THE ROOSEVELT-RONDON SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION 47 
seize or stop it. It came back right 
toward us and got into the thick brush 
and so escaped. Other species of arma- 
dillo do not run at all. 
The anteaters, most extraordinary 
creatures of this latter-day world, are 
found only in South America. The 
anteater is about the size of a small 
black bear and has a long narrow tooth- 
less snout, a long bushy tail and very 
powerful claws on its fore feet. It 
walks on the sides of its fore feet with 
the claws curved in under the foot. 
These powerful claws make it a formida- 
ble enemy for the dogs. 
very slowly. 
But it goes 
Anteaters were continu- 
ally out in the big open marshes where we 
got the two specimens that we sent to 
the Museum. They were always on 
muddy ground, and in the papyrus 
swamp we found them in several inches 
of water. I do not see how they con- 
tinue to exist In a country with jaguars 
and pumas. They are too slow to run 
away and they are very conspicuous and 
make no effort to conceal themselves. 
The great value of our trip will be 
shown only when full studies have been 
made of the twenty-five hundred and 
more specimens of birds and mammals 
brought back. We will be able to give 
for the first time an outline of the mam- 
malogy and ornithology of central Brazil. 
Probably the most important feature 
of the trip was going down the Unknown 
River, because, of course, at this stage of 
geographical history it is a rare thing to 
be able to put on the map a new river, 
a river never explored, a river the length 
of the Rhine of which not a line is to be 
found on any map. 
It was a journey well worth taking, a 
rough trip of course, but I shall always 
be more grateful than I can say to 
Professor Osborn and Dr. Chapman of 
the American Museum for having sent 
Mr. Cherrie and Mr. Miller with me, 
thus enabling me to take part in a zo6- 
geographical reconnaissance of a part 
of the Brazilian wilderness. 
