Clark's Winchester and Rifle Hotel

	Rifle, Colo.



July 24, 1909

Mr. Douglas Stewart,

Pittsburg, Pa.



My dear Stewart,

Since coming to Colorado I have been prospecting the country near here. Have found that the Wasatch Beds (Lower Eocene) are fossiliferous here. We have not a thing in the Museum from the Wasatch. I would undoubtedly be warranted in staying here the rest of the season, but there are some Dinosaur bones near Vernal Utah that appear to be different from anything we have and if I do not get them I fear curiosity-seekers will get them if they haven't already. There are also several tracts of country to where the Uinta, & Bridger beds are exposed, so I have about decided to carry out my original plans and go farther west, returning and finishing out the season here.

I would like to be able to lay plans so I will know definitely where I will go next summer.

One object of my coming out here, besides getting all the best material I can in the short season, is to hold the Uinta Basin region for ourselves, and I have found some fossils before getting there. You see if we stay out for a year they will say we have quit and we cannot expect others to stay out. But I would not go there on that account as this is the same general region. It is possible I may stay here but now it seems more wise to go farther.

Collecting in the Wasatch is slow here as in every other place but as I learn the formation better my success probably would increase to the end of the season as it did last year in the Uinta. If I could find a skeleton of Coryphodon -- and the prospects are fair -- that alone would pay for the summers work.

A gentleman who lives in Meeker has presented me with specimens of _____ _______ and I dont know what all. I will box them with the rest and turn over to you in the fall.

I suppose Dr. Holland left some time ago.



Best wishes to all

Earl Douglass