Myton, Utah, Aug. 4, '09

Dr. Wm. J. Holland

Pittsburg, Pa.



My dear Dr. Holland:-

Your letter addressed to me at Rifle, Colorado has just caught me. I have, (in company with a man who knows the country better than anyone else) been looking over the Uinta Bad lands across the Green River from where we were last year. I find nothing that we want here and it will save time in the future. I think very likely, though, that between the Green River and the country around Well No. 2 one might get very good results. I think there must be some country there that has not been wholly explored. Of course there is a vast extent of Uinta territory in this region that hasn't been explored but in my opinion one wants to take a pretty long season to get good results from these deposits. I came here because Mr. Smith and sons had seen fossils here and he though they had a skeleton but was mistaken I think.

I had a definite plan of operations and thought that it perfectly met your approval though I could not get you to say very much about it. I stopped at Rifle and discovered that the Wasatch is fossiliferous and prospected and collected there. I thought we needed Wasatch more than Uinta fossils now and I wanted to make up my mind whether it would pay to lay plans for a campaign in the Wasatch. I concluded that it would pay to spend two months or at least some time in these beds but later, from the car window I saw beds that looked far more promising. I then went to Mack and stopped to see about the Dinosaur bones there. I found that they were extremely numerous but not in a fit condition for our Museum as they were more or less broken before burial and are not perfectly preserved. In a ledge of sandstone, however I found bones and in a block that had fallen down what I suppose to be a part of the skull of a Brontosaurus with a fair prospect that other portions can be recovered.

The condition of the bones in the softer beds made me doubt whether it would be better or whether it would pay to get the bones near Vernal as I feared that they might not have been covered in perfect condition. But I think the one I examined last is perhaps something new, and, as I see it is your wish I will go and exhume them.

After that, I am, as ever at your command. I will go into the Uinta if I find no more good Dinosaur bones, or follow out my plans of getting the Dinosaur skull and spending the rest of the season, if there is any rest, in the Wasatch. In my judgment that is the proper thing to do, as Wasatch mammals are hard to get. It is near the railroad is more apt to be explored and one could collect there more economically.

I have been doing, and shall do, (so long as I am connected with the Museum) all I can to get results. It is for my interest as well as that of the Museum, and I think I have made no serious mistakes yet. Hope I shall not do so.

Why it seemed somewhat longer I took the greater part of my vacation when at home. It was glorious there and I thoroughly enjoyed the change.

Address me next at Vernal Utah.



Yours as ever

Earl Douglass



How is Peterson prospecting?

My Acct book isnt here so I will be late with my July report.