EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1913. 69 



In 1904 Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., and Dr. Leonhard Stejneger con- 

 ducted field work in the western Alps of Europe, with the object of 

 comparing the vertical distribution of life in that region with the life 

 zones of North America. Certain of the problems connected with 

 tliis study were left undecided cliiefly on account of present-day con- 

 ditions beUeved to be of local significance only. During the spring 

 of 1913, under a grant from the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Stej- 

 neger renewed these observations in the eastern Alps, where the con- 

 ditions were supposed to be more favorable. A month, beginning 

 April 20, was given to this work, the time being mainly devoted to an 

 investigation of the territory between the valley of the River Etsch 

 or Adige, as far north and west as Schlanders in Austrian Tirol, and 

 the valley of the River Brenta in Italy, especially the Val Sugana and 

 the plateau of the Sette Comuni, the Etsch valley in Tirol below 

 Trient, including Lake Garda, and between Bozen and Schlanders. 

 Dr. Stejneger was able to trace in some detail the hmits of the lower 

 and upper Austral hfe zones, and corroborated the previous observa- 

 tions in Switzerland relative to the distribution of the coniferous 

 trees. Inclement and rainy weather interfered with the work to 

 some extent and frustrated frequent attempts to make extensive 

 collections for the Museum. 



The three young naturalists who started into the field the previous 

 year as temporary collaborators of the Museum all met with gratifying 

 results in their collecting work. ^'Ir. D. D. Streeter, of Brooklyn, 

 N. Y., who was absent from the middle of April until into December, 

 1912, passed from Sarawak into Dutch Borneo by ascendmg the 

 Rejang River and crossing the mountains on the dividing line to the 

 Kajan River. He then ascended to the head of this river and 

 crossed another range to the headwaters of the Mahakam River, 

 which he descended to the Strait of ^Macassar. He secured a small 

 but interesting collection of mammals, reptiles, and batrachians, 

 including two rhinoceros skuUs. Mr. George Mixter, of Boston, 

 Mass., spent the summer of 1912 in the vicinity of Lake Baikal, 

 Siberia, the main object of his trip being to obtain specimens of the 

 native bear and of the seal peculiar to Lake Baikal. Besides good 

 examples of both of these he also collected some small mammals, and 

 specimens of sponges and crustaceans from the lake. Mr. Copley 

 Amory, jr., of Cambridge, Mass., joined the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey party, imder !^'Ir. Thomas Riggs, jr., which was engaged in 

 surveying on the Alaska-Canadian boundary during the summer of 

 1912. Reaching New Rampart House on July 11, with a trapper and 

 three dogs, he packed over the mountains for 60 miles to the base of 

 supplies on the Old Crow. After a trip north to Joe Creek, a tributary 

 of the Firth, lasting two weeks, he proceeded with ^Ir. Riggs some 

 40 miles to the southwest of Old Crow in the caribou country. 



