dawson in 1912. Several reconstructions of the Piltdown skull have been made, including the original by Professor A. Smith Woodward in London, in the British Museum, another, in this country, by Professor McGregor. The problem whether the Piltdown jaw belongs to this human skull or whether it belongs to a fossil chimpanzee is now actually settled, because a second specimen of the Piltdown man has been found two miles from the first in the same Piltdown gravels; this specimen has the same kind of lower grinding teeth and the same form in the bone of the forehead. The skull itself is of. a primitive human type, the brain cast showing a lowly development of the higher cerebral association centers (Elliot Smith 1922). Unquestionably the next most ancient human relic which has thus far been discovered is the jaw of the so-called Heidelberg man, a fossil which may be 250,000 years old. It is notable for its great size and for its lack of a protruding bony chin. The Heidelberg man may be ancestral to the Neanderthal man. OL “J}o ‘sJUOl MU “OT UBL | 6 LOT OT ‘8 : 7) ‘(ooUBIY ‘OUSOpLOC,) S}UIBg-xne-o[[odvyyH BT Jo uvuUT po Ss "9 UB] [VU }1o] UL {J NyS- ¥ yy ‘Ad I Ve ‘QGRT Ul ‘AUBULLOY ‘JLOpfossnq avou ‘Ao[]VA JopuvaN oY} Ul podoaoostp “ SI} JO St A} ay} Jo a “1 WOOP “Ef tossojorg Aq sjopour Aq pur su Aq pojuesa AdOUNa AO WOVE IVALYAGNVAN GZHL WOV ANOLS AIO HHL fO NN OAS [BULSILO ot 0 s)s8 I {3 3 } IT (I IVHOW) SHAMYOM LNITA TVHLYACNVAN AHL “ULogsg pjayLioy fia UM ch TBE fq pajyuwd WOVE ees 12 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN The Neanderthal Race The Neanderthal man represents the oldest fossil human race of which the skeleton is fully known. The remains are very abundant, and the American Museum owns reproductions of many skulls and parts of skulls found during the last half century in Spain, Germany, France, and Hungary. Foremost of these is the skulleap found near Diisseldorf, Germany, in 1856, which constitutes the type of the Neanderthal race itself. Of great interest is the reconstruction by Professor McGregor of a Neanderthal female head, based upon a skull found at Gibraltar in 1848, which gives us the head characters of the women of this very primitive race. Nearly perfect is the skull from La Chapelle-aux-Saints, originally restored by Professor Marcellin Boule, of Paris, and reconstructed by Professor McGregor; this distinguished American expert in the anatomy of palzeolithic man is now engaged upon the reconstruction of the entire skeleton and body of the Neanderthal man. This life-sized Neanderthal model will be one of themost interesting exhibits in the American Museum; it represents many years of laborious study and research by Professor McGregor, who was sent by the Museum on a special tour through Europe to examine all the known fossil remains of the Neanderthal race, representing forty or fifty individuals altogether, including the last specimen to be found, that of La Ferrassie, France, which is now being described by Dr. Boule. The Rodesian Race The most recent discovery is the Rhodesian man, Homo rhodesiensis, made in 1921, in a cave at the Broken Hill Mine, northern Rhodesia, Africa, where the human remains were found in association both with stone and bone implements, and with broken bones of animals which had evidently been used as food. This man was in the Stone Age of industry, using scrapers and knives of quartz and quartzite. The forehead is very low and the ridges above the orbit are excessively prominent; the opening for the nose was very wide, but the palate and teeth are like those in existing races. The brain is of a very low human type of the capacity of 1,280 ¢.c. (see Smith Woodward’s Guide, pp. 29-31). The Neanderthal Flint Workers (Mural I) The mural of the Neanderthal group of flint workers shows in the distance, along the Dordogne River, herds of woolly rhinoceroses. The center of interest is the flint industry, which, with the chase, occu- €1 AUBUIIOr) ‘UNO Ivo ‘JOssva1eqd 7B UOJTOYS Jo syied 10430 YIM poloAODSIP UBUIOM JO (4SBd) []NAG “AUvULIOX) ‘UUOG Ivou ‘JossvooqGd 7B UOJI[O¥s JO Sjrvd LoY}O YIM polOAOOSIP UBUT JO (SBI) [NAS ‘soizAQ SorT 7B UouTTOeds odA} YIM puNo} (4svd) do} [NYS “8 ‘oouBI yy ‘OUSOpLOG ‘SeIZAW Soy 4B PUNOFJ S[BNpIATpul vA Jo ouo ‘uoumtoods ody Jo (4S8Bd) [[NYQ “2 ‘QOBL SITY} JO ST[MYS Loyjo Jo Apnys WO} polo}sod s}ied SUISSIUL OUIOS puv YJ00} YIM ‘UdUTTDeds 9dAy Jo (4SB9) [INAS “9 ‘UBUI UOUSBIN-O1D JO [opOUr ][NYS-J[vy ‘pvoy-j[ey “Gg puw “ysnq pojyojduoy, “F e \ ‘QUUBIY ‘PpUBLIOJJUOTY IBoU pUNO}F (}Svd) [NAS ajodeg equioy °¢ ‘BIABIOT, ‘UUNIG 4% puno} (48Bo) doy [NYG °Z ‘[BULSIIO JO ISB) “puBsUuq ‘TIT Aoy[ey 7@ punojs do} [NYAS “Lf ‘Ad AL HOIH AO SHOVY UAHLO GNV NONOVIN-OYO AHL WAdOUwNa AO (OV ANOLS G10) OIHLITOW TVd ALVT AHL tO NHIN al (IM IVYOW) HLONWVW AHL ONILNIVd SLSILYVY NOND N-OWO *ydpsbojoy 7 paybruihdog “usogsg ppayivoy hauaxy] HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 15 pied the entire energy of the Neanderthals. Since the Neanderthal type is totally different from any modern human type, it must be studied from models of its own. The group is very carefully arranged to show the physical characters of this man: the knees slightly bent in the peculiar standing posture, the broad, heavy shoulders, slightly stooped, and the massive neck and the head set well forward. In the back- ground is the famous cavern of Le Moustier, which gives its name to the Mousterian period of flint industry pursued by the Neanderthals. The Cré-Magnon Race of High Type The highly evolved Cr6-Magnon race entered Europe from the east and drove out the Neanderthals. The Cré-Magnons were people like ourselves in point of evolution, and the characters of the head and cranium reflect their moral and spiritual potentiality. This was a race of warriors, of hunters, of painters and sculptors far superior to any of their predecessors. The contrast between the Cré-Magnon head and those of the Neanderthals which precede them is as wide as it possibly could be. It is intellectual and thoughtful. Cro-Magnon Artists Painting the Mammoth (Mural IT) One of the recent murals in the hall of the Age of Man (over the door- way opposite the Cré-Magnon exhibit) represents four of the Cré- Magnon artists actually painting the great fresco in the cave of Font-de- Gaume, Dordogne, France. The writer has been studying the composi- tion of this group for years, with Mr. Charles R. Knight, artist, aided by advice of the Abbé Henri Breuil of the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris, as well as of Mr. N. C. Nelson, archeologist at the American Museum of Natural History. There are six figures in the group; four are depicted partly nude to show their anatomy in contrast with that of the Neanderthals. The two half-kneeling figures are holding up small lamps to illuminate the smooth surface of the limestone wall on which the procession of mammoths is being depicted. The half-erect figure represents an artist with pointed flint incising the outlines of a mammoth on the wall. The fully erect central figure represents an artist laying on the colors. A kneeling figure is preparing the colors on a rock. This design enables the painter to show the tall, slender proportions of the men of this Cr6-Magnon race. The standing figure to the left is that of a chieftain clothed in well-made fur garments, who carries on top of his staff his baton de commandement as the insignia of his rank. The only illumination is that of the flicker- ing wicks in the small oil lamps. 16 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN Men of the New Stone Age Men of the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, continued to used chipped stone implements, but unlike their predecessors, they often polished them. They were the direct forerunners of civilization. They cultivated the ground, raising cereals, and had domesticated cattle and other animals; they made pottery and wove textiles; they lived in villages of huts, often built on piles near the shores of lakes. They erected sepulchres and temples of huge stones (dolmens, megaliths). The Neolithic Stag Hunters (Mural LTS); This mural group also is in its place in the hall (at the west end), having been completed in 1919. It represents men of the Nordic race, brown- or fair-haired, hunters of the stag, living along the southern shores of the Baltic in the earliest stage of the New Stone Age, a stage known as the Campignian from remains of huts and rudely polished stone imple- ments found near Campigny in France. The scene is on the border of one of the northern beech forests and represents the return from the hunt. After the ardor of the chase the hunters have thrown off their fur garments. The chieftain in the center is partly clad in furs; in the coming winter season he will be wholly fur clad. His son, a fair-haired youth with a necklace of bear claws, grasps a bow and arrow and holds in leash a wolf dog, ancestor of the modern sheep dog of northern France. The hunters, with spears tipped with stone heads, are resting from the chase. Two vessels of pottery indicate the introduction of the new ceramic art, accompanied by crude ornamentation. This race was courageous, warlike, hardy, but of a lower intelligence and artistic order than the Cré-Magnons; it was chiefly concerned, in a rigorous northern climate, with the struggle for existence, in which the qualities of endurance, tribal loyalty, and the rudiments of family life were being cultivated. Rude huts take the place of caverns and shelters, which are now mostly abandoned. These were tall men with high, narrow skulls, related to the existing Nordic race, more powerful in build than the people of the Swiss Lake Dwellings. Skulls and skeletons representative of this hardy northern type are abundantly known in Scandinavia, but have not found their way to our American Museum collections as yet. The Great Fossil Mammals Contemporaneous with and Hunted by Man The hall of the Age of Man contains four chief collections of the mammals of the world during the period of the Age of Man. In Europe man hunted the reindeer, the wild horses and cattle, and the mammoth. He used the hide of the reindeer for clothing, the flesh and marrow for food. He carved the bones as well as the ivory tusks of the mammoth. LT ‘O0V 9u0jJG MON 9} jo a5e4s JSol[LBd oy} Ul ot Be, oy} jo SolOYys ULOYNOS oY} SUOTB SUTATT ‘po IVY-ITBF LO -UMOLG ‘OVBI VIPION OY} jO Ud], (II TVuUnW) IHLITIOUN) ADV ANOLS MAN AHL dO SHMLNDNH OVLS *ydpvibojoyd pay) 09 OY fisua yy 9 UOYIALIP AY} Lapun 18 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN The mammoth, the northern, hairy type of elephant known to early explorers of fossil remains, was foremost among the great mammals hunted by man. The previous history of the proboscidean order is also shown in the Hall of the Age of Man. This is one of the romances of evolution quite equal in interest to the evolution of the horse. This collection is by far the most complete in existence; it contains as much in the way of complete skeletons as those in all the other museums of the world combined. The early stages in the evolution of the proboscideans, beginning with the Palzomastodon dis- covered in the Faydim region of northern Africa, carry us back into times far antecedent to the Age of Man, namely, into an early period of the Age of Mammals, the Oligocene. Thus the visitor can see here the entire history of the evolution of the proboscideans, which taken altogether is the most majestic line of evolution that has thus far been discovered. The evolution of the proboscideans culminates in the mastodons and mammoths. The Four Seasons in the Glacial Epoch (Murals IV-VII) The four great murals on the north walls of the Hall of the Age of Man represent scenes during the four seasons of the year near the close of the Glacial epoch in the Northern Hemisphere. These four seasons belong in the same period of geologic time, namely, the final glacial stage, the period of the maximum advance of the glaciers over the entire Northern Hemisphere, of the most intense cold, and of the farthest southward extension of the northern types of mammals. This is the time of the Cré-Magnon race, and our knowledge of the mammals, reindeer, and rhinoceroses is derived from the actual Cré-Magnon paintings and etchings, chiefly those found within the caverns. The murals of the four seasons are as follows: IV. Midwinter.—The woolly rhinoceros in northern France. V. Early Winter.—The reindeer and mammoth on the river Somme, France. VI. Midsummer.—The mastodon, royal bison, and horse on the Mis- souri River, in the latitude of Kansas. VII. Autuwmn.—The deer-moose, tapir, and giant beaver, in northern New Jersey. Glacial Midwinter in Northern France (Mural IV) The woolly rhinoceros,: like the woolly mammoth, was heavily en- wrapped in hair, beneath which was a thick coat of fine wool. With this protection the animal was quite indifferent to the wintry blasts which 61 (AI IVHOIN) AONVUA NYAHLYUON ‘UALNIM TVIOVID V NI SOUMOONIHY ATIOOM AHL ‘ydvibojoyd payybriihdoy ~uUsLogso Plryuony fisua yy fo uoyra.p ayy sapun ‘qybuy “Yy sajipyg fig payuwd 20 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN swept over the steppe-like country of northern France. This golden- brown wool is actually preserved on the side of the face of one specimen discovered, which is now in the Museum of Petrograd. The head of the rhinoceros was long and narrow, like that of the white rhinoceros of Africa, but the Jaws were narrower and the upper lips were more pointed. It is an animal quite distinct from the great black rhinoceros still extant in Africa, which is a grazer with broad lips. In the distance in the painting are shown the saigas, antelopes which wandered over France at that time, and a group of woolly mammoths. Early Winter Scene on the Somme River in Northern France (Mural V) The scene represents the two herds, reindeer and mammoth, migrating southward from the banks of the river Somme. These reindeer and mammoths are, in fact, depicted very precisely in the paintings and engravings left by the Cré-Magnon artists—especially in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume. It is a striking fact that, in the case of the mammoth, every painting, drawing, etching, and model which the Cr6-Magnon man has given us exhibits exactly the same characters: the long hairy covering, the very high hump above the forehead, the notch between the hump and the neck, the very high shoulders, the short back, the rapid slope of the back over the hind quarters, the short tail. There is no doubt that, aided by these wonderful Paleolithic designs, the artist, Mr. Knight, has given us a very close representation of the actual appearance of the woolly mammoth. Midsummer on the Missouri (Mural IV) The summer scene on the Missouri River (on the parallel of Kansas) represents the region south of the farthest advance of the ice sheet. The mastodons are grouped in such a manner as to show the characteristic low, flattened head, the long low back, the symmetrical fore and hind quarters, the extremely short, massive limbs, and the very broad and massive hip region as seen from behind. In the center of the picture stands the majestic Bison regius, the royal bison, known only from a skull, a superb specimen with the horn cores attached, in the collection of the American Museum. These animals were like gigantic buffalo or bison, beside which the modern buffalo would appear very diminutive. The characters of the hair and wool are not known, but it is assumed that they were similar to those of the existing buffalo, since the paintings of the bison by the Cré-Magnon artists in France all show the distinctive beard below the chin. At the right is a group of wild American horses of the period, the last of their race in this country; the species is Equus scott, the skeleton of which has been discovered in northern Texas. 1G “sory [vlovys 180} 8] oy} ueyy TaIp[O Iq OF udAord Ud0q yok OAGCY ouoU {nq “BOLLOULY YAION ul poysodo.a Ud0q JABY SOUOG UBUINLY [ISSOJ jo SoVUILINOVO AUBIN “YSOM > oy} jo sured oy} uo poweod Sos1oOY py pus SUOST ques opTyM ‘\sRo oy} jo S}Soloj oy4 ul poAl] uUOpOsvUL oyy jooys oot OY} jo DUBAPB {Soy ple y oy joy }NOg (LA IVUAW) SHNLL TVIOVTD ALVI NI ‘UAATY MAOSSIN AHL NO ASHOH ANV NOSId TVAOU NOGOLSVIW CHL dog “usogs¢ praying fh “Systjae UOUsRI-OaD oyy Aq poyordop AyToyRAMdoV puB poyuny odom AOYT, ,WONRORPD YWNOAT,, oY} JO JOOYS-0Ol SULoT}OI ATMOS FOL OY] JO YYNOs ‘OyeUNT[ Arp pyoo oy} UT odoangy UL FUBPUNE o1OM S[BUTTUR Oso, (A TIVUOW) FONVUA “AININOS UMA AHL NO HLOWNVIN ONV UAHA NTAY GAL ydnibojoyd payyOrtidoy “UsogsC ppayevoy Awa py fo uoysasp ayy sapun “WyOvuyy *Yy 8a)404,) hq payuwd - Shas eae aS - . —— EES . — — ee Painted by Charles R. Knight, under the arrection of Henry Fairfield Osborn.y Copyrighted photograph. THE MASTODON This distant relative of the elephants may have been a contemporary of early man in the closing phases of the period of the glaciers, in North America. ine] to Painted by Charles R. Knight, under the direction of Henry Fairfield Osborn. Copyrighted photograph. THE WOOLLY MAMMOTH This great elephant was characteristic of the latter part of the period of the glaciers in Europe. He was unted by the Cré-Magnons. VG "JOUI}X9 MOU SI (JUS) IOABO JULIS oY} fvoLOUTY YJNOG pue [eIjJUN_) UT puNo}y Mou asoy} 0} poyepot ore ‘(40}U00) surde, oy} fosoour oy} JO pu Joop oY} JO SoJOBIeYO SUTUIqUIOD JdEp JO Soloods JouT}XO UB SBA (SA9]DAla,)) YSOOUI-IOAp OYJ, (IA TVYNW) SAWIL TVIOVIO ALVI DONIUNG AGSHYAL MAN NYAHLYON NI NWOLAV “ydpoibojoyd paqybisidog “usogsg pjayuny fisuazy fo worratip ay] wapun ‘yybvuyy “YY sazvoyg fq paguimg HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 25 Early Autumn in New Jersey (Mural VIT) The autumn scene in northern New Jersey embraces three very distinctive North American types of the period, all of which have become extinct. The deer-moose, Cervalces (to the left), was described by Professor W. B. Scott, of Princeton, from a single skeleton found in the gravel beds of northern New Jersey, which is now preserved complete in the Princeton Museum. The American fossil tapir (in the center) is known from sparse remains, the best of which were among the earliest discoveries of the pioneers of American paleontology. The giant rodents of the genus Castoroides (see two individuals at the right in the painting) are known from nearly complete skulls and skeletons discovered in Ohio and other central western states. The Tar Pools of Southern California (Mural VIII) This mural represents a scene in southern California, in the vicinity of the Rancho-la-Brea deposits, including the remains of the astonishing group of animals caught in the asphalt trap, so splendidly represented in the collection of the Museum of History, Science, and Art, of Los Angeles. The most characteristic animals of North and South America that lived during the Age of Man (see the south side of the hall) are known through some of the unique remains from the famous deposits of Rancho- la-Brea of southern California, especially the sloths, saber-toothed tigers, and wolves of the period—to which it is hoped that we may add some of the less abundant forms, like the camel and the horse. So far as possible, through exploration and exchange, this quarter section of the hall will represent the mammalian life of North America, in contrast with the mammalian life of South America during the same period of time. A Loess Storm on the Pampas of Argentina (Mural IX) A mural on the western wall (at the left) of the Hall of the Age of Man presents a South American scene during the Old Stone Age. It depicts the ancient pampas of Argentina with the winding river La Plata in the background, and a typical extinct mammalian fauna. In the distance at the right a violent dust storm is transporting columns of fine, impalpable dust known as loess. The Museum is extraordinarily rich in the great Pampean Collection presented by certain of the trustees in 1899. This collection shows the close connections between North and South America in glacial times. One of the most wonderful fossil groups in the Museum, if not the most wonderful, is the sloth and glyptodont group (center of southern side of the Hall of the Age of Man). This group is still in preparation. 9% ‘sjooys 001 years Aq posoA0d atom OdOANG] UOYJIOU PUG S9}e}S U19}S¥e oY} USM ‘SOUIT} [VIOV[S yy JO Javed J0}yR] OY} SULMp BIUIOF]VH ULoYINOY jo ofl] [euIUB yUEp -unqe oy} syueseidsor duos oY, “Id SNOJoYORaI} OY} UI PorTUA SUTUIOIO ST SY}OTS OY} JO OUO ‘aoUJANS OY} UO JoPVA 9Yy Aq pope “punotsyovq oy} Ul SyJoUT “WVU pu SEAJOM {puNOIoI0J oy} UT (suOpo/A PT) SYYO[S PUNOIS PUY S1OF14 YIOO}-d1QUS ‘sIopuOd YURI “41d 4yeydse Io , jood-1e},, 8 puno1e poroyyes sjeunuy (IIIA IVHOAW) VINHOAITVO ‘VEU VI OHONVE AO dVUL-HLVaAC FHL “yd vb d paqybrsidoy) “ULogso Pp “Dy fsa fF fo Uorjalip ayy sapun “qybvuy “Y 8a)40y) fq payuiod ~ ‘SRIUOYONBAOVIA, POC UIIT[-LopUd]s OY} JO OVNOS oIv YYSIL OY} 4B ITIP “SuISMOIG ATJoIND o1v SUOPOXO} Jo a[dnoo & 4Joy oy} 9B {s}UOpoydsyS ory} puw (wopojsaT ‘wopojh py) SYAO|S PUNOAS jULIT OA} PUNOIIIIOJ 9Y} UT SyoIdap oUBdS oY,T, *(SS9OT) JSP OU Jo SUIIO}S dy} Ul polINg Uo}JO 910M SUIGUTOI OSOYA ‘S[RUIUIVUT OBULAYS JO osETGUIESSY YvoIS B POAT] OLOF{ “vULyUOSIY jo sedured oy} pepBAU! JoAOU pUv voLoUTY yynog ut padojeasp A]peo0] ATUO o1OM ‘UB, JO OSV OY} SuLAMp Joys oor SBA B YIM oLoYstuIoY ULOYJAOU oY} JO YONUT OS patOAOS YOTYA S1OVv]S OY L, (XI IVUNW) VNILNADYUV JO SVdNVd HHL NO WHOLS SSHOT V “ydnibojoyd payybrihdog “Uusogse ppayoy huuayy fo worsaup ay} dapun ‘qybvuyy *Y $2)404) fig payuwd r wh usa, ae a IE a Sai, Meare 28 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN It includes five sloths of three varieties (the Mylodon, Lestodon and Scelidotherium) and three glyptodonts. These animals, so entirely diff- erent in external appearance and habits, nevertheless belong to the same order of mammals, the Edentata, which, as its name implies, is distinguished by the absence of enamel on the teeth. It is important to bring these two animals together in the same exhibit, so as to show the very wide contrasts in adaptation which may occur within the limits of a single mammalian order: the sloths covered with long hair and with vestiges of armature embedded in the skin, the glyptodonts nearly hairless, and encased in powerful bony armature, which renders them completely immune to attack by the saber-toothed tiger of the period. Appendix The Family Tree of Man By William K. Gregory Man is no doubt vastly superior to his distant relatives the an- thropoid (man-like) apes. His brain and mind are on far higher levels of development, he walks erect, he is able to speak. Man has a long line of ancestry of his own, extending for perhaps two million years or more, far back into the Age of Mammals. Yet the science of comparative anatomy has revealed the fact that man is constructed upon the same general anatomical plan as that of his more backward relatives, the gorilla and the chimpanzee, and that he is connected with them by a very large number of anatomical marks of distant kinship. The common plan, with differences in detail, upon which man and the great apes are constructed, becomes more and more evident and indisputable as our practical knowledge and experience of human and comparative anatomy increase. The science of comparative anatomy, in combination with the science of paleontology, has provided the basis for the exhibit called “The Family Tree of Man,” which is an attempt to present in a simple graphic form what is accepted by the best scientific authorities. The Primates first became distinguishable from other orders of mammals very early in the Age of Mammals, that is, some three million years ago, according to the most conservative estimate. The first Primates were already adapted for living in trees and had grasping hind feet, but as may be judged from their small crania, they were greatly inferior in brain development to their modern descendants. This stage of evolution is represented in the exhibit by a cast of the skull of an extinct primate, Notharctus osborni, from the Middle Eocene of north- western Wyoming. The next two stages of ascent are so far known only from two small lower jaws dating from the Lower Oligocene of Egypt. In the first of HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 29 these, Parapithecus, the lower jaw and dentition are intermediate in character between the Eocene tarsioid primates and the oldest anthro- poid. In the second jaw (Propliopithecus) the number and position of the teeth and the form and detailed arrangement of the cusps of all the teeth are exactly such as would be expected in the common starting point for the divergent lines leading to the gibbons, to the higher apes and to man, In the long ages of the Miocene epoch (which is at the beginning of the second half of the Age of Mammals) there was a great branching out into different lines on the part of the primitive anthropoid stock, some of which began to foreshadow the modern gorillas and chimpanzees, while others (e.g., Szvapithecus) showed certain pre-human characters in the jaw and molar teeth. By the latter part of the Age of Mammals the pre-human stock had probably become broken up into several distinct species, some of which were more backward, others more progressive toward higher types. The most backward of these early pre-human races was the Pithecan- thropus or Ape-man, from the Upper Pliocene (late Age of Mammals) or Lower Pleistocene (early Age of Man) of Java. The top of his skull is strongly reminiscent of the apes and indeed it was long debated whether Pithecanthropus was a progressive ape, or a primitive man; but the im- print of the frontal lobes of the brain on the inside of the skull show that he was an extremely primitive man, perhaps ancestral to the Heidelberg and Neanderthal races. The Dawn Man (Koanthropus) of the Upper Pliocene, or Lower Pleistocene of England, had a more progressive type of brain case than that of Pithecanthropus, but his lower jaw was very ape-like, lacking a bony chin. The Heidelberg jaw (Lower Pleistocene age, Germany), although already definitely human, is probably several hundred thousand years old. The jaw is of great size, with retreating chin and primitive human teeth. The Neanderthal Race occupied Europe in the latter part of the Glacial period. The head is large, but the forehead is low, with strongly projecting brow ridges. The Cré-Magnon race occupied Europe in the closing stages of Glacial times. It was in a high stage of evolution and belongs with modern races of man in the species Homo sapiens. The Australian aboriginals represent one of the most primitive of the surviving races of man. They are probably distantly related to the most primitive peoples of India and to the early stock of the white races. The detailed relationships of the other races of men are illustrated in special exhibits in the Introduction to Anthropology, now on the second floor, extreme west tower. Fig. 6. The progress of primitive man as shown by his tools and weapons. A. IMPLEMENTS TYPICAL OF THE EARLY PALEOLITHIC AGE 1. Hand-ax or chopping tool of flint. 2. Dagger or perforating tool of flint. 3. Implement of flint for various purposes, such as cutting and scraping. B. IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS TYPICAL OF THE LATE PALEOLITHIC AGE Knife blade or spear point of flint. Knife or etching tool of flint. End scraper or planing tool of flint. Harpoon point of bone. Lance point of bone. Beads or pendants of elk teeth. Beads of univalve shells. Fragment of bone with partial outline of a horse etched upon it. Fragment of bone with traces of geometric ornamentation. ONANBWUPWNH 30 4 5 6 Fig. 7. The progress of primitive man as shown by his tools and weapons (continued). IMPLEMENTS TYPICAL OF THE NEOLITHIC AGE 1. Ax-hammer of stone, perforated for hafting. 2 Ax of flint, partly polished. 3. Saw of flint, one edge notched. 4. Dagger of flint, probably in imitation of metallic form. 5. Knife or sickle blade of flint. 6. Arrow point of flint, also made in larger sizes and used as spear points. 31 HISTORICAL PERIOD EXISTING MAMMALS NEOLITHIC|]PERIOD MASTODON(?)MAMMOT H GRENELLE CRO-MAGNON STONE CULTURES AZILIAN MAGDALENIAN SOLUTRIAN AURIGNACIAN GRIMALDI REINDEER MAMMOTH WOOLLY RHINOCEROS COLD MOUSTERIAN NEANDERTHAL WARM MOUSTERIAN ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS HIPPOPOTAMUS COLD ACHEULEAN WARM ACHEULEAN KRAPINA LATE CHELLEAN EHRINGSDORF ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS CHELLEAN HIPPOPOTAMUS Pl Ava Oss Siac EARLY CHELLEAN ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS RHINOCEROS ETRUSCUS HIPPOPOTAMUS SABRE-TOOTH HEIDELBERG CROMERIAN ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS MUSKOX PILTDOWN ? REINDEER Fig. 8. Sequence of Old Stone Age (Paleolithic) in Europe. The order in which the races of primitive men appeared in Europe and the most striking mammals living at the same time. FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDUCATION FOR SCIENCE WN Vel > Hie | THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY THE HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN By HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN GUIDE LEAFLET SERIES No. 52 THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED MAY, 1925 leihacdiee 1925, by The Ameritan Museum of Natural History NEANDERTHAL MAN Modeled by Dr. J. H. McGregor on cast of skull found at La Chapelle aux Saints, France, in 1908. teil -OF THE AGE OF MAN By HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN Third edition revised and enlarged. Edited by William K. Gregory THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Guide Leaflet No. 52 May, 1925 The HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN is designed to show what we know of Man and his environment during the long period of geologic time in which man rose from a condition of limited intelligence and sub- ordination to the Animal World to his present condition of great intel- ligence and mastery both of the Animal World and of many of the prin- cipal forces of Nature. The exhibit is arranged in an educational manner so as to present very simply, very truthfully, and very clearly, our actual knowledge, and not to confuse the visitor with theories or speculations. The actual fossil remains of Man are represented by casts which are colored as nearly as possible to duplicate the originals which are to be found only in the great museums of Europe. Great pains have been taken to secure casts of the latest discoveries in various parts of the world. The beginning of this collection was a gift of Dr. J. Leon Will- iams in 1915, and it is constantly being amplified by gifts from other friends and from museums abroad. The models and restorations and mural paintings of man and of the great mammals among which he lived and struggled represent the knowledge of more than a century of exploration and anatomical study by the leading students of Comparative Anatomy and Pal- ontology from the time of Cuvier in 1790 to the present period. a4 i og crys SS a a od Trinit APE-MAN NEANDERTHAL MAN Cr6-MaGnon Man Pithecanthropus erectus Homo neanderthalensis Homo sapiens Fig. 1. THrer Great Races or Presistortc Man. Models by Professor J. H. McGregor. The Hall of the Age of Man in the American Museum By HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN Third edition, revised and enlarged. Edited by William K. Gregory The exhibits in the Hall of the Age of Man is intended to illustrate what is known of the origin, relationships and early history of man, as deduced from his remains and primitive implements, and also to show the animals by which he was surrounded in the early stages of his existence. These animals are shown not only as mounted skeletons but in a series of large mural paintings portraying them as they appeared in the flesh amid their natural surroundings. These paintings are the result of the study of their fossil remains and their careful comparison with related existing animals, a work to which the author has devoted many years of study. Hence they give an accurate and vivid idea of the animals that were the contemporaries of early races of man in various regions of the world. A series of cases in the center of the hall are devoted to the story of man, and that it can be compressed into so small a space is an indication of the scarcity of his re- mains, for here are displayed reproductions of the most notable specimens that have been discovered. It has been necessary to use copies, for the actual specimens are few in number and scattered through many museums in widely separated parts of the world. HE beginning of the Age of Man, some 500,000 years ago, roughly estimated as the close of the Age of Mammals, marks in reality but the beginning of the close of the Age of Mammals. The extinction of the most superb mammals that the earth has ever produced, during the early stages of human evolution, progressed from natural 2 6 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN causes due directly or indirectly to the Glacial epoch. With the intro- duction of firearms the destruction has proceeded with increasing rapidity, and today it is going on, by the use of guns and steel traps, at a more rapid rate than ever. By the middle of this century man will be alone amid the ruins of the mammalian world he has destroyed, the period of the Age of Mammals will have entirely closed, and the Age of Man will have reached a numerical climax, from which some statisticians believe it will probably recede, because we are approaching the point of the over-population of the earth in three of the five great continents. Man as a Primate A few of the more striking points of anatomical agreement between men and apes are illustrated in the first A case, which shows comparative series of skulls, lower jaws, and teeth. In this exhibit skulls of the great man apes (at the right in Case I) are placed for comparison with those of some of the known extinct or fossil races of man, each ascending along a line of its own. Copies of the most recent discoveries in various parts of the world are placed in this series; in fact, this entire exhibit is designed to show from time to time our progress in discovery, to present actual evidence in place of theories and speculations, and to show how very limited this evidence is as compared with the abundant evidence in the ancestry, for example, of the horse (shown in the Hall of the Age of Mammals). The Ascent of Man Man has a long line of ancestry of his own, perhaps two million or more years in length. The cradle of the human race was, in our opinion, in Asia, in regions not yet explored by paleontologists. One reason that human and prehuman fossil remains are rare is that the ancestors of man lived partly among the trees and forests; this does not mean that they were arboreal; they lived chiefly on the ground.!. Even when living in a more open country the ancestors of man were alert to escape the floods and sandstorms which entombed animals like the horse of the open country and of the plains. Hence fossil remains of man as well as of his ancestors are extremely rare until the period of burial began. [This refers only to the higher, more recent ancestors of man. The most thorough studies of the anatomy of the foot of man and other primates have brought strong support to the view that the human foot has been derived from an earlier ape-like stage in which the great toe could be used in climbing. W. K. G.] “SOUOZ “ALIOSIID “YAMA “AG AQ potdoyur sv sdrysuor eat 0} BOIPUT SOUL] YOR[G oy, Soy], “eloues pole puew snoaypidohug JO solwods [B1sA0s pue snoaypd pay A JO Sjsvo ore SUOUMTOOdS JoYjO OY, BYSBIGON WO] oq [BjuOZzIOYy oy4 AC Ppo}BoIPUl o1B (9,0 ‘QUOVOTT] ‘QUdVOST[()) S oy} 4B ([[NYS pejonajsuooet pus Awl) snoaypdoydorg sede isso} Jo syuourevay Mel ode pIssoy @ ‘snoayzidosadsazy JO (\sBo) Wepour aoddn odA4 ‘FT fsndoswyjunoayig Jo doy [[nys [B q[oplof{ wou punoy MBE JO iso ‘Zp fuUOqqTs JO puly dose] oyy ‘saypqoji Fy “[[ ‘suB10 o[euT 4[NpB “OT SooZUBCUIYO o[BUL 4NpB ‘G6 -BI[MOs opevul : LEO TA “aIq Aq ‘sndosyyupoayyid JO \snq Jo [epourt “Q SLOsoTDoT Ad AQ poyon.suodoad {[N4S ‘sndoyupoaYid ‘G ‘lOSoINHoY Ad AQ pojonajsuodvod ‘(sndosyyuvnogy ) [[NYS UMOPIIg “fF ‘[BULSIIO JO 4sBO ‘(sjureg-xnv-o]jodeyA) [ByjlopuBoN ‘@ {[BUTSILO jO JsBvo “UOUSBIY-OL,) JO UBUT P]O °Z :(odA} UeUINY SUTSTXO) UBT “T SHLVINIYd HHL ONOWY WOVId S.NVIN pue Yyjoo} snot ta 6 Ltr »¢ -AUBULIOY) O JO {S$ G [NPB ‘Q fRTWOSs oun ‘a0By Jysreiys AT[Bo S ysiy JO St [NYS oy, “souUBI vay) ‘sy 9U0IG PIO 2] ‘(suaidps Owof]) UB WOUSRTY-O1) “Pp “UIY) SUIdO|S PUB OSOU OPIM YFIM OATSSBUL AIOA DDBJ SUOTSOA [BJUOT] -Ij1oA PUB NBA YSTy ‘peoyoioy dooys YIM ‘ope sys ‘ody MOT JO YN OZIS 99.1] AIA Jo st NYS oy ‘edoang Q8y 9U0IG PIO ‘(sisuappYyJuapubau OWOFT) UBIN [BY}opuBeN oy} Ul MOLIBU “YYStoy UT MOT[E ‘Mel uBUINy UMOUY Ioy}O Aue uey} oF] ; ol “UBUL UlopoUur JO yey} O} Sjaed syr Jo yUOUTdOTOAVp OY} UT LOMofUrl 1B LL I J [} 0} A {} UI OMoJUT IBY Ya) G -ode asour ‘ad&y MoO] AAA JO ST ([BULOTLO OY} UI podAdosodd st opts }YSII oy} YOM JO) Mel p @ SUIMOYg “puBpoUuny “xossng ‘(,) ouod0rg teddy ‘(vuosmpp sndoyjupnony) WEIN UMOPJIq TG ofoyJAoAoU f]jnys Jo eddy 1oysty Ayoury SUOLS YIM “TMs Jo add} MOT ALOA B SUIMOYG “BABS ‘OUODOT[ dodd yy ‘(snjoava snd oLyJUDIayUd ) uByy-ody [IU “TL Tourd0ds Joy}O UOIJ pot0}Sod sjaed yuo] ‘[eUrsI10 oy} UI pojuosordor syivd yeq SI JSBO UTBIG OY} 3 ‘SOTJSLIOJOBIBYO ayly-ode IOSILHOIIN “Hf tOssejorg AC SUOTJONA}SUOIIY SHdAL NVIWOH OINOLSINAYd UNOA AO STHGOW TINS Fig. 2. Skull fragments found by Dawson and Smith Woodward in 1911, 1912; jaw fragment found by Dawson in 1912; canine tooth found by Father Teilhard de Chardin in 1913; nasal bones found by Dawson in 1913; single worked flint found near original skull fragments by Smith Woodward. Jaw one-third natural size; other fragments a bit larger than one-third (distorted somewhat by camera). Fig. 3. A, side and top views of jaw of first Piltdown man, with first and second lower molar teeth in place. B, side and top views of first lower molar tooth of second Piltdown man. About three-fourths natural size. 9 Fig. 4. The ‘Heidelberg jaw,’’ found at Mauer, near Heidelberg, Germany. About one-third natural size. Fig. 5. Sand-pit at Mauer, near Heidelberg. X marks the spot where the jaw was found, in place and beneath 79 feet of glacial and post-glacial deposits. 10 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 11 The earliest known human remains of the Trinil, Piltdown and Heidelberg races consist principally of portions of skulls, of jaws, and teeth. Individuals of the prehistoric races of Europe are now repre- sented by casts in the Hall of the Age of Man. The museum series began in 1915 with the gift of the J. Leon Williams Collection, and has been enriched by additions from the museums of London, Paris, and recently by the Neanderthal man of Krapina, presented by Professor Kk. Gorjanovié-Kramberger, through the kindness of Col. C. W. Furlong; also the Talgai skull from South Australia, presented by Dr. Stewart A. Smith. The earliest known man is the Foxhall man, known at present only , by his flint implements, partly burned with fire, found near the little hamlet of Foxhall, near Norwich, on the east coast of England. These flints, discovered in 1921. constitute the first evidence that man of sufficient intelligence to make a variety of flint implements and to use fire existed in Britain at the close of the Age of Mammals; these are the first traces of true Tertiary man ever found. The Trinil ape-man, the Pithecanthropus of Java, is the lowest of the known human or subhuman races. It is called ape-man because it is more human than ape-like. The restored head by Professor J. Howard McGregor, of Columbia University, is designed to show its half human, half anthropoid resemblance, as suggested by the top of the cranium, the only part known, which is far more human than that of any ape cranium, and at the same time far more ape-like than that of any human cranium. It is not impossible that this ape-man is related to the Neanderthal man. The exact geological age of the formation in which the original Pithecanthropus remains were discovered has been difficult to settle. The other fossil mammal remains found in the same formation, according to Dubois, Boule and other authorities, were essentially similar to those of the Upper Pliocene age of Europe. On the other hand, according to the geologist Blanckenhorn, the exact rela- tions of the formation to those above and below it indicate a Lower Pleistocene age. In any event the antiquity of the Pithecanthropus, in terms of ordinary human experience, is certainly very great, probably not less than 500,000 years. The Most Ancient Human Races, Piltdown and Heidelberg A fragmentary skull, the greater part of the right half of the lower jaw, and an ‘isolated tooth, represent the first found remains of the Piltdown man, discovered in England in 1911-12 by Charles Dawson. Replicas Of the two avatar teeth which were found near the skull-fop, in the same torm- ation. The peeth probably boldly with the skull tm mony featunes they closely resemble those of same arom orang-vtaas Gog Ri e@e AN Photographs of the ovlar teeth found near the skull-top of Pithecanthropus. in comparison with tecth of Orang-utans and of an Australian black man LDEST RACES OF MEN No. 1. THE TRINIL RACE OF JAVA (Pithecanthropus erectus) PITHECANTHROPUS; THE APE-MAN OF JAVA Skull top, cast of endo-cranial cavity, femur and teeth (casts). The labels are in the hand- writing of Dr. Dubois, the discoverer of this remarkable specimen by whom these casts were presented. HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 13 Several reconstructions of the Piltdown skull have been made, the first being that by Professor A. Smith Woodward, now in the British Museum. Another was made in this country, by Professor J. H. McGregor. The problem whether the Piltdown jaw belongs to this human skull or whether it belongs to a fossil chimpanzee is now considered settled, because a second specimen of the Piltdown man has been found two miles from the first in the same Piltdown gravels; this specimen has the same kind of lower grinding teeth and the same form in the bone of the forehead. The skull itself is of a primitive human type, the brain cast showing a lowly development of the higher cerebral association centers (Elliot Smith, 1922). In the deposit that contained the Piltdown remains were found some flint implements of Chellean type and two lots of fossil mammal remains, mostly teeth. The first lot were badly waterworn and had probably been washed out of an older deposit and then redeposited. The second lot, like the human bones, were not waterworn, and are believed by many geologists to be of the same age as the human remains. This lot included teeth of beaver, horse, deer and hippopotamus, animals which have been found elsewhere in Europe in association with flint implements of Chellean type. For these reasons Obermaier and other authorities refer the Piltdown remains to an early phase of the Chellean culture stage of the Lower Paleolithic (Lower Old Stone Age). Its age in the geological time scale may be in either the first or the second Interglacial time of the Pleistocene epoch. Unquestionably the next most ancient human relic which has thus far been discovered is the jaw of the so-called Heidelberg man, a fossil which may be 250,000 years old. It is notable for its great size and for its lack of a protruding bony chin. The Heidelberg man may be ancestral to the Neanderthal man. The Neanderthal Race The Neanderthal man represents the oldest fossil human race of which the skeleton is fully known. The remains are very abundant, and the American Museum owns reproductions of many skulls and parts of skulls found during the last half century in Spain, Germany, France, and Hungary. Foremost of these is the skulleap found near Diisseldorf, Germany, in 1856, which constitutes the type of the Neanderthal race itself. PL “syuoure;dury QU oy UBIIOJSTLO TAT PUCULETBIT wW1Ody Mel IIMOT JO SSB) y Mvl TOMO, JO puw ‘ooURIYT ‘osdof JO ojS]T ‘Opeporg “YQ 7B punoj Yoo} JO Sjsey) “QOUBIT “IOTJSNOTY OT VB PUNOF [[MYS JO SB) ‘PUNOJ SB SYUOUITRA [BJOPOYS puwB [[MYS BUN’ BT JO yse ‘QuuBIBYD ‘BUIN?) BT 7B PUNO; [[NYS JO UOLonA}SUOIYy ‘oouRL ‘SyUTeg xnwB o[podeyL, BT 7B puno} [[MAS Jo ysBO) ‘soul ‘syureg xne o[fedeyH BT Wor [NYS UO poseg “Ost HoT “H “f Aq ‘jopour [[NYSs J[vy ‘pBoy J/eH ‘oouvly ‘sjureg xne ojodeyH vy] WO [[MYS UO posed “OSH “Hf AC Aq ‘sng “OOUBLY ‘s}UTeg Xn oqypodeyy) BT UlO.T} [ys pojon jSUOVOY, ‘untspoq ‘Adg woty wel puv doy [[Mys Jo SB) ‘uantspog ‘Adg woaf doy [MAS JO ySB) ‘ou ‘O}JOTNBN BT wWod “OVUBL u *CUBULIOX) ‘JAopyossnq] wou ‘AoT[BA IopuvoN oY} Ul potoAoosip ‘uouttoads odA} oy} JO do} T[NyS oy} Jo ysBp MOV ANOLS GIO UAMOT AHL JO SHOVU GIOTVHLYHANVAN ST SdaMUuOM LNITH TWHLYHONVAN HHL 16 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN Of great interest is the reconstruction by Professor McGregor of a Neanderthal female head, based upon a skull found at Gibraltar in 1848, which gives us the head characters of the women of this very primitive race. Nearly perfect is the skull from La Chapelle-aux-Saints, originally restored by Professor Marcellin Boule, of Paris, and reconstructed by Professor McGregor; this distinguished American expert in the anatomy of palzeolithic man is now engaged upon the reconstruction of the entire skeleton and body of the Neanderthal man. This life-sized Neanderthal model will be one of the most interesting exhibits in the American Museum; it represents many years of laborious study and research by Professor McGregor, who was sent by the Museum on a special tour through Europe to examine all the known fossil remains of the Neander- thal race, representing forty or fifty individuals altogether, including the last specimen to be found, that of La Ferrassie, France, which is now being described by Dr. Boule. The Rhodesian Race The most recent discovery is the Rhodesian man, Homo rhodesiensis, made in 1921, in a cave at the Broken Hill Mine, northern Rhodesia, Africa, where the human remains were found in association both with stone and bone implements, and with broken bones of animals which had evidently been used as food. This man was in the Stone Age of industry, using scrapers and knives of quartz and quartzite. The forehead is very low and the ridges above the orbit are excessively prominent; the opening for the nose was very wide, but the palate and teeth are like those in existing races. The brain is of a very low human type of the capacity of 1,280 ¢.c. (see Smith Woodward’s Guide, pp. 29-31). The Neanderthal Flint Workers The mural of the Neanderthal group of flint workers shows in the distance, along the Dordogne River, herds of woolly rhinoceroses. The center of interest is the flint industry, which, with the chase, oecu- pied the entire energy of the Neanderthals. Since the Neanderthal type is totally different from any modern human type, it must be studied from models of its own. The group is very carefully arranged to show the physical characters of this man: the knees slightly bent in the peculiar standing posture, the broad, heavy shoulders, slightly stooped, and the massive neck and the head set well forward. In the back- eround is the famous cavern of Le Moustier, which gives its name to the Mousterian period of flint industry pursued by the Neanderthals. LT ‘OOUBIY ‘ouo JUST - U pUNOJ SUOJO[OYS UOUSBI-O1D Jo ydvisojoyg “ZI ‘o0uLIg Np O01 “TT ‘sjuowlo[duy uvlDeUsIINy “OT ‘OOURLY Ul OSV 9U0}G PIO oY} JO Ue] JO Slox[oYs Yoor pure ‘soavo poyureg °*6 ‘Q0UBIY “OUOJUIT] LBoU puNo} ‘9o¥Byy IP[VUILTy ay} JO suOjooys Jo ydeisojoyg 8 ‘oouBLy ‘SeIZAW SOT 4B puNO} (4SBd) o[eUIO; Jo TNyAQ *2 ‘SoIzAG Soy Jo uoumtoeds odAq YAM punoy (ysBo) doy [[nyG °*9 ‘TIN¥s od4q oy} UO pojepou ‘ToseINHdW “Hf “Aq Aq “4snq payetdu10g «Gg ‘pBoy oY} JO WIO} [BIOUDS OY} MOYS 0} ‘opis aUO UO poppe Ysey YIM ‘uouTTOeds odXy4 Jo [NYG “F “OBI SIY} JO STTMYS 1oyy3o Jo Apnys WOoIJ podojsor sjaed Suisstu ouros puw y4oo0} YIM ‘uouTeds ody Jo (ys¥0) [[NYQ “Ee ‘oouviy ‘ausopi0d ‘selzAqy Say 4B pUNO}J S[eNprArpul aAy Jo auo ‘uouTtOeds ad4y Jo (ysBo) NAG °*Z ‘OUI ‘PUBIIOFJUOT, IB9U PUNO}; (48d) aTJodeD-equI0g = *T GOV ANOLS GIO Wadd SHOVU NONOVIN-OUYD) TVOIAAL 8T HLOWNAVW AHL DONLLNIVd SLSILUY NONDVIN-OYO *ydvabojoyd paybuihdog “usLogsQ prying huey fo uoyyasip ay, sapun qybuy “y sazuvyg hq payuwd HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 19 The Cro-Magnon Race of High Type The highly evolved Cré-Magnon race entered Europe from the east and drove out the Neanderthals. The Cré-Magnons were people like ourselves in point of evolution, and the characters of the head and cranium reflect their moral and spiritual potentiality. This was a race of warriors, of hunters, of painters and sculptors far superior to any of their predecessors. The contrast between the Cré-Magnon head and those of the Neanderthals which precede them is as wide as it possibly could be. It is intellectual and thoughtful. Although these people lived at the very close of the long glacial period, they are far older than the Egyptian and Assyrian civilizations, which we ordinarily think of as being of the utmost antiquity. Cré-Magnon Artists Painting the Mammoth One of the recent murals in the Hall of the Age of Man (over the door- way opposite the Cré-Magnon exhibit) represents four of the Cré- Magnon artists actually painting the great fresco in the cave of Font-de- Gaume, Dordogne, France. The writer has been studying the composi- tion of this group for years, with Mr. Charles R. Knight, artist, aided by advice of the Abbé Henri Breuil of the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris, as well as of Mr. N. C. Nelson, archeologist at the American Museum of Natural History. There are six figures in the group; four are depicted partly nude to show their anatomy in contrast with that of the Neanderthals. The two half-kneeling figures are holding up small lamps to illuminate the smooth surface of the limestone wall on which the procession of mammoths is being depicted. The half-erect figure represents an artist with pointed flint incising the outlines of a mammoth on the wall. The fully erect central figure represents an artist laying on the colors. A kneeling figure is preparing the colors on a rock. This design enables the painter to show the tall, slender proportions of the men of this Cré-Magnon race. The standing figure to the left is that of a chieftain clothed in well-made fur garments, who carries on top of his staff his baton de commandement as the insignia of his rank. The only illumination is that of the flicker- ing wicks in the small oil lamps. Contrast Between the Old Stone Age (Paleolithic) and the New Stone Age (Neolithic) The men of the Old Stone Age lived in Europe during the immensely long periods when the great glacial ice-sheets gradually extended from the mountains out into the open regions, and then as slowly drew back 02 *(qs80) Ysny YJouruTeUL Jo sd0Id B UO poAvBIsuUS “YOUIUIB]Y OUT, “ZT ‘syuomo[dunt uerueyepseyy “TT ‘OT ‘SSUIMBIP DABD UOUSBIY-OL) “6 (SdoyUNY YJOUUTBUT YSOUIpat, Aq opevur ‘qjourureUL JO 0440N}BIS ALOAT JO JSBO *§ ‘syuote[dumt UBeLN[OS ” *AUBULIOS) ‘uuog 1boU ‘TOSSBO.19G CE) }e punoj UBUIOM pues ubvUT JO sy[oys jo S}SB) af) ‘Cc “BIYBAO[SOYV0Z ) “ysourpolg 18 punoj symys jo S}SB) br € ‘BIABIOTN “UUNIG YB PUNOJ [[NYS Jo svg °% adtysAqaoqy ‘9ABd YIMSUL'T 7B PUNOFJ [[NAS fo ysvQ “| ‘puvlsuy ‘ Li SIOVU ADV ANOLS GTO WAddN GHITIV AGNV NONDVIN-OUDO ‘SjJUSUMe [CUNT OIYVOON “ZT. ‘addy ouldyy popeoypeoig [TT ‘puvpsug “TIT Ae[[’y 1B punoy [[Nys Jo yseg “OT ‘uNIs[eg ‘osneyy oy} Jo AoT[BA oy Ur ‘xNBoUSrepaY vO] s][Nys Jo $38 By) 6-2, QIGH9ON) GOV ANOLS MUN AHL JO NAW ‘uBTIZy “AuButor) ‘oqnue”d, oy} Ivou “JousKG 4B 0}4015 vB WOAZ ST[NYS JO sysvQ ‘9-¢ By todd() “wmnisjog ‘mure yy cvou ‘zoojanyy JO 0}4019 [eLIng B UT PUNO; s{[Nys Jo syseg °Z ‘T NVISIONAGUVL NVITIZV ‘NVINAIVGDVW Wadd “UBIUOTBp: Fig. 6. The progress of primitive man as shown by his tools and weapons. A. IMPLEMENTS TYPICAL OF THE EARLY PALEOLITHIC AGE 1. Hand-ax or chopping tool of flint. 2. Dagger or perforating tool of flint. 3. Implement of flint for various purposes, such as cutting and scraping. B. IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS TYPICAL OF THE LATE PALEOLITHIC AGE 1. Knife blade or spear point of flint. 2. Knife or etching tool of flint. 3. End seraper or planing tool of flint. 4. Harpoon point of bone. 5. Lance point of bone. 6. Beads or pendants of elk teeth. 7. Beads of univalve shells. 8. Fragment of bone with partial outline of a horse etched upon it. 9 Fragment of bone with traces of geometric ornamentation. 22 5 6 Fig. 7. The progress of primitive man as shown by his tools and weapons (continued). IMPLEMENTS TYPICAL OF THE NEOLITHIC AGE Ax-hammer of stone, perforated for hafting. Ax of flint, partly polished. Saw of flint, one edge notched. Dagger of flint, probably in imitation of metallic form. Knife or sickle blade of flint. Arrow point of flint, also made in Jarger sizes and used as spear points. Car Orp es CONN SF 23 STONE CULTURES HISTORICAL AZILIAN MAGDALENIAN SOLUTRIAN AURIGNACIAN COLD MOUSTERIAN WARM MOUSTERIAN COLD ACHEULEAN WARM ACHEULEAN LATE CHELLEAN CHELLEAN PAE = Oy asta te EARLY CHELLEAN CROMERIAN FOXHALLIAN a PE RO EXISTING MAMMALS NEOLITHIC|PERIOD MASTODON(?)MAMMOT H GRENELLE CRO-MAGNON GRIMALDI NEANDERTHAL KRAPINA EHRINGSDORF HEIDELBERG PILTDOWN ? REINDEER MAMMOTH WOOLLY RHINOCEROS ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS HIPPOPOTAMUS ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS HIPPOPOTAMUS ELEPHAS ANTIQUUS RHINOCEROS ETRUSCUS HIPPOPOTAMUS SABRE-TOOTH ELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS MUSKOX REINDEER Fig. 8. Sequence of Old Stone Age (Paleolithic) in Europe. The order in which the races of primitive men appeared in Europe and the most striking mammals living at the same time. CU) ins ars nora COLORED PEBBLES FROM MAS D’AZIL. FRANCE (From Obermaier’s Fossil Man in Spain) 25 26 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN before the increasing heat of the summer seasons. The woolly mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the wild horse, and later the reindeer, were abun- dant, and were hunted by the skilled makers of chipped flint imple- ments. The men of the New Stone Age, on the other hand, came into Europe after the greatest severity of the glacial climate had passed, and were surrounded mostly by forms of animals still existing. While not possessing the wonderful artistic ability of their predecessors, the Cré- Magnon cave artists, the men of the New Stone Age made pottery and cloth, and erected great sepulchres and temples of stone for their dead. They lived in more or less settled communities and depended upon an artificial food supply, raising cereals and keeping flocks and herds, instead of depending wholly upon hunting. Thus they were the true forerunners of civilization. Their skulls and skeletons also show that they belong to races still existing, including the Alpines or Central Euro- peans and the Mediterraneans or South Europeans. The Azlian or Transitional Period Between the Old Stone Age and the the New Stone Age The people that colored the pebbles pictured on page 25 lived in the transitional period, called Azilian, between the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age. Like the men of the Reindeer Age (Magdalenian, or close of the Old Stone Age) they made small chipped flint imple- ments for planers and knives, and awls and polishers from bone; but their flint implements were very small and angulate. Because of the increasing scarcity or absence of the reindeer, which had been abundant in the dry, cold climate of Magdalenian times, the Azilians were forced to fashion their harpoons out of stag antlers. Unlike their predecessors they did not make the beautiful engravings and sculptures of animals on bone or draw realistic animal pictures on the walls of caves. On the other hand they differed from their successors of the New Stone Age in that they had no pottery or domesticated animals. Colored Pebbles from Mas D’Azil, France (From Obermaier’s Fossil Man in Spain, 1924) These colored pebbles were found in the great cavern of Mas d’Azil, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, about forty miles southwest from Tou- louse, France. The cavern had been frequented by men of many suc- cessive ages, who left no less than nine layers of deposits ranging from the Early Magdalenian (late Old Stone Age) through the Neolithic (New HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 27 Stone Age) to the Iron Age of the Gauls and Romans. The pebbles were found in the sixth layer, above the late Magdalenian layer, and just below the Neolithic level. Thus the people that used the colored pebbles lived in the transitional period (Azilian) between the Palo- lithic and the Neolithic. The pebbles are painted on one side with perox- ide of iron, a deposit of which is found in the neighborhood of the cave. The symbols, in some cases at least, are conventionalized designs from earlier and more realistic representations of objects. Their use is not fully known—perhaps they might have been pieces in a game, or ‘‘luck stones.” Men of the New Stone Age Men of the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, continued to use chipped stone implements, but unlike their predecessors, they often polished them. They were the direct forerunners of civilization. They culti- vated the ground, raising cereals, and had domesticated cattle and other animals; they made pottery and wove textiles; they lived in villages of huts, often built on piles near the shores of lakes. They erected sepulchres and temples of huge stones (dolmens, megaliths) The Neolithic Stag Hunters This mural group also is in its place in the hall (at the west end) having been completed in 1919. It represents men of the Nordic race, brown- or fair-haired, hunters of the stag, living along the southern shores of the Baltic in the earliest stage of the New Stone Age, a stage known as the Campignian from remains of huts and rudely polished stone imple- ments found near Campigny in France. The scene is on the border of one of the northern beech forests and represents the return from the hunt. After the ardor of the chase the hunters have thrown off their fur garments. The chieftain in the center is partly clad in furs; in the coming winter season he will be wholly fur clad. His son, a fair-haired youth with a necklace of bear claws, grasps a bow and arrow and holds in leash a wolf dog, ancestor of the modern sheep dog of northern France. The hunters, with spears tipped with stone heads, are resting from the chase. Two vessels of pottery indicate the introduction of the new ceramic art, accompanied by crude ornamentation. This race was courageous, warlike, hardy, but of a lower intelligence and artistic order than the Cré-Magnons: it was chiefly concerned, in a rigorous northern climate, with the struggle for existence, in which the qualities of endurance, tribal loyalty, and the rudiments of family life 8% ‘OSV 9U0JG MON IY} JO 9dB4S 4SoTpIVE OY} UL OY[VE OY} JO SoLOYs ULoYYNOS ayy SuO]e SuIAT ‘porey-Mej 10 -UMOIG ‘BDBI DIPION 9Y} JO Ud], (oTm10ON) HOV ANOLS MAN AHL JO SUALNNH OVIS ydoibojoyd payhiidoy ‘usogso piayfuvoy fisuayy fo woysa.ip ay) sapun ‘ybruy “y sazuDyD fig payuvvg HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 29 were being cultivated. Rude huts take the place of caverns and shelters, which are now mostly abandoned. These were tall men with high, narrow skulls, related to the existing Nordic race, more powerful in build than the people of the Swiss Lake Dwellings. Skulls and skeletons representative of this hardy northern type are abundantly known in Scandinavia, but have not as yet found their way to our American Museum collections. The Great Fossil Mammals Contemporaneous with and Hunted by Man The Hall of the Age of Man contains four chief collections of the mammals of the world during the period of the Age of Man. In Europe man hunted the reindeer, the wild horses and cattle, and the mammoth. He used the hide of the reindeer for clothing, the flesh and marrow for food. He carved the bones as well as the ivory tusks of the mammoth. The successive cultural stages appear to have originated first in Egypt and southwestern Asia, whence they spread into southeastern Europe, finally reaching northwestern Europe. The mammoth, the northern, hairy type of elephant known to early explorers of fossil remains, was foremost among the great mammals hunted by man. The previous history of the proboscidean order is also shown in the Hall of the Age of Man. This is one of the romances of evolution quite equal in interest to the evolution of the horse and the collection in the museum is remarkably complete. The early stages in the evolution of the proboscideans, beginning with the Palxomastodon discovered in the Faytim region of northern Africa, carry us back into times far antecedent to the Age of Man, namely, into an early period of the Age of Mammals, the Oligocene. Thus the visitor can see here the entire history of the evolution of the proboscideans, which taken altogether is the most majestic line of evolu- tion that has thus far been discovered. The evolution of the proboscid- eans culminates in the mastodons and mammoths. Four Scenes in the Glacial Epoch The four great murals on the north wall of the Hall of the Age of Man represent scenes near the close of the Glacial epoch in the Northern Hemisphere. These four scenes belong in the same period of geologic time, namely, the final glacial stage, the period of the maximum advance of the glaciers over the entire Northern Hemisphere, of the most intense 30 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN cold, and of the farthest southward extension of the northern types of mammals. This is the time of the Cré-Magnon race, and our knowledge of the mammals, reindeer, and rhinoceroses is derived from the actual Cré6-Magnon paintings and etchings, chiefly those found within the caverns. The murals are as follows: Midwinter.—The woolly rhinoceros in northern France. Early Winter——The reindeer and mammoth on the river Somme, France. Midsummer.—The mastodon, royal bison, and horse on the Mis- souri River, in the latitude of Kansas. Autumn.—The deer-moose, tapir, and giant beaver, in northern New Jersey. Glacial Midwinter in Northern France The woolly rhinoceros, like the woolly mammoth, was heavily en- wrapped in hair, beneath which was a thick coat of fine wool. With this protection the animal was quite indifferent to the wintry blasts which swept over the steppe-like country of northern France. This golden- brown wool is actually preserved on the side of the face of one specimen discovered, which is now in the Museum of Petrograd (Leningrad). The head of the rhinoceros was long and narrow, like that of the white rhi- noceros of Africa, but the jaws were narrower and the upper lips were more pointed. It is an animal quite distinct from the great white rhinoceros still extant in Africa, which is a grazer with broad lips. In the distance in the painting are shown the saigas, antelopes which wandered over France at that time, and a group of woolly mammoths. Early Winter Scene on the Somme River in Northern France The scene represents the two herds, reindeer and mammoth, migrating southward from the banks of the river Somme. These rein- deer and mammoths are, in fact, depicted very precisely in the paintings and engravings left by the Cré-Magnon artists—especially in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume. It is a striking fact that, in the case of the mam- moth, every painting, drawing, etching, and model which the Cr6- Magnon man has given us exhibits exactly the same characters: the long hairy covering, the very high hump above the forehead, the notch between the hump and the neck, the very high shoulders, the short back, the rapid slope of the back over the hind quarters, the short tail. There is no doubt that, aided by these wonderful Palxolithic designs, the artist, Mr. Knight, has given us a very close representation of the actual appearance of the woolly mammoth. Té GONVUA NYAHLYON “YALNIM TVIOVID V NI SOUMOONIHY ATIOOM AHL ydoibojoyd paqybiidoy “Uusogso ppayuny fsuazy fo uonralp ay} sapun Qyuhiuy “yy sajipyy) fq pauwd prewrica Sede We oe Jers ySo}B[ 9Y} UBYY Jop[O oq OF uoaoid u99q 4ak sABy VUOU YING “eolIoUly aon Ul poq10de.1 uosesq vABY SouOg UBUINY [ISSO} JO S9dU9.1IN900 AUBIN “4somM jd dy} UO psIBOT SOSIOY pP[IM pue SUOSIq queis ayy sto 9} JO SJSaLOJ 9YQ UI POAT] UOPOFSBU oY} JOYS VOI oy} JO oDUBAPG soley oY} Jo YANog SHINLL TVIOVID ALVT NI “WHAIM IMNOSSIN AHL NO ASHOH GNV NOSIA TIVAOU ‘NOGOLSVIN AHL ydv.ibojoyd payybrifidoy) “uLogsgQ ppYyungy Aiuay Y? dapun ‘qybuy “Yy saj4pyD fig payuwd 2 ae "] = ExT “soudT} ayy Jo sure *SYSTUIG UOUSBI-O1D oy} Aq po}ordep Ajoye.nd0B pues poyuny 94} JO Jooys-ol SUI}ROIOI ATMOJS 4eois oy} Jo yynos ‘oy BUNT[O Aap plo2 ey} Ul odoin UI JUBPUNG®B dIOM STBUITUB OSOU T, GONVUA ‘AININOS UAAIN AHL NO HLONWNVW GNV YaHONIAY AHL ydvuibojoyd payybrifidoy) “usLogsgQ prayiwy hiuaz] fo wouranp ay) wapun ‘Wybuy “Yy sapunyg fq pajyuwd 3 - TT OS ; ae Bx, = oes O1OM SOUL UOIPBIOB]Y) YANO ,, ‘ a, HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 33 Midsummer on the Missouri The summer scene on the Missouri River (on the parallel of Kansas) represents the region south of the farthest advance of the ice sheet. The mastodons are grouped in such a manner as to show the characteristic low, flattened head, the long low back, the symmetrical fore and hind quarters, the extremely short, massive limbs, and the very broad and massive hip region as seen from behind. In the center of the picture stands the majestic Bison regius, the royal bison, known only from a skull, a superb specimen with the horn cores attached, in the collection of the American Museum. These animals were like gigantic buffalo or bison, beside which the modern buffalo would appear very diminutive. The characters of the hair and wool are not known, but it is assumed that they were similar to those of the existing buffalo, since the paintings of the bison by the Cré-Magnon artists in France all show the distinc- tive beard below the chin. At the right is a group of wild American horses of the period, the last of their race in this country; the species is Equus scott?7, the skeleton of which has been discovered in northern Texas. Early Autumn in New Jersey The autumn scene in northern New Jersey embraces three very distinctive North American types of the period, all of which have be- come extinct. The deer-moose, Cervalces (to the left), was described by Professor W. B. Scott, of Princeton, from a single skeleton found in the marl beds of northern New Jersey, which is now preserved complete in the Princeton Museum. The American fossil tapir (in the center) is known from sparse remains, the best of which were among the earliest discoveries of the pioneers of American paleontology. The giant rodents of the genus Castoroides (see two individuals at the right in the painting) are known from nearly complete skulls and skeletons dis- covered in New York, Ohio and other central western states. The Tar Pools of Southern California This mural represents a scene in southern California, in the vicinity of the Rancho-la-Brea deposits, including the remains of the astonishing group of animals caught in the asphalt trap, so splendidly represented in the collection of the Museum of History, Science, and Art, of Los Angeles. The most characteristic animals of North and South America that lived during the Age of Man (see the south side of the hall) are known through some of the unique remains from the famous deposits of Rancho- POMP Cee e : eee Painted by Charles R. Knight, under the direction of Henry Fairfield Osborn. Copyrighted photograph THE MASTODON This distant relative of the elephants may have been a contemporary of early man in the closing phases of the period of the glaciers, in North America. The average mastodon was under nine feet in height, but he was very heavily built, being nearly twice as broad as an elephant. 34 Painted by Charles R. Knight, under the dire ction Henry Fairfield Osborn. Copyrighted photograph THE WOOLLY MAMMOTH This great elephant was characteristic of the latter part of the period of the glaciers in Europe. He wa hunted by the Cré-Magnons. Owing to differences in scale of the figures the Mammoth is made to appea much larger than the Mastodon which was not the case. The Mammoth was a few inches the taller, about th size of the Indian Elephant, but the Mastodon was much the bulkier, and very much the heavier of the two. 35 36 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN la-Brea of southern California, especially the sloths, saber-toothed tigers, and wolves of the period—to which it is hoped that we may add some of the less abundant forms, like the camel and the horse. So far as possible, through exploration and exchange, this quarter section of the hall will represent the mammalian life of North America, in contrast with the mammalian life of South America during the same period of time. A Loess Storm on the Pampas of Argentina A mural on the western wall (at the left) of the Hall of the Age of Man presents a South American scene during the Old Stone Age. It depicts the ancient pampas of Argentina with the winding river La Plata in the background, and a typical extinct mammalian fauna. In the distance at the right a violent dust storm is transporting columns of fine, impalpable dust known as loess. The Museum is extraordinarily rich in the great Pampean Collec- tion presented by certain of the trustees in 1899. This collection shows the close connections between North and South America in glacial times. One of the most wonderful groups of fossils in the Museum, is the sloth and glyptodont group on the southern side of the Hall of the Age of Man): this includes five great sloths of three species (the Mylodon, Lestodon and Scelidotherium) and three glyptodonts. These animals, so entirely different in external appearance and habits, nevertheless belong to the same order of mammals, the Edentata, which is distinguished by the absence of enamel] on the teeth. It is important to bring these two animals together in the same exhibit, so as to show the very wide con- trasts in adaptation which may occur within the limits of a single mammalian order: the sloths covered with long hair and with vestiges of armature embedded in the skin, the glyptodonts nearly hairless, and encased in powerful bony armature, which may have protected them from attack by the saber-toothed tiger of the period. Appendix The Family Tree of Man By William K. Gregory Man is no doubt vastly superior to his distant relatives the an- thropoid (man-like) apes. His brain and mind are on far higher levels of development, he walks erect, he is able to speak. Man has a long line of ancestry of his own, extending for perhaps two million years or more, far back into the Age of Mammals. "}OUT}XO MOU ST (JYSI1) IOABEG JUBIS OY} SBoLOUTY INO pus [BYU UL puNo; MOU OSOY} 0} PojzBo.t ow ‘(19}U99) SIIdBy oY} soSOOUT oY} JO uv op oY} JO SLopovIBYO SUIUTGULOD (JOUT}X9 MOU) Joop JO Sordeds B SBM (Sad/DA2)) BSOOUI-L99P OYJ, SHINLL TVIOVID HLVI ONINNG AGSUAL MAN NYHHLYUON NI NWOLOV ydvibojoyd payybriidoy “usogsQ playing fiavuayy fo uoysairp ayy dapun ‘ybvuy “YY 8a)40Y) fig payuwd 8& ‘SPOOYs 991 JROIS Aq posVAOd o19M odoING] ULOY}OU PU SozBIS UIO\Svo OY} UDYA ‘SouTT [eIO[S oY} Jo Jaud 1099] 04} SuraNp vrasopyeg usoyNog Jo ayty [eure yuep “UNGB oq} S}Uosoddor oUDOS OY, “FI SHOLoYowoTy ay} UL podTUL SUIUIODOq SI S|}O[S oY} JO OUO ‘SdETINS oY} UO Joye oY} Aq poyovsyyY ‘“puNoASyowq oy} ur syzoU ~UIBUL PUG SOATOM ‘pUNOLIIOJ 9Y} UT (SuOpopi PY) SYJO[S PUNOAT pur s10B1} Y}00}-o1qes ‘sIopuod yueIH “qd yfeydse a0 ,,[ood-1e},, B punowe paroyyes seunUy VINUOAITVO ‘VANE VI OHONVY JO dVUL-HLVAC AHL ydvibojoyd payybriidoy ‘us0gsQ praying Riuazy fo uoNrasip ay} sapun ‘qubvuyy “Y sazipyD fig paying 68 ‘SRIMOPONVAOVIA, POQUIT[-LopUd]s oY} JO OUIOS oe YYLSIL OY} 7B OfIYM “SuISMOIG ATJorNb oe SUOPOXO} JO g[dnoo B Joy oY} 7B {syUOpoOydATS ooryy puB (WOpopsaT ‘uopopi Py) SYAO[S pUNOAG JURIG OMY PUNOLdeA0J oY} UL S}oIdop oUDVS OY, *(SS0OT) JSNp OU JO SUILO}S oy} Aq poling Wo}JO o1OM SUTIVUTOI SOYA ‘S[RUIUTBUT oSUBI]S JO OSR[QUIOSSY 4ROIG B POAT] a1oy]T ‘“BUIyUOSIY Jo sudured oy} popvAUT JoAOU pu BOLLOULY yynog ur padopaaop ATpeo0] ATUO o10M “UBT JO OSV 9y} SurmMp jooys oot ysva B YIM oLoYydsrorey ULOYILOU OY} JO YONUT OS po.OAOD YOIYAM SAOLOVLS OY, VNILNGDUV HO SVdINVd HAL NO WYOLS SSHOT V Uap] fo uosawip ayz sapun “Wybruyy “Y Sazuoy) fig payuwd ee | a ‘ydoubojoyd paybriiidog “uUsLogse ppayivoy fis ; Past ee OF 90.1} ATG] SITY JO SoyUvA opis pue UreUT oy SuLMoYg STIVNNVW YHMOT WOU NVIN FO LNHOSV AHL wou cendonomre Dee i syotay JO SIN AAT TN aa" NOLLVIOAT BLL AVW SO Sea AUW¥a IP ‘URI UIOpOPy ‘ZT ‘UB UOUSB]-O1D ‘QT ‘UR, [eYyJtopuBON ‘GT SUR SIoqpeploy ‘FI ‘(ployeyjtepuvoN) uByY Mopsuny” ‘ET ‘ueyy uMOpyg ‘ZI ‘sezuedumryD “TT ‘Jo sMBp IOMOT ‘UB UOUSRTY-O1D ‘OT SUR] [ByJtopuBoN ‘6 ‘sndormmjuBdeyyTg ‘g ‘vezuedumyyH “) : JO suoTjoeg [NYAS ‘UB Ulopoyy ‘9 SuRTY [BYJLopuvoy ‘G ‘sndorpyuBdayytd “Ff :BI[Mory ‘g ‘eozuedurry_H ‘Z suoqqry ‘T Jo syseQ ureig “eipuy “woqqiy) “LT ‘oouLog ‘URIN-sUBIQ, “OT “wollpy ‘sezueduyg “GT “BOTY “BIMON) “FT “soo UBUINY SUTYSTXO JO oATITUNIId YSOU OY} JO9UQ, “MOT[PEJ-youpq ueypeysny "ey ‘soovd JO dnois OLSON oY} SuIUeSeIday “yOJU}IOFY ‘ZT ‘dnois ueyosuoyy ey} sumuoseidey ‘osourTyQ) “TT ‘dnois uvisvoneg oy} suruesoidey “URoleUry ‘OT ‘uMeSNy]Y Seq UL S[BUISIIQ, ‘oOURIY ‘ose oIYTOR]VA 9}B] JO ‘podojsor APYSTS ‘Mel puw [[MYS [Issoq “UB UOUsSBIY-O1 6 “AIOYSTF] [BANYB NY JO uaNosn jy suvg uls[eulsig ‘odoinn ‘esy 90099 pO 9Y} Jo ‘patoqser ATI YSIS ‘Mel puB [NYS [Issoy “UB [BYJMopuveNy “gS “AUBULIOL) “GIOqTOpIof{ JO AJISIOATUL) UT [BUISIIQ) “AUBUIIOS) ‘988 9UDD0}SIo[q IaMOT Jo (s2suabiaqjapray owoj;T) Mel [ISSOJ UO poseq ‘UOTONAYSUODSY “UBT SAOqTOpIeyT “2 ‘uopuoTy (AIO}STFT [RANVVN) USN YSYMG Ul [VUIsIG, “puvpsun ‘ose aUdI0{SI0[q JO (2uwosnop sndowyjunog) Avel IOMOT PUB [[NYS [ISSO uO pase ‘UOTJONAJSUODIY “UBT, UMOPIIG 9 ‘purljoy ‘Woprery ‘unoesnyy JopAoy, Ul [vuISUGQ “BABL ‘a5B OUDD0T[q IOMO'T Io oudI0T[q Joddy) jo (snjoaua sndowypwooayjt gq) AO4-[[NYS [ISsof uo poseq ‘UOToNA}suODOY “UByY ody [IuIty, “G “HIOX MON ‘AIOYSTFT [RANQVNY JO WNesNy]AY UROOUTY UI SMe! [VUISIQ “BIPUT ‘ase ouaooryy jo ‘(ayorf snoaypidohug) smelt Isso} uo peseq ‘uoToNAjsUODeYy “prodoryjUe sATWIUING “fF § “Auvuiiey ‘umesnyy jaesqyngg ur mel [eursug ydAsy ‘ose aUBd0SIT() JO (¢yayoRy snoaypdoydorg) Mel jIssoy uo poseq ‘uoonaysuOoD.Dy ‘prodoxryjue [edAyojoIg °Z "yIOX MON ‘ALOISTFT [BANGVNY JO VNasNyY UBOLIOUTY UI [VUISIQ “VY "SG “) “sUTUTOA A, ‘ase oua00q jo ‘pojonaysuoded ATYSTIS ‘Mel puB [[NYS ISSO "(WuO0gso snpoWDYJON) YEW IAI “T SHOVLIS OL AWM oP SAIOdOUHLNVY AUNV NVW AO AIWOLVNV WAILLVUVdINOOD €P “yooods Jo uvS10 UB SB ONGUO} OY JO ASN posvasdUl OY} YIM pozeroosse AT}ed Uosq ATquqodd svy uryo oy} Jo yUouIdOOAOp oAISSeasoad sty], “JouryxXe Mou SooBL OF SUISUOTO ]]V ‘SMel UOUSRT-O1-) PUB [RYJAopuvON ‘S1ogoplo]] “lOpssuuy Ay ‘UMOpP [Iq oy} Ul UdeS o1e SoSRyS OPIPOMI9}UT “pABMAOJ Sodoys JI UBUT O}IYM ULopoUr UT oTIYM “pawMyovq sodoys Mel yy Jo pus JUOIJ OY} 99R4S SITY} UT ‘oozuedumryo oy} Jo yey} YIM Suruutsoq ‘Mel oy} JO Jey yYystt oy} JO opis JoUUT oY} SMOYS Soltos MeL IOMOT OT, ‘smelt oy} Jo 4yaed yuory oY} jo ‘pawBaMyouq SuryUTYS 10 UOTORIQOI OY} (G) pu ‘soe AUO OY} JO 9ZIS UI UOTYONpod oy} (F) fooBy] oY} OAOGB AVIAB-ULBIG oY} JO YMOIS pIBMAIOJ oY} (E) {pRoyoIOJ oY} JO UOTVBAVTO OAISSOLSOId OY} (Z) fureIq oy Jo yYJdop puB ozIS SuIsvo10UI oy} (T) ‘UBT pxeMo} sprodoryyUR oy} UOIJ Ssvd OM SB SOSURYO SUTMOT[OF OY} SOYBOTPUT SUOTIOOS [[NYS JO Solos oY], ‘UBUI ULopoul UT UBY} pedopAep sso] puB JOMOLICU 918 ‘SoT][NOV] [BJUSU JOYsTY oY} JO oUTOS JO 4Bos oY} ‘SoqoyT [eyUoIy St puB ‘YpIM szt 0} UoTLodoId UT MOT ATOATYRTOA SBA YT “Syoodsoa AUBUT UT UAOY} 0} LOTLOFUT SBM ‘SUIBIG UBUINY UopoUr 4ysouI UBY} F[NG Ul JosAe] opTA\ ‘oovA [BYJLopUBONY oy} JO UTeAq oy, *(ATTUIRy UBUINY oY jo satyejuesoidor UMOUY dATITUNTId ysour aY}) sndowyjunooyj2q pure “e{[LIOS ‘“oozuRduIYyD oy} 0} ssed om se Aqrxo]duTO0D PUB oZIS UI OSBOIOUT DAISSOASOId B SMOYS Sattos oy} ‘(Sede yeois 10 ‘sprodo1yjue sulystxo Jo datytutId ysour oy}) uoq -QIS oY} JO 4SBd-UIBIG OY} YA “VJo] OY} YB SUIOUDUIUIOD) “STESSOA-POoTq pu SoUBIqUIOUI SI AG poddAOD SB ‘UTeIG aq} JO ULIO} [BL0U0S OY} JUOSoIdol PUB [NYS oy} JO AZIAB) SUIUIe}UOI-UIBIG OY JO SJSsvd d1B Oy OY4 4B ,.S}JSBO-UTRIG ,, OUT, ‘smut IOMOT PUB ‘SUOTDOS-[[NYS ,,‘S]SBO-UIBIG,, JO Solos OATI}VAIBdUIOD OSoYy} UI PozwAYSN]]I [JOM ST ‘sode prodorayjue oy) ‘soaryRjod UMOUY JSo1vOU STY PUB URUT UdaMyoq URI [ROTUIOZvUG UT 9DU[GUIOSOA SUTYIIS OUT, NORTHERN i Lapps ASIA Esquimaux Pr ae ten ordics EUROPE UCAS Sy Fee | Turkis {kines CENTRAL ASIA ASIA A Thibetans Manchus J. &. Ss? Cro-Magnons rmen Lt SY -oids AS Ss 4y, \ TS ae MEDy TERRANEANS « as Ne bee 7 lNegritos] ri dones: dag j nak R O I D S = , -ians Te a OF MANKIND “SP AUSTRALIA Australians FROM CENTRAL ASIA. Since remains approximately a half million years old, identified as those of man, have been found in England, in Germany and in Java, it is apparent that early man was a great traveler. Did an ancestral race live in central Asia’ Mongolia and Tibet are a favorable geographic region for the beginning of man, who is usually held to have originated in one place and branched widely. Chinese Siamese 44 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN 45 Yet the science of comparative anatomy has revealed the fact that man is constructed upon the same general anatomical plan as that of his more backward relatives, the gorilla and the chimpanzee, and that he is connected with them by a very large number of anatomical marks of distant kinship. The common plan, with differences in detail, upon which man and the great apes are constructed, becomes more and more evident and indisputable as our practical knowledge and experience of human and comparative anatomy increase. The science of comparative anatomy, in combination with the science of paleontology, has provided the basis for the exhibit called “The Family Tree of Man,” which is an attempt to present in a simple graphic form what is accepted by the best scientific authorities. The Primates first became distinguishable from other orders of mammals very early in the Age of Mammals, that is, some three million years ago, according to the most conservative estimate. The first Primates were even at that early time adapted for living in trees and had ’ grasping hind feet, but as may be judged from their small crania, they were greatly inferior in brain development to their modern descendants. This stage of evolution is represented in the exhibit by a cast of the skull of an extinct primate, Notharctus osborni, from the Middle Eocene of northwestern Wyoming. The next two stages of ascent are so far known only from two small lower jaws dating from the Lower Oligocene of Egypt. In the first of these, Parapithecus, the lower jaw and dentition are intermediate in character between the Eocene tarsioid primates and the oldest anthro- poid. In the second jaw (Propliopithecus) the number and position of the teeth and the form and detailed arrangement of the cusps of all the teeth are exactly such as would be expected in the common starting point for the divergent lines leading to the gibbons, to the higher apes and to man. In the long ages of the Miocene epoch (which is at the beginning of the second half of the Age of Mammals) there was a great branching out into different lines on the part of the primitive anthropoid stock, some of which began to foreshadow the modern gorillas and chimpanzees, while others (e.g., Sivapithecus) showed certain pre-human characters in the jaw and molar teeth. By the latter part of the Age of Mammals the pre-human stock had probably become broken up into several distinct species, some of which were more backward, others more progressive toward higher types. The most backward of these early pre-human races was the Pithecan- thropus or Ape-man, from the Upper Pliocene (late Age of Mammals) or 46 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN Lower Pleistocene (early Age of Man) of Java. The top of his skull is strongly reminiscent of the apes and indeed it was long debated whether Pithecanthropus was a progressive ape, or a primitive man; but the im- print of the frontal lobes of the brain on the inside of the skull show that he was an extremely primitive man, perhaps ancestral to the Heidelberg and Neanderthal races. More ape-like than Pithecanthropus but a step above the gorilla is the skull of the man-ape found towards the end of 1924, at Taungs, Bechuanaland, Africa and named by its describer, Prof. Raymond A. Dart, Australopithecus africanus. According to Professor G. Elliot Smith “if the progress in the direction of the human family is only slight, it is very important because it is not partial, but affects so many details of the face and skull, and it involves the brain, which obviously is the real criterion of any advance towards the intellectual supremacy of the human family.”’ The Dawn Man (Koanthropus) of the Upper Pliocene, or Lower Pleistocene of England, had a more progressive type of brain case than that of Pithecanthropus, but his lower jaw was very ape-like, lacking a bony chin. The Heidelberg jaw (Lower Pleistocene age, Germany), although already definitely human, is probably several hundred thousand years old. The jaw is of great size, with retreating chin and primitive human teeth. The Neanderthal Race occupied Europe in the latter part of the Glacial period. The head is large, but the forehead is low, with strongly projecting brow ridges. The Cré-Magnon race occupied Europe in the closing stages of Glacial times. It was in a high stage of evolution and belongs with modern races of man in the species Homo sapiens. The Australian aboriginals represent one of the most primitive of the surviving races of man. They are probably distantly related to the most primitive peoples of India and to the early stock of the white races. The detailed relationships of the other races of men are illustrated in special exhibits in the Introduction to Anthropology, now on the second floor, extreme west tower. SUCCESSION OF PREHISTORIC AGES IN EGYPT AND IN EUROPE FROM THE CLOSE OF THE OLD STONE AGE UPWARD N. C, NELSON, 1921 eee ore BATE | EQVPT & S, W. ASIA | SOUTHEAST EUROPE | NORTHWEST EUROPE 0 1000 B.C. 2000 B.C. 3000 B.C. 4000 B.C. 5000 B.C. 6000 B.C. 7000 B.C. 8000 B.C 9000 B.C. 10000 B.C. 11000 B.C. 12000 B.C. 13000 B.C. 14000 B.C. 15000 B.C 16000 B.C. 17000 B.C AURIGNACIAN 18000 B.C 19000 B.C. 20000 B.C 48 HALL OF THE AGE OF MAN The Taungs Man-A pe Australopithecus The most recent discovery of a link in the chain of human descent was made at Taungs, Bechuanaland, Africa, and is the fossil skull of a young ape, which shows greater resemblance to man than does that of any other ape. Dr. G. Elhot Smith, from whom we quote,! notes that this state- ment ‘‘must be qualified by the explanation that the step in advance had not carried far beyond the status of the Gorilla. But if the progress in the direction of the human family is only slight, it is very important because (a) it is not partial, but affects so many details of the face and skull, and (b) it involves the brain, which obviously is the real criterion of any advance towards the intellectual supremacy of the human family. This infant ape had a brain almost as big as the largest adult gorilla’s, so that in the adult Australopithecus it may have attained to a size of 650 or even 700 c.c. If this is only about half the average dimensions of the modern European brain, it is within 250 c¢.c. of the earliest and most primitive human brain so far discovered—that of Pithecanthropus, the capacity of which was about 900 c.c., or at most 950.” Dr. Smith places Australopithecus just below Pithecanthropus, and possibly Hesperopithecus, in the Family Tree of Man, the one being a Manlike Ape and the other an Apelike Man. At this time, May 1, no casts of this specimen have reached the United States. 1Australopithecus, the Manlike Ape from Bechuanaland. “Illustrated London News”—Feb. 14, 1925, p. 240 * rik FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDUCATION FOR SCIENCE _ AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY THE STORY OF _ MUSEUM GROUPS By FREDERIC A. LUCAS | | GUIDE LEAFLET SERIES, No. 53 NOVEMBER, 1921 am eo ARAG 4 i - ‘ * PXAOTEM a w a S & Ss _ > < GROUP OF GOLDEN EAGLES Mounted in 1877 und, t Booth Museum, Brighton, Engl THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 5 object in mounting animals, especially mammals, was to preserve them and put them in a condition to be studied and compared one with another. Groups were not even thought of and, as Dr. Coues wrote as late as 1874: “‘Spread eagle’ styles of mounting, artificial rocks and flowers, etc., are entirely out of place in a collection of any scientific pre- tensions, or designed for popular instruction. Besides, they take up too much room. Artistic grouping of an extensive collection is usually out of the question; and when this is unattainable, halfway efforts in that direction should be abandoned in favor of severe simplicity. Birds look best on the whole in uniform rows, assorted according to size, as far asa natural classification allows.’ The only use of groups was for a few R. BOWDLER SHARPE Under whose auspices the first of the bird groups was installed in the British Museum SIR WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER DIRECTOR OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM FROM 1884 TO 1898 Sir William Flower probably did more than any other man to change the char- acter of museum exhibits and make them attractive as well as instructive. He not only planned the exhibits and gave his personal attention to their installation, but in some instances he prepared the specimens himself. In this country like credit should be given to Dr. G. Brown Goode, who was an ardent admirer of Flower and his work in the British Museum THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS ~I ROBIN REDBREAST GROUP IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM private individuals and they were mainly heterogeneous assemblages of bright-plumaged birds brought together from the four quarters of the globe and shown simply because they were pretty. So far as we are aware, the introduction of groups into public mu- seums was due to the influence of an enthusiastic private collector, Mr. E. T. Booth, of Brighton, England, who devoted a large part of his life to making a collection of British birds, mounted in varied attitudes, with accessories that copied more or less accurately the appearance of the spot where they were taken. As Mr. Booth wrote, ‘‘the chief object has been to endeavor to represent the birds in situations somewhat similar to those in which they were obtained; many of the cases, indeed, being copied from sketches taken on the actual spots where the birds themselves were shot.’’ These groups were intended to be viewed from 8 autos 10J poXnydstp sea pus 410481} yy “yaw [eaqueg ‘Burpy [euascy plo ey} Ut oul} aA WOs~v YOY} YB poyuNoyy 4 SBM SIL yQQT JO UOIPISOAXAT SUV OY} LOJ ‘SIIB “TNLAL YL “L298 yt Of SItb¢ 1B Sangs}}i_q ‘Wnosny aisourer oy} Aq pouAo st} yuosoad jeanyVN Jo uNosnyY UvoLtoury oy Ul dnoas 4say oy SNOI Ad GSNOVLLV YSINNOO AVYV THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 9 JULES VERREAUX Naturalist, Explorer, Taxidermist, Founder of the Maison Verreauz that led to the creating of Ward’s Natural Science Establishment the front only and were arranged in cases of standard sizes, assembled along the side of a large hall. The collection, which was begun not far from 1858, was bequeathed to the town of Brighton in 1890, and is known as the Booth Museum, and we earnestly hope that it may endure for many years to come. Montagu Brown of Leicester adopted the methods of Mr. Booth and a little later, in 1877 or 1878, through the instrumentality of R. Bowdler Sharpe, the first small “habitat group”’ of the coot was installed in the British Museum, then at Bloomsbury Square. Now it is rather 10 THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS interesting to note that some naturalists who are best known by their scientific work, and are usually regarded by the public as being of the dry-as-dust type, were among the earliest advocates of naturalistic methods in museum exhibits. Thus, to Dr. Sharpe, whose enduring monument is the British Museum Catalogue of Birds, and to Dr. Gunther, best known for his systematic work on fishes, we are indebted for the introduction of groups into a great public museum and for obtaining for them the recognition of a scientific institution of long standing. ae eS : BLACK-THROATED LOON One of the nesting groups of British birds in the British Museum The installation of bird groups in the British Museum made good progress under the administration of Sir William Flower, who took especial interest in the educational side of museums and in the introduc- tion of exhibits that were attractive, as well as instructive, to the general visitor. : The first group in the American Museum, an Arab courier attacked by lions, was purchased .in 1869 and shown in the old Arsenal building in Central Park, then the home of this institution. This group may have been theatrical and “bloody,” but, as a piece of taxidermy, it was the most ambitious attempt of its day. Moreover it was an attempt to THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 11 show life and action and an effort to arrest the attention and arouse the interest of the spectator, a most important point In museum exhibits. If you cannot interest the visitor you cannot instruct him; if he does not care to know what an animal is, or what an object is used for, he will not read the label, be it never so carefully written. The Arab courier group was prepared under the supervision of Jules Verreaux, the French ornithologist and African traveler, for the Paris Exposition of 1867, where it was awarded a gold medal. This group may have suggested the combat between a lion and tiger, displayed in the Crystal Palace, or that, as well as a similar group formerly in the Calcutta Museum, may have originated independently. The last mentioned group illustrates the importance and effect of something that attracts attention: when the Dalai Lama visited the Caleutta Museum, it soon became apparent that he was looking for some particular object, and it later developed that this was the fighting lion and tiger whose fame had traveled into far distant Tibet. It is worth noting here that the Maison Verreaux suggested to Profes- sor Henry A. Ward the possibility of establishing a similar institution in the United States; whence the well-known Ward’s Natural Science Establishment at Rochester, New York. And we cannot help feeling that Ward’s Establishment had much to do with the history of animal groups. Hither came and hence departed many a man who directly or indirectly did much to advance the art of taxidermy and make possible the existing order of things. Named according to the time of their coming, Hornaday, Webster, Wood, Critchley, Turner, Denslow, and Akeley were all graduates of the old Establishment. Perhaps some of them do not like to be considered as taxidermists, but we can hardly call my friend Wood, whose birds lack nothing save voice and movement to make them seem alive, an animal sculptor, and we hope no one will take offense at being called a taxidermist. If he who delves among books in various dead and living languages to decide which of the numerous many-syllabled names some small creature is rightly entitled to bear does not object to being called a taxonomist, he who works upon the skins of creatures great and small should not object to the rightful name of taxidermist. So taxidermist let it be for the present, or until a better name is coined. As there are so-called sculptors, who are mere makers of figures, and will be that, and that only, to the end of their days, so there are taxider- mists, men like Akeley, Clark and Blaschke, who are sculptors in every sense of the word. And in some ways their task is more difficult than that of the sculptor who deals only with plastic clay, for the taxidermist has not merely to prepare his model, but to fit overit a more or less un- 12 THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS yielding hide, a hide that does not conceal the defects of the model but has defects of its own to be hidden. Probably no one who has had actual experience in mounting large mammals would question this, though probably few visitors realize the great progress that has been made in the mounting of animals, particularly large mammals. Not very many years ago animals were most literally stuffed—suspended head downward and rammed full of straw, often until they could hold no more. Then came the making of a manikin of tow and excelsior; next the manikin of wire- netting and papier-maché, and finally the modeling of the animal in clay, copying all the folds and wrinkles of life, the molding of this in plaster and in this mold making a light and durable form, or manikin, upon which the skin is deftly placed. Here again Mr. Akeley has improved upon himself and perfected an entirely new plan fer mounting large mammals whereby they are at once more readily modeled, infinitely lighter and vastly more permanent. Thus methods changed and improved, by far the ManIkIN OF WIRE CLOTH AND PapreR-MACHE. greatest advance being due By Remiand Joseph Santens. Photograph to tO Akeley, who devised the illustrate strength of modern manikin light, strong manikin just alluded to, now in general use. There were various tentatives by others, and it should not be for- gotten that many years ago C. J. Maynard employed a plaster cast made from a clay model and that years before this Peale made a manikin of wood, the limbs being carefully carved to give the muscles the swell proportionate to their action: this method he used especially for animals that had not an abundance of hair. Unfortunately, it seems never to have occurred to the users of plaster that museum specimens are moved about and plaster casts can be made light and strong. Hence they made their manikins solid, or almost solid, with the result that it required an effort to lift so small an object as a fox, and took four strong men to handle a deer, while the specimens were racked by their own weight and wreaked damage to everything with which they came in contact. Group oF ORANG-UTANS IN THE AMERICAN Museum. Collected and mounted in 1880 by W.T. Hornaday. This was the first large mammal group in the American Museum [|Manikin of excelsior and tow] This cut, reproduced from a wood engraving in Harper's Weekly, isareminder of the time when half-tones were unknown ee fe ee ee pe as pe ee er eee OY, oe + ae ew Ee |) ey Vg 14 THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS PAPIER-MACHE MANIKIN FOR AN ORANG-UTAN. Remi Santens by him shortly after his return from a two years’ collect- ing trip around the world and present- ed to the Museum by Robert Colgate. This again leads us to note that the energy of Dr. Hornaday had much to do with the formal intro- duction of animal groups into the American Museum of Natural History ~ and recognition of their place in mu- seum work, because Jenness Richardson By I know not who mounted some of the pieces, fair to look upon, that it has been my misfortune to handle during the past few years even, but I do know that I have many times and oft vigorously cursed their perpetrator and wished that he who devised the process had died in early in- fancy. The group. of Arab and Lions was followed about a deeade later, 1880, by the group. of orangs collected by Hornaday, mounted THE FRAMEWORK OF MUNGO THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 15 BISON COW AND CALF A detail of the Group of American Bison mounted in 1889 by Jenness Richardson, Head of the Department of Taxidermy, American Museum of Natural History, from 1886 until his death in 1891 was a pupil of Hornaday, and Rowley in turn a pupil of Richardson, and by them and under their supervision was begun the series of groups now justly famous. These early groups did not find their way into museums without protest, as may be imagined from the remarks of Dr. Coues quoted on a previous page, but in 1887 the first group of mammals was installed in the United States National Museum, and this was followed a year later by a large group of bison. The other day, when listening to the protest of a curator against the withdrawal of a certain group from exhibition, we wondered if he re- membered another protest against the introduction of a bone that a coyote might have some excuse for action. Verily tempora mutantur. An important factor in the evolution of groups and their introduc- tion into museums was the development of the art, for art it is, of making accessories, for without the ability to reproduce flowers and foliage in materials that would at once have the semblance of reality, and endur- ance under the vicissitudes of temperature in the intemperate zone in 16 THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS which most museums are located, half the charm and value of groups would be lacking. For progress in this direction we are indebted prima- rily to the Messrs. Mintorn of London and their sister, Mrs. Mogridge, who reproduced the foliage in the groups of birds in the British Museum, and later came to New York to carry on the same work for the small bird groups,! though their methods have been replaced by one devised by Akeley. Prior to this wax leaves and flowers were made of pure sheet wax and were necessarily fragile, though in many cases really very beautiful. The art of making them was one of the accomplishments of artistically inclined ladies half a century or more ago and directions for making them may be found in Godey’s Lady’s Book and Peterson’s Magazine, interspersed with directions and patterns for slippers and other worsted work. Foliage of such fragile character was naturally not fitted for use in Museum groups, and the only leaves to be had by the aspiring taxidermist of 1880 were the heavy opaque cloth leaves made by manufacturers of millinery supplies, which at least had the merit of durability. The Orang group in the American Museum of Natural History was provided with such leaves, and they were, at the end of thirty-five years’ service, replaced by more accurate copies of the foliage of the Durian. The earliest bird groups in the American Museum of Natural His- tory, the first of which was very appropriately the American Robin, were made largely after those in the British Museum and installed each in a small case so as to be viewed on four sides. They thus differed from their prototypes in the Booth Museum which, as noted, were intended to be seen from one side only.? They were all groups of small or moderate size and confined to species found within fifty miles of New York City. The time was not yet come, though it was near at hand, for the execution of the large naturalistic groups with which we are now familiar, and Museum officers and trustees would have hesitated to incur the time and cost involved in their preparation. 1A description of these methods, improved upon by apt pupils, isto be found in Plant Forms inWaz, Guide Leaflet No. 34, published by the American Museum. 2These early American Museum bird groups, thirty-four in number, have been brought together with the other ‘‘ Local Birds”’ in the west corridor of the second floor 1—Lioness. An example of early work 2—Arrican Lion. Mounted at the Maison Verreaux about 1865 3—Arnrican Lion, “Hannipau.”” Mounted at the American Museum of Natural History by James L. Clark in 1906. 17 THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 19 NCE admitted into museums, a precedent established, and in- trenched behind the bulwarks of high scientific authority, groups slowly found their way into all museums and their scope extended to all branches of natural history as fast as opportunity offered and the skill of the preparator would permit. And to-day, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, there is a friendly rivalry among museums as to which shall have the finest groups. Birds lend themselves more readily to groups than does any other class of animals; they combine beauty of form, pose and color with moderate size that permits ease of handling. Hence birds naturally were chosen for the first museum groups, and bird groups still predominate. Just as naturally mammals followed birds and from mice to ele- phants have furnished many notable groups and many triumphs—and failures—for the taxidermist. After mammals came anything that the taxidermist or modeler could master—reptiles, fishes, insects and other invertebrates, and last of all plants, which copied by modern methods are ever green and may be made to show their adaptations to environ- ment and interrelations to varying conditions of soil, climate and sur- roundings. Yea, the group idea has even been carried into the dim and distant past and in the hall of fossils one may behold a ghostly group of great ground sloths, or farther on, Allosaurus feeding upon Brontosaurus. And the ground sloths passed out of existence thousands cf years ago and Allosaurus has not felt the pangs of hunger for over six million years! Fishes offer some of the most difficult problems; not only does their expression depend almost entirely upon their attitudes, but in many cases there is little of interest in their habits, orsmall beauty in their sur- © roundings, when they have any. And added to all these things is the ever present difficulty of making a fish suspended in air look as though he were swimming in water. Furthermore in the character of their integu- ment, fishes and amphibians furnish a practically insurmountable prob- lem in the way of mounting, which has led to much friendly discussion as to whether it is better to show a stuffed specimen that does not at all resemble the living animal or a cast that cannot be distinguished from it. In this instance the writer is entirely on the side of those who offer “something just as good,” believing firmly that the object of exhibits is to hold the mirror up to nature and let it reflect an image of nature as she looks when alive, not as she appears when dead and shriveled. And if a cloth leaf and a glass eye are allowable, why not a way frog and a celluloid fish? One of the first efforts in the line of fish groups, that by Mr. Alfred J. Klein in the Brooklyn Museum, showing the fishes of a coral reef, is 20 THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS one of the best, partly from the nature of the subject, which affords more scope for attractive surroundings than is usually presented. And while the credit for this group, prepared in 1907, is entirely due to Mr. Klein, yet it really dates from a memorandum written in 1893 after an inter- view with Dr. Goode, ‘‘make a group of red snappers with natural sur- THE WHARF-PILE GROUP Marine group in the American Museum by Ignaz Matausch and other prepara- tors under the supervision of Roy W. Miner, 1914. It shows the sponges, hydroids, sea anemones and other invertebrate animals with which wharf piles in favored localities are crowded below low-water mark ’ roundings.”’ It embodies principles, carried to great perfection in the habitat groups, that were independently worked out in the construction of a group of octopus, forming part of the exhibit of the United States National Museum at the Chicago Exposition of 1893. Painted back- ground connected with the foreground, rounded corners and overhead PORTION OF THE PADDLEFISH GROUP In the American Museum of Natural History OCTOPUS GROUP This group was prepared by Dr. F. A. Lucas for the Chicago Exposition of 1893 and is at present in the United States National Museum. The animals were modeled in clay and cast in “‘cathcartine,”’ a mixture of glue and gelatin 21 bo THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS lighting were all used in this small group, and while in comparison with what has been done since, it now seems a very crude little affair, yet it contained the germs of the beautiful Orizaba group. The curved, panoramic background and overhead lighting—bor- rowed consciously or unconsciously from our eycloramas—permit the last touches in the way of illusion and control of light, regardless of the time VIRGINIA DEER IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM Virginia deer, American Museum of Natural History, mounted by Mr. Carl E. Akeley in 1902. This is an example of work that has made modern taxidermy an art. The work of the taxidermist is in a way more difficult than that of the sculptor, that is, he must not only make a model of the animal in life-like pose, but must then with great art fit over this model the unyielding skin of the animal of day. The octopus group embodied also another idea, brought to great perfection here by Miss Mary C. Dickerson, that of making a single mold serve for making many individuals. In the octopus group the animals were cast in gelatin compound and bent into diverse attitudes; to-day casts are made in wax, warmed and worked into many poses; a case of the parallel development that occurs in methods as well as in nature. HOWLING MONKEYS of Arts and Sciences, mounted by Mr. J. William 5 show the varied attitudes of the animals. ffect with instruc- In the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute Critchley. It is a group whose main purpose is tc Such groups preceded the large naturalistic groups which combine artistic e tion and so greatly enhance the educational value of museums xa peuuryd psy of se P2[BISUL J9AVU SBM ING QGRT ul ueuIdeyy “JY UBL, JO UOIstAdedns oy} JopuN UMoesn UBDLIOULTY 9} Ul OPBUL SBM SIT ‘dnoas parq o8.1vy Ysay at : \ 3 is! ! ; ML ! ] 828 OU, dNOY¥S MOO" GuYlId SHL ra ere Ere oe eee 2 “a AOR POO EN ETO, See, yh ai { earths 1 , —— om ts SRR is N [[BJStoH vonag Aq punoasyoeq ‘umMoesnypy a4} Jo stoyeredoid Joy.O puw s.iojog ULB IT] AA Aq poejonasuoy ,,;sdnoas yeyIqvy,, oy} Jo [eorddAy puew umnosnyY uvoroury oy} ur sdnois parq osae, oy Jo yUO00a o10UL ay} Jo oud dNOUYS VEVZIYO S3HL bo THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS PART OF THE LAYSAN ISLAND GROUP Made for the State University of Iowa by Homer R. Dill. This group shows a portion of the albatross rookery on the little island of Laysan where millions of birds find a home in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Background by Charles Corwin The first bird groups, those in the British Museum and those here, were, if we may borrow a phrase once familiar, now almost obsolete, pre- Raphaelistic in their character—exact copies of the spot or surroundings where the animals were taken. The plants were counted and plotted on a diagram; sod, roots and shrubs were dug up and transported, often in the face of great difficulties, to the museum where the group was to be established, and there assembled in the exact and proper order of occur- rence. The next step was the habitat group, and here is where Dr. Frank M. Chapman comes into the story, for it is to him that we owe the series of nature pictures known by that name. The habitat group does not copy nature slavishly, even though an actual scene forms the background; it aims to give a broad and graphic THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 27 presentation ofthe conditions under which certain as- semblages of bird life are found, to “ bring home to the observer the atmo- sphere and vege- tation of some typical part of the country. But save inexceptional eases, the fore- ground does not exactly reproduce any given bit of country, although it does copy the plants and shrubs found there. How these groups were prepared, — what journeyings by flood and _ field they involved are told by Dr. Chap- man himself in Camps and Cruises of an Ornithologist and very briefiy in the leaflet describing these groups. The habitat groups thus involved a slight departure from nature, in that while the background depicted an actual scene, the foreground was often generalized and this involves the whole question of how far it is allowable to depart from actualities. May we combine animals from different localities or show together those taken at different seasons? Shall we fabricate our soil and ‘‘fake”’ our trees? Personally the writer believes that all these things are permissible, with certain restrictions, nay, in some instances, must be done, not merely to make a group at all, but to enhance its educational value. For example, a bison in his winter coat may be introduced into a group with the mother and young and a baby moose placed with an antlered bull—in no other way can you complete the life cycle and tell the whole story. Dr. Chapman found it physically impossible to bring away the water- soaked nests of the flamingoes; Mr. Cherrie found equal difficulty with 86 uosioypqT “OQ Adv, SST JO UoIstAdodns oy} sopun UoTyN4yySUT ‘H XPMoporg Aq STE UL opeur ‘uMosnyY UBOLIOULY ot} UT sdnoad optydoa.a Jo sotsos oy} JO parqy OUT, dNOYD GHVZIT VINYOSITVO YSMO7 AHL ayy jo s1oyeavdord toy}0 pUe [OFS 62 BOMOULY O1joIy 0} oVe1odui0} WloIf pue Urey -unour 0} ured UlOdf S[RUTWIVUT UvolIoUTy YON MoOYs 07 OYDAG “TT Aq poredoaid dnois v ‘sesuvy Jo AyIsdoATuy) oy} JO WMosNyY oY} UT VOINAWV HLYON AO SIVNWVW AO dNOYS VWVEOTOAD ZOGT ‘AQPOYW “A MeO Aq ‘osvoryH “uMesnyy ppt ey} Ul YAWAWNS-SNOSVAS ¥NO4 AHL ae FF “tyes ais Lt PAL nay ye) 7 Ge ar Ae te we ¢ Seg) ey ’ 7 } . THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS jl the sodden nests of the guacharo birds, while to carry off the cave in which they were found would have defied even Hercules in his prime. Here certainly, fabrication is a necessity; and if so much, why not more? If we cannot import a tree from the forests of Venezuela, let us ““adapt”’ an ironwood from Vermont, whereon a colony of howling monkeys may disport themselves. In this case it is the animals and not their sur- roundings that are to be emphasized, and the accessories are a matter of secondary importance, merely a setting. The first large group, the Bird Rock group, placed on exhibition in 1898, was not definitely planned as a habitat group, but merely as a picture of part of a famous and impressive bird colony and to make “a permanent record of this characteristic phase of island life.’”’, The Cobb’s Island group was the next and the first real habitat group to be con- structed, this subject being chosen partly because it provided a large and interesting group at small expense. Year after year this series of groups has been extended, covering the country from east to west and north to south, until room is left for but one more, and that, it is hoped, will include the bird life of the Arctic regions. The Bullfrog, Giant Salamander and Florida groups, particularly the latter, belong in still another cate- gory and may be termed synthetic, or life study eroups, bringing together in one composite picture a number of ani- mals that proba- bly would not be found in so small HEAD OF anarea at any one Mountain ; oe moment of the an Broom season depicted, Lyn Museum. but might all be Mounted by found there at Remi Santens, some moment of for many years at the season. Such Ward’s Establish- pak jai J, a group may, or ment, now at Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh may not, repre- THE BUTTERFLY GROUP The Monarch Butterfly—migrating Butterflies, numbering more than 1200 specimens, mounted and placed by Charles Wunder, accessories by W. B. Peters. 32 £& PyIpp® Usyy ‘TOM YOOY. H JLIQOY “AYAT Aq peyunoU ‘odojojue jo dnors & puv pouopuBqe AjoyRUN{AIOJUN SBA JIGIYXe JRolURJOG Vv IOF UT oY SIMIOPY “APY JO YYvop oyy Aoypy ‘S[BULIUB OF OP Spalgy Jo Sdnowy yVpIGByT oy} yVYA syuvyd toy op prnoys sdnows yor ut JIGIYXo OAISUO}XO UB JO 4.vd ULLOF OF PUB YLosop B JO oft] JUBTA oY} oPBYSN][E 0} dnoas peoruvyjo ATPLYS v oq 07 popudzUT SBAd STU, “LIGI ‘Apnyps |, “ Joqdoyy] puvw vpuBuyy OruojyUy Aq pojNoexo ‘sLMIO ‘YT pavapop Aq pouuryd ‘umoesnpy UAPpoorg oy} uT dNOwdS 3dI7 LY3aS3ad 34 THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS sent a particular spot ;it does depict the natural conditions under which the animals are to be found and shows them engaged in the most character- istic and interesting of their varied occupations. In this, the day of moving pictures, we may say that as the moving picture condenses into five minutes’ time the events of days or weeks, so these groups depict in a few square feet of space the life and happenings of a much larger area. The group in its latest form is to be found in the Museum of the University of Kansas, where it includes a great part of the Museum, a special section having been constructed to contain a large cyclorama where the various North American animals from plain to mountain and from temperate to arctic America may be viewed approximately as they would be seen in nature.!| Somewhat similar is the Laysan Island group, executed for the State University, lowa, by Mr. Homer R. Dill, where the visitor gazes about him at the imposing assemblage of albatrosses and other sea fowl, while beyond the blue Pacific stretches to the horizon. Aside from these the bison and moose groups in this Museum, made by Richardson and Rowley, are the largest that have been made, and al- though they have been on exhibition for twenty-four and twenty years respectively, they compare favorably with those of to-day. The African mammals, by Mr. Carl E. Akeley,in the Field Museum, are among the finest of their kind for pose and character, but the “ Four Seasons,” in the same museum and also by Mr. Akeley, depicting the Virginia deer in spring, summer, autumn and winter, represent high- water mark in this direction, combining as they do pictorial beauty with scientific accuracy of detail. It was while engaged on these groups that Mr. Akeley perfected the method of making the manikin, or artificial body on which the skin is placed, so as to combine strength, lightness and durability, and also devised methods for the rapid reproduction of leaves and a compound stronger and more durable than wax. The need for making leaves in large quantities is shown by the fact that in the “ Four Seasons,” the summer group alone called for seventeen thousand leaves. Such, briefly, is the story of museum groups; they have grown from the little box containing a pair of birds and a square foot or two of their immediate surroundings, to entire colonies of flamingoes and albatrosses and the broad sweep of land or sea shown in the Orizaba and Laysan’ groups. Noone man can justly claim credit for the beauty and accuracy of such groups as may to-day be seen in our larger museums; many have contributed to this perfection and some stand preéminent among the rest. To each and all his just meed of praise. Some, whose work might 'This prepared by and under the direction of L. L. Dyche, is an amplification of his ideas as shown in 1893 in the Kansas Building at the World’s Fair. THE GROUND SLOTH GROUP The American Museum of Natural History 3 36 THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS now provoke a smile, labored hard and earnestly in the face of many discouragements to lay the foundations on which we build to-day. Some of whom the present generation has never heard, held out a helping hand to the youthful would-be taxidermist and by aid and encouragement started many of our best men on their career, and some, keen observers of nature, endowed with artistic spirit and possessed of technical skill, have perfected what others began. Great progress has been made, especially in our newer museums, in the installation of habitat groups, notably those of mammals, during the seven years that have elapsed since the Story of Museum Groups was written. The most noteworthy among them are those prepared by Mr. John Rowley in the California Academy of Sciences, showing the char- acteristic large mammals of California. Not only are these groups not restricted in size but they have the great advantage of being installed in a hall planned and built for their display, points wherein Mr. Rowley has worked under conditions more favorable than those enjoyed by his predecessors. However, he expects to do even better in the series planned for the Los Angeles Museum. The Public Museum of Milwaukee has placed on exhibition a number of groups, among them a series illustrating the habits and habitat of the races of man found in North America. In this connection should be noted the remarkably fine series of the Iroquois in the State Museum at Albany installed in 1915 and 1916, which reach high water mark in this direction. That habitat groups will, in the future, form an essential part of every important museum seems undoubted, but the question arises, though it is propounded very timidly, if there is not danger that the matter of groups may be overdone. Not every animal is worthy to be included in a habitat group and while it is the duty of a museum to present to the public Nature in her fairest forms, yet this should not be done to the exclusion of other important matters. Furthermore the space demanded by groups, with the attendant cost of building and administration, necessarily limit groups, especially in our smaller institutions. ~— en shin eis = iat apsocee- gene Se ed aon — AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDUCATION FOR SCIENCE By LAURENCE VAIL COLEMAN, M.A. GUIDE LEAFLET SERIES, No. 54 FEBRUARY, 1922 “| WATT a SR ae SYA EU GANG OMURED NOH ke. ADOW GROUP D) 4 | HACKENSACK MI Showing a great variety of foliage ——_— A PORTION OF THE BULLFROG GROUP Showing Pickerel Weed Plants of Wax How They are Made in The American Museum of Natural History By LAURENCE VAIL CoLemMAN, M.A. Plants of wax have become familiar to museum goers chiefly in connection with habitat groups of mammals, birds and reptiles. In fact, the impressiveness of a group often depends as much upon the accessories which enter into its composition as upon the specimens which it features, and therefore the making of artificial foliage has become an important branch of work in a museum’s studios. The following account explains how plants are made in the American Museum. The method employed for leaves was devised and patented by Carl E. Akeley, and this brief exposition is published with his con- sent. AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS The principal materials required are bleached beeswax, cotton batting of good quality, annealed and stiff iron wire of various sizes, and a few tools, such as are shown in the cut. Fingers must do the rest; tools will not give mechanical ability any more than brushes and colors will make an artist. For delicate leaves, or the petals of flowers, mous- seline de soie, the mysterious “‘fabric”’ of the Mintorns, is needed. This was formerly used in making leaves, but has given way to the more practical and economical method of Akeley. The agate burnisher, a tool used by gilders, is rather a luxury and a home-made tool of brass or iron will serve the purpose. The use of this is to smooth down rough spots, TOOLS USED IN MAKING LEAVES AND FLOWERS OF WAX or points, and to weld together leaves like those of the pitcher plant that are made in two or more parts. Do not be discouraged if your first efforts are not successful, or not as successful as you expected. Printed directions can give you only general principles; something depends on natural aptitude, much on care and patience. Try something easy first. WAX LEAVES In making artificial foliage the individual leaf is the preparator’s first concern. A fresh leaf makes the best model, though one preserved PLANTS OF WAX in a bath of formalin and glycerine! may be used. By word and picture let us follow the reproduction of a leaf. MAKING A SQUEEZE MOLD The original leaf is placed upon a bed of clay around which a clay wall is set up and the enclosure so formed is poured full of plaster THE LEAF, RESTING ON A CLAY BED Ready for Making the First Half of the Mold 1A mixture of formalin 15 parts, water 35 parts and glycerine 50 parts is best for prolonged preservation of foliage. Leaves immersed in a stronger mixture for a few days and then removed and dried will usually retain their form and if so treated may be recolored and used for exhibition, but the result is seldom satisfactory. oO AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS which covers one side of the leaf and soon sets. The clay is then removed, leaving the leaf and the plaster together. Two notches or keys are cut in opposite edges of the plaster to receive the keys of the second part of the mold and to prevent the two parts slipping on one another. The margin around the leaf is brushed with clay water or soap solution to THE LEAF, RESTING ON THE FIRST HALF OF THE MOLD Ready for Making the Second Half prevent the next layer of plaster from adhering to it, and for best results the soap is then swabbed off and a film of stearin applied; another wall is set up around the leaf and its plaster bed and into the little basin thus GIOW HIdWNIS VY HO SHATVH OML HHL AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS formed is poured plaster which covers the second side of the leaf. When it sets, the two blocks of plaster may be separated and the leaf between them will have left its impression on the inner face of each. It will be seen that each key on the first block has now its mate on the second, for tongues of plaster from the last-poured mass have filled the notches cut in the first one. Thus the two parts interlock and fit together in -one position only. THE WAX LEAF READY FOR TRIMMING The mold is now set aside to dry and before using hardened by boiling in a strong solution of borax for about twenty minutes or soaking in melted paraffin for about the same time. Molds treated with paraffin give the best impression but are a little difficult to use on account of the tendency of the wax to stick to them. In case a mold is going to be used a great many times, it is best to soak it in linseed oil for five minutes and let it dry for a week or two. PLANTS OF WAX CASTING A WAX LEAF When leaves are to be cast from a squeeze mold, the mold must be soaked in hot water and used while warm and moist. Heat keeps the wax from chilling’ till it fills the mold and moisture prevents it from ad- hering to the plaster. A film of cotton is laid upon one side of the mold— better the concave side if either one is so. A piece of cotton-covered hard iron wire! is laid along the line of the midrib, with its end projecting THREE STAGES IN TRIMMING A VERY SIMPLE LEAF to form a stem, and if the leaf be a thick one more cotton is laid on top. Melted wax, tinted green with oil colors, is then poured upon the cotton and the upper part of the mold squeezed down upon it. The whole is plunged into cold water, opened and the cast removed. The wax should be bleached beeswax to which should be added about a tablespoonful of Canada balsam to each quart of melted wax, the object of the balsam being to toughen the wax. Wax should be lor small leaves the cotton covered millinery wire of commerce is employed, but for larger ones it is desirable to use iron wire of a larger size. The wire is tapered with a file or on an emery wheel and then wrapped with cotton by twirling it through the fingers. AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS melted in a double boiler, such as is used for cooking oatmeal in order to avoid burning the wax and to lessen the danger from fire. A HEAVY COMPLEX LEAF Showing the Wire Supports on the Under Side The oil color is thinned with a very little turpentine and thoroughly stirred into the melted wax; this gives the body color of the leaf to be imitated. It will be found that pressure aided by capillarity has forced the wax into a thin sheet which has engulfed the cotton and the wire so 10 PLANTS OF WAX that neither can be seen, and that the excess of wax has run out around the leaf. The manipulations of casting may be performed in a fewseconds. Much time is saved by using three molds in rotation so that while one is in use a second may be warming in hot water and a third with its east may be cooling in the cold bath. A COMPLETE LEAF OF THE PITCHER PLANT And the Molds Used in Making One-Half of It A Pair of Molds is Needed for Each Half of the Leaf, the Keel, Shown in the Picture Being Made on One of the Halves In the case of large, heavy, and, especially, deeply scalloped leaves such as occur on many tropical plants, it is necessary to make a some- what elaborate complicated framework, such as is indicated in the figure, 11 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS by twisting together a number of wires so that one underlies each arm or part of the leaf. These wires are wound with cotton batting or gauze, tapering from their junction with the midrib to the tip. In making these large leaves, it is often advantageous for two per- sons to busy themselves with a single mold, one person pouring the wax and the other manipulating the mold and removing the casts. For large parti-colored leaves two colors of wax, perhaps green and red, may be poured into the same mold. METAL SQUEEZE MOLDS A mold is sometimes attached to a large hinge or frame by means of which it may be opened or closed after the fashion of a lemon-squeezer. Metal molds— half type metal and half bronze—may be employed if a large number of leaves is required, and such a mold must always be attached to a hinged frame. PLANTS OF WAX FINISHING A WAX LEAF The cast as it is taken from the mold must first be trimmed. Scissors are usually employed but the operation is not a simple one if the edge of the leaf be serrate. In this event, the scissors, which have been warmed, are jerked along, alternately cutting ahead and edging to the side. Then with a warm tool imperfections are removed, and finally the leaf is shaped between the fingers. The wire which projects from the base of the leaf is wrapped with a strip of mousseline-de-soie (a gauze of the utmost delicacy) dipped in wax. Once more the tool is applied to the stem to obliterate all traces of successive windings and the leaf is finished save for a final coloring. The manner of assembling leaves upon their stems is determined by the habit of the plant, the manner in which the leaves are arranged around the main stem. The leaves of herbs are lashed with thread to a wire of proper size to represent the main shaft of the plant, and the joints are wrapped with gauze, the windings being continued along the shaft. Stiff iron wire should be used for this purpose, and to insure a neat piece of work the end filed to a long taper. Leaves of trees are usually treated in the same way, only the tender twigs being reproduced, for the larger woody twigs need not be fabricated, but in their natural state serve as a base to which the wax tips are attached. In fastening leaves to the woody twigs, a hole is bored diagonally through the twig with a fine drill, if you are fortunate enough to have one, or with a triangular glover’s needle held in a pin vise or set in a little wooden handle. The leaf wire is passed through the hole, bent down along the twig, and wrapped with gauze. In the absence of gauze, thin, tough brown paper, cut in narrow strips, will do fairly well. When the work of assembling has been done, the final touches of color are applied. A large air-brush which delivers a spray of oil color thinned in turpentine is really a necessity where leaves are to be made in considerable numbers;» where only a few are wanted color may be stippled on with a brush or wad of cotton batting and good results may often be obtained by rubbing in dry color. Frequently ten thousand leaves are needed for a single group, but it is rarely necessaryto make more than half a dozen sizes of one kind, so hundreds of leaves may be cast from a single mold. Blades of grass are cut from heavily waxed gauze and are modeled by folding them lengthwise over the edge of a knifelike strip of tin fixed in a wooden base. Very little manipulation is required. No rib is used, 13 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS but each blade from a short distance above the base is rolled about a wire and several blades are then attached to a heavier wire stem. In making cactus, the spines are removed and a piece mold made of the plant or of the various branches. In the case of such a form as the barrel cactus, the body is often made hollow to save wax and while still in the mold, backed with a lining of plaster and burlap. WAX FLOWERS Success in making artificial flowers depends largely upon ingenuity A SPRAY OF DOGWOOD A Very Simple Flower in the application of a few general principles, though to make small flowers on an extensive scale necessitates the use of dies, such as are shown in the cut and unfortunately, the making of dies calls for the services of an expert machinist. Large or medium-sized flowers, poppies, for example, can be made without any special appliances. The first step is always to dismember the natural flower in order to determine its construction, and ordinarily it will be found to consist of a central bulb-like pistil surrounded by slender stamens, a set of petals 14 SHHMOTH ONIMVIN NI GHSO SHIC AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS collectively termed the corolla framing this heart and a calyx covering the junction of the flower with the stem. When the pistil is large enough to be of any consequence it is cast upon the end of a wire which is later wound with waxed gauze to the size of the stem. The stamens are usually long filaments, each bearing a nodule or anther at its tip, and they are usually imitated with waxed threads or wires of which the tips are dippedin wax. To imitate stamens which are short, stout and numerous, it may be practicable to fray or lacerate one edge of a strip of waxed gauze and so to make a sort of limp comb which may be wound around the stem with the points upstanding. The conspicuous and often highly colored corolla is either a group of separate petals or a cup formed by their fusion. The daisy and the morning-glory illustrate respectively these two conditions. Separated petals, if small, are usually cut or stamped with a metal die from waxed gauze, and for convenience they may sometimes be made in one piece, joined together at the bases. Large petals are usually cast Just as if they were leaves on a basis of gauze, or, if large, cotton batting, and are then welded to the stem one at atime. A “one-piece” corolla is split down one side and laid out flat as a pattern for cutting, stamping or casting similar pieces. Each artificial corolla is then curled around the stem like a cone and the two adjoining edges are welded together with a hot tool. The basal calyx frequently has the form of a star, which may be punched out and the stem slipped through a hole in its center, but sometimes it is composed a large petal-like parts which must be made separately and attached to the stem. The ground color of all parts is mixed into the wax of which they are made, and the finishing tints are applied by hand or with an air- brush which delivers liquid color as a spray. 16 aA: aioe = oe FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDUCATION FOR SCIENCE > oN -BASKETRY DESIGNS OF THE MISSION INDIANS - 3 ee en are went ATT, we wae v8 Shh) Ate ee Sh eA RY ‘} Niiee7 Ny By Ye ett ig: A sentee TOSS pit i raeaces b, WS f aN Wns ANY < STN es i Y ann ynnanan PPRANY AAP ANT! AVR NT BA REARDAN By A. L. KROEBER JULY, 1922 ee ee ras Sra ey nen ey ra Nia : ray . Aaa pes aid PAY tw > tba Jeera ‘ St Aig syp iit Hille Katee Hy ay wae haaestongst pers Ree LLIN oe Two Handsome Mission Baskets BASKETRY DESIGNS OF THE MISSION INDIANS By A. L. KROEBER University of California AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY GUIDE LEAFLET No. 55 New York, Juxy, 1922 ll ®@ AMERICAN-MUSEUM-:PRESS © MISSION INDIAN BASKETRY DESIGNS By A. L. KRorBeEr. University of California Visitors to a museum are often impressed by the degree to which basketry looms up among the exhibits illustrating the life of the Indians of California and many other primitive peoples. Not only are baskets relatively more important owing to the want of many implements of furniture and utensils to which we are accustomed, but they are abso- lutely more numerous, varied, and showy than among ourselves. In many cases it is the very lack of development of other arts that has led to the special development of basket making. Among the California tribes the best of mechanical energy and ingenuity was exercised in this one branch of manual dexterity. It is not that the Indian possessed some mysterious faculty, some inborn gift, through which he could surpass us; but that he manufactures so few other things that he is able or com- pelled to devote a disproportionate amount of his interests in this special direction. There is little doubt that civilized people, if they took up the matter seriously, would outdistance the savage at his own game, in basket making as in other undertakings. Yet, when it comes to the actual fact, baskets are a comparative side-issue to us, notably in com- parison with other textile products, especially cloth. The result is that basket making remains a sort of starved stepchild of civilization, where- as it is the favorite son of many savage cultures. This growth of basketry at the expense of other arts is particularly exemplified in aboriginal America by the tribes of California and the nearby regions. These peoples have always been reckoned among the most backward of American Indians in the general level of their attain- ments; but there is also a unanimity of agreement that their baskets excel those of most other tribes, in fact are probably preéminent on the continent, if not in the world. Living entirely in the Stone Age stage, the California Indians knew nothing of vessels of metal. The majority of them were ignorant of pottery making; and their wood working was so little developed that had they suddenly decided to replace some of their baskets by utensils of wood, they would have been very hard put to it to produce even partially adequate implements. People who build their houses of thatch, slabs of bark, or dirt thrown over a framework of sticks, and who navigate on rafts of rushes instead of in timbered boats, have obviously left their carpentering instinct undeveloped. It is a curious commentary on the mechanical limitations of these tribes that in spite of 3 | AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET the perfection of their hand woven textiles, they have been content to refrain from making the next step in the natural evolution of the industry, namely, to weave on a loom and thus produce simple fabrics. [t is perhaps significant in this connection that their basketry art is wholly in the hands of women, who spend a great part of their lives, probably an average of several hours a day, in this occupation. They seem better able than men to provide the steady patience which is called for. The work never becomes quite automatic—in the making of a really good basket the attention can not wholly wander from the work in hand, even if the weaver has many years of experience. At thesame time there is no heavy strain on the attention, and no concentration of energy is called for. These requisites seem to be better satisfied by the feminine temperament. We have then this curious situation: the general in- dustrial backwardness of the California Indians is exemplified by their leaving the most important of their industries to their women; but the women have so far advanced this industry, that the men have no hand in the peak of attainment of the native culture on its material side. With the art of basketry in such flourishing condition in this region, it was inevitable that the imagination of the more gifted individuals should be stimulated and new inventions made. As the native popula- tion is cut up Into a great number of local groups—more than a hundred tribes or linguistic units have been recognized in California—it might further be expected that newly devised methods would often spring up independently in separate localities, and that the final outcome would be a number of distinct arts in various parts of the area. This is exactly what has happened. Neighboring tribes, it is true, have often borrowed a new method of manufacture or a new style of decoration from the group that originated it; but on the whole, intertribal communication in aboriginal California had a limited range and such spread of new ideas remained restricted. The consequence is that we encounter about half a dozen quite diverse basketry arts in California; in addition, anyone whose interests lead him to closer study is usually able to learn to distin- guish the particular style of many single tribes. Among these independent styles one of the most distinctive is that evolved by the Mission Indians, as they are generally called, the groups that inhabit the coast and mountain regions of Southern California from Los Angeles to San Diego.!. They derived their name from having been 1Gabrielino and Fernandetio; Mountain, Pass, and Desert Cahuilla; Juaneno; Luisefio; Cupefio; Northern and Southern Diegueno; and some of the Serrano. The Diegueno are of Yuman stock, all the others Shoshonean or Uto-Aztecan, The ware of the Chumash is closely affiliated but not identical. MISSION INDIAN BASKETRY DESIGNS 5 brought more or less thoroughly under the influence of the Franciscan missionaries during the last third of the eighteenth and the first third of the nineteenth century. Their basketry is not as fine in texture as that made by some other California Indians; but they did, and do, good, even work when they wish to, and evince a peculiar originality and boldness in decoration that makes their ware of interest. This basketry may accordingly be described as reduced to the minimum on the technical side, but quite specially elaborated along certain ornamental lines; a quality that has often commended it to artists and collectors. That a people should skimp technical aspects while evidently eager to develop the aesthetic ones, may seem unusual. Yet it must be noted that while the Mission Indian women do some poor work, their efforts on the whole are not directed so much to avoiding labor by fudging the manipulation, as to simplification of process. In other words, they seek a maximum of effect with a minimum of means; and this in itself argues a considerable accomplishment. Even if one aims at nothing more than a tolerable product, it takes some skill to achieve this with the mechanics of the work cut to the bone; and the best Mission ware is much more than tolerable. This limitation of means in Mission basketry comes out in the matter of weaves. This is a complicated subject when followed out in detail; but it may be summarized by stating that the world over there are three principal types of basket weaving. The first, which includes checker work, wicker work, and twilling, is essentially a cloth weave made free hand in coarse materials. The basis of it is the simple in-and-out weave. That is to say, a single cross strand at a time is worked over and under the longitudinal ones. The second type is twining, which occurs in many varieties, all of which have in common the fact that two or more cross strands are introduced at the same time. This involves the fact that besides being worked in and out among the longitudinal elements, they must also be twined among each other; whence the name. The third process is that known as coiling, and, as has often been pointed out, is in strict accuracy a process of sewing rather than of weaving. The foundation elements are wrapped or lashed together, and this can be done only with the aid of an awl or needle. There is no set of parallel warps to serve as a basis, but the foundation strands or rods coil in a continuous spiral. Now of these three processes, the first and simplest or in and out weave, was not used at all in Mission Indian basketry. This is the more remarkable because this weave is particularly rapid and satisfactory 6 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET where materials of the type of cane or bamboo are available, and South- ern California is a country in which cane is native. The second, or twined process, was known to the Mission Indians but remained very much stunted. Their twined baskets served only the most ordinary domestic uses, and were coarse, irregularly spaced in open work, and undecorated. While we acknowledge their existence in passing. we may eliminate them from further consideration here. The coiling process was thus the only one of much consequence in this art, and it is significant that whereas coiling can be executed in a variety of ways, as on a foundation of one rod, two rods, three rods, rods and splints, ete., the Mission tribes re- stricted themselves, deliberately as it were, to only one variety: namely, a multiple foundation consisting of a bundle of grass stems. In this sole technique they worked a variety of forms and achieved varied pattern effects. The limitation of materials is no less remarkable. There are several dozen plants growing in Southern California abundantly enough to have been available as basket materials, and some of these, such as yueca and willow, were actually used in baskets by tribes of other regions. Yet practically all Mission basketry is made in three materials only: a particular species of grass serving as foundation, and either sumac or a rush as wrapping.! Even in the matter of forms there is a greater restriction than is customary among the neighboring aborigines. Certain types of baskets were made everywhere in the California area except by the Mission tribes. We can account for their absence here by definite causes. Some centuries ago, the art of pottery making crept into southern California from Arizona and New Mexico, where it had flourished among the Cliff- Dwellers and Pueblos for thousands of vears. Being rather settled in their habits of life, the southern Californians were able to utilize clay vessels to an extent which would have been impossible—on account of among a nomadic people. Their cooking utensils were there- 1 breakage fore made of pottery, rendering it unnecessary for them to manufacture the watertight baskets in which the other California Indians did their cooking by means of hot stones. Then, a special burden basket, a deep, conical affair, shaped to sling on the back, such as the other tribes used for carrying loads, was dispensed with because the southern Californians had evolved the carrying net. This was a sort of small hammock, the ends connected by a rope or band passing over the forehead, while the 1B picampes rigens; Rhus trilobata; Juncus sp. MISSION INDIAN BASKETRY DESIGNS “J bag of the net passed around the shoulders and hung over the back. Into this net a comparatively shallow basket, or at least a flat-bottomed one, could be set without spilling. In this way the peaked burden basket of the other tribes was eliminated. When now we consider the effect of the technical limitations on the ornamentation, we find its results apparent in three directions. First, the invariable coiling on a bundle of grass stems produces a certain thickness of texture. Through the fact that it must be a bundle, the group of stems cannot well reduce below a certain diameter, say a sixth of an inch. This means that the wrapping stitches which are sewn around and through the bundle must also be of considerable length, and tend naturally to be of some breadth. Small, delicate designs could con- sequently be worked only with difficulty: they would quickly reveal themselves as inadequate in effect. The Mission tribes therefore took the other tack, frankly made most of their designs large and heavy, and developed a good deal of feeling for the impression which can be obtained by patterns of blocks or gross masses, instead of depending on intricacy of arrangement of small elements. Secondly, the coarse stitches could scarcely be made to look as even as fine ones. This circumstance cultivated in the mind of the weaver a disregard for sharp edges and nicety of pattern. She must often have had difficulty in bringing out the two sides of a design element exactly even, especially when she was carrying it around the curvature of the vessel. The outcome was, in some cases, an indifference to exact balance; whereas more daring workers met the situation by plunging deliberately into designs which avoid symmetry. This is a rather rare condition in basketry, and must be looked upon as one of the salient traits of the pattern decoration of Mission ware. In the third place, the color scheme was affected by the nature of one of the basket materials to which the southern California Indian women had become addicted. The Juncus rush which is one of the two materials showing on basket surfaces, comes in a great variety of colors, from a cream white to a dark brown, with intermediate shades of yellow, reddish, olive, and gray. In fact, the stems vary so much that consider- able care is required if it is desired to give a basket a background of uniform color. Here again there are two avenues open, and both were followed. One was to be discriminating, and to match as closely as possible the stems that were worked into one basket. The other was to renounce the attempt at uniformity and openly strive for a patchy color effect. A great many Mission baskets are mottled almost like a mackerel 8 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET skin, and the effect is distinctly pleasing. In some cases the pattern is emphasized by shading the background in contrast with it. If the pat- tern is dark, the stitches and the background immediately in contact with it are carried out in specially light shades of the rush, as if to relieve the design. Then, this variable rush which made dyes practically unnecessary— the only color artificially produced in Mission ware is black—stimulated the color imagination as such. The result is that, although Mission designs are basically built up of simple and often crude elements, they are in many cases worked out in two colors. There is an illuminating contrast on this point with tribes that employ other materials and tech- niques. The ware of the Pomo region, for instance, is far more delicately made, and the designs lighter and more intricate; but the pattern is always of one color only, either red alone or black. In short, the Pomo weavers suppressed whatever impulse they may have had in the direction of color elaboration and specialized in the development of forms; where- as the Mission Indians were generally content to compose their patterns without much complexity of design, but to add to their liveliness by variety of color. Like many primitive peoples these Indians were very little inclined to turn their basket patterns into pictures. The decoration remains geometric and can nearly always be analyzed into fundamental elements of triangles, quadrilaterals, or bars. It is true that basketry, like cloth, does not lend itself readily to free-flowing lines and curves; but that such effects are not impossible is shown by the ware produced in some parts of the world and occasionally by the Mission Indians themselves. On the whole, however, we can commend the aesthetic feeling which led the weavers to avoid such attempts; which from the very nature of the technique can never be preéminently successful as pictures, and which usually lose in decorative effect ten times as much as they gain in realistic representativeness. Most of the few Mission designs that can be recog- nized as being pictures of something—rattlesnakes, birds, human beings, or the like—occur in comparatively modern pieces made after the weav- ers discovered that many white people take more interest in even a poor picture than in a beautiful geometric design that carries no meaning to them. We are so accustomed to think of the Indian as backward and child- like that it is a great temptation to feel pleased, as it were, over his failures. The more crudely he does a thing, the more typical it is likely to seem to us, and the more eager we are to seize upon it. Of course this MISSION INDIAN BASKETRY DESIGNS 9 crudity of his is especially emphasized when he attempts to imitate our- selves. In this matter of designs the Indian quite generally knew his limitations, and, left to himself, at least in many tribes, did not attempt to decorate by pictures, reserving these for his religious communications. He had however, like all human beings a sense for the beautiful; and dumb though he might be in expressing this in words, he instinctively knew the difference between an object having aesthetic value and one lacking it. We must remember too that, owing to the very poverty of his life as compared with ours, the Indian was conservative, so that when a given style had once grown up it tended to flourish for centuries. This perma- nence would sooner or later make it probable that even in small com- munities artistically gifted individuals would be born who would add their contribution of quality or talent to the prevailing style. They would thus set up a standard of attainment which would serve as a model and could be pretty successfully imitated by the mass of weavers who set to work with less creative imagination but with much willing- ness to do their best. To every Indian group, however small, art con- sequently represents a truly national tradition. The best that many preceding generations have had to offer has gone into it. This is why such arts, whether they manifest themselves in basketry or pottery or beadwork or carving, almost invariably possess a genuine aesthetic merit no matter how limited they may be. Those among ourselves who possess artistic impressionability find little difficulty in entering into the spirit of such primitive arts. Possibly sometimes we are even more keenly alive to their values than the natives themselves. On the other hand the civilized person who prefers the childish and halting efforts at picture making in Indian textiles or beadwork, is characterizing himself as lacking in feeling for the best that native art really has to offer. He is gratifying a superficial or sensetional taste which is not artistic at all. On the whole the Mission tribes, like many other Indians, are suffi- ciently imbued with feeling for their own aesthetic products to adhere rather firmly to the tribal styles. The disturbing effect of trade influences is perceptible in this ware, but has not yet cut very deeply. In some respects it has even proved stimulating. The baskets with mottled surface or subtle color effects find a readier sale than those of a severer color scheme. The result is that proportionally more of them are being made, and bolder effects being carried out on them than formerly. It is true that there are fewer Mission Indians than there used to be. Many of the younger generation have gone to school, and the mode of life is 10 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET each year coming to conform a little more to our own. There can thus be little doubt that ultimately this art will die out. It is far from dead, however; and on many of the little reservations that stud Southern California it is not only the old but also the middle aged women that still produce fine baskets. Even a returned school girl, innocent though she may be of such matters when first coming home, is likely to take up the industry as a means of providing herself with pin money, as soon as she discovers that if she can turn out competent ware in her idle moments, it will bring a satisfactory price at the trader’s or from the tourist. In this way, while civilization is on the one hand tending to destroy the integrity of this basketry art, it is on the other helping to keep it alive and is even stimulating it to new developments. ve i | ANALYSIS OF DESIGNS Figures 1-42 The cross (figs. 1-8) is a native design, as shown by its fundamental form: four blocks surrounding a rectangular space, as in figs. 1, 3, 4. An elongated checkerboard arrangement occurs in bands (fig. 9), masses (figs. 10-12), and related rectangular forms (figs. 13-16). Upright rectangles flanked by rows of right-angled triangles are characteristic (figs. 17-19). An erect diamond with little light window-like spaces in it is shown simple in fig. 20, elaborated in 21—22, distorted in 23-24. Simple diamonds are frequent, both in patterns and standing free (figs. 25-33). Note the characteristic asymmetries and irregularities in figs. 27-29. One of the most typical Mission basket designs is a V or pair of spreading horns which are used free, in pattern repetition, and to elaborate other designs. Figs. 31 to 50 all contain this motive recurring through a series of designs of the greatest variety. 37 38 39 40 41 42 Figures 1-42 ANALYSIS OF DESIGNS Figures 43-84 Figs. 45-47 are notable as three variants on the identical basket, 45 being stand- ard and 47 the extreme of asymmetrical simplification. Designs deliberately thrown out of balance appear in figs. 57-78. The asymmetry may be barely discernible, as in 66, 67, 68; prominent but yet super- imposed on an underlying symmetry, as in 65, 73; or fundamental, as in 60, 62, 76. Fig. 64, representing a church, is a modern variant of the old native pattern seen In 52 and 53. See Plate I, fig. 1. Triangles are the basis of designs 79-84. Figs. 81 and 82 evince a pleasing imagi- nation. uy ve er YY, <a : 43 44 45 46 47 Tr v Vv LY. Fo i » a a 50 51 52 53 54 Bee ee Y lah 55 56 57 58 59 60 ee LO” i! N AI Ye BEN 61 62 63 64 65 66 of <7 g WW 3 ne Seg ~~ “ Ml] 67 68 69 70 71 72 4 75 77 78 73 74 76 2 wow +a 79 80 81 82 83 Figures 43-8 t ANALYSIS OF DESIGNS Figures 48, 49, 75, 77, 78, 84 These six figures illustrate some of the more complex basket pattern elements. Figs. 48 and 49 are built on the V or “spreading horns” concept, highly elaborated but nevertheless substantially regular. Fig. 75 is astep pattern, simple in motive, but tantalizingly irregular even within the two and a half repetitions shown. Figs. 77 and 78 are masterpieces of decorative invention repaying the most careful analysis. It should be remembered that designs like these are not outlined in advance but slowly evolved as the basket is built upward. Onasmall scale, the aesthetic process is similar to that operative in a richly decorated mediaeval Cathedral growing through several generations without an architect’s plan. T 78 Figures 48, 49, 75, 77, 78, 84 Figure 85 Figure 86 Fig. 85. The entire design on a flat basket, unusual in its semi-realism, yet handled with definite decorative feeling. Fig. 86. Designs 18 and 83 are here shown as they actually appear on the inner surface of a Shallow basket. The elements occur at uneven distances; they are in- troduced 5 and 3 times respectively, instead of 4 and 4; and one of them is worked both with and without contained color. —<————_—— Plate I. at and shallow Mission baskets—banded, radiating, Pattern arrangements on fl In fig. 3 the elements are unevenly spaced; spirally diagonal and crossing or zigzag. in 4 they are irregular; 3 and 5 show varying shades in different parts. =3S THA WV fant RRR Weaieere ya EAP ACEELE Plate II. In deep baskets the design elements tend to run grosser than in flat ones: com- pare especially 1, 2, 83 with Plate I. The design in 4 is saved from crassness by the way its tints slide subtly from light to dark. seep wepaneeenentry ky ANS: ren) : HM atta mt de. AY ii Le Shae saan hi Wii \Whid wd ieidi bids oedeen’ een aaosamnnmnennn aoe pecmineannengonenaan oss enneenet eompenne! att} py ia? apboeeenseee? Seat Ba We MANNA, 2S rent Seat Rm Oe 4A ~ AAS aah Boe 9, Tradl wa. a ae eo Le ay ‘et + A wi bpaas ja ANE. ee Neier 78 ‘dberebenes whi Ari was os Ww, ae ni‘ hes . ub ha . ANWAR ns abba Andean inat Aenean | Re {aaa ee mi wiih) Rae i Hope 4 y \S saad Sasesainadiien atte t oi Tn i) ae Ls WaRRA. bet : ne ) ~eguniva Aula ie vein bi Hs fa i, as oy NTN ANCA, seaapuasse’ net PRT rN aha a ) pebe nt : Ny mutes Ph Sha nei fy no} Reienieys > 3 HKRARUAL Quuuine SCRE ih t) SS een ae suhag AANA Bay Bn ‘ Petia SALA tee “Nn Pave ay Sieg FAS sa maweatin lh LN \ ia ps abehabs. ai YE RH H ; ant N ae Hey . Ayah bannn baa) ais, petn x MARAT ae et INT si i AN RUN it te ah Uy hs ci iW Nei ee we bo Plate ITT. Fig. 1 shows in detail the characteristic pattern mottling, and fig. 2 typical irregularities in repetition of the design motive. iF i cs py ee He oe fh i a ou O aa) An LL) i i oc O he FOR EDUCATION FOR SCIENCE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY AND | VICINITY MANHATTAN SCHIST - “ERRATA _ This article was oneal published in Natural Hietoas, sth: : ae of the September-October issue of 1922. The cross prs es article as reissued are to the original pages, and to. assist in | Saperenees the following substitutions should be made: a = _ p. 480 (on page 1, column i line 28) sald read pee __-p. 434 (on page 5, column 2, line 5) should read p. 4. My Me pp. 436-37 (on page 9, pe i 1, line 37; on page 9, Gelatin ; ef send on page 15, column 2, line should read ier SVaNV ONINIO[GV GNV ALIO MYOA MAN JO dV¥W AAITAA OILVNWVAOVIG 2? JMSNV138 3 WM spaay V Jaisey9 Aq 2G] YY Woay PILFLPOFX AASNAP MAN NYAHLYON ONvV ALIO MYOA MAN 4o S3yuNLVSs S3aNMSaY IWILNASSSA AHL NVW3NN34 WN yied u DILANVILY TWULN3> H1LYON ayr ae SNOISIAIG |DIHd VHOOISAH« oOo <os <<. \abOslvTd TWINaNT yo aX x y Pig Eph | SW SLNLVIS NI 31v9S als, ae a ae) a { [Reprinted from NAturAu History, Vol. XXII, No. 5, pp. 1-15, 1922] Copyright, 1922, by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, N. Y. GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND ITS VICINITY. BY CHESTER A. REEDS* , NHE relief features of the New York City district consist of several distinctly different types, which have been developed by natural forces on rocks of unequal hardness Some of the rocks are unconsolidated sands and muds and are of comparatively recent date; others are stratified with alternating hard and soft beds, which have been tilted or slightly folded and are older; still others of the same origin but far older have been so much altered and deformed during certain geologic periods that they have become crystal- line and entirely changed in appearance, that is, metamorphosed. Volcanic rocks thick and homogeneous in character have also been injected into the area at different times, some very early, others later, but none very recently. These and some of the crystalline ones form the most resistant ridges. The distribution of the rocks is in the form of belts with a prevailing northeast-southwest direction. The essential relief features and physiographic provinces of the area are shown in a graphic manner on the relief map, p. 430. They may be summarized as follows: 1. The continental shelf, which repre- sents the submerged margin of the continent, extends eastward from the New Jersey shore for about too miles to the 100 fathom line. Beyond that point the sea floor drops rapidly to the great and extensive oceanic depths of 2000- 4600 fathoms. 2. The Coastal Plain is that portion of the former submerged continental shelf which has been raised above the sea with- out apparent deformation. Three well defined elements of this plain appear: (a) Its inner lowland, partly drowned in Long Island Sound, Lower New York and Sandy Hook bays, ex- tends southwestward along the main railway lines through New Brunswick, Trenton, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington; (b) Its fall line features appear on the Delaware at Trenton, on the Schuyl- kill at Philadelphia, on the Potomac at the Great Falls above Washington, D. C., and on the James River at Richmond; (c) Its cuesta forms the foundation of Long Island, the Atlantic Highlands, and the ragged front making up the hilly belt of southern New Jersey. 3. The Newark Lowland is a plain developed on inclined weak strata con- sisting of red sandstones and shales of Triassic age. The intrusive sheets of resistant volcanic rock form the promi- nent residual ridges known as the Pali- sades, Watchung, Hook, Cushetunk and Sourland mountains, and Long and Rocky hills. 4. The New England Upland is repre- sented in the district by the Manhattan and Reading prongs. This upland con- sists of dissected and disordered crystal- line rocks. The Manhattan prong ex- tends down the east bank of the Hudson estuary from the Highlands to and including Manhattan Island. The nortd central portion of Staten Island is ah outlier. The Reading prong extends an highlands from the gorge of the Hudsos southwestward across New York ann New Jersey to Reading, Pennsylvania. 5. The broad valley to the west occu- pied by the Wallkill and Paulins Kill is a part of the great Appalachian Valley, which extends from Birmingham, Ala- bama, to Lake Champlain. It is one of the prominent subdivisions of the Newer Appalachian physiographic province. 6. The narrow Kittatinny Mountain ridge dipping westward, represents the northeastern extension of the belt of *Associate Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology, American Museum T 2 NATURAL HISTORY Euiza 4 h / / / PLAINFIELD Ej / ! ‘ ! , ER Sd Veh / _ Sketch map of New York City and vicinity, showing position of the terminal moraine and directions of the ice movement (indicated by the arrows) during the last or Wisconsin glaciation. After United States Geological Survey newer and folded Appalachians of cen- tral Pennsylvania. 7. The Alleghany Plateau appears west of the Delaware River. Farther north in New York State the Catskill Mountains represent a subdivision of this plateau. GLACIATION: The northern portion of the New York City district has been traversed at least four times by great sheets of ice which moved down from the Labrador center. These continental glaciers modified the drainage and the surface of the land over which they passed. The terminal moraine which represents the southernmost extent of the last ice field appears as a conspicuous ridge consisting of knobs and kettle holes on Long Island, Staten Island, and New Jersey. It continues westward across the United States to the Pacific Ocean near Seattle, Washington. The drift bowlders and unsorted rock débris in the terminal moraine and north- ward give a clue as to the direction of ice movement. Large bowlders of crystal- line rock from Jamaica and Hollis, Long Island, indicate that they were plucked out of the bed rock in the vicinity of Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, and other places in Westchester County, New York. Glacial-borne pebbles containing fossils and oolites have been found at Broadway and ro1st Street. The fossils represent minute fragments of bryozoa and corals, of Devonian age, which are similar to those found at present in the Catskill Mountain region. The oolites, which GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND ITS VICINITY 3 The ‘‘rocking stone,’’ New York Zodlogical Park, an ice-transported bowlder resting on a glaciated surface are small, concentric spheres cemented together, resemble fish roe. They, too, came from up-state New York. On Staten Island, Long Island, and Short Hills, New Jersey, many large drift bowlders of sedimentary origin and con- taining numerous marine fossils were de- rived from the exposures in east central New York State. Each of the four continental glaciers of the Pleistocene epoch consisted of ice thousands of feet thick. They not only plucked out huge bowlders the size of a house and transported them long dis- tances, but they also scoured off the soil- cover in many places and left bare rock surfaces, roches moutonnées, little deserts in fact, on which no plants other than lichens can grow. A good example of a glaciated surface with an ice-transported bowlder resting upon it is the “rocking stone” in the New York Zodlogical Park, Bronx, figured above. Rocks held firmly in the base of the ice served not only as abrasives but also as etching tools. Deep parallel grooves in crystalline rock appear at various places on Riverside Drive, particularly on the south side of the Drive where it leaves the Hudson River at about 2ooth Street. These glacial striae running northwest- southeast give the direction of ice move- ment. Many diabase bowlders from the Palisades found in Yonkers and New York City indicate that the ice moved southeasterly, diagonally across the Pali- sades and the Hudson River, as shown on the diagram. A stream leaving the front of the glacier oftentimes contained a_ large volume of water and had considerable transporting power. Hence pebbles, 4 NATURAL HISTORY Exposure of glacial till, containing sand, rock, at Castle Point, Hoboken. sand, and fine rock débris were carried in considerable quantity. In most in- stances the streams deployed fanwise almost immediately on their emergence from the glacial sheet and the material carried from the ice was dropped close to the margin of the glacier. The fans formed by single streams were usually gravel, and bowlders, in contact with Serpentine After United States Geological Survey, Passaic Folio, No. 157 small, being from half a mile to two miles in radius; confluent fans were larger, varying from one to six miles in radius. The materials are somewhat sorted and stratified and are called out- wash deposits. These deposits occur at short intervals along the southern margin of the terminal moraine. Towns built GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND ITS VICINITY n STORM KING Cross-section drawing of the sediments in the Hudson River at Storm King Mountain, where is located the great siphon of the New York City aqueduct. State Museum on some of the larger outwash plains are Plainfield, New Jersey; Flatbush and Hempstead, Long Island. While glacial streams were depositing fan-shaped outwash deposits in many places along the ice front, a glacial lake, Lake Passaic, appeared to the south of the terminal moraine between the crescentic outline of the Watchung Mountains on the east and south and the New Jersey highlands on the west. The waters of the lake drained through the Muggy Hollow outlet at the southwest corner into the Raritan River valley. When the ice front retreated northward, the lake waters followed it and occupied the entire basin behind the Watchung Mountains to the west and southwest of Paterson, New Jersey. The numerous fresh-water marshes of today, along the upper course of the Passaic River, cover portions of the bed of this former glacial lake. Great accumulations of glacial till, a mechanical mixture consisting of un- sorted clay, sand, pebbles, and small bowlders, are found generally in the wake of the glacier. In the New York From Bulletin 146 of the New York City district it varies from a fraction of a foot to 500 feet in thickness. A good exposure of it resting on Serpen- tine rock may be seen at Castle Point, Hoboken, New Jersey, p. 434. It often- times fills the pre-glacial stream valleys and frequently covers the leeward side of hills and the lower areas. Test holes in the Harlem River at High Bridge show that the channel has been filled up from 80 to 111 feet by glacial drift and river mud. The glacial drifts and sediments in the Hudson River gorge at Storm King Mountain have been found by drilling operations to be between 768 and 995 feet thick, with an average of 800 feet. In the vicinity of the Pennsylvania Rail- road tunnels at 32nd Street, New York City, the sediments are 300 feet thick, with a possible greater depth in an untested section in midstream. In the Lower Bay deposits accumulated to such an extent that the mouth of the river was almost closed to large ships. Some $4,000,000 have been spent by army engineers in dredging the Ambrose Channel 2000 feet wide by 4o feet deep, IN. SU GNDOS a a GOVEANONS Ie a ra g a Py 2 S84 eN\ 8 NN RREEREISED I ee SSI3N9 $3 eee ee ND i i PN Io Nery: WVHAsO4 nz| > j AUN OP cL BuIzLewad zap 3MW 3NO=HONI +/ 388307 B | Q mix Bavos: ALINO100 a|m GooMNI DO 4 2 Ni dnous | isiHoS P| =| 0 MadvMaN = |S NVLLVHNVW Do | 5 "lm m i@) NOLLW WHO. 102) WOOY DIHdHOWVLAW WASTE 210 ete ge a.1isoi0 pes NOLLWWHO4 3 N NSN SESS BANS RES NOSINHWH NYMVLVW a |2 Rider ae 2th oa boc 2 oe rake 3114010-ONVuO FR we NOlivwWuos o 1 as oe er guts dOOMSN3AVY RSG | OU] UO HLNOWNOW c REE. NaN ede o|n Y ss SSIAND FLINVYS Py 2 oO NOiLvWwuos = ) SYBMNOA KAAAJ| , | 4 13SSVHNYW alu SNOISNULNIGYy a a Siisodaa Ee a i D m SILINVYD in fo) HSVMLNO : 2 oH (a) s3ssoa anv 2 ;N anivaow fim 2/1) 2 SIAIILINVYSD =|OQ WHsosyvy BA |= 3 S le sania a1svaf 4 My ay TL IWINv19 RRA a et A 3NILN3dd3S seta) Br lies : VLV3H134 Wye a Livsva 4) = siisodaansuvw ae ONNHILWM eu e aNV dW¥MS a Dp asvevid %|Q sannaanvsany me aovsivd Y) GQ Siisod30 Hov38 +e ads < M90 SNOANDI M90Y¥ AYVLNAWIGSS AVG QN3931 IZ61 27M OT ‘(Ud Spey YW 4erseyyg Aq ALINIDIA CNV ALID MHOA MAN Se) dVW TYDIDOTOAD ONYVIS/ 8 NATURAL. HISTORY so that the large ocean liners and other vessels may enter the harbor. From a point ten miles out from Sandy Hook to the edge of the continental shelf about one hundred miles distant, a well-defined river channel exists which increases in depth seaward. Near the brink of the continental platform it is 4800 feet deep. Glacial deposits appear over a portion of the course. RECENT SHORE Deposits:Sandy Hook, Coney Island, and Rockaway Beach are pronounced coastal irregularities. South Beach and Midland Beach, Staten Island, are less so. These features are temporary for they represent initial stages in the process of coastal simplifica- tion. After the initial reefs and barriers have become land, the lagoons behind them are likely to be filled with sediment and organic matter, forming land. The development of curved spits and beaches along the New Jersey and Long Island shores is worthy of consideration. In the vicinity of Long Branch, New Jersey, the sea cliff indicates wave erosion. The eroded débris is shifted northward by the waves and currents and piled up along the beach which terminates in Sandy Hook. The tend- ency of the hook to turn westward is due largely to the strong westward sweep of the winds and tides of the Atlantic Ocean. ‘This has been going on for some time, for Sandy Hook is a compound, recurved spit. Rockaway Beach is also compound in appearance while Coney Island is simple. The same forces which drift the sediments north along the New Jersey shore are moving them westward along the Long Island coast in the vicinity of Rockaway and Coney Island. As Staten Island lies across the path of these waves, South Beach and Midland Beach represent a barrier or bar which has been built up by the waves near the line of breakers. That the prevailing direction of currents along the Midland Beach is to the southwest is indicated by the development of a spit in the vicinity of Great Kills. Beach deposition and straightening of the coast line is also in progress on the south shore of the Lower Bay in the vicinity of Port Monmouth, New Jersey. The estuaries and lagoons east of Port Monmouth are being filled with sedi- ments derived from the land and the growth of vegetation, for, being in the lee of Sandy Hook and the barrier beaches, they are protected from strong sea waves. This is also true of Jamaica Bay, the Flushing Creek basin, Hackensack Meadows, Newark Bay, and the upper reaches of Arthur Kill. These bays and estuaries are the result of recent sub- sidence of the area. Thus the drowned lands, which now represent shallow sea floors, have been a factor in the placing and development of certain pronounced hooks and barrier beaches. The wind has also notably modified the deposits made by the waves and currents, for it has developed long ridges and sand dunes on the surface of the beaches. In addition to the shore deposits which are of recent development there are rocks exposed in the New York district which have greater age and a more pro- found history. There are at least five series of them. While they are in close juxtaposition and have a_ well- established relation to each other, they are widely separated in origin by great intervals of time. Each series has had its normal period of development; the oldest, however, has suffered greater physical and chemical changes imposed upon it by mountain-making movements and other deformations which have affected it during the growth of the North American continent. In passing from a consideration of the present shore developments to the oldest series of rocks exposed in the area we go rapidly backward from the Age of Man through the Age of Mammals, the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Amphibians, the Age of Fishes, the Age of Inverte- brates, to the little-known but inferred Age of Unicellular Organisms. We shall not take the opportunity to note the GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK ever-changing shore line, the configur- ation of the lands and seas, and the great accumulation of sediments which have taken place slowly and repeatedly during these ages. We shall have to omit a discussion of the birth, rise, decay, and disappearance of mountain ranges which have succeeded one another in this and other parts of the continent. Standing on the threshold of the better known eras of geologic time, beginning with the Archeozoic, and turning our back on the hypothetical zeons through which the earth must have already passed, let us approach the Present from the chrono- logical point of view. Tue ArcH#o0zorc ERA: In the dawn of life a series of limestones and associ- ated sedimentary rocks were laid down in Canada near Ottawa, which have been called the Grenville series. According to Professor Berkey, of Columbia Uni- versity, certain metamorphosed rocks in the Manhattan and Reading prongs of the New England upland are contempo- raneous inage. The Fordham gneiss ex- posed in the Bronx and Westchester counties and northward has all the physical characters of the Grenville series. It consists primarily of granitic and quartzose black and white banded gneisses and schists of very complex composition and _ structure. Inter- bedded quartzite and limestones and old igneous intrusions are also included. Note the position on the accompanying geologic map, pp. 436-437. Overlying the gneiss series in a con- formable manner at certain localities is the Lowerre quartzite named after the locality in South Yonkers from which it was first described. It is a_ thin, schistose quartzite which varies in thick- ness from a fraction of a foot to 100 feet and rarely out-crops. This formation is followed by a coarsely crystalline limestone locally tremolitic, micaceous, and pegmatitic, which varies in thickness from 200 to 800 feet. It is called the Inwood dolomite after the Inwood section of the Civ AND TTS VICINITY 9 city at the north end of Manhattan Island. Good exposures of the Inwood dolomite occur in the valley north of Dyckman Street, for instance at Marble Hill station on the New York Central Railroad. Conformable and overlying the In- wood formation is a coarsely crystalline mica schist, very thick, and pegmatitic, which is called the Manhattan after the extensive exposures on Manhattan Island. The Lowerre-Inwood-Manhat- tan series is regarded as late Grenville in age. This and the Fordham series con- stitute the originally sedimentary beds of the Archeozoic Era exposed in the New York City district. THE PRoTEeRozoic Era, IGNEOUS Rocks: All igneous rocks of the crystal- line area under consideration are younger than the sedimentary members since they have been intruded. But they are not all of the same age or kind. There are granitic stringers and sills which may date back to the close of the earliest of these sedimentary periods, since they partake of all the metamorphic changes that characterize these ancient strata including recrystallization and flowage. The most striking examples are the Yonkers granite gneiss, a sill, and the Ravenswood granodiorite, a boss. Some of the pegmatite streaks and basic intrusions belong to a period of more extensive metamorphic activity and penetrate the Inwood dolomite and Manhattan schist. Examples are the Harrison diorite, basic dikes, granitic dikes, bosses, and intrusions as shown on the accompanying geologic map, pp. 436-437. Serpentine, which is a meta- morphic alteration product, has a like origin and distribution. The entire basal series of rocks have been folded, crumpled, faulted, crushed, injected, intruded, and intensely modi- fied by recrystallization, nevertheless, they retain the fundamental association and essential character of an originally sedimentaryseries. Manyof the gneisses, a few of the schists, al! of the granites Slab showing passage of two Triassic dinosaurs after a shower. The raindrop impressions are represented by small pits. After R. S. Lull Impressions of the feet and tail of a Triassic dinosaur on a ripple-marked surface. Speci- men from Pleasantdale, New Jersey 10 GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND ITS VICINITY II STEGOMUS A can 2 ANOMOEPUS hd, 777 SHOT Eth tesassrte > ee : AID =. _ we ——— ay i See A zi oe ap. PODOKESAURUS RHYTIDODON Certain types of dinosaurs of Triassic age which inhabited the New York, Virginia, and Con- necticut valley basins and diorites are of igneous origin and occur as sills, dikes, or bosses, cutting the metamorphosed sedimentary members. They, too, have been greatly metamor- phosed and are very ancient, perhaps late Archeozoic or Proterozoic. Tue PaLt#ozoic Era: The Paleozoic rocks and fossils, which represent a tremendously long period of time and follow the Proterozoic Era, are not found in the immediate vicinity of New York City. They appear, however, in great force in western New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and the Mississippi valley states. THE Mesozotc ERA, Triassic PE- R10D: From the Hudson River west- ward to the crystalline rocks of the New Jersey highlands occur a thick series of reddish brown sandstones, shales, and conglomerates, called the Newark group, which dip ro to 15 degrees to the north- west. Near Philadelphia, Trenton, and New Brunswick, the Stockton, Locatong, and Brunswick formations have been differentiated, but not beneath the glacial drift cover to the northeastward. These sedimentary rocks were deposited in a trough or graben with faulted margins which extended southwestward from the Hudson River across central New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland into southern Virginia. In all prob- ability a major stream with lateral tribu- taries occupied the depression. The region was presumably high and arid. Ripple marks, mud cracks, rain drop impressions, and footprints of reptiles are common, especially in the Brunswick shale, and indicate flood plain and shal- low water deposition. Restorations of the dinosaurs, Stegomus, Anomoepus. Podo- kesaurus, Anchisaurus, and Rutiodon (Rhytidodon), which inhabited this zone and the Connecticut Valley, are shown in accompanying illustrations, pp. 441-42- 43. Only one skeleton, the Fort Lee Rutiodon, pp. 442-43, has been found near New York City. Fossil fishes and a small crustacean, Estheria ovata, have also been found. The fossil remains indicate Triassic age. the initial period of the Mesozoic Era, sometimes called the Age of Reptiles. Three successive lava flows which were extruded during the deposition of the Fort Lee phytosaur, Rutiodon manhattanensis. Photograph of the skeleton as preserved in the original matrix. About !/,, natural size. A description of it was published by the American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin XXXII, pp. 275-82, 1913 Restoration of the skeleton and dermal plates of Rutiodon manhattanensis. The shaded portion represents the parts preserved in the Fort Lee specimen. After W. D. Matthew Men excavating the skeleton of the Fort Lee phytosaur on the right bank of the Hudson River, opposite New York City. The specimen was found about twenty feet below the thick sheet of diabase of the Palisades in a red sandy marl 14 NATURAL HISTORY Newark beds have been subsequently faulted, flexed, and tilted into their present position. Since that event erosion has removed a great thickness of the sedimentary rocks and the upturned edges of the lava sheets are now exposed. The First and Second Watchung Moun- tains and Hook Mountain represent these three basaltic flows. The lowest, First Mountain, is about 600 feet thick, Second Mountain 800 feet, and Hook Mountain 300 feet. About 600 feet of red sandstone and shale separate the first and second, and 1500 feet the second and third. Red Triassic sand- stone and shale are also found above and below these volcanic rocks. The Palisade diabase is a great sheet of igneous rock, from 350 to 1000 feet thick, which was intruded among the lower strata of the Newark group. It extends from Staten Island northward along the west bank of the Hudson River to Haverstraw. At its southern exposed extremity it is practically at sea level, while at the north it is 700 feet higher. Throughout most of its extent it presents an escarpment of high cliffs with vertical columns of rock which were developed during the cooling stage and which sug- gest the name Palisades. Cretaceous Perron: Stratified rocks which represent the closing stage of the Age of Reptiles rest unconformably upon the Newark group in New Jersey and upon the crystalline basal complex in Staten Island and Long Island. Ex- cept for a few exposures along the north coast and the interior of Long Island the Cretaceous sediments are hidden by glacial deposits of Pleistocene age. Their presence, however, is ascertained from numerous deep-well records. In _ the unglaciated area south of Raritan Bay they are exposed over extensive areas. Here three well-defined members appear, the basal Raritan formation of plastic clays, the Mattawan formation of clay marls, and the Monmouth, including the Rancocas and Mansquan formations of green sand and marls. Fossil marine invertebrates and plant remains indicat- ing Upper Cretaceous age are found in some of these beds. The Cretaceous deposits of Long Island, which average 1550 feet in thickness, vary greatly in composition within short distances and are, on the whole, more sandy than those of New Jersey. An exposure may be seen at Elm Point on Great Neck, Long Island. The inclination to the southeast of the bed rock surface on which these sedi- ments were deposited is about 4o feet to the mile in New Jersey, 80 feet near Oyster Bay and Huntington, and 40 feet at Port Jefferson, Long Island. The dip of the beds, which is the same as the slope of the unexposed floor, probably decreases toward the east and south. This old Cretaceous floor is still pre- served inland in the crests of the Palisade and Watchung ridges, Schooley Mountain and Kittatinny Mountain of New Jersey and in the truncated folds of the Appala- chian Mountains west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Locally in Long Island the weak upper beds of the Cretaceous series have been greatly folded and con- torted by the passage of the Pleistocene glaciers over them. THE CeENozoic ERA, PLEISTOCENE Events: Four glacial and three inter- glacial stages are represented on Long Island. The periods of glaciation corre- spond to the Nebraskan, Kansan, II- linoian, and Wisconsin of the Central United States, and to the Giinz, Mindel, Riss, and Wiirm of the Alps Mountains. Locally they have been named by Mr. M. L. Fuller, of the United States Geo- logical Survey, the Mannetto, Jameco, Manhasset, and Wisconsin stages and are represented primarily by gravel and morainal deposits. The only ones repre- sented within the limits of the ac- companying geological map are the Manhasset and Wisconsin. The out- wash, terminal moraine, till, and re- treatal outwash deposits of the Wisconsin stage are far more extensive and readily examined than the similar accumulations of the older stages since they were the GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND ITS VICINITY 15 last and cover in large part those made during the preceding glaciations. The First Interglacial stage, the post- Mannetto, was long, for a great erosion unconformity exists. Following the de- position of the Mannetto gravel of the First Glaciation, there was a period of uplift and erosion in which the Mannetto was cut to a depth of 300 feet below sea level, as shown by the depth of the buried Jameco channel in Long Island. The great length of this period of erosion, indicated by the almost complete re- moval of the thick Mannetto gravel from the Long Island region, is in harmony with the time required for the cutting of the Hudson River rock gorge to a depth of 750 feet below present sea level. The gorge proper appears to be filled solely with Pleistocene materials as indicated by the Storm King and other borings; hence, its cutting is to be referred to a date later than the de- position of the latest Tertiary beds in New Jersey. The narrow, steep-sided and deep outer canon of the submarine channel, if due to stream erosion, must be referred to an elevation of great magnitude, 4800 feet, occurring at the close of the post- Mannetto erosion stage. The great drops or falls in its beds are characteristic of a juvenile stream or old one which has been rejuvenated. As only the edge of the continental shelf was notched, the epoch of maximum elevation must have been brief. During the Second Interglacial stage, the Yarmouth of the Mississippi Valley, the Gardiners clay was deposited in Long Island. It was followed bya transitional epoch represented by the Jacob sand. Throughout the time of the Second Glaciation, the Second Interglacial, and the Third Glaciation, the channel of the Hudson remained constantly below sea level. The deposits, which have a com- bined thickness of about 500 feet, doubt- less obliterated the upper reaches of the submarine Hudson channel. The Third Interglacial interval, the Vineyard, is represented by (a) a great erosion unconformity, and (b) the Vine- yard formation, consisting of marine deposits and peat. The valleys in the Manhasset deposits, although somewhat modified and partly filled with the later Wisconsin accumulations, are known to extend some distance below sea level at many points along the north shore, indicating a former higher position of the land. The present upper submarine channel of the Hudson, which has a depth at its outer end of 350 feet, sug- gests that the land must have been ele- vated to that extent during the Vine- yard interval. _ There are no erosion channels referable to Wisconsin or post-Wisconsin elevation on Long Island. The upper end of the Hudson channel, however, between Sandy Hook and Rockaway Beach, has been obliterated in part by Wisconsin outwash and in part by the shifting of the sands by the littoral currents that now sweep along the coast. Thus in this rapid survey we have considered very briefly the Archzozoic, Proterozoic, Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, (Trias- sic, Cretaceous), and Cenozoic (Pleis- tocene) series of rocks as represented in New York City and its vicinity. They are replete with interest but they repre- sent only a few isolated and incomplete chapters of the geologic history of North America. The long Paleozoic era, in- cluding the Age of Invertebrates, Age of Fishes, and Age of Amphibians, is not represented by sediments in the area of the geologicmap, pp. 436-37. The Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous periods occupying the middle portion of the Mesozoic era, the Age of Reptiles, are also not repre- sented in this district. Likewise the Ter- tiary series, corresponding to the Age of Mammals, appears outside the area. The Pleistocene glacial deposits, which are contemporaneous with the Age of Man, are rather fully represented but, as yet, no human remains have been found in them in this area or anywhere in North America. of > —— FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDUCATION FOR SCIENCE THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY THE GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND VICINITY MANHATTAN SCHIST SVAUV ONINIOLAV GNV ALIO MYOA MAN JO dVIN AGITAY OLLVININVUOVIA 2? JMSNV138 3 WM spaay V -1a3S0uD Aq P2GO'] YY Wosy POLFtPOW ASNT’ MAN NYAHLYON GNV ALIO MYOA MAN 4o saun.vas 4313y IWILNASSS AHL (NVW3NN33 WN 42440 y40d u}) ——_ : ° es 3 . orn ‘ A ri $0338 vo‘9 WWsaQwAvr , ; a 5 S | **savis . . | DLNVILY as TWYLN32 H1YON aye ge SNOISIAIG DIHdVEDOISAH rl oe swine? vi } SW JiNAVLIS Ni 3ZIWOS /— ———— \ (eae ay BEOLOGY- OF NEW YORK ITY AND ITS VICINITY By CHESTER A. REEDS Associate Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology The American Museum of Natural History Guide Leaflet No. 56 New York, March, 1925 @ AMERICAN:>MUSEUM-PRESS ® Geology of New York City and Its Vicinity By CHESTER A. REEDS Associate Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology HE relief features of the New York City district consist of several distinctly different types, which have been developed by natural forces on rocks of unequal hardness. Some of the rocks are unconsolidated sands and muds and are of compara- tively recent date; others are stratified with alternating hard and soft beds, which have been tilted or shghtly folded and are older; still others of the same origin but far older have been so much altered and deformed during certain geologic periods that they have become crystalline and entirely changed in appearance, that is, metamorphosed. Voleanic rocks thick and homogeneous in character have also been injected into the area at different times, some very early, others later, but none very recently. These and some of the crys- talline ones form the most resistant ridges. The distribution of the rocks is in the form of belts with a prevailing northeast-southwest direction. The essential relief features and physiographic provinces of the area are shown in a graphic manner on the relief map, frontispiece. They may be summarized as follows: 1. The continental shelf, which rep- resents the submerged margin of the continent, extends eastward from the New Jersey shore for about 100 miles to the 100 fathom line. Beyond that point the sea floor drops rapidly to the great and extensive oceanic depths of 2000-4600 fathoms. 2. The Coastal Plain is that portion of the former submerged continental shelf which has been raised above the sea without apparent deformation. Three well defined elements of this plain appear: (a) Itsinner lowland, partly drowned in Long Island Sound, Lower New York and Sandy Hook bays, ex- tends southwestward along the main railway lines through New Brunswick, Trenton, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington; (b) Its fall line features appear on the Delaware at Trenton, on the Schuylkill at Philadelphia, on the Potomac at the Great Falls above Washington, D. C., and on the James River at Richmond: (c) Its cuesta forms the foundation of Long Island, the Atlantic Highlands, and the ragged front making up the hilly belt of southern New Jersey. 3. The Newark Lowland is a plain developed on inclined weak strata con- sisting of red sandstones and shales of Triassic age. The intrusive sheets of resistant voleanic rock form the promi- nent residual ridges known as the Pali- sades, Watchung, Hook, Cushetunk and Sourland mountains, and Long and Rocky hulls. 4. The New England Upland is represented in the district by the Man- hattan and Reading prongs. This up- land consists of dissected and dis- ordered crystalline rocks. The Man- hattan prong extends down the east bank of the Hudson estuary from the Highlands to and including Manhattan Island. The north central portion of Staten Island is an outlier. The Read- ing prong extends as highlands from the gorge of the Hudson southwest- ward across New York and New Jersey to Reading, Pennsylvania. 1 GUIDE LEAFLET Eviza 4 Ge ey, / / PLAINFIELD ; R 6eTH? = £ of f = Sketch map of New York City and vicinity, showing position of the terminal moraine and directions of the ice movement (indicated by the arrows) during the last or Wisconsin glaciation. After United States Geological Survey 5. The broad valley to the west occupied by the Wallkill and Paulins Kill is a part of the great Appalachian Valley, which extends from Birming- ham, Alabama, to Lake Champlain. It is one of the prominent subdivisions of the Newer Appalachian physio- graphic province. 6. The narrow Kittatinny Moun- tain ridge dipping westward, represents the northeastern extension of the belt of newer and folded Appalachians of central Pennsylvania. 7. The Alleghany Plateau appears west of the Delaware River. Farther north in New York State the Catskill Mountains represent a subdivision of this plateau. GLaAcIATION: The northern portion of the New York City district has been traversed at least four times by great sheets of ice which moved down from the Labrador center. These continen- tal glaciers modified the drainage and the surface of the land over which they passed. The terminal moraine which represents the southernmost extent of the last ice field appears as a conspicu- ous ridge consisting of knobs and kettle holes on Long Island, Staten Island, and New Jersey. It continues westward across the United States to the Pacific Ocean near Seattle, Washington. The drift bowlders and unsorted rock débris in the terminal moraine and GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND ETS VICINITY: 5 The ‘“‘rocking stone,’’ New York ZoGdlogical Park, an ice-transported bowlder resting on a glaciated surface northward give a clue as to the direc- tion of ice movement. Large bowlders of crystalline rock from Jamaica and Hollis, Long Island, indicate that they were plucked out of the bed rock in the vicinity of Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, and other places in Westchester County, New York. Glacial-borne pebbles containing fossils and oolites have been found at Broadway and 191st Street. The fossils represent minute fragments of bryozoa and corals, of Devonian age, which are similar to those found at present in the Catskill Mountain region. The oolites, which are small, concentric spheres cemented together, resemble fish roe. They, too, came from up-state New York. On Staten Island, Long Island, and Short Hills, New Jersey, many large drift bowlders of sedimen- tary origin and containing numerous marine fossils were derived from the exposures In east central New York State. Each of the four continental glaciers of the Pleistocene epoch consisted of ice thousands of feet thick. They not only plucked out huge bowlders the size of a house and transported them long dis- tances, but they also scoured off the soil-cover in many places and left bare rock surfaces, roches moutonnées, little deserts in fact, on which no plants other than lichens can grow. A goodexample of a glaciated surface with an ice- transported bowlder resting upon it is the “rocking stone” in the New York Zodlogical Park, Bronx, figured above. Rocks held firmly in the base of the ice served not only as abrasives but also 6 GUIDE LEAFLET we eG me he”: > Xe Je Exposure of glacial till, containing sand, gravel, and bowlders, in contact with Serpentine rock, at Castle Point, Hoboken. After United States Geological Survey, Passaic Folio, No. 157 as etching tools. Deep parallel grooves in crystalline rock appear at 7arlous places on Riverside Drive, particularly on the south side of the Drive where it leaves the Hudson River at about 200th Street. northwest-southeast give the direction Many These glacial striae running of ice movement. diabase bowlders from the Palisades found in Yonkers and New York City indicate that moved southeasterly, diagonally across the Palisades and the Hudson River, as the diagram, p. 2. A stream leaving the front of the elacier oftentimes contained a large the ice shown on GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND ITS VICINITY 7 STORM KING Cross-section drawing of the sediments in the Hudson River at Storm Kung Mountain, where is located the great siphon of the New York City aqueduct. From Bulletin 146 of the New York State Museum volume of water and had considerable transporting power. Hence pebbles, sand, and fine rock débris were carried in considerable quantity. In most in- stances the streams deployed fanwise almost immediately on their emergence from the glacial sheet and the material carried from the ice was dropped close to the margin of the glacier. The fans formed by single streams were usually small, being from half a mile to two miles in radius; confluent fans were larger, varying from one to six miles in radius. The materials are somewhat sorted and stratified and are called out- wash deposits. These deposits occur at short intervals along the southern margin of the terminal moraine. Towns built on some of the larger outwash plains are Plainfield, New Jersey, Flat- bush and Hempstead, Long Island. While glacial streams were deposit- ing fan-shaped outwash deposits in many places along the ice front, a glacial lake, Lake Passaic, appeared to the south of the terminal moraine be- tween the crescentic outline of the Watchung Mountains on the east and south and the New Jersey highlands on the west. The waters of the lake drained through the Muggy Hollow outlet at the southwest corner into the Raritan River valley. When the ice front retreated northward, the lake waters followed it and occupied the entire basin behind the Watchung Mountains to the west and southwest of Paterson, New Jersey. The numer- ous fresh-water marshes of today, along the upper course of the Passaic River, cover portions of the bed of this for- mer glacial lake. See map, pp. 12-13. Great accumulations of glacial till, a mechanical mixture consisting of un- sorted clay, sand, pebbles, and small bowlders, are found generally in the wake of the glacier. In the New York City district it varies from a fraction of a foot to 500 feet in thickness. A good exposure of it resting on Serpen- Aeroplane view of Upper Manhattan Island, with the Harlem River in the foreground, the Hudson river and Palisades in the background. The three aqueducts, High Bridge, Croton and Catskill, which supply water to New York City, enter Manhattan at this point. ant MMe . bAAaLE RIVER. fh mdehead amd Butthead home ob ee ao: == iy FY) + 0 i aera eee HRS ; SERA ate EOS : Sa ai EERO TER Tel tt ane A ASIA WHEE EER 3 oo J cy ala HHL os OM EIA HLA LE UWS ELLIS Manhastan Sch Fordham Gress and Cross-section of the Harlem River near High Bridge showing the sub-surface crossing of the Catskill aqueduct, the distorted rocks, and the fill of glacial drift and alluvium in the river bed. From Bulletin 146, New York State Museum. GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK Chart of the outer submarine channel and canyon of the Hudson River. States Geological Survey. tine rock may be seen at Castle Point, Hoboken, New Jersey, p. 4. It often- times fills the pre-glacial stream valleys and frequently covers the leeward side of hills and the lower areas. Test holes in the Harlem River at High Bridge show that the channel has been filled up from 80 to 111 feet by glacial drift and river mud, p. 6. The glacial drifts and sediments in the Hudson River gorge at Storm King Mountain have been found by drilling operations to be between 768 and 995 feet thick, with an average of 800 feet. In the vicinity of the Pennsylvania Railroad tunnels at 32nd Street, New York City, the sediments are 300 feet thick, with a possible greater depth in an untested section in midstream. In the Lower Bay deposits accumulated to such an extent that the mouth of the river was almost closed to large ships. Some $4,000,000 have been spent by army engineers in dredging the Ambrose Channel 2000 feet wide by 40 feet deep, so that the large ocean liners and other vessels may enter the CLEY AND ITS | VICINITY 9 After United harbor. From a point ten miles out from Sandy Hook to the edge of the continental shelf about one hundred miles distant, a well-defined river chan- nel exists which increases in depth seaward. Near the brink of the con- tinental platform it is 4800 feet deep. Glacial deposits appear over a portion of the course, p. 7. RecENT SHORE Deposits: Sandy Hook, Coney Island, and Rockaway Beach are pronounced coastal irregu- larities. South Beach and Midland Beach, Staten Island, are less so. These features are temporary for they repre- sent initial stages in the process of coastal simplification. After the initial reefs and barriers have become land, the lagoons behind them are like to be filled with sediment and organic mat- ter, forming land. See map, pp. 12-13. The development of curved spits and beaches along the New Jersey and Long Island shores is worthy of con- sideration. In the vicinity of Long Branch, New Jersey, the sea cliff in- dicates wave erosion. The eroded 10 GUIDE LEAFLET débris is shifted northward by the waves and currents and piled up along the beach which terminates in Sandy Hook. The tendency of the hook to turn westward is due largely to the strong westward sweep of the winds and tides of the Atlantic Ocean. This has been going on for some time, for Sandy Hook is a compound, recurved spit. Rockaway Beach is also com- pound in appearance while Coney Island is simple. The same forces which drift the sediments north along the New Jersey shore are moving them westward along the Long Island coast in the vicinity of Rockaway and Coney Island. As Staten Island lies across the path of these waves, South Beach and Midland Beach represent a barrier or bar which has been built up by the waves near the line of breakers. That the prevailing direction of currents along the Midland Beach is to the southwest is indicated by the develop- ment of a spit in the vicinity of Great Kills. Beach deposition and straighten- ing of the coast line is also in progress on the south shore of the Lower Bay in the vicinity of Port Monmouth, New Jersey. The estuaries and lagoons east of Port Monmouth are being filled with sediments derived from the land and the growth of vegetation, for, being in the lee of Sandy Hook and the barrier beaches, they are protected from strong sea waves. Thisis also true of Jamaica Bay, the Flushing Creek basin, Hack- ensack Meadows, Newark Bay, and the upper reaches of Arthur Kill. These bays and estuaries are the result of recent subsidence of the area. Thus the drowned lands, which now repre- sent shallow sea floors, have been a factor in the placing and development of certain pronounced hooks and barrier beaches. The wind has also notably modified the deposits made by the waves and currents, for it has devel- oped long ridges and sand dunes on the surface of the beaches. In addition to the shore deposits which are of recent development there are rocks exposed in the New York district which have greater age and a more profound history. There are at least five series of them. While they are in close juxtaposition and have a well-established relation to each other, they are widely separated in origin by great intervals of time. Each series has had its normal period of develop- ment; the oldest, however, has suf- fered greater physical and chemical changes imposed upon it by mountain- making movements and other defor- mations which have affected it during the growth of the North American continent. In passing from a consideration of the present shore developments to the oldest series of rocks exposed in the area we go rapidly backward from the Age of Man through the Age of Mam- mals, the Age of Reptiles. the Age of Amphibians, the Age of Fishes, the Age of Invertebrates, to the little- known but inferred Age of Unicellular Organisms. We shall not take the opportunity to note the ever-changing shore line, the configuration of the lands and seas, and the great accum- ulation of sediments which have taken place slowly and _ repeatedly during these ages. We shall have to omit a discussion of the birth, rise, decay, and disappearance of mountain ranges which have succeeded one another in this and other parts of the continent. Standing on the threshold of the better known eras of geologic time, beginning with the Archeozoic, and turning our back on the hypotheti- cal eons through which the earth must GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND ITS VICI NE TY 11 Ancient contorted Manhattan schist (Archeozoic) with rather recent glaciated surface (Pleistocene). E. O. Hovey, photo. have already passed, let us approach the Present from the chronological point of view. Tue Arcu#ozorc Era: In the dawn of life a series of limestones and associ- ated sedimentary rocks were laid down in Canada near Ottawa, which have been called the Grenville series. Ac- cording to Professor Berkey, of Columbia University, certain meta- morphosed rocks in the Manhattan and Reading prongs of the New Eng- land upland are contemporaneous in age. The Fordham gneiss exposed in the Bronx and Westchester counties and northward has all the physical characters of the Grenville series. It consists primarily of granitic and quartzose black and white banded See geologic map. pp. 10-11. South Meadow, Central Park, Manhattan. gneisses and schists of very complex composition and structure. Inter- bedded quartzite and limestones and old igenous intrusions are also included. Note the position on the accompanying geologic map, pp. 10-11. Overlying the gneiss series in a con- formable manner at certain localities is the Lowerre quartzite named after the locality in South Yonkers from which it was first described. It is a thin, schistose quartzite which varies in thickness from a fraction of a foot to 100 feet and rarely out-crops. This formation is followed by a coarsely crystalline limestone locally tremolitic, micaceous, and pegmatitic, which varies in thickness from 200 to 800 feet. It is called the Inwood “orn § 130 SHONMISE a Hw }: ] S + £ @ ! tr > aE —— = ar] Bia 31IW SNO=HONI 1/ | m|x alvos a a}m 5( I a o i = dnoud 1SIHOS = (e} WaVMAN oS NV.LLVHNVW Be ele m mi} 0 NOLIWWUO4 | 172) YOOY JIHdYOWVLAW NVLIavd ro) BLISOIG NOLLWINNOG a NOSINNVH NVMVLIVAW a ase 7 om Pant + 3L1NOIG-onyuO f Fy NOILWWHOs io) i GOOMSN3ATY RSS | UO | U HLNOWNOW o|D SSI3ND a1 wie [RM GIO nowwwuos = SYBMNOA ila L3SSVHNVW ly a SNOISNULNI (a) a SLisod3a a fn : DILINVYSD ae to) HS¥M.LNO ala fe) S3SS08 aNv zi ANIVHOW QD) a S3MIDSLINVYSD iS) THH yOssyH Zz SC a ae) DIM | N ot) THL TWI9W19 3 = re) 2 om Ss HSYMLNO SNILN3dYSS ayivanitad my 5| } : e nivsve Saves suscead stv a o> SNNHOLWM 2| GNV dWY¥MS pe > 2 asvavid % 12 sauna ons on Zz 30VSI1vd YM} Oo Stisod3d HOv3a8 Ad AVE NULLAVYL A765 s< Y90N SNOAND! M904 AXYVLNAWIGSS QN3941 1261 ‘(Ud Spey VW Farseyyg Aq eek} dinosaurs after a shower. The rain drop im- After R. S. Lull Impressions of the feet and tail of a Triassic dinosaur on a rij -marked surface. Specimen from Pleasantdale, N. J. 14 GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND ITS VICINITY 15 STEGOMUS ANOMOEPUS PODOKESAURUS CLE ree iid Lise RHYTIDODON Certain types of dinosaurs of Triassic age which inhabited the New York, Virginia, and Connecticut valley basins dolomite after the Inwood section of the city at the north end of Manhattan Island. Good exposures of the Inwood dolomite occur in the valley north of Dyckman Street, for instance at Marble Hill station on the New York Central Railroad. Conformable and overlying the In- wood formation is a coarsely crystalline mica schist, very thick, and pegmatitic, which is called the Manhattan after the extensive exposures on Manhattan Island, p. 9. The Lowerre-Inwood- Manhattan series is regarded as late Grenville in age. This and the Ford- ham series constitute the originally sedimentary beds of the Archozoic Era exposed in the New York City district. Tue Proterozoic Era, IGNEoUS Rocks: Alligneous rocks of the crystal- line area under consideration are younger than the sedimentary members since they have been intruded. But they are not all of the same age or kind. There are granitic stringers and sills which may date back to the close of the earliest of these sedimentary periods, since they partake of all the metamorphic changes that character- ize these ancient strata including re- crystallization and flowage. The most striking examples are the Yonkers eranite gneiss, a sill, and the Ravens- wood granodiorite, a boss. the pegmatite streaks and basic in- trusions belong to a period of more extensive metamorphic activity and penetrate the Inwood dolomite and Manhattan schist. Examples are the Harrison diorite, basic dikes, granitic dikes, bosses, and intrusions as shown on the accompanying geologic map, pp. 10-11. Serpentine, which is a metamorphic alteration product, has a like origin and distribution. The entire basal series of rocks have been folded, crumpled, faulted, crushed, injected, intruded, and intensely modi- fied by recrystallization, nevertheless, they retain the fundamental association and essential character of an originally Some of Fort Lee phytosaur, Rutiodon manhattanensis. Photograph of the skeleton as preserved in the original matrix. About natural size. A description of it was published by the American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin XXXII, pp. 275-82, 1913 ha eae Atanas Restoration of the skeleton and dermal plates of Rutiodon manhattanensis. ‘The shaded portion represents the parts preserved in the Fort Lee specimen. After W. D. Matthew , Men excavating the skeleton of the Fort Lee phytosaur on the west bank of the Hudson River opposite 155th Street, New York City. The specimen was found in a red sandy marl about twenty feet below the thick sheet of diabase of the Palisades 17 18 GUIDE LEAFLET sedimentary series. Many of the eneisses, a few of the schists, all of the granites and diorites are of igneous origin and occur as sills, dikes, or bosses, cutting the metamorphosed sedimen- tary members. They, too, have been greatly metamorphosed and are very ancient, perhaps late Archozoic or Proterozoic. Tue Pau#eozoric Era: The Paleozoic rocks and fossils, which represent a tremendously long period of time and follow the Proterozoic Era, are not found in the immediate vicinity of New York City. They appear, how- ever, in great force in western New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and the Mississippi valley states. Tue Mesozoic Era, Triassic Pr- Romp: From the Hudson River west- ward to the crystalline rocks of the New Jersey highlands occur a thick series of reddish brown sandstones, shales, and conglomerates, called the Newark group, which dip 10 to 15 degrees to the northwest. Near Philadelphia, Trenton, and New Bruns- wick, the Stockton, Locatong, and Brunswick formations have been dif- ferentiated, but not beneath the gla- cial drift cover to the northeastward. These sedimentary rocks were de- posited in a trough or graben with faulted margins which extended south- westward from the Hudson River across central New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, and Maryland into southern Virginia. In all probability a major stream with lateral tributaries occupied the depression. The region was pre- sumably high and arid. Ripple marks, mud cracks, rain drop impressions, and footprints of reptiles are common, especially in the Brunswick shale, and indicate flood plain and shallow water deposition. Restorations of the dino- saurs, Stegomus, Anomoepus, Podo- kesaurus, Anchisaurus, and Rutiodon (Rhytidodon), which inhabited this zone and the Connecticut Valley, are shown in accompanying illustrations, pp. 13- 14-15. Only one skeleton, the Fort Lee Rutiodon, pp. 14-15, has been found near New York City. Fossil fishes and asmall crustacean, Hstheria ovata, have also been found. The fossil remains indicate Triassic age, the initial period of the Mesozoic Era, sometimes called the Age of Reptiles. Three successive lava flows which were extruded during the deposition of the Newark beds have been subse- quently faulted, flexed, and tilted into their present position. Since that event erosion has removed a great thickness of sedimentary rocks and the upturned edges of the lava sheets are now ex- posed. The First and Second Wat- chung Mountains and Hook Mountain represent these three basaltic flows. The lowest, First Mountain, is about 600 feet thick, Second Mountain 800 feet, and Hook Mountain 300 feet. About 600 feet of red sandstone and shale separate the first and second, and 1500 feet the second and third. Red Triassic sandstone and shale are also found above and below these voleanic rocks. The Palisade diabase is a great sheet of igneous rock, from 350 to 1000 feet thick, which was intruded among the lower strata of the Newark group. It extends from Staten Island northward along the west bank of the Hudson River to Haverstraw. At its southern exposed extremity it is practically at sea level, while at the north it is 700 feet higher. Throughout most of its extent it presents an escarpment of high cliffs with vertical columns of rock which were developed during the cool- ing stage and which suggest the name Palisades, p. 16. GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY AND ITS VICINITY 19 Palisades of the Hudson opposite Spuyten Duyvil, N. Y. CRETACEOUS PErtop: Stratified rocks which represent the closing stage of the Age of Reptiles rest uncon- formably upon the Newark group in New Jersey and upon the crystalline basal complex in Staten Island and Long Island. Except for a few ex- posures along the north coast and the interior of Long Island the Cretaceous sediments are hidden by glacial deposits of Pleistocene age. Their presence, however, is ascertained from numerous deep-well records. In the unglaciated area south of Raritan Bay they are exposed over extensive areas. Here three well-defined members ap- pear, the basal Raritan formation of plastic clays, the Mattawan formation of clay marls, and the Monmouth, in- eluding the Rancocas and Mansquan formations of green sand and marls. Fossil marine invertebrates and plant remains indicating Upper Cretaceous age are found in some of these beds. The Cretaceous deposits of Long Is- land, which average 1550 feet in thick- ness, vary greatly in composition with- in short distances and are, on the whole, more sandy than those of New Jersey. An exposure may be seen at Elm Point on Great Neck, Long Island. The inclination to the southeast of the bed rock surface on which these sedi- ments were deposited is about 40 feet to the mile in New Jersey, 80 feet near Oyster Bay and Huntington, and 40 feet at Port Jefferson, Long Island. The dip of the beds, which is the same as the slope of the unexposed floor, probably decreases toward the east and south. This old Cretaceous floor is still preserved inland in the crests of the Palisade and Watchung ridges, Schooley Mountain and Kittatinny Mountain of New Jersey and in the truncated folds of the Appalachian Mountains west of Harrisburg, Penn- sylvania. Locally in Long Island the 20 GUIDE LEAFLET weak upper beds of the Cretaceous series have been greatly folded and contorted by the passage of the Pleis- tocene glaciers over them. THE Crnozoic Era, PLEISTOCENE VENTS: Four glacial and three inter- glacial stages are represented on Long Island. The periods of glaciation cor- respond to the Nebraskan, Kansan, II- linoian, and Wisconsin of the Central United States, and to the Giinz, Mindel, Riss, and Wiirm of the Alps Mountains. Locally they have been named by Mr. M. L. Fuller, of the United States Geological Survey, the Mannetto, Jameco, Manhasset, and Wisconsin stages and are represented primarily by gravel and morainal deposits. The only ones represented within the limits of the accompanying geological map are the Manhasset and Wisconsin. The outwash, terminal moraine, till, and retreatal outwash deposits of the Wisconsin stage are far more extensive and readily examined than the similar accumulations of the older stages since they were the last and cover in large part those made dur- ing the preceding glaciations. The First Interglacial stage, the post- Mannetto, was long, for a great erosion unconformity exists. Following the de- position of the Mannetto gravel of the First Glaciation, there was a period of uplift and erosion in which the Man- netto was cut to a depth of 300 feet below sea level, as shown by the depth of the buried Jameco channel in Long Island. The great length of this period of erosion, indicated by the almost com- plete removal of the thick Mannetto gravel from the Long Island region, is In harmony with the time required for the cutting of the Hudson River rock gorge to a depth of 750 feet below present sea level. The gorge proper appears to be filled solely with Pleisto- cene materials as indicated by the Storm King and other borings; hence, its cutting is to be referred to a date later than the deposition of the latest Tertiary beds in New Jersey. The narrow, steep-sided and deep outer cafion of the submarine channel, p. 7, if due to stream erosion, must be referred to an elevation of great magni- tude, 4800 feet, occurring at the close of the post-Mannetto erosion stage. The great drops or falls in its beds are characteristic of a juvenile stream or old one which has been rejuvenated. As only the edge of the continental shelf was notched. the epoch of maxi- mum elevation must have been brief. During the Second Interglacial stage, the Yarmouth of the Mississippi Val- ley, the Gardiners clay was deposited in Long Island. It was followed by a transitional epoch represented by the Jacob sand. Throughout the time of the Second Glaciation, the Second Interglacial, and the Third Glaciation, the channel of the Hudson remained constantly below sea level. The de- posits, which have a combined thick- ness of about 500 feet, doubtless obliterated the upper reaches of the submarine Hudson channel. The Third Interglacial interval, the Vineyard, is represented by (a) a great erosion unconformity, and (b) the Vineyard formation, consisting of ma- rine deposits and peat. The valleys in the Manhasset deposits, although somewhat modified and partly filled with thelater Wisconsin accumulations, are known to extend some distance below sea level at many points along the north shore, indicating a former higher position of the land. The pres- ent upper submarine channel of the Hudson, which has a depth at its outer end of 350 feet, suggests that the land must have been elevated to that extent GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK during the Vineyard interval. There are no erosion channels refer- able to Wisconsin or post-Wisconsin elevation on Long Island. The upper end of the Hudson channel, however, between Sandy Hook and Rockaway Beach, has been obliterated in part by Wisconsin outwash and in part by the shifting of the sands by the littoral currents that now sweep along the coast. Thus in this rapid survey we have considered very briefly the Archzo- zoic, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, (Triassic, Cretaceous), and Cenozoic (Pleistocene) series of rocks as repre- sented in New York City and its vicinity. They are replete with inter- est but they represent only a few isola- CrEyY AND ITS VICINITY 2] lated and incomplete chapters of the geologic history of North America. The long Palaeozoic era, including the Age of Invertebrates, Age of Fishes, and Age of Amphibians, is not repre- sented by sediments in the area of the geologic map, pp. 10-11. The Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous periods occupy- ing the middle portion of the Mesozoic era, the Age of Reptiles, are also not represented in this district. Likewise the Tertiary series, corresponding to the Age of Mammals, appears outside the The Pleistocene glacial deposits, which are contemporaneous with the Age of Man, are rather fully represented but, as yet, no human re- mains have been found in them in this area or anywhere in North America. area. FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDUCATION FOR SCIENCE a ra Fla Oa hy OP } < \ WEST CENTRAL CENTRAL j WING | PAVILION 7 11 Pai SOUTH WEST a CENTRAL WING Ss WING 10 S12 SOUTHWEST 9 aber chviiten SOUTHWEST WING PAVILION 8 Te eye (i), EAL) on H SOUTH EAST { i 1 ! H COURT ian east , H HALL BI ip Pufananaas deel iC. H cE 3 . SOUTHEAS SOUTHEAST WING 1 J ELEVATOR THE HALL OF MAMMALS is on the TutrD FLoor, SourHEaAst W1nQ, just to the right of oh the elevator. It is number 2 on the floor plan shown above __ (a a): GUIDE TO THE HALL OF MAMMALS BY FREDERIC A. LUCAS The American Museum of Natural History Guide Leaflet No. 57 New York, October, 1923 ey Lei pelaaar The Guide Leaflets describe some exhibit, or series or exhibits, of special interest or importance, treat of some branch of museum work, or, as in the present case, may deal with the contents of an entire Hall. A list of the “‘popular publications” of the museum may be obtained from the librarian. GUIDE TO THE HALL OF MAMMALS By Frederic A. Lucas This leaflet was written in the hope that it might prove useful to classes and visitors in connection with the exhibits in the Hall of Mammals. Its object is to point out the pur- pose of the exhibits, to tell why the specimens are shown and what they are intended to illustrate. And for the very rea- son that it is not intended as a text book, but for use with the collections it has been left largely an outline to be filled by those using it. It deals with Mammals, a term frequently confused with Animals. Strictly speaking, all living creatures are animals, but to many people, possibly the majority, animal means a mammal in distinction to birds and other creatures. The collection was begun with the view that it might be helpful to students and scholars by providing them with a handbook in which the reading matter should be furnished by the labels and the illustrations by the objects themselves. It was also hoped that it might prove of interest to visitors and that without special effort they might get an idea of what a mammal is. Like a book it is to be read from left to right, beginning with the Characters of Mammals and the Family Tree of Mammals at the left of the entrance, and ending with Man, who is a species of Mammal and considered by himself to be the head of his class. The story of man is told elsewhere, his evolution and early history in the Hall of Age of Man and Hall of Archeology, the characters and customs of living races in various halls of the Department of Anthropology. 3 The object of the exhibits is to show the distinguishing features, or characters of mammals, the points wherein they agree with one another and differ from other animals; their main groups or Orders, and the subdivisions of their orders or Families; as well as the variations in the skeleton, Modifica- tions of structure, whereby they are adapted to different modes of life, the whales for dwelling entirely in the sea, the seals for living in the sea or on land, the horse for land only and the sloth for the trees. As the exhibits give a brief, but comprehensive illustration or synopsis of the points noted above, they form collectively the Synoptic Series of Mammals The exhibits are divided into, or may be considered in two sections, the Systematic Series, that deals with the larger divisions of Mammals, Orders and Families, and a Special Series that deals with special features of the Class and includes examples of some of its rarer or more interesting members. MAMMALS Their Characters, Divisions and Modifications Mammals are warm-blooded, backboned animals that with a few rare exceptions are born alive and nourished for a time on milk. They may be large or small, naked, covered with hair or scales, have teeth or be toothless; live on land or in the water, swim, walk, fly or burrow in the ground, but they agree in the above particulars and are all placed in the Class Mammalia. They belong, with Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians and Fishes in one of the large groups or Phyla, of the Animal Kingdom termed Vertebrata or back-boned animals, because they all have a vertebral column or back bone. (See Family Tree of Mammals). ‘Note: The writer and curator is well aware that this is not an at- tractive title, but he has been unable to think of any other that com- bines brevity with accuracy and will be glad to receive suggestions in regard to it. CHARACTERS OF MAMMALS (First Wall Case on Left) A technical exhibit for advanced students: it deals at length with the distinctive characters of mammals and compares, or contrasts them with the corresponding char- acters of reptiles, from which mammals are considered to have been derived. It is an answer to the question, What is a mammal? FAMILY TREE OF MAMMALS (First Pier Case on Left) Showing the relation of mammals to other groups of animals. Note how life began with animals of simple structure from which as time went on more complex or higher forms were evolved. The mammals appeared late in the history of the earth and stand at the top of the ‘‘Tree.”’ GENERAL OR SYSTEMATIC SERIES Mammals arranged according to a given plan or system— in this case their structure. An illustration of the methods employed in classification will be found in a pier case on the North Side showing the divisions of the seals—Pinnipedia, based on resemblances or differences in their skulls and espe- cially in their teeth. The mounted specimens and skeletons show the outward form and internal structure of the groups, and the maps of distribution show where they occur. The accompanying labels give information as to their general character, appearance in time and peculiarities of structure. THE ORDERS OF MAMMALS Following is a list of the Orders of Mammals with brief explanatory notes in regard to them. The names may appear formidable because they are unfamiliar but they are the names in general use in text-books, in many cases there are no “common” names and it is hoped that a little observation of the collections and the notes in this leaflet may cause the names used to appear a little less fearsome. 5 MONOTREMATA, Egg-laying Mammals, Monotremes. In- clude the Platypus and Echidna; termed primitive because they resemble in structure the reptiles from which mam- mals are believed to have been derived. They differ from all other mammals in that the young are hatched from eggs, though nourished on milk. They are placed in a group or sub class, termed Prototheria, the first mammals. PLATYPUS Ornithorhynchus paradoxus ECHIDNA Echidna aculeata Information in regard to Classification, Scientific Names, and related points may be found in A First Chapter in Natural History. MARSUPIALIA, Pouched Mammals, Opossums, Kangaroos and related animals. The young are born at an early stage and during the first part of their life carried ina pouch. The greater number are found only in Australia. They vary greatly in form and habits and we have marsupials that are flesh eaters, grass eaters and rodents; they jump, climb, run, and a few sail like our flying squirrel. The Marsupials are given a sub class, Metatheria, intermediate mammals, as ranking between the HEDGEHOG Erinaceus europxus An insectivore that suggests a little Porcupine egg-laying mammals and those in which the young are well- developed when born. The following Orders from Insectivores to Primates con- tain the vast majority of existing mammals, including those with which we are most familiar; they form a large assemblage known as Eutheria, the right or perfect mammals. INSECTIVORA, Insect Eaters; animals of small size, many of them, like the mole, adapted for an underground life where they feed on worms and insect larve. “I CHIROPTERA, Bats; the only mammals that really fly, their immensely long fingers, supporting like the ribs of an um- brella, a membrane that forms a wing. Their distribu- tion depends mainly on temperature; when the cold puts an end to the insects on which they feed, the bats hiber- nate, go into winter quarters and sleep until spring. The fruit-eating bats, the largest members of the order, are found only in warm countries where they can obtain food throughout the year. CARNIVORA or FERZ, The flesh eaters or Beasts of Prey. Familiar examples are the dog and cat. The cat is “a carnivorous, fissiped, digitigrade mammal of the family Felide;’’ that is, it is a flesh-eating animal, whose toes are separate, that walks on the tips of its toes, nurses its young, and is a member of the Cat family. The Carnivores are divided into two great groups, the Fissipedia, whose fingers are free and the Pinnipedia whose fingers are united to form a paddle. The first group includes the majority of the flesh eaters—the Lions, Wolves, Bears and Weasels, the second the Seals and Walruses. AN OUTLINE OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE BEASTS OF PREY—ORDER FERZ Fissipedia Pinnipedia Feet for Walking Feet for Swimming Cats Walruses Weasels Eared Seals Dogs Earless Seals | Bears, ete. Also the cat is digitigrade—walks on its toes—and the bear is plantigrade—walks flat-footed—and the seal is pinni- grade—swims with its feet. “‘Classification’”’ is merely the orderly arrangement of _ animals or other objects, placing those most closely related to one another in a group by themselves and arranging the groups thus formed with reference to their degree of relationship. TYPES OF CARNIVORES Panther Fur Seal Polar Bear Harbor Seal RODENTIA or GLIRES, Gnawing Animals, including rats, mice and rabbits; mostly small animals, the giant of the order being the South American Capybara. This group contains more species and individuals than any other order and owing to their small size, adaptability and rapidity with which they breed, its members are found over the greater part of the earth. The most evident character of the order is the structure of the front teeth, incisors, which are made on the principle of some chisels, a thin cutting edge of hard enamel in front, backed with soft. dentine; this wears away faster than enamel, automatically keeping the teeth sharp. The cutting teeth grow continuously and rodents must gnaw to keep them worn down. BRUTA or EDENTATA, Sloths, Armadillos and their relations. A mixed assemblage of mammals varying greatly in out- ward appearance. They are “low” in their brain charac- ters and intelligence, “low” in the simple structure of their teeth and in some features of the skeleton. The term Edentata—toothless—is literally true in regard to the Ant Eaters, and all members of the group agree in lacking front teeth. ANTEATER Tamandua tetradactyla PHOLIDOTA, Scaly Anteaters, Pangolins, Manids—one of the cases where the so-called common name conveys no idea to the average person. The members of this order are distin- guished by being clad in overlapping horny scales which offer a pretty good protection when the animal coils up with the tail outside. They are confined to Tropical Africa south of the Sahara, and southern Asia. One species is noteworthy as having the longest tail of any Mammal, fifty-two vertebrae, one for every week in the year. 10 EFFODIENTIA, the Aard varks, so called in allusion to their burrowing habits, though the order has also been termed Tubulidentata in reference to the structure of the teeth which are composed of little tubes placed on end. This order includes only two species of animals found in the warmer parts of Africa and formerly placed with the Edentates. AARD VARK Orycteropus ater UNGULATA, the Hoofed Mammals, including such well known forms as sheep, deer, antelope, camels, cattle and horses. The vast majority of large quadrupeds belong in this order whose members are widely distributed over the earth, save Australasia, and were abundant until killed off by man. They are most numerous in Africa, least nu- merous in South America and there are none in Australia. HYRACOIDEA, Hyraxes or Dassies, neither of which ‘“‘com- mon’’ names conveys any meaning, being a good illustra- tion of the fact that a so-called ‘‘common”’ name may be just as meaningless to the majority of people as a scientific name. An order including a few species of small mammals looking something like rabbits, but not at all like them in any part of their structure and really related to the Rhinoceroses. The species found in Syria is the coney 11 mentioned in the Bible, ‘‘The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their homes in the rocks.” HYRAX OR DASSIE Hyrax capensis PROBOSCIDEA, Elephants, present and past. “Beast that hath between its eyes a serpent for an arm.” The largest of land mammals distinguished from other mammals by many well defined characters, size not being a character. FLORIDA MANATEE Trichecus latirostris A member of the Order Sirenia noted on the opposite page 12 SIRENIA, the “Sea Cows,” Manatees and Dugongs. An ancient order including but few species and these widely separated. Mostly confined to tropical, or warm waters, though one species, the Rytina or Arctic Sea Cow, the largest member of the group, was found in the north where it was exterminated by man. CETACEA, Whales and Porpoises. Mammals adapted for living wholly in the water, often mistakenly thought to be fishes, though they breathe by lungs and not by gills and must come to the surface for air. Their fore limbs are modified into flippers, the hind limbs present as mere ves- tiges concealed within the body and the tail present in the shape of flukes. COMMON DOLPHIN Delphinus delphis A rough and ready means of distinguishing between cetaceans and fishes is that the former have the tail, or flukes, crosswise to the body while in fishes it is always vertical, up and down. The order contains the largest animals that have ever lived, the great Blue Whale reaching a length of 103 feet. PRIMATES, the “highest”? mammals, Man, Apes, Monkeys and Lemurs, these last widely separated from the others in characters and intelligence. Man is sometimes placed apart in a Suborder Bimana, two-handed, while his rela- tives are termed Quadrumana because in most of the species the big toe is opposable to the others so that the foot, like the hand, is fitted for grasping. 13 SPECIAL SERIES Illustrations of the relation of internal structure to form and habits; modifications of the teeth; change of color with the season. RELATION OF ANIMALS TO THEIR ENVIRONMENT On the left (North) Relation of Animals to their surround- ings or Hnvironment. Mammals, and other animals, that dwell in deserts are pale and harmonize in color with the sand, thus illustrating protective coloration. The birds, insects and plants offer further instances of adaption; in the case of plants the leaves are reduced in size and number to lessen evaporation. MODIFICATIONS OF THE SKELETON The skeleton is the best, and most enduring evidence we have, of any animal’s place in nature and its relationships with other animals: it is also the solution of a problem in mechanics, that of carrying a given weight and of adaptation to some particular mode of life. So the skeleton not only indicates the group of animals to which its owner belongs, but also tells of his mode of life, for it varies, or is modified, according as a creature dwells on land, lives underground, or in the water, walks, swims or flies; feeds on grass, catches insects, or preys upon its fellows. TEETH Their structure, location, method of implantation, growth, mode of replacement and modifications, with special refer- ence to the teeth of mammals: Case on south or right side of hall. ALBINOS AND MELANOS Albinos are animals in which the coloring matter or pig- ment of the hair or other parts of the body is lacking. They may occur in any group of mammals. 14 Melanos are animals in which there is an excess of coloring matter. They occur more often than albinos and are particu- larly numerous in some species or in some localities. In the Grey and Fox Squirrels melanos occur so often as to form a distinct color phase, and black Leopards are common in some localities in southern India and the Malay Peninsula. Bag- hera of the ‘‘ Jungle Stories’? was a Black Leopard. ANIMALS THAT LOOK ALIKE BUT ARE DIFFERENT These specimens illustrate the point that because two animals look alike they are not necessarily related, differences in the skeleton (Structural Differences) being much more important than mere resemblance, and furnishing the char- acters on which classification, or the grouping of animals according to their relationships is based. The Flying Squirrel and little Acrobates both sail from tree to tree, but one is a rodent and one is a marsupial; the Squirrel and Squirrel Shrew look alike and have the same habits, but one is a rodent and one an insectivore. FLYING SQUIRREL. FLYING PHALANGER The Echidna, the Hedgehog and the Porcupine all have spines but belong to widely separated orders of Mammals. The Tasmanian Wolf and the Coyote are much like one another in form and habits, both being flesh eaters, but one is a marsupial and the other a true carnivore. RELATION BETWEEN FORM AND HABITS According to their mode of life, the limbs of mammals are modified to form fingers, feet, paddles or wings. The under- lying changes are shown in the Modifications for Locomotion where we learn that the corresponding bones in different groups of animals are greatly changed in shape according to their function. TWO-TOED SLOTH Cholopus didactylus whose feet are hooks. The sloth hangs below the branches. COLOR CHANGE IN THE VARYING HARE In northern regions many mammals and some birds change their coats with the season, becoming white in winter, a familiar example being the Ermine and Weasel. It is a change of hair and not in the hair, the gray coat being shed and the white one put on early in winter and the process re- versed in spring. 16 a wrhe 3 — ; 9 - t - - \ <M id ad “x or Wl eyes i % $ “in 4 soe = F PL, vy. ae 4 3 ye wy i 7 a 7, ‘ 4 ay * af | 4 ’ : a & an : As ‘ - “TAG TIVUAT aliases gegoiw?y ef govive Jacd ountdarast id Yan RAL! io piers iss ORT at Ray < ioe a 13 pond page 76 tis a bes aire batts * IR ES EE ae d ont +8 ‘ 2 EARS Fd na. 5 ¢ ‘ a ae aithw 7 wolstetigatccdiovetysd viet Jui a rhe, otyrkrsieny eb. bend ak 4 dbegnads to .dbsiibeim oa sual eto of} whx -wBaere ge tod sxrogait orld yileiseqee hud xacod 9 Ki) COLLAR BONE Py’ OR CLAVICLE pt Mires, } iY ZB) / | Cee) ty | ¥, ef E % ud HIP BONE PELVIS FRUIT BAT Pteropus species As in other bats the fore legs are modified, or changed, for flight, all the bones, but especially the fingers, being greatly lengthened to form supports for the membrane that serves as a wing. The fruit bats fly with rather slow wing beats and the outer part of the wing is proportionately larger and more rounded than in their smaller, more active relatives. The hind feet are little used, serving mainly as hooks by which the bat hangs itself up—head downwards—to sleep. MODIFICATIONS FOR LOCOMOTION Shows the variations in the skeleton, and especially in the limbs, by which animals are adapted for walking, jumping, flying or swimming. The snake is introduced to show that it is possible for an animal to run, climb or swim with no limbs at all. The series of limbs in a nearby case shows details of struc- ture, the bones being colored so that the same bone in the various feet may be readily distinguished. See also Relation between Form and Habits. pI EB ts; F eee aaa = ge THE CAT Felis domestica An example of a skeleton slightly modified for free and rapid movements and for jumping—this last point is indicated by the length of the foot bones and the size of the heel and elbow. The skeleton of the cat may serve as a convenient term of comparison with the skeletons of other animals ; ‘KoITOMODOS tiizinsgss bas lod : ’ - a a a et (O46 ear VOLS GF SOU f ‘yeni & ' : 14 J ; Lyris grisdit prog 2 i PAL Ee “y e 2 il ob YP ete me ee éyf “ae i 7" she unto, don OTT munhont Io. Aart GI arte) Th. “ae hen easy gniiien vol batqube sia shh ' a ~~. ofa at hoooiwinde ws ods of T e y ; f re ; a . ri) ~ [= i ¢ 4 280 o> o Z , ; ; x i 5 a ¥ 4 ¢ Wi ; : Veepagp ane Te ye 4 it" - Stele oisearmom ehet * ~t ‘ a J "a BES GOR RA SB - f + : . i Peathal +i i Pe Fi a § 7 . Oe ad th eT) Fo Sg wily . j hele wus eff ina vole te anG@ielods cult city moanse 1 =) 1a =f TVG Go . SSlIOTROS AOGAAT:.. ;, n simtcires anensoat mee, SiS Teeter ge Ie oltyidees ah at Aaloes wig ot : 4 y er pie " _ Sige oi 1h 0 SEITE RS S aOR IST west 55) a HSS . _ “* wre “efi: int Foot nr tk wre aio Poin ait iBitrirkat % Aeph bt = “vit Hrd Py go ened sii ow? yo re nd ak thal ws tt HARBOR SEAL Phoca vitulina Like other seals this species passes some time on land, coming out to bask in the sun, but the legs are of little use for locomotion on land. All four limbs are changed into paddles for swimming, though the hair seals swim mainly with their hind feet and the eared seals with their front feet. HARBOR PORPOISE Phocaena communis The porpoise is an example of a mammal fitted for living only in the water, and represents the extreme of modification among mammals. The hind limbs have been lost, their only vestiges being two little bones that represent the pelvis, or hip bone: the front limbs have been changed into rigid paddles, fit only for balancing or steering; locomotion is effected by what is really the tip of the tail, which has been developed into flukes for swimming. Note that unlike the tail of fishes the flukes of whales and porpoises contain no bones. MOLE Scalops aquaticus Modifications of the skeleton for an underground life are most evident in the fore limbs which perform the work of digging, being for this purpose short and stout, the hands large, and turned on edge. (In the figure the hand is turned down to show the bones). The foot is also strengthened by the addition of a bone running along the edge of the foot, shown in the picture. This bone is not found in other mammals. The skeleton of the mole illustrates the fact that a bone of little importance in one group of animals may be of great value in another. In the cat and the seal, in which there is no particular strain on the fore feet and great freedom of movement is needed, the clavicle or collar bone is very small, or absent: it is also absent in the porpoise in which the fore limb is scarcely used. In the bat and the mole in which flying or digging bring great strain on the fore limb, the collar bone is very strong to brace the shoulder. This is particularly evident in the mole. ; areal +e .& fo > BOWAUDS 4701490 att 4 sat bee 3 “ roe MWS ONT 10 BO eSe + agmotr toitw adrail stot od? al Jasne wecet ost een a oio4 oT yihs «) horn % gf0M. tgore bar. Proda ae MPT rt. 103 git ' & ; A AAITOGS oh} ‘ * z fr bi yiitivine Sat yd pono BOVE. OAM Bt la toot o1lt to ogbes ad? paolk daruaact tonic ai bagel Jor et t odd eotetteulti clon: odd to modeled Hina dite e ied it urn oOgae sodjone of am FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDUCATION. FOR SCIENCE i VANE CAT ica none | THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY PREPARATION OF BIRDS FOR STUDY By JAMES P. CHAPIN GUIDE LEAFLET No. 58 i Aarne msanceinh Bie: 4 PYHOTeM ANDEAN). “a ig es : ; nae NOTE This leaflet is one of a series intended to — ahs accurate information in regard to the preparat of specimens of various kinds for Museum purposes. — a The following have been issued and may be pur- chased at the sales booth or from the Librarian; others ia fi are in the course of preparation: The Preparation of Birds for Study _ ie By James P. Chapin. Price 15 cents How to Collect and Preserve Insects By Frank E. Lutz. Price 10 cents Suggestions to Collectors of Reptiles and Amphibians : May be had on application to the Curator, Dept. of Herpetolo THE PREPARATION OF BIRDS FOR, STUDY INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PROPER PREPARATION OF BIRD SKINS AND SKELETONS FOR STUDY AND FUTURE MOUNTING By JAMES P. CHAPIN Associate Curator of Birds The American Museum of Natural History New Yor 1923 is i neers | a, . ‘ rs : 7 . c ; ts & i oe > — 7 » \ am i . \ ‘ ; F : { { « ‘ if é : ; % i ; a . _ : yl » F * ae. a . ' THE PRESERVATION OF BIRDS FOR STUDY Travelers in foreign parts often fail to realize what valuable service they could render to the museums of America. They are apt to consider the birds of the world so well known as scarcely to need fur- ther collecting; whereas, in addition to the numerous species that re- main to be discovered, many which have long been known are still un- represented by a single specimen in any museum of the United States. To aid in the improvement of our collections, the following instructions are offered for the use of our friends. The scientific value of a skin is greatly enhanced by correct preparation and labeling. To illustrate the successive steps a large number of figures are included, which have been drawn by M. Frazee Belcher. Collections of birds are composed chiefly of ‘‘skins,” which resemble in general appearance a dead bird. They exhibit most of the external features of the living bird, the structure and colors of its plumage, as well as the general form of beak, wings, and feet. Bird skins may subsequently be mounted, if desired; but most of them are intended for study rather than for exhibition. Many a skin not fit for mounting is yet of distinct scientific value, provided its history is preserved on the label. For study of the internal anatomy, skeletons and_ birds in the flesh preserved in alcohol or weak formalin are also necessary. It is customary to preserve but few examples of a species in this manner, whereas a series of skins is desirable, the external characters being-more variable, and more com- monly studied by systematic workers. Opportunities for preserving large birds in fluid seldom offer themselves, but their skeletons may be roughly prepared and dried, the final cleaning to be done at home. The skeletons of small birds are so fragile that it is usually better to bring the specimens back whole, preserved in fluid, which permits study of the muscles and viscera as well. The bones can also be cleaned—even though the birds have been kept in formalin—but alcohol is very much better for the purpose. 3 4 TOOLS NEEDED TOR SKINNING The preservation of birds as dried mummies, with the aid of carbolic acid or injections of formalin, is to be discouraged. They become very brittle, are difficult to examine, and are subject to the attacks of insects. The Making of a Birdskin Instruments Do not accustom yourself to an unnecessary variety of tools. The fewer they are the more quickly you are sure to work. If nothing else were available, a penknife would suffice to preserve the skin of an ordinary bird. For small and medium-sized birds the following instruments are amply sufficient: 1 scalpel, with blade about 1\4 inches long; 1 pair of sharp-pointed scissors, blade 2 to 2}4 inches long—the stronger they are, the longer you can do without a second pair; 1 pair of forceps, about 5 inches in length, with long, slender tips; 1 thin metal knitting needle; 1 pair of cutting pliers, for the wire used in necks; Ordinary sewing needles (sizes 2 to 8) and cotton thread (Nos. 8, 36, 80), pins, of nickeled brass, not of steel; 1 medium-sized carborundum stone, for sharpening knives and scalpel; 1 rather stiff artist’s brush, for washing small spots of blood from plumage, and for moistening skin; 1 old nail-brush, for drying and fluffing the plumage; Annealed, galvanized iron wire, of sizes 11, 16, 22; 1 folding metric rule; 1 pair of dividers, for taking measurements. For larger and tougher birds, one may add to the kit: 1 thin-bladed kitchen knife; 1 pair of bone-cutters or short, heavy shears; 1 longer pair of forceps, about 10 inches over all, with tips not very slender; they will be used for stuffing skins. Fig. 1. Principal instruments used for skinning birds: A, scalpel; B, scissors; C, bone shears; D, small forceps; E, kitchen knife; F, cutting pliers; G, long forceps. Their dimensions may be fizured from the accompanying scale. 6 EQUIPMENT FOR SKINNING Other Materials‘! Small birdskins are best stuffed with good, long-fibred cotton, not necessarily absorbent; larger ones with tow and “excelsior” wood-shavings, when available. In case of need, green moss may be used after thorough drying, or fine dry grass, or the dry husks of maize—in short, almost any soft, dry vegetable material. The inside of the skins is to be dusted with powdered white arsenic (=arsenic trioxid), or powdered arsenic and alum (in equal parts by volume). The latter mixture is especially suited for large birds’ skins, and for skins of all sizes in a damp climate. The arsenic is used for its permanent effect in preventing insects from eating the skin, rather than for any immediate action as a preservative. It should never be omitted; and used with ordinary care, it offers no danger to the health of the collector. Arsenical soap is more tedious to manipulate, and not necessary.?_ Put no salt on a bird’s skin, save for temporary preservation, as described on page 33. For preventing the feathers from adhering to the flesh as it is exposed in skinning, for absorbing blood, and for drying parts of the plumage that may have to be washed, fine corn- meal is used. Where this cannot be had, any other starchy meal which does not become sticky when wet will serve, and dry sawdust may also be used. Natives of the tropics fre- quently prepare coarse flours from rice, millet, or manioc, which are suited to the purpose. Failing these, dry powdered clay, or sand, or wood ashes, may often be employed. Plaster 1It is not feasible to list all the equipment which a bird collector may find useful. For supplies used in drying and packing birdskins, see pp. 38-40; for preservation of birds in fluid, pp. 41, 42; and for simple soldering outfit, p. 42. Preparing rough skeletons requires no special tools, but arsenical soap solution is useful in safeguarding them, as explained on p. 44 ; 2Arsenical soap is sometimes very useful to paint on beak and feet externally, to prevent attacks by insects. See page 39. HANDLING THE FRESH BIRD 7 of Paris has been much used by taxidermists, its only fault being that it is almost sure to leave a light powdery bloom on the feathers, particularly if they are of dark color. When birds are very fat, benzine or carbon tetrachlorid may be used to wash the grease from skin or plumage. Sheets of paper, thin cheesecloth, or mosquito netting are used to wrap large birdskins while drying, instead of the thin layer of cotton which is recommended for small specimens. A col-, leetor’s tag of convenient size is shown on page 37. Never neglect to take a generous supply of naphthaline, it is the cheapest form of insurance against destruction of skins by insects, and in the tropics is absolutely essential to success. Care of the Bird before Skinning By proper handling of the freshly killed bird, a great deal of trouble can be avoided. Pick it up by the bill or feet, and scrape off with a knife-blade any drops of blood which may adhere to the feathers. A small wad of dampened cotton will be useful to wipe off blood-stains, before they have time to dry. Any large shot-hole may be stopped with a bit of cotton, after which corn-meal should be sprinkled among the bases of the neighboring feathers. Open the mouth, and insert a large plug of cotton, pushing it down the throat to prevent the oozing out of blood or other fluids. In very warm climates, where small insectivorous birds have a way of putrifying and losing feathers on throat and abdomen within a few hours, it is often worth while to carry a hypodermic syringe, with which to inject a preservative into the abdomen. Insert the needle through the vent, pushing it into the body cavity about the intestines. Very weak formalin (1 part to 25 of water) may be used, if there is no objection to the slight hardening of the belly skin; but a saturated solu- tion of alum (7.e., so strong it can dissolve no more alum) does not have this fault, though it retards decay appreciably. Carbolic acid may likewise be employed. Such preservatives 8 TREATMENT EEYORE SKINNING aid greatly in the subsequent determination of the birds’ sex, by keeping its organs in far better condition, especially when they are undeveloped. For the throat, a little of the preserving solution (preferably alum) is squirted into the gullet before it is plugged. Alcohol is not to be recommended, for it runs out again too easily on to the plumage. Next make a cornucopia of stiff paper, drop the bird into it head foremost, seeing that the bill is not turned forward on to the throat; and if the bird is not too large, fold in the edges of the cornucopia and place it in a basket or other recep- tacle where it will not be pressed upon, have its tail damaged, or be shaken akout. In a warm climate, avoid the use of a metal box for carrying birds, as they will become overheated. Decomposition of the skin results in a blistering or sloughing of the epidermis, loosening the feathers so that they fall out when the bird is handled. Measuring Fresh Birds The dimensions of bill, wing, and tail are usually measured from the dried skin, and there is no advantage in taking them from the fresh bird. In certain cases, particularly with large species, it is of interest to record the spread of wings, from tip to tip, and the total length, from tip of beak to end of tail. The ‘“‘length of body” would be a useful measure- ment to take from every species; this would be the distance in a straight line from the anterior surface of the shoulder to the vent, or, if the bird is already skinned, to the tip of the small bone (pubis) which extends down in the belly wall close to the vent. In birds of ordinary size it may be measured with a pair of dividers. Always use the metric system in preference to inches. Skinning the Bird (1) See that the throat is tightly plugged with dry, non- absorbent cotton. Do not plug the nostrils, for the pressure REMOVAL OF SKIN 9 may change their form, which it is desirable to preserve. If blood oozes from the nostrils, place a strip of cotton over them and across the forehead, stuffing the ends down on each side into the throat, and then add another wad in the throat to hold them fast. This will keep most of the blood away from the plumage of the head during the operation of skinning. If the eyeball has been ruptured by the shot, pull it out with the forceps, and fill the cavity with meal. ay NN i \ = So Fig. 2. The first knee has been exposed. Cut through joint and flesh, down to the skin. (2) Lay the bird on its back. Separate the feathers down the mid-line of the breast, where the skin will be found more or less bare. With scalpel or scissors make a longitudinal incision through the skin, from about midway down the breast bone, backward to the vent, into which the cut may be continued. Try not to cut into the wall of the abdomen, although a small hole will not matter. (3) Taking the very edges of the skin by the finger nails, and pushing with the handle of the scalpel between the skin and flesh, separate the skin from the body, farther and farther back on both sides, until you lay bare the bird’s knees. Sprinkle cornmeal upon the flesh as it is exposed, to dry it, and to prevent the feathers from adhering. 10 REMOVAL OF SKIN (4) Take hold of one of the feet from the outside, push the knee farther up into view inside the skin, as in Fig. 2. With the scissors, clip the leg entirely in two at the knee-joint, inside the skin. Do the same with the other leg. Fig. 3. While holding the base of the tail, press it upward with the second finger, and cut through with scissors to the skin of the back, on the line indicated. (5) On both sides of the abdomen separate the skin as far as possible, and sprinkle meal. With the scissors, first cut through the lower end of the intestine, close to the vent, and then through the base of the tail, far enough forward to avoid the bases of the tail-quills. (See Fig. 3.) Continue until you see the skin all across, and the tail is completely severed from the body, inside the skin. A small hole may perhaps be cut - accidentally, but remember that a small hole entirely under REMOVAL OF SKIN ll the plumage matters little, and a larger one can usually be sewed together without detracting from the value of the specimen. (6) With the left hand grasp firmly one of the thighs, to support the body of the bird. With the thumb of tk. right Ue , = ree a dD» GED vi ut Fig. 4. Supporting the body by one of the thighs, skin forward over flanks and rump. hand, aided occastonally by the scalpel, separate the skin of the rump from the body, as in Fig. 4. Continue forward, turning the skin of the specimen partly inside out, and remov- ing the body gradually from the skin.!_ Use an abundance of meal to keep the feathers from being soiled, and try to keep the fingers interposed between the feathers and the flesh, as the work proceeds. 1In the case of large birds, a cord may be tied about the body just in front of the thighs, as soon as the skin has been peeled off to that point, and the bird may then be hung at a convenient height. This saves the effort of supporting its whole weight with the left hand. 12 REMOVAL OF SXIN plist Ae Le es yf ihe ; x 3 Anata Bow WM 5 | eB Ye 7p me Fig. 5. The body has been almost entirely skinned, so that the bases of the wings are exposed, ready to be cut through at shoulder joint. REMOVAL OF SKIN 13 (7) The bases of the wings will soon appear. (Fig. 5.) Cut them off at or near the shoulder joint. Continue turning the skin forward. The neck is soon reached; and the skin will turn back easily over it, till the base of the head is ‘reached. reached, and its skin may be pulled out with the finger nails, or in a larger bird cut through close to the skull. (8) Work the skin carefully over the head, pushing with the finger nails close to the skull, rather than pulling on the skin of the neck.'! As the back of the head emerges, the ears appear (Fig. 6), and by seizing them firmly with the forceps or between the nails of thumb and index finger, they can be pulled from their hollows. Only in large birds is it necessary to cut the skin of the ears, as close to the skull as possible. In many woodpeckers and ducks the head is too large to come through the skin of the neck. If after patient trial it cannot be per- suaded, cut off the neck close to the base of the skull, and proceed as indicated on page 25. 14 SKINNING THE HEAD / Skin pulled’ Sie. out of ear i. Fig. 7. The head is skinned to the base of the bill. (9) Next the dark-colored eye-balls appear, and the thin transparent membrane is cut which attaches the eyelids, to the eyeball. Continue cutting forward until the lids are com- pletely free from the eyes, and above all avoid cutting the edges of the lids, which so often bear a circlet of small feathers. (10) Continue skinning forward to the very base of the bill, above and below, as in Fig. 7. This is especially important in large birds, for it enables this part of the skin to dry and Fig. 8. The first cut for the removal of the brain is through the thin wall between the orbits, without injuring roof of skull. CLEANING OUT THE HEAD 15 retain its feathers. The skin must remain attached at the base of the bill. (11) Pry the eyeballs from their sockets with the handle of the scalpel, but avoid breaking them. Cut away the tongue and floor of the throat. (12) With the scissors make a cut directly across the roof of the mouth, below the orbits, but without cutting the lateral supports of either the upper or the lower jaws (Fig. 8). ed il SS iy ] pip hy. Sas x x = = aa = f ; i\ iS SS. a j, ‘4 { 5 hi) i ‘ i i Beneath Behind Fig. 9. Four cuts with the scissors suffice for the removal of the base of skull, and of the brain. These are numbered in the order in which they are made. Again with the scissors, make incisions from each end of the preceding cut backward along the base of the skull, within the branches of the mandibles, as far as the rear of the skull, at the sides of the attachment of the neck. Connect the pos- terior ends of these cuts by a fourth, across the back of the skull, just above the juncture of the neck.'| These cuts are shown in Fig. 9. 1Tn large birds the same cuts are made in the skull, but with stronger bone shears, instead of the scissors. 16 TREATMENT OF THE HEAD (13) Pulling the neck from the head will now remove the base of the skull and part of the brain, the remainder of which is to be scooped out with the handle of the scalpel. Large openings should connect the brain-cavity with the orbits. (14) Cut away any loose flesh from the skull, and powder it generously, as well as the skin of head and neck, with arsenic and alum, which is shaken from a piece of cotton held in the forceps.! \ <\ Pig Jr Fig. 10. Turning the skin of the head back over the empty skull, which has been cleaned and poisoned. 1A dried rabbit foot is even better for the purpose. SKINNING WINGS AND LEGS 17 (15) If the skin has dried so as not to turn back easily, moisten it slightly. The head is now turned right side out, by gradual coaxing with the fingers, rather than by pulling. (Fig. 10.) No stuffing is as yet placed in the head. Straighten out the feathers with small forceps and a needle, especially about the cheeks and eyes. (16) Pull the wing-bones inward, and clean the wings, one after the other. Push the skin away as far as the elbow. Then push forward the skin along the upper or anterior side of the forearm, leaving the quills (secondaries) attached to the lower of its two bones. The muscles of the forearm, in all small birds, can be removed from the upper side, almost as far out as the wrist. There is no objection to the removal of the upper of the two forearm bones (radius) when snipping out the flesh. The upper arm kone (humerus) should, how- ever, be cleaned of flesh and left attached to the bone (ulna) remaining in the skin of the forearm. These bones are illus- trated in Fig. 11. (17) Another method of skinning the wing, which makes for more speed in preparing birds of medium size, such as pigeons, consists in separating the quills from the lower bone of the forearm with the scalpel. This allows greater freedom in removing the muscles of the forearm, but the bone of the upper arm should not be removed, and later the skin should always be pulled so that the wing-quills extend back again to the elbow. Otherwise the form of the wing becomes un- naturally distorted. In really large birds, the wing is opened from the outside, on its lower surface; and the quills must always be left attached to the bone. (18) Before turning the wings right side out again, proceed to skin the legs, pushing the skin down as far as there are any feathers, and then removing all flesh from the bones. In large birds see carefully to the farthest (outermost) parts that are feathered, as they are very apt to decay, and give them an extra share of arsenic and alum. Do not attempt 18 TREATMENT OF LIMBS AND TAIL Fig. 11. The flesh has been cleaned from wing and leg; this treat- ment suffices for all small birds. to turn over the scaly skin of the feet, as it will injure the scutes. (19) Remove as much flesh as possible from the base of the tail, and cut out the fat of the oil-gland on its upper side. Avoid injury to the bases of the quills, or they will fall out. Most of the bone may be removed, except the very tip, between the middle feathers. CLEANING AND FOISONING THE SKIN 19 (20) Remove all fat and any bits of flesh from the inside of the whole body skin. (See page 26 for the treatment of fat.) (21) Through the forward end of each scapular feather- tract a stitch is to be taken. (Fig. 12.) Draw them together with the thread, and tie firmly (with a ‘“‘square” knot) at a distance approximating that which would separate them on SS = Scapular feather tract Fig. 12. Where to take the stitches to hold the scapular feather- tracts together. the back of the live bird. This will make the arrangement of the wings and adjoining feathers vastly easier. Tying the wing-bones together is another means to the same end. (22) Powder the whole inner surface of the skin, especially that of wings, feet, and base of tail with arsenic and alum. Wind a little cotton about the leg bones, and turn the whole skin right side out. 20 AFTER REMOVAL OF SKIN Cleaning the Plumage (23) Look for any blood spots on the plumage, and wash them clean, using a small brush, rather stiff, dipped in clean water. When the blood has been entirely removed, the feathers are dried by rubbing them with dry meal, raising the feathers and brushing them lightly forward and back with the nail-brush. Add more meal, rub into the bases of the feathers, and repeat until the feathers are entirely dry. Then remove all meal by shaking and a vigorous use of the nail brush. When the cornmeal becomes damp it should be dried in the sun or over a fire. Filling out the Skin (24) Birdskins are not left flat, but are filled out to the size of the body removed, so as to show the relation of the plum- age to the different parts of the body. First roll a fluff of cotton on the end of the fine-pointed forceps into a small hard ball about the size of the eye. Taking the ball firmly in the forceps, pass it up through the skin of the neck, through the back of the skull, and lodge it in the orbit. Another ball fills the other orbit, and a little cotton in the brain-space holds them firm. The eyelids are arranged from the outside with a needle, as though the eyes were wide open, so that a smooth cotton surface shows. (25) The stuffing for body and neck is put in together. On a soft iron or brass wire!, somewhat longer than the stuffing is to be, roll cotton first in the form of the neck, tapering to a point anteriorly.2. Farther back more cotton is tightly rolled, 1A slender, pointed stick may be used instead, though less convenient. In making up the skins of very small birds it is scarcely necessary to use either stick or wire. The cotton may be wound on a thin knitting needle, which is loosened by a reverse twist and withdrawn, after the stuffing has been arranged inside the skin. *Dip the wire in water first, if necessary, to make the cotton adhere tightly. FILLING OUT THE SKIN 21 until it approximates the size of the body you have removed. (Fig. 13.) It must never be larger. The cotton neck protrud- ing from the cotton “body”’ should not exceed the length of Fig. 13. Rolling the artificial body of cotton or tow on a wire. the bird’s neck as it lies before you, for though it will run up into the throat, it cannot bend into the natural curve of the neck of the bird. 22 FILLING OUT THE SKIN (26) Open the skin and insert the pointed anterior end of the stuffing (at tip of wire or stick), running it up the neck and into the throat, until its tip appears in the mouth. Pull back the skin of the bird until it encloses the cotton body. (Fig. 14.) Fig. 14. Inserting the stuffing in the skin; the pointed artificial neck runs up between the bases of the lower mandible. (27) You are now ready to arrange the skin properly with the forceps, folding the wings close to the body and on the back rather than down on the breast, and pushing the skin of chest and hind-neck forward or backward, as the smoothing of FINAL MAKE-UP OF SKIN 23 the plumage may require. The skin of the ear-region or crown may be raised with the point of a fine needle and moved about slightly until the feathers all lie naturally. (28) Once you are satisfied with the general appearance, which should resemble that of a dead bird lying on its back, cut or break off the posterior, projecting part of the wire or stick, and sew up the incision of the belly with a few stitches.' Do not draw the sides too closely together, as the edges of the skin will always have shrunk somewhat. The feathers will readily hide the slit. If the borders of the skin have dried too much, moisten them inside before sewing; the feathers may then be more easily arranged. (29) Tie the mandibles together, so that the bill remains closed as it would in life. The tip of the upper one should often project very slightly beyond the lower. A well-closed bill is essential to a good skin. The thread may be passed through the nostrils with a fine needle, provided it does not injure them, and tied around the lower mandible. In very thick-billed birds the thread may not hold; in such cases a pin inserted between the rami of the lower mandible will serve to shut the bill. Here, too, beware of injury to the nostrils. (80) Cross the legs and extend the toes moderately. Attach a label (see page 36), tying the string preferably with square knots, so firmly as to leave no chance of its fall- ing off subsequently. The label must bear at least the sex of the specimen, the locality, and the date. (81) Let the skin slip through the palm of your half opened hand (Fig. 15), pressing the wings into place, and arranging the tail and legs. Lay the skin, back down, upon a thin sheet of cotton broad enough to enclose it. Draw the lateral edges of the cotton up around the sides, as in Fig. 16, so that they hold in the wings and enfold the whole skin, overlapping on 1In very small birds one stitch is enough. 24 FINAL MAKE-UP OF SKIN Fig. 15. The finished birdskin is molded in the palm of the hand, the wings being pressed in_against the back, so they do not hide the sides of the breast. ggg Fig. 16. Wrapping the finished skin in a thin sheet of cotton, before it is laid away to dry. SPECIAL TREATMENT OF HEALS 25 the throat and breast, preserving the desired form and the smoothness of the plumage.’ (32) Put the skin away ina cool airy place to dry, where it will be safe from insects or any other small animals that might destroy it. (See page 38 for drying racks.) aie 7H. . Slit in throat of guinea fowl Fig. 17. Opening the heads of thin-necked birds: (A) a duck, (B) a guinea fowl. Large-headed Birds When the skinning of the head cannot be done through the neck, as in the case described on page 13, the neck alone is Instead of wrapping with cotton, some collectors prefer to push the finished skin, bill foremost, into a cornucopia or a cylinder of paper. 26 HEALS OF THIN-NECKED BIRDS removed, the skin turned right side out, and a slit is cut between the feathers from the middle of the crown as far back on the nape as may be necessary to allow turning out the skull and the removal of eyes, brain, and all flesh about the head. (Fig. 17, A.) The same cuts are made in the base of the skull as in the usual procedure. Through the slit in the skin of the nape the necessary stuffing is afterward introduced into the orbits, and a little cotton may be placed between the skull and the skin of the cheeks, if much flesh has been removed. Then the slit is sewed together again, and will usually be hid- den by the feathers. When a considerable amount of flesh has to be removed from the skull of a large bird, it is well to replace it by inserting pads of cotton with the forceps just before the skin is filled out again. In a few cases the slit is better made on the lower side along the mid-line of the throat. Birds like the horned Guinea-fowl are best treated this way (Fig. 17, B), for the excrescence on the crown must not be separated from the skull. The head cannot be completely skinned; but the soft parts of the throat, the eyes, and the brain can be removed from below. The fact that the slit remains visible is of no moment. Hawks and other diurnal birds of prey have a bony shield over the eye, projecting from the region of the forehead. It is best kept attached to the skull. Fatty Birds Small patches of fat may be removed from the inside of the skin by scraping with the scalpel, enough cornmeal being used to prevent the oil from reaching the plumage. Water- fowl are often so greasy that the removal of the fat is almost certain to soil the feathers. It must never be left on the skin. Scrape away from the tail and in the direction of the head; far fewer holes in the skin will result. The cornmeal or other absorbent powder (see page 6) may be heated in a pan over a fire (though never hot enough to scorch the feathers) and it LARGE AND GREASY BIR-S PAT will absorb oil much more effectively. Where gasoline, ben- zine, or naphtha is available, the skin after careful scraping may be dipped and washed in any of these fluids, and then dried by shaking meal into the feathers and beating and brush- ing gently. For small birds, carbon tetrachlorid (often sold under trade names such as ‘‘Carbona’’) may be used to the same purpose and without danger from fire. These degreasing fluids must not be expected to remove dried blood at the same time; that should previously have been sponged off with water. Many taxidermists, in preparing fatty water birds like ducks, prefer to make the initial slit in the body skin down oneside, beneath the wing, instead of on the middle of the belly. The short dense feathering of the underside is more easily arranged afterward; and the plumage along the mid-ventral line is preserved from soiling by grease. Such a procedure is seldom necessary, but by no means objectionable. Wings and Feet of Large Birds Special attention is required by the wings and feet of large birds, for with only the treatment described above, they would be certain to decay and lose feathers or scales before they could be dried. In warm climates especially, every bird as large as a partridge must have a slit made along the under- side of the wing, out to the tip, in the line where fewest feathers grow. (See Fig. 18.) Then all fleshy parts and large tendons are removed. The bases of the large quills (second- aries) are not to be separated from the bone (ulna), for this would make their subsequent arrangement difficult—particu- larly in a large bird which is to be mounted. It is especially important to separate the skin of the wrist joint, around to the upper surface of the wing, from the bones at that spot, and to insert a generous dose of arsenic and alum. Failing this, in large birds, the feathers of the “‘bend of the wing”’ are more than apt to become loosened through “sweating” of the skin. 28 WINGS AND FEET OF LARGE BIREIS The slit of the lower surface of the wing may be closed with a few stitches, but drying will be more rapid if it is not too carefully sewn up. Try to keep the feathers near it clean. In large birds that require such treatment, it will be neces- sary also to wrap the bone of the upper arm with cotton or tow, to keep it from contact with the skin, for drying will be slower than in small birds. Fig. 18. The opening made along the under side of a large bird’s wing, for the removal of flesh. Be sure to skin around over the wpper side of the wrist joint, and poison well with arsenic. The feet in large birds dry so slowly that the skin often decomposes, and the scutes become loosened. To obviate this the tendons of both tarsus and toes are removed, together with any small muscles present. After all the other skinning operations have been completed, cut a longitudinal slit in the median pad of the sole. The tendons of the toes all con- verge here, and by pushing the tip of the heavy forceps be- neath them, from the side, they may be pulled entirely out of FEET OF LARGE BIRIS 29 the tarsus. (Fig. 19.) The ends attached to the toes may then be cut, or if the toes are very fleshy, they also may be split open longitudinally from below, and more of their tendons excised. With large herons and other similar wading birds, another slit should be made on the inner side of the heel joint (near the upper end of the shank), parallel to the long axis of the Slit on inner We side of joint A —<—$—$—$$ _——__ ee i Fig. 19. Pulling the tendons from the leg of a large wading bird. Note also the incision on the inner side of the shank, near its upper joint. It need not be made till after the tendons have been drawn; through it the skin is loosened and poisoned all around the joint. limb, and the skin separated as far around the joint as prac- ticable, to be treated with arsenic and alum. With a wire or the long forceps, get as much of this preservative as possible up into the space whence the tendons have been withdrawn. The feet of pelicans and large vultures are so difficult to preserve in a warm moist climate that the safest way is to slit the skin down the whole length of the tarsus, on its inner side. Remove all flesh and tendons, dust with arsenic and alum, and do not sew up very tightly. Split the underside of the toes, out to the last joint, removing the tendons. 30 BIRES OF LARGE SIZE OR STECIAL FORM Fig. 20. Method of arranging skins of some- large birds. A, owl, B, hornbill; C, large heron; D, goose. SKINS OF SPECIAL KINIS 31 Making up Skins of Large Birds It is obvious that specimens of large birds, with long necks and limbs, if made up in the same way as small birds, would be very difficult to transport or store in boxes. When a bird exceeds a length of 2! feet, either the neck or the feet, perhaps both, will have to be doubled over. A wire, not a stick, is therefore to be put in the neck; and after the skin has been filled out and sewed up, it is bent into the desired form, care being taken that no part of the bird’s plumage shall become entirely hidden. Bend the neck down one side of the body, outside the wing, rather than upon the middle of the breast or back. Methods of treating birds of different sorts will be suggested by the sketches in Fig. 20. For large birds the artificial body, preferably of ““excelsior’”’ bound with heavy thread, is made smaller than the real body. The neck is wound of cotton or tow, and these softer materials are used to fill the space remaining beneath the skin. Make such skins only large enough to display all parts of the plumage. Neither can large skins be wrapped in cotton; strips of paper pinned round them, or some open-mesh cloth, will keep them in shape until dry. Treatment of the Head in Owls The eyes of Owls have a peculiar shape, the front protrud- ing in such a way that if the whole orbits are filled with round balls of cotton, the facial expression will be largely lost. Treat the eyes of owls as follows: Do not remove them from the orbit, in which they are fixed rigidly. Cut away the transparent skin (the cornea) in front of pupil and iris; then with the small forceps and a small wad of cotton force out all the liquid from within the eye, drying the interior with corn- meal. Take care that the liquid does not fall on the feathers. The brain is removed through the base of the skull as usual; but there will be no opening from the brain-space to the orbit, for the latter is still filled by the shell of the eyeball, as In Fig. 21. 32 THE HEAD OF OWLS So instead of stuffing out the eyes from behind, round lumps of cotton are wedged into the front of the emptied eyeballs, through the lids, after the skin of the head has been turned back, and when the skin is finally being filled out. The false neck, with its stick or wire, is not inserted into the throat of an owl, but is wedged tightly into the brain- Fig. 21. Owl’s head after skinning and cleaning; to show the way the empty eyeball is retained. space at the back of the skull. This will bring the head and face into a far more owl-like position. (Fig. 20, A.) A pro- jecting wire point may be left at the anterior end of the false neck, to be pushed through the top of the skull and bent over outside the skin. It will hold the head on more securely. Temporary Preparation of Some Large Birds The large flightless birds such as the ostrich, cassowaries, and their allies are not to be prepared according to the fore- going method, but must be treated more as a large mammal SALTING FOR LARGE SKINS 33 would be, though the bones of wings and feet, and the skull are retained. The feet especially are to be more fully skinned so that the skin nowhere lies closely against the bone. Only just enough hay or other dry stuffing is used to keep the two sides of the skin apart, and no cuts are sewn up. Instead of arsenic and alum use salt, in a dry climate, or one part salt to three of alum in a humid one. Dry the skin as thoroughly as possible, and fold into a bundle. Never pack in the same box with other skins not treated with salt. Large, greasy seabirds, and fatty ducks or geese, often impose serious delays upon the collector. To save valuable time they may be skinned out completely,.and thoroughly salted, without too close attention to the grease, provided blood stains are carefully removed. Their preparation can be completed by a taxidermist even several months later. In general this procedure is not recommended, for the longer the skins are kept, the more work is involved in their sub- sequent preparation. In the humid tropics it is not to be thought of. Determination of Sex Inspection of the plumage can in no ease be relied upon for the bird’s sex. Dissection is the only method; and where wounds or incipient decomposition have destroyed the evidence, do not write the sex upon the label without a question mark. When the body is completely removed from its skin, cut open the left side from the vent to the anterior ribs. Force the edges apart, and pressing the intestines aside, look for the sexual organs, which will be found in the small of the back close to the backbone, and near the forward ends of the kid- neys, which fill the roof of the abdominal cavity. They are shown in Fig. 22. The male organs (testes), two in number, are usually dull white but occasionally much darker, and lie side by side. 34 DETERMINATION OF SEX They are of smooth rounded or ovoid form, large and conspic- uous in the breeding season; but they may become extremely small in winter. Do not confuse them with the “adrenal bodies,” smaller and flatter bodies (yellow or orange), lying a little farther forward, in the forward border of the kidneys. The female organs consist usually of a single ovary, lying a little to the left side. A vestige of the right ovary may be present. In the non-breeding season the ovary is a mass of Male, 3 % soe ES “: D oY ke __- il ¥ =- Adrenal ~ Yi Y Pah SS body Z4Ny x . (“ iy 4 er x My i i \\\ y N\\ i ~ igs Kidney —— ao Fig. 22. Dissections of male and female birds, to show the reproduc- tive organs, by which the sex is recognized, and adjacent structures. small ova or rudiments of eggs, much less regular in shape than the testis of the male, and likely to be flattened, with evident granular structure. The female has adrenal bodies the same as the male. As the time for laying approaches, some of the ova become greatly enlarged, to form the yolks of the eggs. At this time too, the oviduct, a tube leading from the neigh- borhood of the ovary down the left side to the vent, becomes conspicuous—being usually whitish. Determination of Age From the condition of the sexual organs, and that of the bird’s whole body, the bones in particular, the collector ought IMMATURITY SEEN IN SKULL 35 to be able to detect signs of immaturity far more accurately than is possible from a dried skin. He might note his opinion on the label, using “‘ad.”’ for adult, and ‘‘im.”’ for immature, the latter designating any bird which has not assumed its full plumage. Fortunately there is a simple method of determining, in the ease of practically all perching birds (=ordinary song-birds and their near allies) whether the specimen is a bird of the year or not. In the nestling the bony roof of the brain-case is very thin and transparent, formed of a single thin sheet of Thin area 7 indicating immaturity condition Fig. 23. Skull roof of (A) immature and (B) adult perching birds, to show the clear, thin area which indicates a young bird. bone; that of the adult is more opaque, being formed of two layers of bone, separated by air spaces traversed by fine bony rods. Holding an adult skull up to the light, after removal of the brain, one will note that the roof of the skull, back of the eyes, shows fine dark specks all over. (Fig. 23, B). By reflected light these specks may look lighter than the neighboring bone. As the young bird develops, the transparent area of the skull top becomes restricted, the dotted structure appearing 36 NOTES FOR THE LABEL around its edges, especially behind, until after three months there is only a relatively small area where a single layer of bone persists. (Fig. 23, A.) This is usually near the mid-line, just behind the orbits; but in some families such as the swal- lows the last traces of these areas are found farther back, and more laterally placed. After some six months this sign of immaturity is completely lost. Perching birds which are thus found to be immature should be noted on the label or in the field catalog as “‘s.n.o.” (=skull not ossified); others which have skulls of adult structure, ‘‘s.o.”’ (=skull ossified). Do not attempt to use this method for other groups of birds until by careful study it is found reliable. Woodpeckers and other families of small birds may have skulls of such differ- ent structure that it cannot be applied. Notes on Stomach Contents Information which one may wish to preserve as to the habits of a bird should certainly include the results of examination of stomach and crop. The ornithologist will seldom be competent to name accurately all the insects, other animals, or fruits which have been eaten. It will nevertheless be worth while to have a list of the insects arranged accord- ing to orders or common names and numbers of individuals consumed, or brief mention of the nature of fruits or other objects swallowed. In the case of any species whose diet offers particular interest, the stomachs may be removed entire, labeled to correspond with the individual specimen, and preserved in alcohol or formalin, for future examination by experts at home. The Label The label is tied securely to the crossed feet of the birdskin, as described on page 23. As a rule the collector’s label need not exceed 1 or 144 inches in length and % inch in width. It NOTES FOR THE LABEL 37 will remain attached to the skin even when a museum label is added later. When writing on either side of the label, always keep the string to the left; this facilitates its reading. Examples are given in Fig. 24. (1) Sex.—The spear and shield of Mars (o”) are used as the sign of the male sex, the mirror of Venus (2) as that of the female.' = G> Sep. ZIG LIND: « Fig. 24. Sample labels: A, front, and A’, back of collector’s tag; B and B’, front and back of permanent museum label. The condition of the reproductive organs is of interest as indicating sexual maturity or the reverse, of the individual, as well as the season of reproduction. It may be noted on the field label by means of the following abbreviations: “¢ .e.”’ =testes enlarged, when the increased size would indicate that breeding was under way. “+ .n.e.”’=testes not enlarged, when there is no possibility of the bird being in condition to breed. Intermediate conditions may be indicated by ‘‘t.so.e.’”’ (=testes somewhat enlarged), and “‘t.sl.e.”” (=testes slightly enlarged). Cor- responding conditions of the ovary would be written ‘‘o.e.”’ “‘o.n.e.”’ and so on. {Museum experience shows the necessity of writing the sex mark with the greatest care. The worst offence, perhaps, is the use of an inverted 2 to mean male. 38 LABEL AND NOTES (2) Locality where the bird was taken, not abbreviated so as to be unintelligible save to the collector himself. Always give the state or country, as well. In mountainous regions the altitude is an essential adjunct to the locality. (3) Date when the bird was taken. Do not use an Arabic numeral to indicate the month, for different usage in America and in Europe often makes it impossible to decipher. Even a Roman numeral is not so clear as a three-letter abbreviation of the name of the month. Every letter on the label must be written legibly. These three items must never be omitted from a label, for a simple catalog number on the field label is of no interest if the notebook with the data is lost. But since it is advisable to have a field label of small size, the more lengthy remarks as to age, ripeness of the reproductive organs and color of un- feathered parts (eye, beak, feet, and any naked skin) may be confided to the field catalog. In general, however, the more information on the label the better. 7X9 inchesisa good size for the notebook. In it one may add anything that seems of interest with regard to the bird’s habitat, its food, nesting, migrations, and ecological status. In the field notebook write on only one side of the sheet, so that pages or parts of them may be cut out and reassembled, if desirable, according to species, at some future time. This will save the trouble of recopying half of the writing. The Drying of Birdskins Use every means to dry the specimens promptly, without exposing them to excessive heat. In a dry or cold climate there is no difficulty, but in a tropical rainy season it may be- come necessary to place them in the sunshine as often as the clouds part, or to hang them in the neighborhood of a fire, though not in the smoke. Never place them in air-tight boxes till thoroughly dry. Some sort of a crate enclosed with wire-gauze will protect the specimens from mice and insects CARE IN DRYING SKINS 39 meanwhile, or they may be placed on flat rectangles of sub- stantial wire netting, swinging shelf-like, one above the other, by strings attached to their corners. Such shelves should fit in one of the trunks or boxes, so as to be stowed away in the bottom when not in use. Insects may be dis- couraged from climbing along the cord which sustains such a drying rack by wetting it with kerosene or coal-oil. For traveling there is nothing so effective as a specially constructed drying box, with open spaces on several sides, covered with wire gauze, and fitted inside with several light trays, of varying depth. The bottom of the trays is of wire netting, and’ they are crossed by upright slats to keep the birdskins in place. A waterproof canvas cover will keep off rain, on the march; and it may be put over the box at night to lessen humidity. Beware of small ants which invade the drying box and eat small holes everywhere in the specimens. Napthaline flakes sprinkled over the skins will protect them temporarily. Beetles (Dermestes and allies) will often gnaw at the horny sheath of the bill or the scutes of the feet, while the skins are drying. A simple way to discourage them is to paint all such parts, as soon as the specimen is made up, with a thin solution of arsenical soap, which will dry and leave almost no trace. Insects seem to be aware of the presence of the poison without tasting it. Arsenical soap for this purpose may be made by boiling white arsenic powder a few hours in a thick solution of laundry soap—in an old pot, and owt-of-doors—until all the arsenic is dissolved or at least held in suspension. The proportions may be about one tablespoon full of arsenic to a small cake of soap. Packing of Birdskins A soldered tin box encased in a wooden one is the ideal packing, but is seldom available and rarely necessary. Wooden packing boxes may be made sufficiently tight; and 40 HOW TO PACK BIRESKINS if plenty of naphthaline flakes or moth-balls of the same chemical be scattered within, they will need no further inspec- tion before arrival at their destination. Besides preventing the ravages of insects, naphthaline has a beneficent action in discouraging mold, if used generously.' Never pack birdskins permanently till they are thoroughly dry. A single moist skin of a large bird may do great harm to the rest of the contents of a box. Never pack in the same box any other skin which has been treated with salt, for should it pass through a rainy district the salt will inevitably absorb moisture. Salted skins of large mammals must be kept by themselves. ; Burlap dipped in tar is often used to envelop bales of goods shipped to the tropics, and this material tacked over the outside of the box will give a decided protection from rain and from the attacks of termites or white ants. The box may be lined with it, provided that plenty of paper is added to prevent the tar from touching the specimens. The individual birdskins, with or without their cotton wrapping, are rolled in cylinders of paper and packed tightly enough to prevent any displacement during transportation. If rather thin paper is used, and the smaller specimens are placed carefully in the hollows left between the larger ones, it is astonishing how many will go into the box. This is often of prime importance in overland transportation. Skeletons or skulls must not be packed with birdskins unless the bones have been poisoned with arsenic, provided also that there is plenty of naphthaline to deal with the insects which are almost certain to be introduced with such bones. No heavy object is to be included in a box of birdskins, for it will shake about and break many of them. 1Paradichlorobenzene (of which “globol”’ and “paracide”’ are trade- names) is a more energetic insecticide than naphthaline, but it evapo- rates far more rapidly than naphthaline, and is therefore less suitable for field work. TRANSPORTATION OF SPECIMENS 4] Customs Regulations on Entering the United States With few exceptions the importation of wild birds’ skins or plumage is forbidden, save when they are intended for scientific purposes, and addressed either to a museum or to a person holding a Federal permit to collect birds in the United States. Do not try, therefore, to bring them through as baggage, without special declaration. Specimens for the American Museum of Natural History should be clearly addressed to the museum, and may be safely turned over to the Custom Office at the port of entry, if so demanded. Notify the Director of the Museum, at the same time, of the arrival of the collection. Preservation in Fluid The colors of the plumage may change when the bird is thus preserved, so that the specimens are of use only for anatomical study. The preserving fluids used are alcohol (about 85%), or formaldehyde (=formalin) at about 3%. Alcohol is preferable when available; some kinds of denatured spirit will serve satisfactorily, provided they do not become cloudy on mixing with water. Strong commercial formalin is usually a 40% solution. Mix one part of such formalin with 15 parts of water. Adding common salt (two tablespoons per quart of formalin solution) prevents the extreme hardening so common with formolized specimens. The preserving fluids must penetrate the interior of the bird’s body. The abdomen and all the larger fleshy masses may be injected with a large hypodermic syringe, if it is to be had. Usually a simple slit through the wall of the abdomen, without disturbing the viscera (intestines, ete.), will allow sufficient penetration by the preservative. Each specimen should have a label, bearing at least the locality and date. The sex will not be determined until the bird is dissected at home. The label may be of stout paper 42 PRESERVATION IN FLUID which is not affected by fluid, or it may be a tag of pure sheet tin or of lead, with a number stamped on it. Data may be written on paper either with a soft lead pencil, or with waterproof India ink, the latter being thoroughly dried before immersion. Alcohol in which fresh birds have been dropped will absorb water from them, and become weaker. It is necessary to change it for fresh alcohol before packing for shipment. A few spoonfuls of strong formaldehyde may be added to strengthen a formalin solution, but this is seldom necessary. For small birds in fluid, glass jars such as are used for preserving fruit will generally suffice, if they are surrounded when shipped with straw or other fiber. It may often be necessary to place the specimens in tins,'! which need not be entirely filled with fluid when they are soldered up, provided the birds have been thoroughly preserved for some time. Soldering is not a difficult task if a few rules are borne in mind. The metal to be joined must be clean and bright. The point of the soldering-iron must be clean and have a film of molten solder adhering to it. To assure the adhesion of the molten solder both to the soldering-iron and to the metal to be joined, use a strong, reliable flux such as hydrochloric (=muriatic) acid into which a bit of zine has been placed. “Soldering pastes’? may work, but often fail when one is least able to replace them with acid. To keep the tip of the solder- ing-iron clean, during the course of the work, it may be rubbed occasionally on a block or lump of sal ammoniac. The specimens must not shake around in the Jars or tins. Pack them tightly, and wrap if necessary in pieces of cheese- cloth. 1“ Friction-top” tins are the most convenient, but others will serve as well, especially with formalin. OSTEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS 43 Preparing Rough Skeletons of Birds Large birds will generally have their bones preserved in this manner. Thorough cleaning is not the aim; as much flesh is left adhering to them as will soon dry, and the liga- ments are wanted to keep the bones attached to one another. If cleaning were too thorough in the field, many of the bones might drop off before the skeleton were safely home. First remove the skin roughly, without including in it any of the bones. In most cases, this skin should be labeled to correspond with the bones from the same individual, and kept; it will be of great value in assuring the specific identi- fication. Disembowel the bird, taking care not to cut the breast bone, ribs, or the small bones near the vent. Detach the legs from the body at the hip-joint and remove the flesh, ‘taking care not to remove the knee-cap. The flesh may be removed from the wings without sep- arating them from the shoulder; but great care must be taken in removing the large wing-quills not to lose the small bones of the wing tip, especially the one in the alula or bastard wing. From this indeed the feathers need not be removed, and the outermost three wing feathers may likewise be left untouched. Other parts requiring special attention are the plough- share-bone at the base of the tail-quills, the slender points on the under side of the neck vertebre, and those projecting back from the ribs. It frequently happens that many of the tendons become ossified, as they do in the leg of a turkey. Look out for such on the under side of the neck, in the legs and wings, and along the sides of the back, and do not tear off the muscles as you would if preparing a skin. Considerable flesh may be left on the neck and back, for it will dry easily, but the large breast muscles are to be cut away. The hyoid arch, or bones supporting the tongue and attached to the windpipe, should be saved, as should also the 44 SKELETONS OF BIR-S windpipe itself whenever, as in many ducks, it has bony structures developed in part of its length. The whole neck is kept attached to the body skeleton, and it is carefully separated from the base of the skull, without cutting any bones. The brain of small birds need not be re- moved, in larger ones it is taken out cautiously, with a loop of wire inserted through the hole by which the spinal column comes out of the skull. In many birds, and especially in birds of prey, there is a ring of bones surrounding the pupil of the eye. They are not very visible, being enclosed in the front wall of the eyeball. It is therefore best not to remove the eyeball, but simply to puncture it to allow the escape of its fluid contents. Cormorants have a small bone attached to the back of the skull; other birds have projections of bone at the hinder angle of the lower jaw; and some diving birds have elongate processes at the elbow or knee. So it is a good rule not to trim up a bird’s skull, or even its limbs, too closely. Fold up the legs, and place them, with the skull, inside the chest cavity. “Do the same with the wings or fold them along- side the body, thus making a bundle which is held together by a few strings till dry. It may be hung up in the meantime by a string attached to the neck; and a thin piece of wood, tied securely to one of the larger bones (the coracoid, for instance, as in Fig. 25), should bear a catalog number, written with a very black lead pencil. The data to be entered in the catalog are much the same as those for a skin: Sex (determined by dissection when dis- emboweling the specimen), locality, and date. To avoid all difficulties with beetles (Dermestes, etc.) which swarm upon dried bones in all tropical countries, dip the whole skeleton, as soon as it is thoroughly dried, into a weak solution (of merely milky tint) of arsenical soap, and hang it up again to dry. If the beetles are allowed to eat away the flesh, many of the smaller bones may be separated, SKELETONS OF BIRDS 45 and are almost certain to be lost. For added protection the dried skeleton may be sewn in a piece of cotton cloth. Unless there are special reasons to be considered to the contrary, the first specimens of any species will always be preserved as skins. Afterwards, if the skeleton is believed to Fig. 25. Rough skeleton of a francolin, dried and bundled together for packing. The tag is of thin wood, bearing a number written with soft lead pencil. offer points of interest, a few adult specimens, which have not many of their bones injured, may be prepared as skeletons. It has already been explained, however, that small birds, even though desired for their skeletons, are best sent home preserved in alcohol or formalin. Such specimens are also of great value for the study of the soft anatomy, and of the arrangement of feather tracts. FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDUCATION _ FOR SCIENCE | THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY | THE PREPARATION OF | ROUGH SKELETONS By FREDERIC A. LUCAS GUIDE LEAFLET SERIES, No. 59 Sr Ne an 4, ee ee pose ar Sed - NOTE This leaflet is one of a series intended to furnish accurate information in regard. to the preparation of specimens of various kinds for Museum purposes. The following have been issued and may be pur- chased at the sales booth or from the Librarian; others are in the course of preparation: The Preparation of Birds for Study By James P. Chapin. Price 15 cents How to Collect and Preserve Insects By Frank E. Lutz. Price 10 cents Suggestions to Collectors of Reptiles and Amphibians May be had on application to the Curator, Dept. of Herpetology — THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS By Freperic A, Lucas INTRODUCTORY Why Skeletons are Needed The skeleton is the best, and most enduring evidence we have, of any animal’s place in nature and its relationships with other animals: it is also the solution of a problem in mechanics, that of carrying a given weight and of adaptation to some particular mode of life. So the skeleton not only indicates the group of animals to which its owner belongs, but also tells of his mode of life, for it varies, or is modified, according as a creature dwells on land, lives underground, or in the water, walks, swims or flies; feeds on grass, catches insects, or preys upon its fellows. Skeletons, therefore, are not only necessary for the student of the life of to-day, but to the paleontologist, for the life of the past can only be inter- preted by comparison with that of the present; also the modern taxidermist needs the skeleton to aid him in the proper mounting of animals, especially mammals. It is not always convenient or even practicable to collect skeletons, especially of large animals, and in such cases skulls are always welcome; this is particularly true of such large reptiles as crocodiles and turtles. These directions for preparing rough skeletons, based on twenty years experience, were drawn up some thirty years ago and printed as one of a series of instructions for collectors issued by the U. 8. National Museum. They are now, by permission, reprinted here with a few trifling changes. They have been divided into sections, in order that the collector might turn at once to the portion bearing directly on the 1 2 THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS subject in hand. The general directions for mammals, how- ever, apply with more or less force to all skeletons. The extent to which these instructions can be followed will of necessity depend largely on circumstances. It is not to be expected that a collector working in the field would use the same time and care as one residing on the spot or located for some time at one place, but as one well prepared, perfect skeleton is worth more than half a dozen mutilated specimens, a little time spent in the work of roughing out and packing will be well repaid. Identification of Specimens It is, of course, extremely important to know the correct name of every skeleton, and whenever possible this should be attached to the specimen, but it is a mere waste of valuable time to endeavor to identify specimens in the field. When the animal is unknown, its skin, roughly taken off, should be kept, or the skin of another specimen should be prepared in the usual manner, in order that it may serve as a means of identifying the skeleton. Labeling The best method is to have a series of numbers, stamped on pure sheet tin, and provided with a string for tying them to specimens, the numbers being recorded in a notebook. Unfortunately these tin numbers are not always to be had, and a very good substitute may be made by cutting Roman numbers on a block of wood, or even notches on a stick. If labels are used let them be of good stout manila, as thin paper is apt to be torn or defaced. Do not use wire of any kind to fasten tin or lead numbers to specimens that are to go in alcohol or brine, for this sets up a galvanic action which results disastrously. THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS 3 Selection of Specimens—Fractures Where time allows, select a series of skeletons of different ages; but where only one skeleton can be prepared, choose a fully grown, adult animal, as free as possible from fractures. If an animal is shot or trapped it is impossible to avoid breaking some bones, and such must be allowed to pass, but where it has been beaten to death, fracturing the skull and limb bones generally, the animal had better be thrown away at once. If the skull alone is broken, select if possible another of the same size and send both with the body. When convenient send with a broken leg or wing another of the same size, but on no account throw away the fractured limb. ‘ Do not neglect any animal simply because it is common, for a common species may be anatomically important. Tools A knife and a pair of scissors are all that are absolutely necessary, but if these can be supplemented by one or two steel scrapers, the work will be greatly facilitated. i ‘Roughing Out’’—Mammals If an animal is rare, the skin should be very carefully taken off and preserved; otherwise, remove the skin roughly and disembowel the specimen, taking care not to cut into the breastbone, especially the disk-shaped piece of cartilage in which it ends. Animals destined for skeletons should on no account be split up the breast as though they were being dressed for market. Detach the legs from the body and remove the flesh, taking care in so doing not to remove the collar bone or kneepan with the meat. In the cat family the collar bone is very small, and lies loose in flesh between the shoulder blade and front end of the breastbone. The collar bone of weasels is 4 THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS very minute and difficult to find, while, on the other hand, climbing and burrowing animals usually have this bone well developed, uniting the shoulder blade with the breastbone, Fig. 1.—a, Skeleton of Fox ready for packing. b, Skeleton of a bird ready for packing. —_ ie Deer, antelopes, bears, and seals have no collar bone. In small quadrupeds it will be unnecessary to detach the legs, but, whenever convenience in roughing out or packing THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS 5 renders this needful, cut the collar bone loose from the breast- bone and leave it fastened to the shoulder blade. The legs being finished, disjoint and clean the skull. Be careful in removing the eyes not to thrust the point of the knife through the thin portion of the skull back of them and in deer, antelopes, or other ruminants, take care not to break through the thin bone back of the upper teeth. Also be care- ful not to cut off any projections of bone. Remove as much of the brain as possible with a scraper, bent wire, or small stick. In cleaning the ribs take care not to cut the cartilages joining them to the breastbone, and, when the tail is reached, look for a few little bones projecting downwards from the first few vertebre. Fold the legs snugly along the body, or, if they have been detached, tie them together with the skull on the under side, as much as possible within the chest cavity; also turn down the tail and tie it upon itself. See cut on page 4. Roll up in a bit of rag and fasten securely to one of the long bones any bones which may have been detached or any splinters from a broken bone. Hang the skeleton to dry in the shade, where it will escape dogs, cats, and rats. In this as in many other particulars the collector will necessarily be governed by circumstances, for in moist climates, or on shipboard, it may be needful to dry specimens in the sun, or even by the aid of a fire. Lastly, in case a small skeleton is likely to be some time on the road, give it a very thin coat of arsenical soap to preserve it from the attacks of Dermestes and other insects. On short collecting trips the poisoning may be omitted and the specimens treated when they reach their destination, but where small skeletons are to lie for some time uncared for, they should be poisoned, otherwise they may arrive in a very much mixed and dilapidated condition. 6 THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS The breastbones of large animals should also be well poisoned. The best method of poisoning small specimens is to dissolve arsenic in hot water, and when the solution is cold soak the skeletons in it for an hour or so. All the small rough skeletons stored in museum collections, as well as those in the stock of dealers in natural history material, are or should be thus Fig. 2—Tongue bones or hyoid of a Dog. Fig. 3— Right shoulder blade of a Rabbit. Showing the backwardly projecting process. treated. The addition of a little washing soda will cause water to take up much more arsenic than it otherwise would. Should any of these small specimens be needed for dis- articulated skeletons the arsenic can be extracted by soaking in a hot solution of washing soda. Special Points Embracing the upper part of the windpipe and connect- ing it with the base of the skull is a series of bones known as the hyoid apparatus. This should be carefully saved. See cut. ‘(sdotsin,) estodiog ®@ Jo ezIs [einzeu ‘suo IIATed —G “SI U0}9]9YS OY} SUIPTATp UI opeUl oq P[NOYs syno oy} o1oYM MOYS SOUT] OL, ‘estodiog @ JO UOJ®TOHG oF OL 8 THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS There are usually small bones, termed sesamoids, em- bedded in the tendons, where they play over the under sides of the toes, and on this account the tendons should never be cut off close to the bone. There are often one or two small bones on the back lower portion of the thigh bone; these should be left in place. In preparing the skeletons of rabbits particular attention should be given to the shoulder blade, as this has a slender projection at the lower end, which extends some distance backward. See cut on page 6. The male organ of a great many quadrupeds, as the rac- coon, is provided with a bone. As it is difficult to say when this may or may not be present, it should always be looked for, and when found left attached to the hip bones. Cetaceans: Porpoises, Blackfish, Etc. Porpoise skeletons are very easily prepared, but one or two points, such as the slender cheek bones and the pelvic bones or rudimentary hind limbs, require special care. The pelvic bones are so small and so deeply imbedded in the flesh that they are only too often thrown away. The accompanying cuts show their location and their average size in a specimen 7 or 8 feet long. See cut on page 7. It often happens that the last rib lies loose in the flesh, with its upper end several inches from the backbone. This should always be looked for. There are no bones in the s?des of the tail or flukes nor in the back fin, and they can be cut off close to the body and thrown away. The hyoid is largely developed in most cetaceans, and will be found firmly attached to the base of the skull. Birds In preparing a bird for a skeleton a little more care must be used than is necessary with a quadruped, the bones being lighter and more easily cut or broken. THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS 9 The wings terminate in very small, pointed bones, and there is a similar bone—corresponding to the thumb of mam- mals—hidden in a tuft of feathers on the bend of the wing. It is a good plan to leave this tuft untouched, as well as the outermost two or three wing feathers, so as to lessen the risk of removing any of these little bones with the skin. Other parts requiring special attention are the slender points on the under side of the neck vertebre, those project- ing backward from the ribs, and the last bone of the tail. Fig. 6.—Portion of right wing of Great Horned Owl. Seen from below. R. Radius; U, Ulna; J, I/, IIT, First, second, and third fingers; s, Radiale; c, Ulnare; osp. Os prominens. It frequently occurs in birds that many of the tendons become ossified, as they do in the leg of a turkey. Look out for such on the under side of the neck, in the legs and wings, and along the sides of the back, and do not tear off the muscles as you would if preparing a skin. In many, possibly most birds, the neck and back can be left untouched, as the muscles will dry up and a thin coat of arsenical soap will serve to keep out the Dermestes which would otherwise attack these places. The hyoid bones, which support the tongue and are attached to the windpipe, should be saved, as should also the windpipe itself whenever, as in many ducks, it has bony structures developed in part of its length. See page 10. In many birds, and especially in birds of prey, there is a ring of bones surrounding the pupil of the eye. It is there- 10 THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS fore best—unless you are an expert—not to remove the eye- ball, but to simply puncture it to allow the escape of its fluid contents. Remove the brain carefully. In making the skeleton into a bundle for packing, bend the neck backward, detaching the skull if necessary, and fold the legs and wings closely alongside of the body. See page 4. Special Points Cormorants have a small bone attached to the back of the skull, and in Auks and many similar birds there is a small bone at the elbow. ee Fig. 7—Tongue bones or hyoid of a Great Blue Heron. Fig. 8.—Eye-bones, sclerotals, of a Great Blue Heron. Sometimes there is a little bone at the hinder angle of the lower jaw, so that it is a good rule not to trim up a bird’s skull too closely. The easiest, and in many ways best, way to collect small birds is to place them entire in alcohol first making an incision in the lower part of the abdomen to allow the alcohol to reach the viscera. Alcohol should not be used of full strength (95°), the proper proportion being one-quarter water and three- quarters alcohol. Not only birds, but small mammals and reptiles, may be preserved entire in alcohol, but now-a-days this cannot always be procured. Aside from the cost it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain alcohol, even methylated spirit, and the demand for rum has rendered its use almost prohibitive. THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS il Formalin was not in use when these instructions were written; it is a convenient medium for the preservation of small animals, especially where the soft parts are desired, but if animals are left in a solution of formalin for any length of time the bones are decalcified, lose their mineral matter, and become more or less useless. Unfortunately it often happens that nothing else is available, but if you must use formalin use it weak, in the proportion of one part of formalin to twelve of water. Turtles In order to rough out a turtle it is usually necessary to remove the under shell or plastron, although some species, such as certain of the large land tortoises, can be roughed out without doing this. In sea turtles and a few others the plastron can be cut loose by taking a little time to the operation, but in the more solidly built tor- toises and most fresh-water turtles Fig. 9.—Shell of a it is necessary to saw through the turtle (Chrysemys mar- bone, following the line indicated ginata). in the accompanying diagram. A A, where cuts should Me aaterion of tlic body bem be made to remove the lower ae ot 8 shell or plastron. exposed, it is a comparatively easy matter to cut away the flesh. Usually this can be done without disjointing any of the legs, and it is better, especially in small specimens, to leave them attached to the body. Beware, however, of cutting into any bones, as they are frequently soft in texture and easily damaged. 12 THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS Snakes Snakes require very little care in their preparation after the skin has been removed, but in the larger serpents, such as boas and pythons, rudimentary hind legs are present and should be carefully preserved. Externally the legs appear as two little claws situated on either side of the vent; internally they are slender bones, about an inch and a half in length, loosely attached to the ribs. It is a comparatively easy mat- wn ter to preserve both the skin and fr ~s skeleton of any good-sized snake (by exercising a little patience. Fig. 10—Limb of a Do not try to skin through the Python (Python molu- mouth, but make a long cut on rus), full size. the under side and skin either way from it. Coil up the skeleton and it will make a very compact bundle. Crocodiles The breastbone of crocodiles extends the entire length of the body, and although the hinder portion of it is not attached to the backbone, yet great care is necessary in disemboweling not to cut away any of the slender bones of which it is formed. There are also cartilaginous projections on the ribs which should not be sliced off in roughing them out. Fishes Fishes vary so much in their structure that it is a difficult matter to give any directions for preparing their skeletons that would be of much service. Asa rule species of small or moderate size are preserved entire in alcohol or formalin and only the larger species “roughed out.’’ Almost invari- ably there are two rows of ribs present, and these extend back- ward for some distance. THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS 13 Proceed slowly and carefully, as the edge of the scalpel will often give notice of some unsuspected bone. Be especially careful about the head. There is a chain of bones encircling the eye, and the eyball itself is often a bony cup. Occasionally there are two or three bones attached to the back part of the hinder portion of the head, and the patch of flesh on the cheek is about all that can safely be removed. When the skeleton is hung up to dry place bits of wood or other material between the gills so that the air may circulate freely and dry them rapidly. Fishes, small reptiles, and toads and frogs can be best collected by placing them in alcohol. Packing First be sure that a skeleton, and especially a small one, is thoroughly dry. Otherwise it is apt to ‘‘sweat”’ and rot the ligaments. In the case of a large skeleton this would do no harm, but as the bones of small animals are left attached to one another by their ligaments and are not wired together, any such separation causes serious injury. If the specimen is the size of a deer, it will be necessary to disjoint the backbone just behind the ribs in order to make a compact bundle. A moose or buffalo can be cut up still more by separating the leg-bones at each joint and making several sections of the backbone. Occasionally it is necessary to reduce a skeleton to its smallest possible dimensions, and then, in addition to the above measures, the breast-bone must be separated from the ribs by cutting through the cartilage just below the end of each rib. The ribs canthen be detached from the backbone, and thus dismantled a good-sized skeleton can be packed in a flour barrel. Barrels, it may be remarked, are very useful for pack- 14 THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS ing purposes. It is a good plan to wrap a rag, a little tow or something around the front teeth of deer and similar animals to prevent the incisors from chipping while in transit and if A \ E ad i s Fig. 11.—Skeleton of Mountain Sheep. AA, places where backbone may be disjointed; E, place where cut should be made to separate rib from breast-bone; 8, sesamoids. you are very careful you will put something between the grind- ing teeth for the same purpose. Boxes should be tight, so as to shut out hungry dogs and prevent entirely the attacks of rats and mice. I have fre- quently seen valuable skeletons that were ruined in a single night by ravages of one or two rats. THE PREPARATION OF ROUGH SKELETONS 15 Care should also be taken not to leave boxes open over night while being packed, lest mice should make a nest in the packing material and be shut up with the specimens. Straw or hay is the best packing material, but Spanish moss, shavings, “‘excelsior,”’ or cocoa fiber will serve the pur- pose. Usually but little is needed, the main point being to prevent the skeletons or loose bones from rattling about. Beware of sea weed for packing. No matter how dry it appears to be, it contains so much salt as to become wet when exposed to a moist atmosphere. Never put alum on a skeleton, nor soak any bones in a solution containing alum. In hot, moist climates it is occasionally allowable to sprinkle a little salt on the bones of a large animal in order to keep the flesh from putrefying instead of drying. Some aquatic animals, such as seals and porpoises, can be packed in salt without detriment to their bones, a fact that is often of great advantage when such animals are collected on shipboard, where it is often difficult or even impossible to dry large skeletons. Small skeletons should on no account be salted, nor should large ones be boiled to remove the flesh. 4 FOR SCIENCE ve FOR EDUCATION oa Oo m Oo, poset 3] Bla — a as Tain E AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY THE STORY OF THE ~ YOSEMITE VALLEY pI GUIDE LEAFLET No. 60 ‘ an iedin J. K. Hillers Phe EL CapiITAN, THE NOBLEST CLIFF IN YOSEMITE VALLEY The view shows the bold profile of the 3,000-foot cliff as it appears from the ea at a distance of one and a half miles. Beyond El Capitan are the lesser cliffs that fla the recess of the Ribbon Falls. ioe olORY. OF THE MOSEMIME VALLEY By FRANCOIS E. MATTHES, Ph. D. American Museum of Natural History Guide Leaflet No. 60 New York, July, 1924 The model of the Yosemite Valley and vicinity is one of a series of fifteen relief models of geologically im- portant areas of the United States, representing the existing topography surface of the areas chosen. The hard-rock or underlying geology is represented by colors and patterns taken from the rocks themselves, except in the Watkins Glen-Seneca Lake and the Niagara Falls models, where the superficial Glacial deposits are shown, and in the Porto Rico model, where the scale of the map is too small to permit such treatment. The painted background of each model represents the present day scenery of the surrounding country, and the sky de- picts different meteorological conditions as far as prac- ticable. With the exception of the Yosemite Valley and the Mount Washington models the subjects of these models and their location in the hall were suggested by Associate Curator C. A. Reeds. The construction of all the models has been done under the direction of Curator EK. O. Hovey, except that the core of the Grand Canyon model was begun by Doctor Reeds. The cores of the models have been built at the Museum and have been based on the topographic sheets issued by the United States Geological Survey, and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, except for Porto Rico, based upon a compilation by C. A. Reeds, and Mount Washington, based upon the maps by the State of New Hampshire and the Appalachian Mountain Club. The modeling and painting have been done by Lester Morgan of Morgan Brothers, following published geological maps of the regions and photographs from several sources. In the Yosemite Valley model the geology has been repre- sented according to unpublished maps and other data furnished by the U. 8. Geological Survey. THE STORY OF THE YOSEMITE VALLEY! By Francois E. Marrues, Px.D. UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY If you should start from San Francisco in an airplane and fly due east you would pass first over the wooded crests of the Coast Ranges; next over the broad, level expanse of the Great Valley of California, checkered with irrigated fields, vineyards, and orchards; and then, after a flight of about a hundred miles, you would come to a huge mountain barrier, stretching north and south at right angles to your course and rising in a long, gradual slope to a resplendent row of snow-flecked peaks. This is the Sierra Nevada, the longest, the highest, and the grandest single mountain range in the United States. Deeply carved in its western flank, about midway between the torrid foothills and the wintry summits, in the genial middle zone of majestic forests, you would discover the Yosemite Valley, the chasm that has be- come renowned the world over for its towering cliffs, its stately trees, and its delightful climate, but, above all, for its sublime waterfalls. If ‘‘ Yellowstone”’ spells ““geysers,”’ “‘ Yosemite”’ spells “‘ waterfalls.” As you fly over the valley you may at first be sur- prised to find that it is no larger. It measures only 7 miles in length and 1 mile in width and is really but a widened part of a narrow canyon that furrows the range from crest to base,—the canyon of Merced River. Indeed, the valley is only one of a great many features—though by far the most wonderful—of the Yosemite National Park, which embraces a part of the western flank of the 1Guide Leaflet No. 59 of the American Museum series.—Text kindly furnished through the courtesy of the United States Geological Survey. Hires et RF Ribbon Falls. EC El Capitan. EP Eagle Peak. Y F Yosemite Falls. R Royal Arches. W ~~ Washington Column. M = Mirror Lake. TC Tenaya Canyon. ND North Dome. BD Basket Dome. M W Mount Watkins. ¢ Clouds Rest. H D Half Dome. L Mount Lyell. LY Little Yosemite. LC Liberty Cap. B G SD SR CR BV YE Vi MR Birp’s EYE VIEW OF YOSEMITE VALLEY AND THE HiGH SIERRA BEYONI Mount Broderick Glacier Point. Sentinel Dome. Sentinel Rock. Cathedral Rocks. Bridal Veil Falls. Yosemite Village. Merced River. MATTHES, THE YOSEMITE VALLEY 5 Sierra Nevada almost as large as the State of Rhode Island, that is studded with peaks, domes, and spires and sculptured by valleys, gorges, and canyons. Among the canyons is the Grand Canyon of Tuolumne River, which lies 12 miles north of the Merced Canyon and parallel to it and which also has a Yosemite-like widened part—the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley. But when finally you descend into the Yosemite you at once perceive the reason for its world-wide fame. No other valley is so remarkably fashioned; no other valley holds within so small a compass so astounding a wealth of striking and distinctive scenic features. As a whole, it is a broad rock-hewn trough with parallel sides, boldly sculptured and ornamented with silvery cataracts. The level floor, whose groves and meadows afford ideal places for camping and other forms of recreation, lies 4,000 feet above the sea, and the forested uplands on either side rise 3,000 to 4,000 feet higher. As you look eastward up the valley from its lower end your eye is at once attracted by the sheer profile of El Capitan, the most majestic cliff in the Yosemite and perhaps in the world. It projects from the north wall, its top fully 3,000 feet above the valley floor. Directly opposite stand the three Cathedral Rocks, of nearly equal height, which form the only promontory that juts far out into the valley. From the west end of this promontory leaps the Bridal-Veil Falls, 620 feet in height, its spray suffused with the glory of the rainbow. Eastward beyond El Capitan and the Cathedral Rocks the valley abruptly regains its full width, and you behold in an embayment on the right the two Cathedral Spires, the frailest rock shafts in the valley. On the left are the Three Brothers, whose gabled summits rise one above another, all built on the same angle, as if designed 6 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET by an architect. The highest, known as Eagle Peak, rises 3,800 feet above the valley. Opposite them stands Sentinel Rock, a finely modeled obelisk with a pointed top. Bripaut VEIL FAs 620 feet high A mile beyond the base of Sentinel Rock nestles Yosemite Village, the main tourist center of the park, and just across the valley, booming amid clouds of pearly ? ~ ln on eee —_ F. E. Matthes, Photo YOSEMITE FALLS, FROM THE BANKS OF MERCED RIVER The upper fall, 1,480 feet in height, is probably the highest fall of its kind in the world. The lower fall is 320 feet high, and the total descent of the water from the brink of the upland to the floor of the valley is 2,565 feet. seen above is three-fourths of a mile from the camera; one and a half miles distant. The lower fall as the upper fall is nearly 8 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET mist, are the Yosemite Falls, most glorious of all the cataracts in the valley. The upper fall, 1,430 feet high, would alone make any valley famous—it is the highest unbroken leap of water on the continent, perhaps the highest in the world. The lower fall, which descends 320 feet, seems insignificant In comparison, yet it is twice as high as Niagara. The entire chain of falls and cascades has a height of 2,565 feet. Farther up, on the north side, are the Royal Arches, sculptured one within another in an inclined rock wall that rises to a height of 1,500 feet. An enormous natural pillar, the Washington Column, flanks them on the right, and above them rises a smoothly curving, helmet- shaped boss of granite called North Dome. Facing the Royal Arches, on the south side, is Glacier Point, a high promontory that has become a veritable Mecea for tourists by reason of its matchless view and its unique overhanging rock, below which the cliffs fall off sheer 3,200 feet. The head of the valley is squared off by another rock wall, and above that wall, planted as on a pedestal, stands Half Dome, the most colossal and most strangely modeled rock monument in the Sierra Nevada, smoothly rounded on three sides and cut down sheer on the fourth, like an apple sliced in two. Though it has been inaccessible heretofore, owing to the smoothness of its sides, it may now be easily scaled with the aid of steel cables so hung as to serve as hand rails. From the summit of Half Dome, 4,850 feet above the valley, you look down, on the south side, into the Little Yosemite, a broad-floored, cliff-girt valley shaped like the Yosemite, though much smaller. It lies at a level 2,000 feet above the main valley, and from its portal, guarded by Liberty Cap, the Merced descends by a cyclopean stairway, making two magnificent cataracts, MATTHES, THE YOSEMITE VALLEY 9 the Nevada Falls, 594 feet high, and the Vernal Falls, 317 feet high. On the north side of Half Dome you look down into Tenaya Canyon, a chasm as profound as the Yosemite itself, yet the pathway of only a small tributary brook. Almost directly under Half Dome, at the canyon’s mouth, lies romantic Mirror Lake. To the northeast Clouds Rest, the loftiest summit in the vicinity of the valley, rises 9,929 feet above the sea, and beyond spreads the vast panorama of the High Sierra, its jagged peaks culminating in ice-covered Mount Lyell, at a height of 13,090 feet. And now, filled with wonder at the marvels of this stupendous scene, you may feel impelled to ask: How was all this created? By what strange forces has the Yosemite been fashioned, and through what happy cir- cumstances has it become endowed with so much charm and grandeur? This, then, is the story of the Yosemite: Millions of years ago—about at the end of what geologists call the Cretaceous period—all the country reaching from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains began to bulge up as aresult of disturbances in the interior of the earth. The movement was slow and intermittent, yet it caused the crust of the earth to be rent by long fractures, or “faults,” as they are called by geologists, and broke it into huge blocks that crowded against and slipped on one another. Some of these blocks were gradually forced up and more or less tilted, so that they began to stand out as mountain ranges; other blocks remained low or were depressed and formed valleys and basins. Thus originated the multitude of roughly parallel north- ward and northwestward trending ranges and _ inter- mediate desert basins of western Utah, Nevada, and eastern California. 10 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET The westernmost and largest block, 400 miles long and 80 miles broad, was destined to become the Sierra Nevada. It early acquired a feeble slant to the west, its eastern edge being pushed up and its western edge Fic. 2 GENERALIZED DIAGRAM OF A PART OF THE TILTED SIERRA BLOCK The break, or “fault,” that separated it from the next block to the east is shown by a heavy line, and the directions in which the blocks have slipped past each other are shown by arrows. The height and slant of the Sierra block are much exaggerated. In front of the range is a strip of the Great Valley of California, which is underlain by many layers of sand and silt washed down by streams. At the back of the range is a strip of Owens Valley, likewise covered with sediment. The main rivers on the Sierra block have arranged themselves roughly parallel to one another, in the direction of the western slopes, but their lesser tributaries continue to be guided by the irregularities on the surface and flow in diverse directions. The main rivers, having been accelerated by the tilting, have carved deep canyons, but many of their tributaries, and especially those that flow at right angles to the direction of the tilting, have not yet intrenched themselves and still drop into the canyons from “hanging valleys.’”’ The conditions shown correspond in a general way to those that prevailed for some time after the first great uplift mentioned in the text. pulled down. After a great lapse of time—in the latter half of the Tertiary period—the slant of the block was steepened and the eastern edge was raised to a moun- tain crest several thousand feet high. Still later, about the dawn of the Quaternary period—the last great MATTHES, THE YOSEMITE VALLEY {1 division of geologic time, which embraced the Ice Age and witnessed the rise of man—a series of thrusts more vigorous than any that had preceded it tilted the Sierra block still more strongly and lifted it to its present great height—to altitudes ranging from 7,000 feet at the north to more than 14,000 feet at the south. One effect of the tilting was, naturally, to bring about a rearrangement of the waters on the surface of the ° Yo 1 MILE oj 4 Fic. 3. SECTION OF THE “TWO-STORY VALLEY”? WHICH THE MERCED HAD CUT BY THE END OF THE TERTIARY PERIOD. A-A is the profile of a side stream which was unable to trench as rapidly as the Merced and whose valley has therefore remained “ hang- ing.’ B-B is the profile of a side stream that succeeded in “catching up” with the trenching of the river. This diagram and the two follow- ing are drawn to scale and represent the successive stages in the develop- ment of the Yosemite Valley in their true proportions. ”) “ Sierra block. The main streams originally flowed in diverse directions, but when, early in the Tertiary period, the Sierra block acquired a considerable slant, they changed their courses and began to flow in the direction of the slant. A series of parallel rivers thus came into existence, all heading at the eastern edge and draining westward, int the Pacific Ocean. The Merced was one of these new rivers. > 8000 7000 6000 5000 * 4000 3000 12 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET In the long period of quiet that followed the earlier tiltings the Merced fashioned for itself a broad, level valley, through which it wound sluggishly in serpentine meanders. The valley was flanked as far up as the site of the present Yosemite chasm by rolling hills and ocea- sional ridges a few hundred to a thousand feet in height, all covered with luxuriant semitropical vegetation. The rounded summit of El Capitan was one of the rolling fe) Y2 MILE Fig. 4. SecrioN OF THE “THREE-STORY CANYON”? WHICH THE MERCED OCCUPIED EARLY IN THE QUARTERNARY PERIOD, JUST BEFORE THE ONCOMING OF THE IcE AGE. The river has cut its inner gorges so rapidly that now the valley of the stream B-B also is left “hanging.’’ But a third stream C-—C, more favored than the others because the rock in its path is unresistant, has succeeded in keeping pace with the trenching of the river. hills; it rose about 900 feet above the Merced. Toward the headwaters of the river the land was more mountain- ous, but the region as a whole still lay near sea level. The great uplift of late Tertiary time, which raised the Sierra block to a height of several thousand feet, affected the behavior of the Merced profoundly. The course of the stream now being much steeper than before, its flow became swift and powerful, and, with the sand, 80007 7000 6000 5000 4000. 3000 = > | ¢ MATTHES, THE YOSEMITE VALLEY 13 gravel, and boulders that it swept along, it began vigor- ously to scour and deepen its bed. As time went on it cut in the broad floor of its old valley a narrow, steep- walled gorge—a ‘“‘gorge within a valley.’ Although it cut ever more and more slowly as its gradient became flatter and flatter, toward the end of the Tertiary period (e) Y2 | MILE J Fic. 5. SmcTION OF THE BROAD, STEEP-SIDED YOSEMITE TROUGH AS IT IS TO-DAY. The transformation from the original “three-story canyon’”’ was accomplished mainly by the quarrying action of the glaciers of the Ice Age. The floor of the glacial trough is at D. The present valley floor is at E, and D-E is the depth of the basin of ancient Lake Yosemite, which now is filled with river-borne sediment. As a result of further deepening of the chasm and of its widening by the ice the valley of the stream C-C now also “hangs,” so that there are three sets of ‘‘hanging valleys” at different levels, one above another, all having waterfalls pouring from their mouths. the river had intrenched itself nearly a thousand feet. The gorge, however, had been transformed by that time, through the crumbling of its walls, into a valley with sloping sides, and so the river lay at the bottom of a “valley within a valley’”’—or a ‘‘two-story valley’”’— such as is outlined in Figure 3. +8000 -7000 +6000 +5000 +acoo L3000 MATTHES, THE YOSEMITE VALLEY 15 The side streams were at first unable to trench as rapidly as the Merced. They had smaller volume and therefore less cutting power, and a number of them were handicapped by following courses that lay at right angles to the general course of the river and therefore at right angles to the slope of the Sierra block. These streams were not steepened by the tilting and continued to flow as leisurely as before. As the river cut its gorge deeper and deeper, therefore, the side valleys remained “‘hang- ing” at greater and greater heights. They were trans- formed into what are properly termed ‘hanging valleys.”’ But later, as the master stream’s gradient became flatter and its cutting power waned, most of the side streams by degrees “‘caught up” with its trenching and the hanging valleys were destroyed—all but a few in the Yosemite region that were underlain by exceed- ingly resistant, massive granite. These few remained almost untouched and so, at the end of the Tertiary period, the Yosemite was left with several hanging side valleys from whose lips foaming cascades poured. Yosemite Creek, which now produces the great Yose- mite Falls, then made a broken cascade 600 feet high. Bridal Veil Creek and Sentinel Creek each cascaded down a vertical distance of 900 feet; Meadow Brook 1,200 feet; Ribbon Creek 1,400 feet. The last and greatest uplift of the Sierra Nevada, which occurred about the beginning of the Quaternary period, again accelerated the Merced to the swiftness of a mountain torrent—indeed, it gave that stream greater velocity and cutting power than it had ever possessed. What is more, the greatly increased height of the range brought with it a marked change in climate. Deep snows fell on the crest in winter, and the rapid melting of these snows in spring produced freshets of tremendous volume and correspondingly great destruc- 16 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET tive power. Thus the river again intrenched itself and with greater rapidity than before carved a new inner gorge, thus producing a “‘ three-story canyon” such as is outlined in Figure 4. In this new inner gorge the river still flows from the lower end of the Yosemite to the foothills. At El Portal, the main gate to the Yosemite National Park, the gorge attains its greatest depth— about 2,000 feet—and the three-story canyon as a whole has a depth of about 3,500 feet. As happened after the preceding uplift, so after the last, the side streams, and especially those running at right angles to the direction of the tilting, were unable to trench as rapidly as the master stream. And so the new gorge came to have a number of hanging side val- leys, and the Yosemite, which already possessed one set of hanging valleys, acquired a second, lower set. To this lower set belong the valleys of Indian Creek and Illilouette Creek. Both of them, as well as some of the hanging side valleys of the lower Merced Canyon, are to-day still well preserved, although they are underlain by less resistant rocks than the older and higher hang- ing valleys of the Yosemite region. Indeed, so short a period of time, in a geologic sense, has elapsed since the last uplift that only a few of the larger and more favor- ably situated side streams have succeeded thus far in “catching up”’ with the trenching of the master stream. Among these more successful streams are two tribu- taries of the Yosemite Valley—Tenaya Creek and Bridal Veil Creek. Tenaya Creek had the double advantage of a southwesterly course, following the direction of the tilting, and of being underlain by closely fractured rock and was thus able to trench deeply. Bridal Veil Creek, less advantageously situated, carved only a_ short, steeply descending guleh—the gulch that now ends abruptly at the precipice of the Bridal Veil Fall. That MATTHES, THE YOSEMITE VALLEY 17 cataract, however, was not yet in existence, for the gulch led directly to the bottom of the main chasm. The present lip of the gulch at the top of the waterfall, it is believed, still indicates roughly the level at which the Merced lay in early Quaternary time—that is, just prior to the first great extension of the glaciers of the Ice Age. Evidently the Yosemite then already had a depth of 2,400 feet, measured from the brow of El Capi- tan. It was, however, a much narrower and less im- pressive chasm than the Yosemite of to-day; it was a “three-story canyon”? no wider at bottom than the channel of the river itself and winding sharply among craggy spurs that projected alternately from either side. But it was adorned by cascades of remarkable height: Illlouette Creek cascaded down 600 feet; Indian Creek 1,500 feet; Yosemite Creek 1,900 feet; Meadow Brook 2,300 feet; Sentinel Creek and Ribbon Creek each 2,400 feet. And now came that epoch of cold climate which brought on the great Ice Age. Snow gathered to depths of hundreds and finally thousands of feet in the upper valleys of the range and, becoming compacted to granu- lar ice, formed glaciers that slowly crept down the canyons, moving a few inches to a few feet each day. Small remnants of these ice streams remain to-day on the shaded sides of the highest Sierra peaks, notably on Mount Lyell and its neighbors. Two great glaciers advanced, each more than 2,000 feet thick, one through the Little Yosemite, the other through Tenaya Canyon, and, joining at the head of the Yosemite, formed a mighty trunk glacier that filled the chasm to the brim and extended ten miles down the Merced Canyon. For hundreds of centuries this glacier held sway, quarrying and scouring the rocky sides and floor of the chasm with tremendous force, due to its weight and its 18 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLET irresistible forward movement. It excavated the chasm 600 feet more at the lower end and 1,200 feet more at the upper end. It cut off the projecting spurs and wiped the inner gorge out of existence. Then the climate erew milder, the glacier by degrees melted back to its sources on the crest of the range, and for an interval that doubtless also lasted hundreds of centuries the river resumed its work. At the end of this interval the glacial climate returned and the Yosemite again fell under the dominion of the ice. But this time the glacier was much shorter and thinner; it reached no farther than the Bridal Veil Meadow and filled the valley only one-third of its depth. Moreover, the glacier was rela- tively short lived, and it therefore accomplished much less excavating than its mighty predecessor, whose work, however, it accentuated. And so, when at length the Ice Age came to a close the narrow three-story canyon had been transformed into a broad U-shaped trough; the craggy slopes had been quarried back to vertical cliffs, and the broken cascades replaced by leaping falls. (See Fig. 4.) More- over, three new falls of this kind had been created, for in deepening the chasm the glacier had left the gulch of Bridal Veil Creek hanging, thereby causing that stream to leap over a vertical precipice 620 feet high; and in its descent from the Little Yosemite the glacier had hewn a giant stairway down whose steps the Merced now makes two successive leaps, in Nevada and Vernal falls. Finally, a basin had been scooped out in the rock floor of the valley, and in this basin was formed a lake five and ahalf miles long—ancient Lake Yosemite. Simi- lar but smaller and shallower lake basins were scooped out in the Little Yosemite and in Tenaya Canyon. The ice was greatly aided in making these prodigious changes in the configuration of the Yosemite Valley by Matthes, Photo E { re F. Hautr DomE THE rom the trail beneath G lacier Point ‘ I 4 I 19 Seip rear dram oh <i iin ae ic , 1 Vagh Ce Y 1S Ue aes Pahang ved bi AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Pe : | The Capture and Preservation of - Small Mammals for Study ‘ Pull bone of tail ou : } Ff, of skin with this hand By H. E. ANTHONY GUIDE LEAFLET No. 61 NOTE This leaflet is one of a series intended to ‘fart 1is accurate information in regard to the preparation « specimens of various kinds for Museum purposes. Hy os The following have been issued and may be pur- chased at the sales booth or from the Librarian; « Ol are in the course of preparation; a The Capture and Preservation of Small Mammals for Study By H. E. Anthony. Price 15 cents The Preparation of Birds for Study By James P. Chapin. Price 15 cents How to Collect and Preserve inet 3 By Frank E. Lutz. Price 10 cents ; The Preparation of Rough Skeletons” By Frederic A. Lucas. Price 10 cents wt Ry 3. diem Suggestions to Collectors of Reptiles and Amphibians May be had on application to the Curator, Department of Herpetology Brief Directions for Preparating Skins o a of Large Mammals | THE CAPTURE AND PRESERVATION SMALL MAMMALS FOR STUDY By H. E. ANTHONY Associate Curator of Mammals of the Western Hemisphere The American Museum of Natural History Guide Leaflet No. 61 New York, November, 1925 I CONTENTS PAGE RAISON OE Uh ses tear tek a cae chs Seren ReISaR Sale, aferscrfse.cyae ace wel 9 Aleohol . SD Bean & boa oh) cap Bolo Dae DEI ee eee eee 11 Sra io on A Oc en 12 Ants, Guarding Against. zc) tists Dee c VEE loot SO Oo eta eer 52 Aquatic Wiammals, Capture of 3:27.25 1... cde ee ew eee 17 Nana Taye BANE Ske neta est lee iets oie eae cistd oetvsiste hee aeraiete os 12 BIS. -osdedoddnd Seeks BE Ree clo cis URN ie Ente oi aCe eee 19 veri tm@.OYNA OLIN GLOW eye cheat ties Porase) see shete, lente ie cy tctaiiote we aees ene e reset age- ahve 20 Bats, Collecting... > Apu i Cots by SERA E AE ENE ES COIR eg ama LA Bats, External Wharectareror ee Nik A ee, 51 pas EACH ote OSI gEs Sie 2 ta Se oe As 48 PLUS EO MOG UNE aan tatehth top lcrees’« Hattie Cees hhh Oo mae 48 Bren ape G Wet KiMaes ey sete epteu eam eee sched ewes oan eee bee 49 Care of Mammals after Sheen iF aE BS ny Cee Rae 14 AUR GMIOPUCLOM SPECIMENS. sv atactiseie arses sect elle ietaaies «cue gis oes 21 Collecting Chest. ... PE ee EN ee Se NccaE Noe AS el OO. Containers for Dried Skins... seid cate, SRL Oi 6.2 Dc Ee CRI ee EE: 2 ( Chaperennn cS bsg Ns ayn oo Dia Oe Oye OSE OEE ae eas ene 26 CIPD ass ecb ads Ee creased GBR Oc aOR SDE OSes ee ee 8 COnISHOMIS yD UGIES Waste eres eesecne cicbeire tarot nerekSie werces onde e iciedopire vo 53 [DNB e gob sete.) Ae ed Gay Gun Ge GA Rate Oo ic RAEN san ene 21 JEYGIG| (QERUEN oy TORE a tie rdcka bors Uae ocho eo iecre Ging Creme nen ae Cee eae 25 Filling Out