156 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
was launched. Messrs. Lang and Chapin reached Antwerp and _ pro- 
ceeding to Brussels were cordially received. A letter from the Hon- 
orable Mr. Lane Wilson to His Royal Highness Prince Albert de Ligne 
brought invaluable services in securing concessions for the expedition: 
all articles for scientific purposes, except rifles, to be duty free; the col- 
lecting to extend not only to all ordinary specimens throughout the 
vear, but also to the rare white rhinoceros of the Lado district, the 
elephant in Ituri, the white gorilla recently found in the Kivu region, 
and the okapi, that recently discovered relative of the giraffe. 
In Brussels and London the equipment was completed, an equipment 
which throughout was based upon such sound considerations that the 
expedition is having unusual strength in the field. Special considera- 
tion was given to the medicine chest and to the tents. Through the 
courtesy of the Secretary General, Mr. H. Droogmans, it was most 
fortunate that the Chief of the Medical Service was met, Dr. Emile 
Van Campenhout. With ten years experience in the Upper Congo and 
many years of investigation of Congo diseases, especially of the sleeping 
sickness, he could advise preéminently well. He inspected the expedi- 
tion’s tents and pronounced them ideal for the region, recommending 
for night the partly closed rather than the all-round open tent used by 
the British in tropical work — for daytime use, however, recommending 
the all-round ventilating type. 
Finally in the first week of June the start was made for Africa on 
the steamship Leopoldville and after twenty days’ sail Boma was 
reached, one hundred miles from the coast, the capital of the Congo 
Free State for the past twenty-eight years. Here a warm greeting was 
received from the Honorable Mr. Handley, the American Consul General. 
It was well that the expedition had planned to push immediately 
inland, because of the extravagant prices as well as the dearth of life 
in the region of Boma and Matadi, the latter a town built on ledges of 
rock a few miles above Boma. Mr. Lang writes: 
You should see the relative poverty of the fauna around Boma and Matadi. 
This of course goes hand in hand with the general monotony of the country, nothing 
but hills, one as barren as the other, though occasionally the grass, usually four or 
five feet high, is replaced in the valleys by a few bushes. The scarcity of bird life 
is most striking as one enters the Congo River from the sea. The stream is seven 
miles wide at its mouth, with low shores, reeds, sedges, papyrus, mangroves and, in 
some places, cocoanut palms. Farther up, false Borassus [palms] and Baobabs 
become more abundant; yet there are few birds except of the very common kinds, 
some terns, swallows and a few vultures. 
