52 REPORT OF NATIOISTAL, MUSEUM, 1923, 



It may not be amiss to introduce here the central idea which pro- 

 ceeded from the fact that the early biological problems and research 

 of the Museum naturally related to the fauna and flora of North 

 America,' especially that part opened up by the war with Mexico 

 and the explorations for railroad lines to the Pacific coast. The 

 necessity of working up this material was naturally paramount. 

 With the purchase of Alaska a hitherto unexplored territory on our 

 own continent naturally attracted the attention of the National Mu- 

 seum, especially since the early activities in Alaska were almost 

 exclusively instigated by the federal government with the result 

 that nearly all the material collected there came to Washington. So 

 intensive was this study of our native fauna, especially that of the 

 vertebrates that within a comparatively short time North America, 

 from a taxonomic point of view was better explored and better known 

 than any other part of the world, Europe itself not excepted. At the 

 time these intensive studies began. North America was regarded as 

 one of the primary zoogeographical divisions of the world coequal 

 with South America, the Oriental region, Africa, and the Europe- 

 North Asian region also known as the palearctic region. Later on 

 considerable collections from the Pacific coasts of northern Asia and 

 from Europe found their way into the National Museum. It was 

 then seen that the North American fauna, at least that part which 

 occupies the more temperate portions of the continent northwards, 

 is most closely related to the palearctic fauna of temperate Asia 

 and northwards, and it was realized that the dominant constituency 

 of the North American fauna actually had its origin in the Old 

 World. Here then was a whole series of closely related problems, 

 which sought their solution in Asia and Europe. The circumstance 

 that the U. S. Biological Survey had gradually taken over to a 

 great extent the restricted North American field for still more 

 refined cultivation served to stimulate the interest of certain of 

 the larger divisions of the National Museum in the palearctic region. 

 The Museum has already made a. good start in that direction. It 

 has excellent collections in many lines of the palearctic fauna. Its 

 collection of European mammals is one of the most comprehensive 

 ones extant. It has excellent series of birds, reptiles, and batrachians 

 from Japan, Korea, and Kamchatka in eastern Asia, besides a 

 respectable representation in other classes. It has also important 

 material collected by the Lyman-Hollister Expedition to the Altai 

 region some years ago, and the Koren-Avery Expedition to the 

 mouth of the Kolyma. 



It is therefore with special gratification that I call attention to the 

 work now in preparation and partly in progress for the biological 

 exploration of China in the interest of our Museum. The field work 



