30 Report of the President 



After four years of brilliant exploration along the Arctic 



coast, Mr. V. Stefansson left the service of the American 



s f . Museum early in 1913, and entered that of the 



A , Canadian Government. His "Preliminary Eth- 



Anderson - J 



„ nological Report, covering his observations 



between July, 1908, and September, 191 2, con- 

 stituting a volume of about four hundred pages, has been 

 edited by Curator Wissler and published by the Trustees as 

 Part I of Volume XIV of the Anthropological Papers. The 

 Report preserves all the details observed by this gifted 

 explorer and the whole narrative of his contact with the so- 

 called "blond Eskimo." The Museum hopes in the future 

 to secure the other sections of the volume from Mr. Rudolph 

 M. Anderson, the other member of the party, and thus round 

 out the history of one of the most remarkable expeditions 

 undertaken under its auspices. 



FAUNISTIC HALLS 



The geographic or faunistic arrangement of the mammals 



is proceeding slowly. Considerable progress has been made 



-_ A r . in the development of the Hall of North 



New African .',,,,',.,. 



H -. American Mammals, the first of our new series 



of faunistic halls to be installed. For the 

 future African Hall extremely original plans have been pre- 

 pared by the architects, under the direction of Mr. Carl E. 

 Akeley, who for the past two years has taken charge of the 

 preparation of all our African collections. This hall is fully 

 described in the May number of the American Museum Journal, 

 and is designed by Mr. Akeley for a series of mammal groups 

 around the sides of the main floor, illuminated from above, 

 while around the gallery will be a series of smaller mammal 

 groups also with upper illumination. In the center will be the 

 great group of elephants which Mr. Akeley collected in Africa 

 and which he is now engaged in mounting after an original 

 and permanent method of his own. This hall will be entirely 

 devoted to scenes of African animals and of African natives in 

 relation to the animals. When completed this will be a place 

 of large and quiet beauty, with long unobstructed views, 



