42 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 



obtained should come into the possession of the National Museum. 

 The funds for the expedition on the part of the Institution were secured 

 entirely from private sources, and the great collections turned over 

 to the Nation as a result of the undertaking, essentially as a donation 

 from a few friends, compose one of the largest and most important 

 single gifts of natural history specimens ever received. As this mat- 

 ter has been fully treated in the report of the Secretary, only a brief 

 account of the expedition need be given here. 



Col. Roosevelt was accompanied by his son Kermit. The natural- 

 ists designated by the Smithsonian Institution were Lieut. Col. 

 Edgar A. Mearns, surgeon, United States Army (retired), Mr. Edmund 

 Heller, and Mr. John Alden Loring. The itinerary, as reported by the 

 director, was briefly as follows: The party landed at Mombasa, 

 British East Africa, on April 21, 1909, and reached Khartum on 

 March 14, 1910. It was joined at Mombasa by Mr. R. J. Cuning- 

 hame, who remained with it throughout the entire trip, and by Mr. 

 Leslie J. Tarlton, who continued with the expedition until it left east 

 Africa, both of these gentlemen working zealously and efficiently 

 for the success of the expedition. Eight months were spent in British 

 East Africa. Collecting was carefully done in various parts of the 

 Athi and Kapiti plains, m the Sotik, and around Lake Naivasha. 

 Dr. Mearns and Mr. Loring made a thorough biological survey of 

 Mount Kenia, while the rest of the party skirted its western base, 

 went to and up the Guaso Nyero, and later visited the Uasin Gisbu 

 region and both sides of the Rift Valley. Mr. Kermit Roosevelt and 

 Mr. Tarlton visited the Leikipia Plateau and Lake Hannington, and 

 Dr. Mearns and Mr. Kermit Roosevelt made separate trips to the 

 coast region near Mombasa. The expedition left east Africa on 

 December 19, 1909, passed through Uganda, and thence down the 

 Wliite Nile. Over three weeks were spent in the Lado north of 

 Wadelai, and, crossing again into the Lado at Gondokoro, Colonel 

 and Kermit Roosevelt remained about 10 days in the neighborhood 

 of Redjaf. On the journey from Gondokoro to Khartum, which was 

 made in a steamer placed at the disposal of the party by the Sirdar, 

 collections were obtained at Lake No and on the Bahr-el-Ghazal and 

 Bahr-el-Zeraf. Col. Roosevelt speaks in the Avarmest terms of the 

 generous courtesy shown the expedition and the assistance freely 

 rendered, not only by the Sirdar, but by all the British officials in 

 east Africa, Uganda, and the Sudan, and by the Belgian officials in 

 the Lado. 



It is impossible in this connection to give a complete inventory of 

 the specimens obtained, as the collections from Uganda and the Sudan 

 were not received until after the close of the fiscal year, and had not 

 been fully unpacked and assorted at the time of writing. In his 

 report, however, Col. Roosevelt gives the following tentative enumera- 



