The Forrest City times., 1911-01-27

to the museums collection Finally got a shot and down went the monster turned with a shout Of rejoicing to Heller, who was near me Heller went over and examined the elephant and then turned to me with grave face and said Colonel this elephant died of apopIexy You missed him mile. Heller keeps on telling that story and l am willing, for he gets lots of fun out of 1t. All l have to say is If the elephant dropped dead of apoplexy at the instant fired 1t was the most considerate elephant that ever roamed Africa
 In the African fields there are thirty or forty species of antelopes, one, the giant eland is big ger than OK, and 1t inhabits fever stricken territory in which only few hunters and those of the hardest kind will venture The colonel Is exceedingly proud of the giant elands which he secured and which in possession of the museum and in perfect condition for eventual mounting for show purposes.
 One of the antelopes which the expedition se- cured has remarkable hide. Colonel Roosevelt spent long time examining and admiring this specimen. The skin is iridcscent and as you turn it at different angles to the light 1t sent forth colors of blue green, red and purple It has watered silk effect. but perhaps no watered silk that woman ever wore held such a marvel ous combination of hues.
 Dr. C. Hart Merriam. who is now, has been said. the head of the Hartman Geological Foun- dation, was the first man to suggest to Theodore Roosevelt that after he retired from the presl- dency he ought to go to Africa to collect speei- for the National Museum. Credit for the suggestion was given Dr. Merriam by Mir Roose- welt in his lecture before the National Geographic Society. It Is probable that Dr. Merriam is the foremost authority in the United States on sev- eral branches of natural science. He is particu- larly interested in bears and 1t by him that comparisons made of bear skulls by which recently separation of species was made where It not known definitely that difference existed
 IL must have been fully a century ago that an English scientist hunter who had secured speci- of the cane brake bear declared that it was 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 1t never definitely was settled the general opinion remaining that the cane brake bear simply the ordinary black bear of the Alleghenes the Adlrondacks 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 species was right. The colonel to put the matter to the test sent the skulls of the bears be had killed to Dr. Merriam who put in lot of painstaking study comparing them with the skulls of the ordinary black bear and 1t was found the Engshman who had eontended for separate species right If 1t had not been for the Roosevelt study and his deternina. tion to submit the matter to the test science probably would still be holding to the belief that the eastern United States have only one species of the bruin tribe
 In the bear room of the museum Mir Roose. welt the skulls of the species which he was instrumental in giving separate place to and he saw the skulls of every bear known to the world. To the laymen present these skulls were nothing but skulls and originally they might have formed the head bones of any kind of an animal but scientists can rick up a bone of any kind and not only tell what it came from but from 1t can construct the entire naimal
 In the room set aside for the present as storage place for the collection of African birds