THe AMERICAN Musgeum Journal 
VoLUME XV 
Roosevelt’s canoe disappearing down Rio Téodoro, the River of Doubt. 
FEBRUARY, 1915 
NUMBER 2 
Photo by Miller 
Courtesy of Charles Scribner’s Sons 
‘‘Ahead of us the brown 
water street stretched in curves between endless walls of dense tropical forest.’’ 
ANIMALS OF CENTRAL BRAZIL! 
TOGETHER WITH MENTION 
OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF THE 
ROOSEVELT-RONDON SOUTH AMERICAN EXPEDITION IN 
EXPLORING THE “RIVER OF DOUBT” 
By Theodore Roosevelt 
HEN I contemplated going on 
this trip the first thing I did 
was to get in touch with Dr. 
Frank M. Chapman of the American 
I wanted to get from him 
information as to what we could do down 
Museum. 
there and whether it would be worth 
while for the Museum to send a couple 
of naturalists with me. On any trip 
of this kind — on any kind of a trip I 
have ever taken —the worth of the trip 
1 A lecture delivered before the members of the 
American Museum of Natural History, Decem- 
ber 10, 1914. 
depends not upon one man but upon 
the work done by several men in coépera- 
tion. This journey to South America 
would have been not worth the taking, 
had it not been for the two naturalists? 
2 As the reader pursues his fascinated way 
through Colonel Roosevelt's latest book, which 
recounts experiences on this South American 
expedition, he becomes impressed —if he is a 
naturalist, with the positive stand on certain 
definite points regarding natural history taken 
by the Author. For instance Colonel Roosevelt 
puts emphasis on the need for the protracted work 
in the field of the trained observer as contrasted 
with the big-game hunter or mere zodlogical col- 
lector. Weconcur so fully in the point made and 
in fact consider the matter of a complete scientific 
35 
