30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 



Sirius, Procyon, and Betelgeuse. Figure 31 shows the corrected 

 results in the spectrum of Aldebaran as reduced to the normal wave- 

 length scale and compared with the energy of the perfect radiator or 

 " absolutely black body '' at 3,000°. 



BIOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN THE YANG-TZE VALLEY, CHINA 



On December 15, 1922, Mr. Charles M. Hoy sailed for China to 

 collect vertebrates for the Smithsonian Institution in the region of 

 the Yang-tze Valley. As in previous years his work was made possible 

 by the generosity of Dr. William L. Abbott of Philadelphia. ]\Iuch 

 delay was experienced in clearing the collecting outfit at the custom 

 house in Shanghai. Consecjuently it was impossible to begin serious 

 field-work until ]\Iay 17 when the supplies at last reached Huping 

 College, Yochow City, Hunan. Work was carried on in this general 

 district until June 24, when Ploy wrote as follows : 



I am enclosing my official report on the Yochow district, also pages from 

 my catalogues covering all specimens collected to date. I have finished up, 

 for the time being, my work in this district and expect to start, in a few days 

 for Kiangsi. I would have been away before this only my headman stepped 

 on a bamboo spike and poisoned his foot. He has been in the local hospital 

 for over a week but will be discharged tomorrow. When it comes to exas- 

 perating delays, this trip seems to be ridden by a sure enough jinx. First one 

 thing then another comes up but I am hoping that the finish will be better 

 than the start. I suppose that you have been reading, in the papers, about the 

 unsettled state of affairs here in China. Things are going from bad to worse 

 and there is, now, practically no central Government. The various Provinces 

 are ruled by their Alilitary Governors who recognize no power but their own 

 and as this power is. generally, not very strong, the lawless element has 

 taken full advantage of the situation. Bandits are everywhere overruning 

 the country and very little is being done to check them. Even those bandits 

 that derailed a train, in Shantung, and captured twenty-six foreigners and over 

 three hundred natives, whom they held for ransom, have gone unpunished. 

 In fact you might say that they were rewarded, for they were enrolled, en 

 masse, into the army! Such things just tend to make the bandits, in other 

 parts, all the bolder. Last week a Catholic priest was kidnapped from near 

 Hankow and he is now being held for ransom which is fixed at $1,000,000 

 (Mex.) or sixteen thousand rifles. Travel, anywhere through China, is, of a 

 consequence, not without a certain amount of danger, but I am going ahead 

 with all my plans and trust to luck in getting through. If I am caught, all 

 that I ask is that nobody ransom me. I don't believe in encouraging the 

 blighters. There was a bit of a scare thrown into the community here, in 

 the disappearance of two of the American professors, last night. At first it 

 was thought that they had fallen into the hands of bandits but it appears 

 that they were out in a canoe when a storm blew up and nothing has been 

 heard of them since. We have searched all day but found nothing but the 

 two paddles and the hat of one of the men. Nothing has been heard of 



