50 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1925 



gifts from the University of Texas, George L. Fisher, Houston, Tex., 

 Brother G. Arsene, Covington, La., the University of South Dakota, 

 and Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, or in exchange from the Gray 

 Herbarium and the New York Botanical Garden. 



EXPLORATIONS AND EXPEDITIONS 



As already stated, the most important collections accessioned dur- 

 ing the year, with the exception of those coming to the divisions of 

 insects, were the results of expeditions and explorations in China 

 carried on under various auspices. These were prosecuted during 

 the first half of the year, as from dangers and difficulties resulting 

 from civil war, banditry, and an increasing feeling against foreign- 

 ers in China, such activities have since received a decided setback, 

 and the outlook for their continuance at present is not promising. 



The most important of these expeditions in China were those 

 conducted by the National Geographic Society, to which the Museum 

 is greatly indebted for the magnificent collections received. The 

 one under the leadership of Dr. Joseph F. Eock during 1923-24 

 was carried on mostly in the Province of Yunnan, reached through 

 Burma. Doctor Rock pursued a course through the western part 

 of Yunnan, gave considerable attention to the Snow Mountains 

 near Likiang, and penetrated as far as Mili in western Szechwan, 

 which is something over 200 miles west and south of Suifu, Mr. 

 Graham's headquarters. Thus to some extent Rock's material con- 

 nects with that received from Graham. As a result of Doctor 

 Rock's labor, the Museum came into the possession of about 80,000 

 plants, over 1,600 birds, 60 mammals, and other material from a 

 region of great importance. The material received from the two 

 Wulsin expeditions, also under auspices of the National Geographic 

 Society, came from two widely separated regions of the Chinese 

 Empire. The first one was undertaken in 1923, but the bulk of 

 the collections did not arrive until the present year. Starting from 

 Peking Mr, Wulsin reached Paotow, Inner Mongolia, in March, and 

 from there followed or paralleled the route through the Alashan 

 Desert and western Kansu to Lake Kokonor, in northeastern Tibet, 

 taken by Russian explorer Colonel Przevalski just 50 years before. 



Wulsin reached Kokonor about the middle of August. Return- 

 ing, he made a trip south to the Min Shan Range, which forms the 

 boundary between the Provinces of Kansu and Szechwan, and 

 reached Hangchow fu, by way of Titao, September 20, making im- 

 portant collections on the way. The material secured on this trip is 

 of importance since the specimens are practically topotypes of the 

 numerous new species which were described from Przevalski's 

 famous journey. His collections also tie up with those which Col. 



