NO. 30 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, H)\2 



THE ZOOLOGICAL EXPEDITION OF DR. THEODORE LYMAN TO 

 THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS, SIBERIA AND MONGOLIA 



By the invitation of Dr. Theodore Lyman, of Harvard L'niversity, 

 the National Museum was enabled to participate, in cooperation with 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology, in a zoological expedition 

 t<> the Altai Mountain^ of Siberia and Mongolia. An this region 

 was unrepresented by specimens in the National Museum, the 

 opportunity afforded was an exceptionally important one. The 

 expedition was under the personal direction of Doctor Lyman who 





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Fig. 7. — Collecting camp in the Altai Mountains near the .Mongolian border 

 Photograph by Hollister. 



devoted his time chiefly to the collecting of large game. The National 

 Museum was represented by Mr. N. Hollister, assistant curator of 

 mammals, who had as his assistant in the work of collecting the 

 smaller vertebrates. Conrad Kain. of Vienna, Austria. 



The party left America in Maw i<;i_\ and returned in Sep- 

 tember of the same year. It entered Asia by way of the Trans- 

 Siberian Railroad. The railway was left at Novonikolsevsk, on the 

 ( >bi River, and the long journey southward to the last Russian post 

 near the Mongolian border was made by river boat and tarantass 

 in 17 days. At this outpost. Kosh-Agatch, Kalmuk and Tartar 

 guides and packers were secured, and the frontier range to the 

 southward was then explored for a month. The collecting was done 



