12 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1&20. 



great part in the extermination. The native bear died in thousands from a dis- 

 ease which produced a great bony gi-owth on their lieads. A mysterious disease 

 also spread tlirougli tlie ranks of tlie native cat, Dasyurns viverrinus; tlie 

 domestic cat also played a great part in their extermination. Even adult speci- 

 mens of Dafiyunis were often dragged in )iy the family cat. 



It is the killing and buriung of the brush l>y the cattlemen that does the most 

 to kill off the animals, and they are yearly reaching farther and farther away 

 from the railroads. One thing that was very noticeable was the great abund- 

 ance of the introduced rats. They seem to have driven out or killed off prac- 

 tically all the native rats, and I found them everywhere. 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL KESEARCHES IN THE FAR EAST. 



Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, curator of physical anthropology, National 

 Museum, made an extended trip to the Far East in the interest of 

 his researches on the origin of the American Indian and the peopling 

 of eastern Asia. While in China he assisted with the organization 

 of anthropological research in connection with the Peking Union 

 Medical College in China. 



During this trip, which occupied over five months, Dr. Hrdlicka 

 visited Japan, Korea, Manchuria, northern China, and the border 

 of southern Mongolia, examining the local collections as well as the 

 actual populations. The results of the journey have contributed 

 very materially to the solution of the problems for which the trip 

 was made, in addition to which it was possible to arrange for ex- 

 changeg of material, and especially to organize a nucleus for an- 

 thropological investigation in China. 



Dr. Hrdlicka returned by way of HaAvaii, where a two weeks' stop 

 was made for the study of the natives and of Hawaiian problems in 

 general. 



While at Peking Dr. Hrdlicka consulted prominent foreigners, as 

 well as Chinese scholars, on the advisability of establishing in 

 Peking, or of taking steps toward the establishment there of a 

 " China Museum of Natural History," which, like the United States 

 National Museum, would include the departments of geology, biol- 

 ogy, and anthropology, and which would serve as a center for inves- 

 tigators in these lines in China and the Far East. Before his de- 

 parture the opportunity Avas given him by representatives of several 

 of the ministries and other officials to make the proposal more for- 

 mally, with the result that a committee was to be organized for con- 

 sideration of tlie project. 



BOTANICAL EXPLORATION IN HAITI. 



Through the generositj^ of Dr. W. L. Abbott, for many years a 

 benefactor of the Institution, it was possible to detail Mr. Emery C. 

 Leonard, aid in the Division of Plants, United States National 

 Museum, as botanical collector to accompany Dr. Abbott to Haiti 



