PROPOSED EXPLORATIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS 265 



Your proposal for a biological survey of the great Palearctic 

 region has thus my most earnest endorsement, and my best wishes 

 for its favorable consideration by the administrators of the Carnegie 

 fund, a portion of the income from which, it seems to me, may most 

 fittingly be devoted to such work. 



Sincerely yours, J. A. Allen. 



[Dr. Theo. Gill, Smithsonian Institution, to Dr. Stejneger.] 



Washington, D. C, October 14, 1902. 

 Dear Dr. Stejneger: 



I have carefully read the copy of your and Mr. Miller's detailed 

 proposition to the Carnegie Institution for the biological exploration 

 of the Palearctic region, and the more I consider it the more favor- 

 ably it impresses me. I presume it will be a revelation to most of 

 our friends that the zoogeography of Europe is in need of further 

 elucidation, and yet all your statements are perfectly true. Not only 

 is the geographic distribution of life in the Palearctic region very 

 imperfectly understood, but also in every department of zoology 

 with which I am familiar uncertainty prevails respecting the species 

 and the value of differential characters. Such questions, all of 

 primary importance in biology, can only be settled by systematic 

 exploration of the kind you have planned. You make especial men- 

 tion of the mammal, bird, and reptile fauna, and I can bear witness 

 to the fact that the fishes and mollusks are enveloped in a similar 

 doud of doubt. No two observers have independently reached the 

 same conclusion as to the systematic relation of any large and varied 



group. 



I hope you will be successful in obtaining the aid of the Carnegie 

 Institution in undertaking the proposed exploration. It will interfere 

 v/ith no work now being done, and no other institution can possibly 

 undertake it. Such an "American invasion" will be of benefit to 

 all parties. 



Very truly yours, Theo. Gill. 



[Dr. David Starr Jordan, President Stanford University, to Dr. 



Stejneger. 



Stanford University, Cal., October 17, 1902. 

 Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, 



Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 

 Dear Sir : I am deeply interested in your project for a natural his- 

 tory survey of northern Asia. As you know, my own work in the 



