AROUND THE WORLD FOR THE MUSEUM* 



1^1/ Ixoji ('. Aiidnirs 



Til U( )l ( ill the coiipci'atioii of llic Huicaii of l-isliciics ;il \\ iisliin^loii 

 with the nircctor of tin- Aiiicricaii Miiscuiii, I received a temporary 

 ap]K)intiii('nt on tlie I iiited States sliij) Alljatros.s to do collecting', 

 principally of nianuiials and l-irds, on an expedition to Horneo and the 

 islands of the Dutch l^ast Indies. iJy ayreeinent, the tyjx-s of new species 

 and series of duplicates were to go to the National Museum, the remainder 

 of the material collected heiiii;' reserved for the American Museum. This 

 was in the sununer of litOO and the Alhatross at the time was cnnsiiiii,- in 

 Philij)pine waters. 



Leaving New ^()rk in .Vugust, 19(H), I sailed from Seattle to HcngKong 

 hy way of ^()kohanla and after waiting four days in Hong Kong for a 

 typhoon to subside, left just in time to meet a second storm about halfway 

 across the ( hina Sea. .\t Manila I learned that the Albatross was on its 

 way from Zamboanga antl that almost ti'u days must elapse before she 

 would be readx to lea\e for the southern trij); conse(iuently the time seemed 

 opportune to make a short expedition to the island of Mindoro for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the whereabouts of a great number of whales which 

 had been reported as coming ashore near ('ala])an. Consecjuently I went 

 to ]\Iindoro and made arrangements for transportation the next day in a 

 native canoe to tlu' s})ot where the whales were supposed to be. That 

 evening, however, telegrams were received from Manila stating that a 

 typhoon was on the way. All of the white peo])le in the little \illage and 

 many of the nati\'es hurried to the old Spanish fort and prepared to s])en(l 

 the night there. It was well that this was done, for the ty])ho()n struck 

 the north end of the islands with tremendous \ iolence and for two days 

 we were practicallx' ke])t prisoni'rs in the old fortress. It was a most inter- 

 esting experience and the disagreeable featinvs were very shortly forgotten 

 after the typhoon had ceased. All attem])ts to reach the whales, however, 

 were useless because of the heavy sea that was running and the tremendous 

 sin-f pounding the shore all along the north coast. 



Returning to Manila I found the Albatross already there and ('aj)tain 

 McCormack kindly consented to take the shij) to (alapan. The trip 

 resulted in disappointment, however, because the bones of the whales ha<l 



*This article, an itinerary and general statement of tl-e eolleetins trip niade lor the 

 MiLseum in 1909 and 1910 by a repre.sentativ<^ of the Department of Mammalogy, will be 

 followed in later is.sues of the .lorKNAi. hy dctiiiled reports of work iuid places visited. 



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