144 



THE AMEBIC AN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



this mass were seven feet in length, two 

 and one half in breadth, and one foot in 

 thickness. The strictness of the German reg- 

 ulations made dynamiting out of the ques- 

 tion, but by means of a lever drill — a heavy 

 crowbar embedded in a log twelve feet long 

 and six inches in diameter — wielded by a 

 dozen men, the great mass was loosened 

 from its position. Dr. Hintze, who had the 

 right to claim one half of what was found, 

 kindly made arrangements to allow me to 

 transport to America the whole of the giant 

 mass. 



There is ethnological significance in this 

 great mass of jade, which had so curiously 

 remained unnoticed in a hill where quarrying 

 has been going on since the time of the 

 Eomans. Dr. Heinrich Fischer, of the Uni- 

 versity of Freiburg in Baden, who devoted 

 his life to the study of jade {Die Nephrit- 

 frage), concluded from a consideration of 



race migration that all the jade objects foun,d 

 in Europe had an Asiatic origin. Professor 

 A. B. Meyer, director of the Royal An- 

 thropological Museum at Dresden, regarded 

 the presence of jade in Europe as a chemical 

 problem, not an ethnological one, although 

 his views were assailed by the leading 

 scientists of his day. Dr. Meyer's opinions 

 have been reenforced by the finding in Ger- 

 many of this great mass of nephrite, suffi- 

 cient in itself to furnish material for all the 

 jade objects and ornaments yet found in 

 Europe. There is now no reason to believe 

 that prehistoric jades need, necessarily, to 

 have been brought to Europe in race mi- 

 grations from the Orient. 



Tiffany and Company, of New York City, 

 did the jjolishing of this great mass— a tri- 

 umph, owing to the extreme toughness of 

 jade. 



George F. Kunz. 



Report from the Asiatic Zoological Expedition 



THE Asiatic Zoological Expedition of 

 the American Museum of Natural 

 History was organized early in 1916, 

 and placed under the leadership of Mr. Roy 

 C. Andrews, assistant curator of mammals 

 in this institution, for the purpose of col- 

 lecting zoological and ethnological material 

 in southeastern China, particular attention 

 being given to the mammals and birds. The 

 expedition has been financed in part by a 

 fund made up of contributions from Mr. 

 and Mrs. Charles L. Bernheimer, Mr. George 

 T. Bowdoin, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney M. Col- 

 gate, Mr. Lincoln Ellsworth, Mr. James B. 

 Ford, Mr. Childs Frick, Mr. Henry Frick, 

 and Mrs. Adrian Hoffman Joline, and in 

 part by the Jesup Fund of the American 

 Museum. 



Mr. Andrews, accompanied by his wife, 

 who is the official photographer of the expe- 

 dition, sailed from San Francisco March 28, 

 1916, and after spending about three weeks 

 in Jajiau making colored and motion pic- 

 tures, proceeded to Peking, arriving there 

 early in May. From Peking they went by 

 rail to Fooehow, the port of Fukien Prov- 

 ince, the region where the first real collect- 

 ing was to begin. 



One of the special objects of the expedi- 



tion was to secure, if possible, specimens of 

 the so-called "blue tiger." Mr. Andrews 

 was fortunate in making the acquaintance 

 of the Rev. Harry R. Caldwell, a missionary, 

 who, having seen two of these animals dur- 

 ing his residence in that region, was the 

 first to give authentic reports of the presence 

 of this sjiecies of tiger. From latest in- 

 foinuition received, the expedition has been 

 unalile to secure any specimens of the ani- 

 mal. They report that upon two occasions 

 they had the blue tiger almost within reach, 

 but that he could not be induced to come 

 out into view from the grass, which would 

 have given an opportunity for a shot. Dur- 

 ing their stay in this province, however, they 

 secured about three hundred and fifty birds 

 and one hundred and fifty mammals, which 

 have already been received at the Museum. 

 In view of the difficult conditions under 

 which the expedition had to labor — a tem- 

 perature registering about 150° F. at mid- 

 day and 95° F. in the evening, with a hu- 

 midity of approximately 95 — the results are 

 highly satisfactory. Among the specimens 

 secured Avere a number of interesting mam- 

 mals, including two species of muntjac, two 

 remarkable raccooii dogs, several wild cats 

 (not yet identified), and six species of bats 



