PROPOSED EXPLORATIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS 24 1 



Washington, D. C, May ig, igo2. 

 To the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institution. 



Gentlemen : In response to the invitation of the Carnegie Insti- 

 tution through its circular received in March, 1902, the undersigned 

 would respectfully submit for the consideration of the Executive 

 Committee the following plan for a Biological Survey of that portion 

 of the Old World lying north of the tropics, and technically known 

 as the Palearctic Region. An outline of the magnitude, variety, 

 and importance of the biological problems on which this work would 

 bear is presented in the pages which follow. To this is added a 

 detailed plan for the organization of the work, together with an esti- 

 mate of its cost. This enterprise, if undertaken, would bear a close 

 supplemental relationship to the similar work which has been carried 

 on with such eminent success during the past fifteen years in America 

 under the auspices of the United States Government, and would fur- 

 thermore be the direct continuation of studies which have largely 

 occupied the attention of one of the writers for eight years and of 

 the other for more than three times that period. 

 Very respectfully, 



Leonhard Stejneger. 

 Gerrit S. Miller, Jr. 



I. Introduction. 



I. Nature of Work Proposed. — Briefly stated, the proposed investi- 

 gations consist in the thorough exploration of the northern portion 

 of the Old World by parties of competent, trained field naturalists, 

 with the special objects of determining in detail the character of the 

 fauna and flora, the number and geographic extent of the life areas, 

 the history of the origin of the present assemblages of animals and 

 plants, and, finally, the relationship of the present life of the region 

 to that of northern America. That these large, fundamental prob- 

 lems are now vaguely or not at all understood will be shown in the 

 special section of this report devoted to them. 



As the material for the elucidation of these problems does not 

 exist in any museums or museum, a very important part of the work 

 would be the bringing together of specimens collected by the field 

 parties, and their study at home by specialists. That the extent and 

 value of these collections would be unprecedented there can be no 

 doubt. It would be proposed to make as complete collections as pos- 

 sible of the mammals, birds, reptiles, batrachians, and fresh water 



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