22 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



also spread through the ranks of the native cat, Dasyurus viverrinus; the 

 domestic cat also played a great part in their extermination. Even adult speci- 

 mens of Dasyurus were often dragged in by the family cat. 



It is the killing and burning of the brush by the cattlemen that does the most 

 to kill off the animals, and they are yearly reaching farther and farther away 

 from the railroads. One thing that was very noticeable was the great abun- 

 dance of the introduced rats. They seem to have driven out or killed off prac- 

 tically all the native rats, and I found them everywhere. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN THE FAR EAST. 



Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, curator of physical anthropology, National 

 Museum, made an extended trip to the Far East in the interest of 

 his researches on the origin of the American Indian and the peopling 

 of eastern Asia. While in China he assisted with the organization 

 of anthropological research in connection with the Peking Union 

 Medical College in China. 



During this trip, which occupied over five months, Doctor Hrdlicka 

 visited Japan, Korea, Manchuria, northern China, and the border 

 of southern Mongolia, examining the local collections as well as the 

 actual populations. The results of the journey have contributed 

 very materially to the solution of the problems for which the trip 

 was made, in addition to which it was possible to arrange for ex- 

 changes of material, and especially to organize a nucleus for an- 

 thropological investigation in China. 



Doctor Hrdlicka returned by way of Hawaii, where a two weeks' 

 stop was made for the study of the natives and of Hawaiian problems 

 in general. 



While at Peking Doctor Hrdlicka consulted prominent foreigners, 

 as well as Chinese scholars, on the advisability of establishing in 

 Peking, or of taking steps toward the establishment there of a 

 " China Museum of Natural History," which, like the United States 

 National Museum, would include the departments of geology, biol- 

 ogy, and anthropology, and which would serve as a center for inves- 

 tigators in these lines in China and the Far East. Before his de- 

 parture the opportunity was given him by representatives of several 

 of the ministries and other officials to make the proposal more for- 

 mally, with the result that a committee was to be organized for con- 

 sideration of the project. 



BOTANICAL EXPLORATION IN HAITI. 



Through the generosity of Dr. W. L. Abbott, for many years a 

 benefactor of the Institution, it was possible to detail Mr. Emery C. 

 Leonard, aid in the Division of Plants, United States National 

 Museum, as botanical collector to accompany Doctor Abbott to Haiti 

 upon his last visit of exploration in that country, from February to 



