PREFACE 



The present pamphlet is intended as a preliminary announcement 

 of Smithsonian field expeditions during the calendar year 1937. A 

 large percentage of the Institution's researches are concerned with the 

 sciences of geology, biology, and anthropology, and in these sciences 

 field-work plays an important role. Many investigations in the natural 

 sciences depend largely upon data which can only be obtained through 

 actual work in the field. Such expeditions are necessary also to fill 

 in gaps in the study collections of the National Museum, which form 

 the basis for much of the Institution's research. 



Some of the expeditions herein described were financed wholly by 

 the Institution, but others were cooperative undertakings with other 

 organizations interested in the promotion of the same sciences. The 

 technical results of these expeditions and of the investigations to 

 which they relate will later appear in one of the other series of pub- 

 lications issued by the Institution and two of its branches, the National 

 Museum and the Bureau of American Ethnology. 



W. P. True, Editor. 



