Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-07
P|NCHOT RETURNS
AFTER MONTHS IN
SOUTH SEA ISLES
Four Giant Sea Bats Among
Thousands of Specimens
Gathered for Science.
WONDERS BEING SENT
HERE FOR INSPECTION
Former Governors Exploration Of
Romantic Cocos Island Is
Thrilling Story.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Former Gov. Clifford Pinchot of Penn
cylvania is back in Washington after a
scientific collection expedition among
the South Sea Islands, which lasted for
seven months, during which he gathered
thousands Of specimens, the pick of
which will come to the National Mu-
scum here.
Included in the collection are four
giant "sea bats" one species probably
new to science. These strange fish,
some of which weigh more than ton.
are among the wierdest creatures OF
the sea, Mr.. Pinchot says, and much
sea Legendary has been woven about
them. They are frightsome looking
animals, which seem to fly through
the water with their enormous wings.
which sometimes have spread OF ID
feet.
They are greatly feared in the South
Seas, says Mr.. Pinchot, because OF re-
ports that they can leap from the water
and come down on small boat, crush
ing craft and men under the enormous
weight. He never saw one rise from
the sea, and the legend seems improb-
able because of the structure OF the
animal.
Sea Bat True Fish.
The sea bat, or nanta. Mr.. Pinchot
saws, is a true fish, with gillS, which
cannot live out of the water. 1t is
member of the skate family. and is
somewhat like an enormous nat fish.
Those captured by the Pinchot expedi-
ton were harpooned with ordinary
whale lances, putting up a desperate
fight. Mr.. Pinchot was eager to study
the life habits of this wierd creature,
but did not find a suitable location
until it was too late.
The sea bat long has been a choice
prize OF sportsmen. MI. PnchoE re-
called Yesterday that the late Theo-
6ore Roosevelt went to Florida to pur-
sue an allied species, equipped with
spade lance" especially invented for
manta hunting and so constructed that
it would cut through the backbone OF
the creature.
There were 81 persons on the eXpedi-
ton, including three scientists and
members of the Pinchot family. 1t was
undertaken to collect birds, porpoises,
reptiles. fish and shells for the National
Museum and the museum of the Phila-
delphia Academy Of Sciences.
Through Canal to COcos.
After cruising about the Caribbean
last Spring, the expedition went through
the Panama Canal and made its first
port at the romantic island OF Cocos,
600 miles west of Panama. which is
known in pirate lore as the supposed
site of much buried treasure. They then
proceeded to the Galapagos Islands, one
of the wierdest localities on earth, where
they spent more than a month and
made the most complete exploration Of
the islands in many years. They Wis
tied every settlement and penetrated
inland from the barren, arid coasts to
%ho 1oyaraH iF1foFiNV. HJal1oyr
pied only with occasional Ecuadorean
sheep herders, against whom they were
warned but whom they found quite
friendly. Besides securing tortoises and
iguanas, which were forwarded to the
National Geological Park here, they
made as complete collection as posi-
BILE of the fauna of the islands for the
museum collections.
Leaving the Galapagos. the expedition
sailed westward for 5000 miles to the
MarqueSaS Islands, an archipelago
which Mr.. Pinchot describes as one of
the beauty spots of the world. Here
they made especially complete collec-
tions Of birds and land shells, which
probably include several species I'M
long trips into the interior.
To Tuamotu Islands.
From the Marquesas they proceeded
TO the Tuamotu Islands, coral atolls in
the South Pacific, where the fauna is
in complete contrast to that of the
MarquesaS and where particularly rich
collections of shells were made. Here
Mr.. Pinchot found the waters filled with
native pearl divers. From there they
proceeded to Tahiti, the capital of
French Oceania, where Mr.. Pinchot and
his immediate party left the ship and
returned to the United States by
with his craft and return by way, #
Easter Island, with its strange fauna
and its relics of a prehistoric civiliza-
ton, but unavoidable delays forced him
to abandon this plan.
The ship containing the collections
was repaired at Tahiti, and is expected
to arrive at San Francisco early in
January. Then the collections will be
shipped to Washington, where they will
be examined BY scientists of the Smith
sonian Institution and National Mu-
scum. who will have first call upon
them. He must await the result of this
examination, Mr.. Pinchot says, before
he knows what new material Is con-
tanned in the collection.
In charge of the scientific collecting
were DR.. A. z. Fisher of the United
States Biological Survey; DR.. Henry A.
Pilsbry, curator of the museum of the
Philadelphia Academy Of Sciences, and
DR.. Howard H Cleves, naturalist and
photographer. The former governor, all
his life an enthusiastic naturalist, is
entrsnced with the wonders of the
South Seas, and said yesterday that he
Is eager to return for a more intensive
study Of the colorful animal life which
varies so greatly from that in the
Northern Hemisphere.
ASHIIPST cHIEE SPEAKER