14 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
were secured and will enable the Museum to illustrate in an admirable 
manner the evolution of the Elephant from the primitive Meritheriwm 
down to the modern species. 
While the primary object of the expedition was to secure fossil 
mammals, some attention was devoted to collecting remains of the 
reptiles of the period, and these were found to be quite as abundant as 
those of the mammals. ‘The collection includes shells of several species 
of aquatic turtles and skulls of several kinds of crocodiles, some similar 
to the crocodile now living in the Nile and others with long slender 
snouts like the gavials of the Ganges. Serpents and fishes are repre- 
sented by fragmentary remains. Birds have been found, but their 
remains are so scarce and fragmentary as to be of no great importance. 
WALTER GRANGER. 
MUSEUM NEWS NOTES. 
In the material received from the Belgian government on account 
of the Congo exhibition are extensive assortments of native mats, baskets, 
iron implements and musical instruments. Among the musical instru- 
ments we note particularly an unusually long ivory trumpet and a drum 
five feet in length. Other articles of particular interest are those which 
constitute a Congo sorcerer’s outfit, consisting of a face mask, a dog- 
tooth necklace and several fetishes in the form of human figurines 
rudely carved in wood. ‘There is, too, a gourd which was used as a 
pipe stem for the smoking of hemp. In former days the hemp smokers 
were organized into powerful secret societies. 
‘Tue Museum is fortunate in having secured from Professor Eugene 
Schroeder a collection of ethnological material from the Bismark Archi- 
pelago in the South Pacific Ocean. Among the most valuable and 
striking of objects in the collection are several Malagans, or idols, from 
a ‘Tabu, or Ghost house; an excellent example of the ancient Death 
Drum, which was sounded only on the demise of a chief, and several 
masks which were used by the men in the Init dance. It was against 
the laws for women to witness this dance, and one who was found at- 
tempting to look at the ceremony was immediately killed. The re- 
mainder of the collection consists of implements of war and the chase, 
musical instruments, personal ornaments, clothing and household 
