Report of the Preside?it 27 



Non-publication, partly because of lack of funds, has 

 also been the fate of many other expeditions, so that one 

 of the most pressing obligations which now rest upon the 

 Trustees and members of our Scientific Staff is the pushing 

 forward of reports on explorations which have cost the 

 Museum a great deal of money and for which we should 

 secure not only the results which appear in our exhibition 

 halls, but the scientific results which, through publication, shall 

 reach and influence a wider public. A few instances may be 

 mentioned. The explorations in Peru of Dr. A. F. Bandelier, 

 in 1892 and 1896, supported by Mr. Henry Villard, have not 

 yet been published, and the unfortunate death of Doctor 

 Bandelier renders the publication of the results of his investi- 

 gations very unlikely. The results of the explorations of 

 Professor Marshall H. Saville in Mexico in 1897-1898, and of 

 Mr. B. T. B. Hyde and Dr. F. E. Hyde, at Pueblo Bonito, 

 New Mexico, 1897-1898, have never been published. The 

 Report of the "Albatross" Expedition, under Dr. Charles H. 

 Townsend, to Lower California in the year 191 1, supported by 

 Mr. Arthur Curtiss James, is still incomplete. The various 

 journeys of Mr. Roy C. Andrews in Alaska, Japan and Korea, 

 after Cetacea, are either partially reported or in press. The 

 observations of Mr. Carl E. Akeley, when on a trip to Africa for 

 elephants and other mammals during the year 1911, still await 

 scientific publication. To forestall a similar delay regarding 

 our Congo exploration, it is proposed to begin immediately 

 the publication of the results obtained and of the observations 

 made by Messrs. Lang and Chapin during the years 1909 to 

 1915 in the Belgian Congo region; first, in the form of a 

 popular volume on the natural history of the Congo; second, 

 a succession of bulletins on the scientific results of the expedi- 

 tion, to be divided among various specialists; third, a series 

 of memoirs on the mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, 

 etc., of this vast and little-known region. 



