PREFACE 



I'^ield cxphjration provides an indispensable tool in the scientist's 

 efforts to increase knowledge. Many parts of the face of the earth 

 are yet hut imperfectly known to science, and even in those parts 

 supposedly well-known, intensive field investigations continue to hring" 

 to light new facts and new specimens of importance to a full knowl- 

 edge of the earth and its life. In the attempt to aid in expanding the 

 l)oundaries of that knowledge, particularly in the fields of geology, 

 hiology. and anthropology, there go out each year ivom the Smith- 

 sonian Institution numerous expeditions, not only to many parts of 

 our own country, hut to the far corners of the earth — China, Africa, 

 Labrador, and the islands of the sea. Observations are made in the 

 field, and hundreds of thousands of specimens are brought back to 

 Washington for later study at the Institution. 



The scientific results of these expeditions are published eventually 

 in the various technical series issued by the Institution ; the present 

 ])amphlet serves as a preliminary announcement. i)y word and picture, 

 of the aims and scope of Smithsonian efforts in field exploration 

 during 1928. 



W. \\ Tkuk. 

 Editor, Sniithsoiiiaii Iiisliliitidii. 



