TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 69 



And then began our final act. All the crates for our mammal 

 gift had long been in readiness, and Mr. Ditmars and the keepers 

 had worked out their plans for crating, down to the smallest 

 details. Forthwith the catching and crating began. 



In making up the list of gifts, the Director kept constantly 

 in mind the necessity to send a zoologically representative col- 

 lection, that would cover the greatest possible number of orders, 

 families and important genera. Of the larger mammals it was 

 deemed best to send single adult male specimens rather than pairs 

 with a view to the possibilities of breeding. This view was, later 

 on, cordially approved by Director L'Hoest. 



In pursuance of this principle we shipped a fine adult bull 

 American bison, an adult bull elk, and other male hoofed animals 

 of large size. 



The task of crating was wonderfully successful. It began 

 on October 30, and was finished early in the morning of the 

 31st, without injury to anything. By noon of the 31st everything 

 was on board our lighter at the foot of 134th Street. Curator 

 Ditmars made moving picture records of the principal events, 

 and at the last annual meeting of our Society they formed a 

 feature of unusual interest. 



The business of getting ten truck-loads of animals and food 

 on board the ship was a very difficult matter. On the whole, and 

 due to circumstances wholly beyond the control of the ship's 

 officers and our own men, the task was the most difficult and 

 exhausting of any one undertaking ever carried through 

 by our force. This was due to the rush in loading the ship with 

 grain from half a dozen floating elevators while our own cargo 

 was struggling to get on. Our force of ten men began work at 

 the ship, from our own chartered lighter, at 5 P.M., and by the 

 time it was finished, just before midnight, they were more dead 

 than alive. This work was accomplished by a mixed force of 

 Park laborers under Mr. Merkel and of keepers under Mr. 

 Ditmars. 



With this shipment went Keepers Walter Thuman and John 

 Reilly, whose services throughout were admirable. The ship lay 

 off Staten Island for nearly a week, and while there the Mon- 

 golian wild horse, which from the first had kicked and fought 

 against confinement in her crate, managed to break her neck. 



