WHOLE VOL. SKELETAL REMAINS OF EARLY MAN HRDLICKA 57 



All of which points most insistently to the great need as well as 

 promise of much further paleontological explorations in Java and the 

 far southeast in general. 



THE writer's visit TO TRINIL 



Before the 1924 publications by Dubois were received, the writer 

 was enabled to make a visit to Java, the main object of which was to 

 see personally the conditions at the site of the Pithecanthropus.' The 

 object was not to excavate, which for various reasons would hardly 

 have been feasible, but to obtain that invaluable impression which 

 comes only from personal examination. The colonial authorities and 

 in particular the scientific men of Java gave all possible assistance, 

 for which once more the writer wishes to tender them a grateful 

 acknowledgment. Preliminary inquiries resulted in the information 

 that there was then no vertebrate paleontologist nor any student of 

 prehistory on the island, that no systematic work was being done in 

 these lines, and that the collections in the local museums and insti- 

 tutions contained little if any human or primate material. Since the 

 Selenka Expedition no further work has been done at Trinil. 



On May 24, the writer left Bandoeng, and after a highly interesting 

 II -hour trip through the central parts of Java, arrived at Madioen, 

 a good-sized town and the seat of a Residency of the district to which 

 Trinil belongs. The same evening arrangements were made with the 

 Assistant Resident, Mr. J. T. H. Jarman, at Ngawi for the visit to 

 Trinil, and early next morning the start was made in a motor car and 

 over a good road to Ngawi, 21 km. (13 miles) distant. At Ngawi, 

 Mr. Jarman met us with his Chief of Police and two motor bicycles 

 with side cars ; and in a short time the party was on its way to 

 Trinil, 15 km. (nearly 9I m.) distant. 



We stopped at a plantation, a short distance from the river; and 

 as a pleasant surprise arranged by Mr. Jarman there came in a few 

 minutes several natives, each carrying a basket with a lot of black 

 objects in it — fossil bones from the Pithecanthropus site. These were 

 eagerly examined on the spot — but regrettably there was no trace 

 of any Pithecanthropus. 



A few minutes' walk brought us to the elevated right bank of the 

 Bengawan or, in the native pronunciation, Banawan river. A little 

 to the right was seen a concrete monument, three feet high, with the 

 inscription: P. e. — 175 M., with an arrow pointing towards the spot 



* For preliminary account of the voyage, see Explorations and Field-Work of 

 the Smithsonian Institution in 1925, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., Vol. 78, No. i, 

 pp. 69-72, 4 figs., 1926. 



