of firing from both sides of the road. 
I would see a soldier standing ready 
with his rifle at the side waiting until 
we came opposite. Then ‘bang’ he 
would let us have it. Sometimes they 
fired in squads; sometimes singly. The 
only reason why we were not riddled 
with bullets is because the Chinese 
soldier is the world’s worst shot. Most 
of them aimed directly at the car, 
when they aimed at all, and the bullets 
struck just behind us. Every now and 
then one would zip in close to my 
head but no one was hit. I really had 
the best of it because the others could 
not see what was going on and driving 
the car kept me busy. I expected every 
moment that one of the tires would 
A Museum expedition to Siberia led 
by Waldemar Jochelson in 1900 
faced a variety of problems. 
Jochelson (standing, center) and his 
wife ( seated ) were the first whites 
to cross the Stanovoi Mountains. 
With winter coming and their horses 
exhausted, Jochelson built a raft 
and floated the party to safety. 
be hit. A blowout at that speed would 
have turned us over. 
“Before long we could see the rear- 
guard of the retreating army and the 
sniping at us ceased. Still our troubles 
were far from being ended. The first 
retreating soldiers, three of them, 
asked for a ride. I thought that they 
might be a protection and let them 
stand on the running board of the car. 
Suddenly one of them saw an officer. 
Without a word he stepped backward 
off the car, rolled on the ground with 
his right hand under the rear wheel. 
As I put on the brakes it ground his 
hand and arm into the hard gravel 
road. I have never seen such a sight; 
his hand was simply shredded. I put 
on a tourniquet to stop the bleeding 
but he was only anxious for us to go. 
“A little farther and we came to 
masses of infantry. Against my pro- 
tests they piled on the car m such 
numbers that it could pull only in first 
speed. The inevitable happened when 
one fell off, breaking his leg. Things 
looked pretty bad. Three or four of 
the soldiers worked themselves into 
a rage, cocked their rifles and were 
just about to shoot us when an officer 
appeared. Fortunately he could speak 
Mandarin Chinese perfectly (the oth- 
ers talked a difficult Shantung dialect) 
and when I explained what had hap- 
pened he cleared a passage so that 
we could drive off the road into the 
fields. With much difficulty we got 
through the gates back to Peking.” 
The Chinese later seized part of 
the expedition’s collections, and An- 
drews was made to understand that 
his collecting days in Central Asia 
were over. 
Today Museum curators and re- 
search associates continue to experi- 
ence politically inspired problems in 
the field, especially in countries with 
unstable revolutionary governments 
and those led by military juntas. Most 
scientists, naturally enough, are reluc- 
tant to discuss their experiences for 
fear the publicity will further com- 
promise their research efforts; their 
stories will have to wait for a later 
day. 
Even without political problems, 
fieldwork has never been easy. But 
its rewards are great; the Museum’s 
collections would be poorer if scien- 
tists had not been willing to take risks. 
And even more important, our knowl- 
edge of cultures that have now van- 
ished would be sketchy indeed. 
Douglas J. Preston 
AMNH 
112 
