,8^. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 163 



officials, not only to work at the subject themselves, but to enlist the 

 aid of every available outside worker, that real substantial progress 

 can be made. The talents of the outside public can only be fully used 

 by a system by which specimens can be placed in the charge of any 

 competent worker to be determined by him at his own home, and at 

 his leisure, for a certain definite time, and under well understood 

 rules. The benefit to the museum collections under a system of this 

 kind is obvious. The great mass of unnamed materials which we 

 believe now exists in the Museum would be gradually worked into 

 order; and, on the other hand, the inducement of having a good 

 series of specimens to work at, and in a way that suits the circum- 

 stances of the outside workers, will certainly tend to increase their 

 numbers, to the great benefit of the study of Entomology." 



Mr. Godman speaks with authority as one of the most dis- 

 tinguished of those " unattached " workers on whose behalf he so 

 justly and forcibly pleads. We cordially endorse his sentiments from 

 the point of view of many other branches of Natural Science, to which 

 his remarks are equally applicable. The rules of the British Museum 

 have the sanction of antiquity, have worked well on the whole thus 

 far, and are scarcely likely to be changed ; and this notwithstanding 

 the fact that our National Museum is unique in the world, so far as 

 we are aware, in denying its custodians all powers of discretion in 

 dealing with applications for the loan of materials. We confess, how- 

 ever, to a more sanguine view than that of Mr. Godman on the 

 subject of the private collections of the future. No officialism can 

 entirely extinguish the independent worker, whose mainspring is his 

 enthusiasm, and whose base of operations lies in his collecting. We 

 believe the tendency of modern research is merely to limit the scope 

 of such collecting, and we hope and trust that as progress demands 

 further attention to details the aims and methods of collectors will be 

 modified accordingly. By far the largest proportion of our national 

 collection is due to the individual efforts of independent non- 

 professional naturalists contributing their several quota. 



The Exploration of Matto Grosso, Brazil. 



We have been favoured by Dr. J. W. Evans and Mr. Spencer 

 Moore with some brief notes on their recent expedition to the remote 

 Brazilian province of Matto Grosso, to which we referred last month. 

 The exploration was undertaken under the auspices of a syndicate 

 interested in the reputed mineral wealth of Matto Grosso, and its 

 partially scientific character is believed to have been due to the 

 influence of the late Emperor, Dom Pedro II. Messrs. Evans and 

 Moore proceeded via Buenos Ayres and the River Parana to Cuyaba, 

 the capital of Matto Grosso, and under the able guidance of Mr. 

 Whitehorn, an English gentleman settled in Paraguay, they at once 

 started for the Chapada plateau, the escarpment of which, situated 

 some miles to the east of Cuyaba, is estimated to reach the height of 

 over 2,000 feet above sea-level. This plateau owes its existence to the 



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