10 ANXUAL KEPOBT .SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1922. 



For assistance and courtesies extended to Mr. Hoy while in Aus- 

 tralia the Smithsonian Institution wishes to make grateful acknowl- 

 edgment to the authorities of the Australian Museum, Sydney; the 

 Queensland Museum, Brisbane ; the South Australian Museum, Ade- 

 laide; the '\A'est Australian Museum and Art Gallery, Perth; and 

 the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart ; also and particu- 

 larly to Dr. Charles Hedley and Dr. Charles Anderson, of Sydney: 

 Harry Burrell. Esq.. of Kensington, New South Wales; and Capt. 

 S. W". White of Fulham, South Australia. 



BIOLOGICAL EXPLORATION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 



Dr. W. L. Abbott, wdiose generosity in years past has enabled the 

 Institution to take advantage of many opportunities in biological and 

 other explorations, himself visited during the year the Dominican 

 Republic, working in both the Samana Peninsula and the region 

 lying between Sanchez (at the head of Samana Bay) and Puerto 

 Plata, on the north coast. Having visited this region before, he was 

 able to select new and interesting localities for collecting. 



Doctor Abbott's work included botanical, zoological, and ethnologi- 

 cal collecting, and the specimens sent in to the National Museum will 

 go far toward completing the various series representing this region. 

 Some 4,000 plants were collected, of which about 20 per cent were 

 ferns. The ethnological material, including aboriginal Indian pot- 

 tery and idols, i^s of great interest and has been described and figured 

 in the annual pamphlet on the explorations and field work of the 

 Institution. 



ENTOISrOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO ALASKA. 



Dr. J. M. Aldrich, associate curator of insects in the National 

 Museum, spent several weeks during the field season collecting in- 

 sects in Alaska. The Government railroad from the southern coast 

 to Fairbanks, now nearing completion, offered an opportunity for 

 travel not heretofore existing, and it was felt that it was important 

 to know more about the insect fauna of this great region in view 

 of the fact that the population will undoubtedly increase with the 

 completion of the railroad. Eegarding his work, Doctor Aldrich 

 says : 



The expedition resulted in tlie accession of about 10,000 specimens of 

 Alaska insects, nearly all from the interior region. As far as they have 

 been studied up to the present time they indicate three somewhat distinct 

 faunal regions in the territory covered. 



First, the maritime fauna consisting of the insects living upon the sea- 

 shore and depending upon the ocean for necessary conditions of existence. 

 Insects of this group extend down the coast, in many cases as far as the 



