16 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
the zones corresponding to the so-called Canadian and Hudsonian 
life zones in America, were greatly obscured by the long-continued 
- interference of man and animals with nature, such as the grazing of 
cattle in the high Alps, deforestation, and more recently, artificial 
reforestation. 
It was thought that the eastern Alps might show more primitive 
conditions. Dr. Stejneger visited the mountain region between 
Switzerland and the head of the Adriatic. Arrived at the town of 
Bassano, at the foot of the Venetian Alps, he began to study the life 
zones of the Val Sugana and the plateau of the Sette Comuni from 
that point. This plateau descends abruptly to the Venetian plain 
on the south, while to the east and north it is separated from the mass 
of the eastern Alps by the Val Sugana, or the valley of the River 
Brenta, and on the west by the lower part of the valley of the 
Adige, or Etsch. It is intersected by the boundary line between 
Italy and Austrian Tyrol. 
He made a series of excursions from Bassano, Levico, and Trento 
as successive headquarters, during which time he completely circled 
the territory, and crossed the plateau once on foot. He was able 
to trace the boundaries of the Austral life zones in considerable 
detail, as well as to gather data which connect with the previous 
correlation of these zones in the western Alps and with the corre- 
sponding zones in North America. It was found that the bottom of 
the entire Val Sugana belongs to the upper Austral zone. Owing 
to the rainy and inclement weather the results were less satisfactory 
in the higher regions, though some important data corroborating pre- 
vious conclusions were obtained. 
Observations were also made on the Etsch Valley in Tyrol, from 
Trento to Schlanders, and on its tributary, the Eisak, from Bozen 
to its source on the Brenner Pass. 
The elaboration of the detailed observations will be incorporated 
with a general report on the biological reconnoissance of the western 
Alps. 
RESEARCHES UNDER HARRIMAN TRUST FUND. 
Dr. C. Hart Merriam continued during the year to carry on cer- 
tain natural history and ethnological investigations provided for by 
a special trust fund established by Mrs. E. H. Harriman for that 
purpose. His principal work during the year was on the big bears 
of America, a group he has been studying for more than 20 years and 
concerning which he now has a monograph in preparation. In 
furtherance of this study, specimens have been placed at his disposal 
by numerous sportsmen and hunters and by the larger museums of 
the United States and Canada. In the course of his investigations a 
transcontinental line was run across the country to the coast of Cali- 
fornia by which the easternmost limits of range were determined for 
