Report of Work done for the Carnegie Museum by Earl Douglass for

	the year 1905



	During the greater portion of the spring and early summer of 1905, I was at work on two parts of my memoir on the "Tertiary of Montana". One of these is on the general geology and physical features of western Montana. This will give the physiography of all the southwestern part of the state, describe all the mountain ranges and valleys, and give the geological formation in each, so far as known. This is necessary to an understanding of conditions during Tertiary times. The other is on the Oreodontidae of the various Tertiary horizons. The collection is especially rich in mammals of this family, and, though they come from several different horizons, they are nearly all of them specifically, and many of them generically, different from those found elsewhere. Full descriptions of the greater portion of the genera and species were written, and excellent drawings of most of them were made by Mr. Prentice, but the work could not be finished until the types in other museums were examined.

	This work was laid aside in order to assist in the moving operations in the museum, and to begin field work in the west.

	By the kindly consent of the director of the museum, Dr. Wm. J. Holland, a joint expedition was planned by Dr. P.E. Raymond and myself for the collecting of vertebrate and invertebrae fossils in North Dakota, Montana, and Idaho, the determining of the age of some doubtful horizons, and for making further observations on the Tertiary of Montana and Idaho.

	The following, in substance, is an outline, which I gave to Dr. Holland, of the work it was desired to accomplish, should time permit.

	I. To examine the bad lands of the Little Missouri River in North Dakota, collect fossil plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates, if the latter could be found, and if possible ascertain to what age the formation belongs.

	II. To visit the valley of the Yellowstone in the region of Glendive for the same purpose. It was hoped that some Fort Union (Torrejon) mammals might be found here.

	III. To stop in the region of Columbus and Big timber in Montana, and examine the Ft. Union beds there with special reference to the procuring of basal Eocene mammals.

	IV. To visit places in the mountain region of western Montana, to collect invertebrate fossils from the different strata there (Cambrian to Cretaceous), to make further observations on the Tertiary, and if possible to add to our collection of mammals from the various horizons there.

	V. To make an excursion into the northern portion of eastern Idaho, to see if Tertiary deposits, like those in contiguous portions of Montana, extend across the Rocky Mountain divide in this region.

	VI. To visit the Flathead Indian reservation for the purpose of examining Tertiary or more recent deposits, which had been reported from that portion of the country.

	All the above localities, and more, were visited and fossils were collected from nearly every horizon from Cambrian to Miocene.

	In the bad lands of the Little Missouri river many fossil plants and fresh water mollusca were obtained. The fossils have not yet been carefully studied but the formation evidently, is not Laramie as has been supposed but of later date.

	Lying on top of the Fort Union(?) beds at White Butte and in the region southwest of Dickinson, quite large areas of Tertiary were found. I think they had not previously been know[n] to occur here. The finding of these beds was an interesting discovery. They are in part Oligocene and perhaps extend upward into the Miocene. A large collection of mammals and turtles was made -- about 130 field numbers in all, some numbers including several species. It is believed that when these are cleared from the matrix some will prove to be new to science, and there is certainly good material for a more complete knowledge of some of the White River Insectivora and Rodents. Among the later [sic] is some excellent material for the study of ancient rabbits and of distant relatives of the squirrels. The changes in the Oreodonts in the different horizons is also of much interest; and these mammals, it seems now, will prove to be, what we long have sought, the fossils that will distinguish the various Tertiary horizons. These horizons have been much confused, because, being in part, at least, river deposits, they do not conform to the plain order of succession of the beds which have been deposted [sic] in seas or large lakes.

	The deposits here were studied so that they can be compared with those of similar age in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.

	A few fragments of vertebrates mostly crocodiles, were found by Mr. Raymond near Glendive. These beds, at least in part, belong to the Fort Union Group, though there are out-crops of the marine strata of the Montana group exposed near here.

	At Columbus, Montana, part of the Montana formation is exposed and, probably, also, the true Laramie. A few Dinosaur bones, and some fossil plants were collected here. The upper most beds may be Fort Union of which there are extensive exposures a little farther to the northwest, extending to the Crazy Mountains.

	After leaving Columbus, the next stop was at Big Timber. From this place I made an excursion northward in the region above mentioned east of the Crazy Mountains, to explore the Fort Union beds. I travelled a distance of one hundred miles or more and examined many good exposures. Nearly every where an abundance of fossil plants was found, and in several places there were fresh water mollusca and bones of small reptiles, but no good mammalian remains were obtained. Had there been time for further search, I might have been more successful.

	Near Three Forks, in the Ruby Range, and in the Tobacco Root Mountains south of Virginia City, large and interesting collections of fossil invertebrates were made from the various Palaeozoic and mesozoic horizons. Though I knew that interesting collections could be made here, the results were far above the highest expectations. Other localities probably fully as interesting were left untouched. But this phase of the subject will be treated more fully by Mr. Raymond who can speak with authority on the subject.

	In the summer of 1900 while collecting for myself two interesting localities were discovered, where the smaller mammals of the Titanotherium beds were found. In beds of similar age three or four of the larger mammals had been discovered in considerable quantities, but of the smaller ones living during the long period of time between the Uinta and the Middle Oligocene, we knew almost nothing. One of these localities was on Little Pipestone Creek and the other on Big Pipestone Creek near pipestone springs. These discoveries were of so much interest that an American Museum expedition in 1902 visited the locality near Pipestone Springs and discovered two new genera and twelve new species of small mammals; but the locality on Little Pipestone Creek had not been re-visited since its discovery. Last summer Mr. Raymond and I stopped at this place and some interesting mammalian remains were obtained. Instead of having less than a half dozen species we have now in the various collections five or six times as many ranging from the smallest to the largest.

	In the Bitter Root and Deer Lodge valleys, enough fossils were found to demonstrate the fact that Loup Fork beds occur in both of these places.

	In the later deposits on the Flathead Indian Reservation no fossils were obtained but the beds, like similar ones in the Missoula valley below Missoula are probably sediments which settled in a lake, dammed by ice or glacial drift during the glacial period, at the time the many shore lines were formed on the mountains and hills bordering the Missoula and Bitter Root valleys.

	In the trip which I made to Idaho with team and wagon some fossils were obtained and some interesting observations made. With the exception of a small area in the region of Henry's Lake, almost nothing was seen but mountains of eruptive rock and a vast almost desert plain of lava with one or two fertile areas. If the extensive Tertiary beds were deposited here they have been covered by lava. It is surprising how quickly the character of everything changes as soon as one crosses the mountains. It is probably that in early Tertiary times a river crossed the main divide at Henry's lake.

	Since returning to Pittsburg the latter part of December, I have been at work looking up the geological literature of the area traversed during the last summer and previous year for the completing of the geological portion of the memoir on "The Tertiary of Montana", and have written another paper giving the geological results of the explorations not covered by the paper on "The Geology of Western Montana". This will be ready for publication after revision and careful examination of the fossils collected.

	We have in the museum several very interesting mammals which recent discoveries have shown should be made types of new genera and species. Recently I have had the opportunity of comparing part of these with type specimens from other museums. Soon there will be an opportunity of seeing more of the types, and after this is done, the new mammals will be named and chacterized [sic] and the results published in the Annals of the Museum.

	The only papers of mine published during the year are two parts of the Memoir on the "Tertiary of Montana".

	I	A New Monotreme-like Mammal

	II	Leptictidae of the Lower White River Beds.