130 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



lying about Lake Rudolf. The expedition ended about September 1, 

 1912, and the party sailed for America on September 16. 



The collections as a whole embraced plants, mammals, birds, rep- 

 tiles, bactrachians, fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, and other inverte- 

 brates. About 5,000 birds were obtained for the National Museum. 



Borneo expedition. — The board would recall that Dr. W. L. Ab- 

 bott, a collaborator of the United States National Museum, very 

 generously contributed the sum of $5,000 for carrying on an expedi- 

 tion to Dutch East Borneo. Reports had been received that the ex- 

 pedition was successful, but as yet the specimens acquired had not 

 been shipjjed. 



Lyman Siberian expedition. — The expedition to the Altai Moun- 

 tains, in Siberia, which was financed by Dr. Theodore Lyman, of 

 Cambridge, Mass., left Washington May 21, 1912, and returned Sep- 

 tember 16, 1912. As arranged, Mr. Ned Hollister, a naturalist in 

 the National Museum, accompanied Dr. Lyman. The expedition re- 

 sulted in the securing of 350 mammals, 300 birds, and 100 miscel- 

 laneous specimens. 



The mammals would remain in the National Museum, while the 

 birds were intended for the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cam- 

 bridge. The scientific work was entirely in charge of Mr. Hollister, 

 assisted by an experienced alpinist, Conrad Kain. The region cov- 

 ered lay in the Kurai district. Government of Tomsk. The collection 

 of mammals was one of the most important received in recent years, as 

 the region was hitherto unrepresented in the Museum, and the fauna 

 was of special interest on account of its close relationship with that 

 of the United States. 



British Columhia expedition. — Under the direction of the secretary 

 an expedition was undertaken in British Columbia north of the 

 Yellowhead Pass route of the new Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. 



Outfitting at Fitzhugh, the party entered the high, mountain 

 ranges northwest of the Yellowhead Pass, 275 miles north of the 

 forty-ninth parallel — the boundary between the United States and 

 Canada. Two of the young men of the party collected mammals, 

 the skins and skulls of which are now in the National Museum. 



The special work of the secretary was to determine upon the best 

 locality for a geological section of the mountain ranges forming the 

 main mass of the Canadian Rockies in this region. A general section 

 was carried across the main range in such a manner as to ascertain 

 that there was a thickness of some 12,000 feet of Cambrian fcssil- 

 iferous sedimentary rocks and 3,000 feet of Ordovician strata above. 

 In other words, the main mountain peaks and ridges of this region, 

 one of the most picturesque known in America, were carved by the 

 action of rain, frost, snow, and ice from this great series of sandstones 

 and limestones. 



