Excerpt from Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions, Vol. 1: To Patagonia, 1896-1899
The great enterprise of a scientific exploration of Patagonia, which was planned by Mr. J. B. Hatcher, resulted in a remarkable success, because of the indomitable determination in the face of most discouraging obstacles, which was displayed by him and by Messrs. O. A. Peterson and A. E. Colburn, his two assistants. The reader of Mr. Hatcher's "Narrative" will gain some conception of the difficulties of every kind with which the work was beset, but one must read between the lines to understand how great those difficulties were and how often they seemed to be insurmountable. Only the greatest courage, in union with long experience and unusual skill, could have achieved such distinguished success.
It should be emphasized that the chief object of the expeditions was to make collections of the vertebrate and invertebrate fossils of Patagonia, in which the discoveries of the brothers Ameghino had so strongly aroused the interest of the scientific world. Some of the most important and far-reaching of geological and biological problems had been raised by the writings of Dr. Florentino Ameghino and it seemed most desirable to have a thoroughly representative series of the Patagonian fossils in some museum where they might be minutely studied in connection with the fossils of the northern hemisphere. In this, their principal purpose, the expeditions were brilliantly successful. How large and important the collections are, may be readily seen from an examination of the paL'eon to logical monographs of these Reports, Volumes IV. to VII. inclusive. It is confidently expected that the study of this abundant material (still far from completion at the present date of writing) will bring the definitive solution of some of the problems alluded to above.
The intelligent collection of fossils involves the determination of strati-graphical succession, and Mr. Hatcher was able to accomplish a great deal of most useful work in this connection, making possible, for the first time, a rational account of the geology of large areas in southern Patagonia.
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