REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 13 



at all in Washington. Permission to prepare casts of these and thus advance 

 our study series toward the completeness which the National collections should 

 attain was generously granted by Dr. Stuart Weller, director of the Walker 

 Museum. In two weeks' time I was enabled to finish casting all of the 

 Ordovician and Silurian types, leaving the remaining Paleozoic species for a 

 future trip. The work was done quickly by using the modeling compound 

 (plastocene) to make the mold from which the cast is prepared. 



THE SMITHSONIAN AFRICAN EXPEDITION. 



The Smithsonian African expedition, in conjunction with the 

 Universal Film Manufacturing Co., which was described in my last 

 report, concluded its work shortly after the beginning of the fiscal 

 year, and somewhat later the collections made by Mr. H. C. Raven, 

 the Institution's representative on the expedition, were received by 

 the National Museum. Among the more important material may be 

 mentioned GOT mammals (including 272 specimens from South 

 Africa, a region hitherto very imperfectly represented in the Mu- 

 seum's collections: 152 from Lake Tanganyika; and the chimpanzee 

 of Uganda). 575 birds, 206 reptiles, and 193 fishes. Although not 

 numerically large, these collections are of unusual interest on account 

 of the manner in which they supplement those obtained by other 

 expeditions to Africa in which the Smithsonian Institution has been 

 interested. 



Dr. H. L. Shantz, of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 also accompanied the expedition with the objects in view of securing 

 live plants of agricultural value for introduction into the United 

 States, of studying the agricultural methods of both natives and 

 Europeans, and of collecting plants for the National Herbarium of 

 the United States National Museum. Over 1,000 botanical specimens 

 were secured for the Museum, and first-hand observations were made 

 of the methods of agriculture pursued by African tribes as well as 

 the Europeans. About 1,600 plants were collected for growth as 

 agricultural plants in this country, the more important being forage 

 plants, nut plants, fruits, and vegetables. 



AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION. 



Through the generosity of Dr. W. L. Abbott, Mr. Charles M. Hoy 

 continued his work of collecting for the Museum specimens of the 

 very interesting fauna of Australia. The results of this expedition 

 are of especial value for two reasons : First, the Australian fauna 

 has heretofore been but scantily represented in the Museum, and, 

 second, the remarkable fauna of that continent is rapidly being ex- 

 terminated through various causes. During the year two shipments 

 were received from Mr. Hoy containing a total of 440 mammals well 

 prepared, several of which were hitherto unrepresented in the collec- 



