Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-08-21
l|TTlE.KNOWN REGIONS
Explorations Cover
the Whole World.
T~enty-twO Separate Expeditions
Visit ms Many Regions during the
Past Yenr in the Interests
Of Science

the smithsonian Institution at Washing
ton is the exploration of ittle-known
regions of the world. A fully Illustrated
account of the fleld-work during the past
year by members of its STAFF ana COL
laborators has recently been Issued by
the Smithsonian. Among the regions
visited by the twenty-five separate ex-
petitions are many States in this country
Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia. Africa
Borneo and Celebes. The explorations,
all of which wefe in the interest Of
science, include work in geology, botany.
zoology. anthropology, archaeology, ethno-
logy, and astrophysics.
The pamphlet begins with an account
by Secretary Walcott of his search for
fossils in the Canadian Rockies, accom-
panied by a number of beautiful photo
graphs of mountains, lakes and glaciers.
DR.. Walcott has carried on this work
during several summers and has worked
on the geological structure and fossil
occurrences of the Upper Bow Valley
north of Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada,
Other geological field work by members
OF the staff was undertaken for the
purpose of obtaining exhibition material
and series of rocks for use in schools.
The head surator of geology made two
trips for the purpose of securing material
desired by the Naval Experiment Station
for a newly devised apparatus
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Obser-
vatory on Mount Wilson, under the di-
recton OF Mr.. l.. B. Aldrich, has made
some valuable experiments with the as
sistance of the L. s. Aviation Service
at Arcadia California. A special inStru-
ment, the pyranometer, devised by Mes
1rS hot lei, ,a
heat from the sun and sky combined
or from the gun alone, or from the sky
alone, as it falls upon a horizontal sur
face. Mr.. Aldrich used the pyranometer
to measure the rejecting power of the
the San Gabriel Valley, lying between
Mount Wilson and the sea. A military
balloon acted as support for the pyrano-
meter above the fog. and the results
were very satisfactory. The measure
ments are of much interest to meteo-
rologists in consideration of the tempera-
ture Of the earth. which is to large
extent covered with clouds.
The Collins-Garner French Congo ex-
petition procured a large collection Of
vertebrates. especially of the large apes
for the Museum. An interesting letter
from Mr.. r. l.. Garner, the scientist.
well-known because of his previous
studies of chimpanzees and gorillas in
the same region, says: "Our domicile Is
located on the edge of vast plain, trav-
ersed here and there by belts and spurs
of forest In those plots of bush live
great numbers of chimpanzees, and for
the first time in my long experience
among them I have seen whole families
of them out on the open plain Frequent
ly they cross the plain from one belt
of bush to another, in some places a
mile or so in width and not a tree or
bush in that distance to shelter them
from attack. They often come thin
200 to 300 yards of my house and some
times manifest deep interest in trying
to find out what this new thing is, set
up In their midst. l have seen many
rs four or five different groups of them
in the same day, and one Of these con-
tanned eleven members. Ono very old
man has come, on two occasions, within
100 yards of me and scrutinized RE very
closely, while his wife Gas 1 took his
companion to be) appeared to be very
uneasy and suspicious. On several oc-
casions l have seen the young ones romp-
ing and tumbing about on the grass
chasing and scuffling with each other.
exactly as you see human children do.
school of them slept. a few nights
ago, within less than 100 yards OF my
house, in very small clump of bush,
not more than hectare in extent, on
one side of which Is Lake Fernan Vaz
and all around the rest Of it an open
plain, with the quarters of my crew.
men not more than 200 yards away on
the opposite side from me and native
village in plain view 500 yards away at
an angle of about 30 degrees from the
crewmen's village. ! have never before
seen so many chimpanzees as / find
here and / have never seen them so
indifferent to the presence of human
beings. Even while I was building and
had as many as IS or 20 natives moving
about the place, those reckless apes
would often cross the open plain in full
view and with apparent composure.''
Equally valuable work was done in
Borneo by NJ. Raven in gathering to-
gether large collection of birds and
mammals, all from regions not hitherto
represented.
The pamphlet then describes botanical
explorations in Ecuador Three months
were devoted to the work there, and
several hundred packets of seeds, num-
Der of wood specimens, samples of Gin
chonabark, as well as small collections
of fishes, frogs, shells and other zoolo-
gical material were obtained. The bota-
meal ficld-work carried on by the Di-
vision of Plants in the Southwestern
United States consisted chiefly of a
study of grasses and timber. Several
days We're spent in investigation in the
vicinity OF Longs Peak, Colorado. An
extract from the pamphlet says: THE
Underline is at approximately A,OoO feet,
In this vicinity the trees are stunted
by the force of the winds and can de-
velop only in the lee of rocks and hill
locks. II is not uncommon to ind a
dense growth OF pine or spruce up to
the level of protecting ledge, but pre-
vented by the force of the wind from
extending above this level"
A four weeks exploration Of the little
known region of the Ten Thousand Islands
in Florida by DR.. Ales Hardicka, or the
National Museum, was made Tor the
purpose of studying more closely the semi
mole Indians living there |aluable data
as to their former history were obtained
Archaeological work on old Indian con-
structions in Peru and also In COLORADO
and Utah brought forth interesting re-
suits, New studies were made OF the
lncas, and also of the cliff dweiiers IN
our own country, study OF the pre-
historic Inhabitants of the Gulf of Mexico
brought to light new facts about the
mound builders, which differ from those
found in the United States. Research
was also carried on in Arizona ana CEN
trail Missouri on archaeological remains
with special attention given to lhdiah