PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 105 
National Museum. Of course the actual hunting of the big game I would want to do 
myself, or have my son do; but the specimens will all go to the National Museum, save 
a very few personal trophies of little scientific value which for some reason I might 
like to keep. Now, can you, in view of getting these specimens for the National 
Museum, arrange for the services of the field taxidermists, and for the care and trans- 
port of the specimens? As ex-President, I should feel that the National Museum is 
the museum to which my collection should go. 
With high regard, sincerely yours, 
THEODORE RoosEVELT?. 
Hon. CHartes D. WALcorTT, 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution, 
Washington, D. C. 
The secretary went on to say: “A copy of this letter was forwarded 
to me in Montana, and I telegraphed that we would endeavor to 
provide the necessary funds. On my return to Washington I put 
myself in communication with several public-spirited men who are 
friends of the Institution, and succeeded in obtaining sufficient money 
to equip and send the expedition to Africa; and there are assurances 
of additional sums to meet the further expenses that will necessarily 
be incurred. 
‘As to the personnel of the expedition, the following gentlemen 
have been selected by the Institution to accompany the President: 
“Maj. Edgar A. Mearns, a retired officer of the Medical Corps of the 
Army, will be in charge of the Smithsonian party. He will be the 
physician of the trip; he has had twenty-five years’ experience as 
an army doctor, and is also well known as a naturalist and collector 
of natural history specimens; while on service in the Philippine 
Islands, he made large collections of birds, mammals, and other 
material for the National Museum. 
“Mr. Edmund Heller, a graduate of Stanford University, is a 
thoroughly trained naturalist, whose special work will be the prepara- 
tion and preservation of specimens of large animals. His former 
experience, when associated with Mr. D. G. Eliot and Mr. Ackley, of 
the Field Columbian Museum, in collecting big game animals in 
the same portions of Africa which Mr. Roosevelt will visit, will be 
a valuable asset to the expedition. Mr. Heller has had large expe- 
rience in animal collecting in Alaska, British Columbia, United States, 
Mexico, Central America, and South America. In the year 1898 he 
made a collecting trip of eleven months to Galapagos Islands, start- 
ing from San Francisco. He is a born and enthusiastic collector 
and a well-equipped naturalist. He is also the author of scientific 
papers on mammals, birds, reptiles, and fishes. At present he is 
assistant curator of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the Uni- 
versity of California. 
“Mr. J. Alden Loring is a field naturalist whose training comprises 
service in the biological survey of the Department of Agriculture 
