Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1911-01-28

the museums collection Finally 1 got shot
and down went the monster. 1 turned with a
shout of rejoicing to Heller, who was near me.
Heller and examined the elephant and
then turned to me with grave face and said,
Colonel this elephant died of apoplexy. You
missed him mile Heller keeps telling that
story and 1 willing, for he gets lots of fun
out of it, All have to is if the elephant
dropped dead of apoplexy at the instant fired
1T the most cOnSiderate elephant that
roamed Africa"
In the African fields there are thirty or forty
species of antelopes, one, the giant Gland, is big
ger than OK, and 1T fnhabits a fever stricken
territory in which only few hunters and those
of the hardest kind will venture. The colonel is
exceedingly proud of the giant Glands which he
secured and which now in possession of the
museum and in perfect condition for eventual
mounting for show purposes.
One of the antelopes which the expedition
cured has remarkable hide. Colonel Roosevelt
spent long time examining and admirng this
specimen. The skin is iridescent and you
turn it at different angles to the light it sent
forth colors of blue, green, red and purple. 1t
has a watered silk effect, but perhaps watered
silk that wore held such marvel
com animation of hues.
DR.. c. Hart Merriam, who is now, as has been
said, the head of the Hartman Geological F'oun-
dation, the first to suggest to Theodore
Roosevelt that after he retired from the presi-
dency he ought to go to Africa to collect spect
mems for the National Museum. Credit for the
suggestion given DIR. Merriam by Mr.. Roose-
welt his lecture before the National Geographic
Society 1t is probable that DR.. Merriam is the
foremost authority in the United States sew
eral branches of natural science. He is particu-
larly interested in bears and 1t by him that
comparisons were made Of bear skulls by which
recently separation OF species was made where
1t not known definitely that a difference
existed
1t must have been fully century ago that
English scientist hunter who had secured a specf-
OF the brake bear declared that 1t
a species distinct from the ordinary black bear
of the eastern United States, the bear known to
every dweller in the eastern region remote from
the populous centers-
There a dispute among scientists about
the matter and it never definitely settled,
the general opinion remaining that the
brake bear was simply the ordinary black bear
of the Alleghenies, the Adirondacks and the
woods of Michigan, Wisconsin and Maine When
Colonel Roosevelt killed his specimens of the
cane brake bear he examined them and came to
the conclusion that the Englishman who had
separated it as a species right The colonel
put the matter to the test sent the skulls of
the bears he had killed to DIR. Merriam, who put
in lot of painstaking study comparing them
with the skulls of the ordinary black bear and
it found the Englishman who had contended
been for the Roosevelt study and his determine
ton to submit the matter to the test science
probably would still be holding the belief that
the eastern United States have only species
of the bruin tribe
In the bear room of the museum Mr. Roose-
welt saw the skulls of the species which he
instrumental in giving separate place to and
he the skulls OF every bear known to the
world To the laymen present these skulls were
nothing but skulls and originally they might have
but scientists pick up a bone of any kind and
not only tell what 1t came from. but from 1t can
construct the entire naimal
In the room set aside for the present as a
storage place for the collection OF African birds