xvi - Bulletin American Museum of Natural History [Vol. XXXIX 



Modern Period (1890-1914) 



As far as Central Africa is concerned this period of twenty-five 

 years was one of great scientific activity, in which so many explorers and 

 scientists of various nationalities participated that it is practically 

 impossible to enumerate them all. Therefore the following account 

 deals with only the most important contributions. Although it has been 

 the constant policy of the Congo Free State and of the Belgian Colonial 

 Office to aid the scientific labors of all investigators, up to the present 

 by far the greater part of the work has been accomplished by the 

 Belgians. 



Belgian. — Bia-Franqui Expedition (J. Cornet and P. Briart, 1890- 

 1893); Em. and Marc. Laurent (1893, 1895, 1903-1904); A. Dewevre 

 (1895-1896); A. Cabra and Fr. Michel (1896-1903); Ch. Lemaire 

 (1899-1900); Commission on Sleeping Sickness (J. Rodhain, C. Pons, F. 

 Vanden Branden, and J. Bequaert, 1910-1912) ; L. Stappers (1911-1912) ; 

 E. Hutereau and J. Van der Gucht (1911-1912); A. Pilette (1912- 

 1913); and J. Bequaert (1913-1915). 



British.— J. E. Dutton and J. L. Todd (1903-1905); S. A. Neave 

 (1904-1908); P. H. G. Powell-Cotton (1905-1906); Boyd Alexander 

 and G. B. Gosling (1906); The Ruwenzori Expedition of the British 

 Museum (R. B. Woosnam and A. G. F. Wollaston, 1906); S. and S. A. 

 Neave (1907); E. Torday (1907-1909); C. Christy (1911-1914); and 

 Rogers (1913-1914). 



French. — Du Bourg de Bozas and Dr. Brumpt (1902) ; A. Chevalier 

 (1902-1903 and 1912); and E. Gromier (1911). 



German. — G. A. von Goetzen and W. von Prittwitz (1894); R. 

 Schlechter (1899); L. Frobenius (1904-1906); S. Ledermann (1906- 

 1908); A. F. Duke of Mecklenburg, H. Schubotz and J. Mildbraed 

 (1907-1908); H. Schubotz (1911); and T. Kassner (1908). 



Austrian.— T. Thornier (1896 and 1909) ; and F. Grauer (1908). 



Italian. — Elena, Duchess of Aosta (1909). 



Swedish.— A. v. Rosen and R. E. Fries (1911-1912) ; E. Arrhenius 

 (1913-1915). 



American.— Th. Roosevelt (1910). 



Prior to the organization of the Congo Free State (1885), the Congo 

 Basin was practically terra incognita from a scientific point of view. 

 Only fragmentary data had been obtained by the earliest explorers, 

 such as Tuckey, Schweinfurth, Pechuel Loesche, Cameron, Pogge, 

 Capello, and Ivens. At about the time Stanley traced the course of the 

 Congo River, King Leopold II conceived his far-sighted project of 



