12 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 



ject, and aloug the fault zone the conglomerate has been broken into angular 

 fragments and recemented together into a hard rock. In one case this re- 

 cementation had been caused by silica and in another by iron ore. Large ex- 

 amples of both kinds of this fault breccia were collected. Photographs of these 

 specimens in situ were secured so that explanatory exhibition labels can be 

 illustrated. 



THE GOLLINS-GARNER FRENCH CONGO EXPEDITION. 



In December, 1916, an expedition known as the " Collins-Garner 

 Expedition in the interests of the Smithsonian Institution " sailed 

 from New York for Bordeaux and from there to Africa, with the 

 object of procuring a general collection of vertebrates and especially 

 the great apes. The expedition encountered many difficulties and 

 delays owing to the war, but by the summer of 1918 they had estab- 

 lished permanent headquarters near Fernan Vaz, French Congo. 

 A letter from Mr. R. L. Garner, who has the general management 

 of the expedition, states in part : 



Our domicile is located on the edge of a vast plain, traversed here and there 

 by belts and spurs of forest. In those plots of bush live great numbers of 

 chimpanzees, and for the first time in my long experience among them I have 

 seen whole families of them out on the open plain. Frequently they cross the 

 plain from one belt of bush to another, in some places a mile or so in width, 

 and not a tree or bush in that distance to shelter them from attack. They 

 often come within 200 to 300 yards of my house and sometimes manifest deep 

 interest in trying to find out what this new thing is set up in their midst. I 

 have seen as many as four or five different groups of them in the same day, 

 and one of these contained 11 members. 



Mr. Aschemeier has collected well on to 2,000 specimens, and nearly all of 

 them he has killed with his own gun. Some of these specimens are exceed- 

 ingly rare and valuable. When you recall the fact that he came as taxi- 

 dermist of the expedition and not as chasseur, he was not expected to provide 

 the specimens that he was to preserve. 



We have forwarded six consignments of specimens to the Museum and have 

 a seventh well on the way ; but we find great difficulty in getting the steamers 

 to take themifrom Port Gentil (Cap Lopez), because they are all under the 

 direction of the French military authorities. Two of our last shipments were 

 still at Port Gentil last month, where one of them has been lying since last 

 January and all steamers declined to take it. Once both shipments were 

 taken aboard the steamer and bill of lading signed when the captain changed 

 his mind and sent the whole lot back on shore, with the accumulated charges 

 of 40 francs for embarkation and debarkation. 



We have sent 12 or 13 specimens of bufEalo, several specimens and species of 

 antelope, and two or three fine specimens of the "red river hog," beside a 

 large collection of monkeys, representing six or seven species of both sexes and 

 various ages. I think in all we have sent over 1.500 up to this time. Of 

 course, this includes birds, etc., not insects, and we have on hand a goodly 

 number. 



War conditions seriously interfered with the shipment of the 

 material collected, but later on a larg'fe number pf interesting speci- 

 mens were received by the Museum. 



