ROOSEVELT AFRICAN HALL 253 
to open upon them, are arranged habitat groups of 
the African fauna with typical accessories and pan- 
oramic backgrounds. The long and arduous task of 
mounting the central elephant group, the first unit 
for the exhibit which the model sketched in miniature, 
was interrupted by the war. 
Many of the undertakings that were making long 
strides toward completion in 1914, to-day stand ar- 
rested due to conditions following the war. Only 
one by one can they fall back to their natural places 
in the march of progress, and the most urgent must 
be given place first. African Hall is one of those 
projects which cannot be delayed. Now or never 
must it become a reality. Twenty-five years ago, 
with innumerable specimens at hand, its development 
would have been an impossibility. Even if a man 
had had all the animals he wanted from Africa, he 
could not have made an exhibit of them that would 
have been either scientific, natural, artistic, or satisfy- 
ing, for twenty-five years ago the art of taxidermy 
and of museum exposition of animal life hardly ex- 
isted. Likewise, in those days much of the informa- 
tion that we had about animals through the tales of 
explorers, collectors, and other would-be heroes was 
ninety-five per cent. inaccurate. 
Twenty-five years hence the development of such 
a hall will be equally impossible for the African ani- 
mals are so rapidly becoming extinct that the proper 
specimens will not then be available. Even to-day 
the heads that are reaching London from British 
East Africa are not up to the old standards. If an 
