MAMMALS COLLECTED BY THE SMITHSONUN-HARVARD 

 EXPEDITION TO THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS, 1912. 



By N. HOLLISTER, 

 Assistant Curator, Division of Mammals, United States National Museum. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The fauna of the Altai Mountains, Siberia and Mongolia, has been 

 virtually unrepresented in American museums. The United States 

 National Museum, therefore, gladly welcomed the generous invitation 

 of Dr. Theodore Lyman to participate, with the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology at Harvard, in a zoological expedition to that part of 

 Asia during the summer of 1912, and I was detailed as its representa- 

 tive for field work. 



Doctor Lyman's plans were to foUow the routes of the Demidoff ^ 

 and the Swayne ^ sporting expeditions to the country of the famous 

 Altai wild sheep, on the Mongolian side of the Little Altai, and, while 

 securing good specimens of the sheep, ibex, and other large game of 

 that region, to make the most of the opportunity afforded to coUect 

 the smaller vertebrate animals for the two museums. The resulting 

 trip extended to nearly four months, but so much time was taken 

 by the long journey to and from the scene of operations that only 

 about thirty-five days of actual collecting were enjoyed. We were 

 fortunate, however, in our selections of camp sites in three different 

 physiographical regions, and by working at high pressure when the 

 opportunity offered we were enabled to make much greater and 

 more varied collections than we had anticipated. Doctor Lyman, 

 whose time was chiefly devoted to the collecting of large game, had 

 engaged as my assistant in the work of collecting the smaller verte- 

 brates Conrad Kain, of Vienna. Without the assistance of this 

 indefatigable mountaineer, whose resourcefulness, ability, and good 

 companionship are known to Alpine Club people of many countries, 

 the collection would be much smaller than it is. The collection of 



' E. Demidoff, After Wild Sheep in the Altai and Mongolia, pp. i-xii; 1-324; numerous illustrations and 

 map, London, 1900. 



2 H. G. 0. Swayne, Through the Highlands of Siberia, pp. i-xiv; 1-259; 60 illustrations and map, London, 

 1904. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 45— No. 1930. 



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