Evening star., 1933-06-09
TRIP BY DAWSON
/ TOFULF|LL DREAM
Head of American Museum
to Seek Animal SpeCi-
mems in Africa.
BY WALTER TRUMBULL.

BY STAFF Correspondent OF The Star.
NEW YORK, June 9.-F. Trubee
Dawson, president of the American
Museum of Natural History, sails for
Africa next Thursday and thereby
makes a youthful dream come true.
When he was a 16-year-old schoolboy
at Groton, his father. Henry P. Davi-
son, went to Africa with two compan-
ions and shot the great white rhin-
oceros which now stands in the natural
history museum. That trip fired the
younger DaHsons imagination, but
Yale, Columbia, the State Assembly,
the War Department, the Crime Com
mission, campaign for lieutenant
governor and other things kept him
on the job at home.
Mr.. Dawson hasn't had a real va
cation for 10 years and he and Mrs.
Dawson, who is going with him, de-
cided that it was time he took a rest.
So they accepted an invitation from
the Martin Johnsons to visit what used
to be known as the Dark Continent.
When Mr. Dawson decided on this
trip, he said to Director George E. Sher-
wood, DR.. Roy Chapman Andrews and
the heads of the various departments at
the Museum: I'm going to run over to
Africa for few months. Is there any
thing can bring you?"
Just a Few Elephants.
'sWhy, yes" they said. will you just
step into the jungle and get four
Shamba elephants, preferably four cows
And we'd like one complete elephant
skeleton"
There are few complete skeletons OF
wild elephants in this country. The
Museum has the skeleton of Barnum's
famous Jumbo" but the structure of
elephants in captivity is said to change.
"Any other little errands?" inquired
Mr. Dawson.
WELL" they said, "you might bring
hunters hartebeest or two, sable an
telope, a pygmy antelope, any red duik-
ers you might happen to see, and
bongo and gerenuk.'
Then DR.. James P. Chaplin, associate
curator of birds, said: II wish you'd
bring me one or several of the giant
bustard, an old male If possible. And
I'd like any sand grouse, cape teal,
and any game birds you happen to
see"
Dr. G. Kingsley Noble, curator of
dUlpIllDidllS anu IcPtllCo Sd1Q 1OQ
might get all the amphibians and rep
tiles the native boys can collect"
That's good idea" said Clark Wiss-
Ter, curator of anthropology, "and you
might as well bring back some Of those
stone implements"
viii Fly UP Nile.
Mr. Dawson will leave Cairo on July
2, taking a commercial plane up the
Nile and meeting the Johnsons at
Kisumu, on Lake Victoria Nyanza. Then
the payty will fly in private planes to
Nairobi, where Kline, a hunter, will be
waiting
"After we get the elephants" says
Mr.. Dawson, L am going to do some
thing from which I expect to get my
greatest thrill They have promised to
take me into Tanganyika country and
let me watch Nasal spearmen do their
stuff with lion. They close in on
the lion with those stabbing spears in
a tighter and tighter circle. Finally,
the beast charges and-a lion being
about the fastest sprinter on earth
one man must bear the brunt of the
charge. His comrades naturally gather
to his support, and frequently he needs
it. It must be a thrill to see that
lion buck the line, with nobody know
ing where he is going to smash into il"
Copyright, 1898. by North American News
paper Alliance. Inc)