24 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. ^2 



and the partial revision of the entire peccary family (Tayassuidae), 

 the latter involving' redefinitions of the two livino" genera of this 

 group, and of the two suilline families Suidae and Ta\assuidae. An 

 important outcome of this preliminary investigation has heen to 

 emphasize the fact that the entire group, and especially the Pleisto- 

 cene species of American suillines, is in need of thorough revision. 



EXPEDITION TO SOUTH AMERICA IN THE INTERESTS OF THE 

 ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 



Dr. and Airs. C. G. Abbot sailed from New York on May 2, by 

 way of the Panama Canal to Antofagasta, Chile. The expedition 

 had three objects. First, to observe the total eclipse of the sun of 

 May 29 at La Paz, Bolivia ; second, to enable Dr. Abbot to confer 

 with the officials of the Argentine Weather Bureau in relation to the 

 use of the observations of the solar radiation for the purpose of 

 forecasting weather conditions ; third, in order that a visit might be 

 paid at the observing station of the Smithsonian Institution at 

 Calama, Chile, which is maintained by the Hodgkins Fund under the 

 direction of Mr. A. F. Moore and assisted by Mr. L. H. Abbot. 



Landing at Antofagasta, the journey was continued by the English 

 railroad up into Bolivia over that desert which Darwin describes in 

 his " Voyage of the Beagle." Although the travelers had visited the 

 Sahara Desert in southern Algeria, and the deserts of the southwest 

 of the United States, there was still reserved for them a stronger 

 impression of a void wilderness in the Nitrate Desert of Chile. 

 Neither bird, beast, insect nor crawling thing, nor any vegetation 

 could be seen as far as the eye could reach. 



StopjMug a day at the observing station at Calama. in order to 

 repack the api)aratus required for the eclipse expedition, and joined 

 by Mr. A. F. Moore, director of the observing station, they went on 

 to La Paz. The plateau of Bolivia is eminently the country of 

 mirage. The railroad ap])eared to rise out of a lake and to run into 

 a lake at no distant point beyond, and all of the mountains appeared 

 to be islands rising out of the lake. The desolation, while not equal 

 to that of the Nitrate Desert of Chile, was yet very marked. Near 

 La Paz the country becomes cultivated with fields of grain and 

 vegetables, and villages of people are passed by on either side. The 

 mountains take on a new grandeur, especially the great mountain 

 lUimani, which rises to a height of 22,000 feet or more. 



However one may have been impressed with the grandeur of the 

 mountains, he is unprepared for the view of the great canyon in 



