Laryum Apr. 
So far as places and climate go in this part of the tropical 
world I would say that Yangambi is tops. It *3 one of the few places 
in the Congo and perhaps central Africa where one can go safely 
in the streams and indeed the Congo Belf . Regr. ably we did not 
learn of it till late yesterday from the doctor in charge of the 
Station Hospital. The ass't* director received us at 11 a.m. and we 
had a pleasant hour with him and his wife on the porch of their home 
overlooking a bend in the river from atop a high (65 ft. +) bluff 
the similarity and the beauty of the scene reminded me more than 
ever of Mt. Vernon, though the brick house is so very different. It 
is here that the;/^ have domesticated the wild Indian water ?buffalo* 
The trainer and keeper now walks among them. Some distance from the 
Station proper is the Hydrobiological Station on the grounds of the 
fish hatchery. Pond culture is just one more of their many research 
projects and they must have sane 70 rearing pools with running water 
brought from river in canals of which more were in process of being 
dug. Otherwise biological work in the fresh water life hereabouts 
is at a standstill, and the very wonderful collection of local fishes, 
of which there are a host of peculiar kinds, has been much neglected. 
There is a possibility that some of it may be obtained for our own 
National collections. I»ve tried to pave the way for an exchange or 
even gift of part of it. We have so poor a representation of African 
animals of all kinds in Washington. Of big game, yes. Many people 
have hunted it and brought back trophies and whole skins. Every 
Museum in our country of any size has an African Bird and Mammal Hall. 
