Ancient Quarry in British Columbia to be Worked in Search for Prehistoric Fossils--Four Harvard Men to Lead Quest

In an effort to increase the collection of fossils now in possession of the University, a party of four Harvard men, led by P. E. Raymond, curator of vertabre, will leave Cambridge the last of June for a month's research in British Columbia, where they will hunt for specimens in an old quarry in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. Accompanying Professor Raymond will be H. C. Stetson '23, assistant curator of vertabre, W. E. Schevill, assistant in the Department of Paleontology, and C. H. Burgess '31.

The quarry which will be the scene of their efforts was first worked several years ago by Dr. Walcott of the Smithsonian Institute, when this noted scientist, who has since died, exploited the region with unusual success. It appears that the rock structure of the quarry is of a very dense nature, and hence is extremely suited for the preservation of delicate fossils.

When an animal dies, the possibility of his becoming a fossil occurs only if he is buried shortly after death or possibly at the time of death. In this event the body does not have a chance to rot, but is pressed unharmed into a rock layer. The dense nature of the rock strata in this quarry is of advantage in that water is prevented from seeping through and hence rotting away the tiny remains.

At the present time the University possesses a very good collection of fossils, but most of these reveal only the remains of the bony and shell parts of the animals.