MUSEUM NOTES 



Word has been received from Messrs. 

 Herbert Lang and James Chapin of the 

 Congo expedition that they arrived safely at 

 Stanleyville on September 30. The collec- 

 tions are in fine condition and in such quan- 

 tity that the final packing will demand three 

 months. It will be remembered that the 

 expedition set sail more than five years ago 

 under the patronage of the Belgian govern- 

 ment and was financed by Messrs. John B. 

 Trevor, Charles Lanier, Cleveland H. Dodge, 

 J. P. Morgan, William K. Vanderbilt, A. D. 

 Juilliard, Robert W. Goelet and William 

 Rockefeller as well as by an appropriation 

 from the Belgian Government. The aims 

 and scope of the expedition and the work 

 accomphshed rank it among the greatest 

 that the Museum has ever sent out. 



Mr. Leo E. Miller was chosen to lead 

 another expedition to South America and 

 set out during the latter part of October. 

 Mr. Miller has already done valuable 

 scientific work as a member of the Mu- 

 seum's first Colombian expedition in 1911, 

 leader of the second Colombian expedition 

 in 1911 and 1912, leader of the Upper 

 Orinoco expedition in 1913, leader of the 

 British Guiana expedition in 1913 and 

 mammalogist of Colonel Roosevelt's South 

 American expedition in 1913 and 1914, and is 

 thus particularly well equipped for work on 

 that continent. Mr. Miller will have as his 

 assistant, Mr. Howarth Boyle. The expedi- 

 tion is financed in part by Colonel Roosevelt 

 and in fact has come about as an outgrowth 

 of friendly relations which grew up between 

 Mr. Miller and Colonel Roosevelt on the 

 recent South American expedition. The 

 new expedition will proceed directly to 

 Colombia and will go first to the semi-arid 

 region around Barranquilla, then up the 

 Magdalena to Puerto Berrio and across to 

 Medellin, the capital of Antioquia. With 

 Medellhi as a base about four months will 

 probably be spent in this region, working out 

 the different life zones from the low tropical 

 forest at Caceres on the Cauca to the cold 

 paramo of St. Elena. The expedition will 

 then take up work on the west coast of Pan- 

 ama for a few months, will go from there to 

 Chili, and thence overland into the highlands 

 of Bolivia, making Sucre the base of opera- 

 tions. Some months wiU be spent in this 



neighborhood, with possibly a trip to Lake 

 Titicaca. The return will very likely be 

 made by way of the Rio Beni, the Madeira 

 and the Amazon rivers some two years hence. 



Mr. Albert Thomson continued work in 

 the agate fossil quarry in Nebraska this 

 summer for the department of vertebrate 

 palaeontology. Four skeletons of the great 

 " clawed ungulate" Moropus were obtained, 

 which, added to those secm-ed during the 

 last two seasons, will supply a series of speci- 

 mens such as is seldom available for the study 

 of any extinct mammal. The best of these 

 skeletons will be selected for a mounted group 

 to be placed in the Tertiary mammal hall. 



The principal expedition of this depart- 

 ment was in charge of Mr. Barnum Brown, 

 to the Cretaceous dinosaur bed of Alberta. 

 The results of this highly successful season's 

 work will be reported in a later number of the 

 Journal. 



A PLAN for the extension of the educational 

 work of the Museum, providing for the 

 establishment of local lecture centers in 

 centrally located schools, the inauguration 

 of a system for loaning slides and the opening 

 of a branch teaching and exhibition museum 

 in the Washington Irving High School, has 

 been presented to the Board of Trustees and 

 has received their general approval. Presi- 

 dent Osborn has appointed a committee 

 consisting of Mr. Felix M. Warbm-g and 

 Mr. R. Fulton Cutting of the trustees and 

 Mr. George H. Sherwood and Dr. C.-E. A. 

 Winslow of the Museum faculty to consider 

 further the detailed plans for the proposed 

 extension. This project has also received 

 the endorsement of Mr. Thomas W. Churchill, 

 president of the Board of Education of New 

 York City, who has appointed a special 

 committee of the board consisting of Mr. 

 Frank D. Wilsey, chairman. Dr. Ira S. Wile 

 and Mr. Francis P. Cunnion to consider these 

 plans for cooperation between the Board of 

 Education and the Museum. The plans 

 have been approved also by Dr. William H. 

 Maxwell, city superintendent of schools. 



Dk. Robert H. Lowie spent the summer 

 in ethnological work in Montana and Nevada, 

 He visited the Crow Indians of southeastern 

 Montana from whom he secured a large body 



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