OCR Text |
Show To Search for "Missing Link" '. tain to encounter difficulties in the more settled portions, they can probably prob-ably overcome them by tact and a proper understanding of the situation. situa-tion. Those In charge of railroads and other commercial projects that have Involved digging In China have always been able to compromise with protesting pro-testing villagers and they have found even within the past ten years a very great change in attitude. In Tibet conditions are even more difficult. All the gold In the country belongs to the Lama church and the natives can conceive con-ceive of only two reasons why foreigners for-eigners should come to their country either as gold-seekers or as missionaries. mission-aries. . 1 Obtaining the animals for the groups in the Hall of Asiatic Life will furnish fur-nish excitement enough for the most blase sportsmen. In a corner of. the Gobi desert are a few herds of the only living wild horses. Moreover, there are, In the Gobi, wild camels and wild asses, as wll as antelopes that can .run sixty miles an hour. The horses, asses and antelopes can be run down In motor cars, lassoed by the Mongol cowboys, and some of the specimens brought back alive to the New York Zoological Park. Not far from this particular part of the desert, mountains tower to a height of fifteen thousand feet, where there are bighorn big-horn sheep and Ibex that have never heard the crack of a high-power rifle. On the Tibetan steppes are enormous yak, snow leopards, giant pandas and beautiful golden monkeys with blue, upturned noses ; some of these species are among the rarest and least known animals of the world. In China Is the takln, a creature with a veritable "golden fleece," a strange oxlike animal ani-mal that roams the highest mountain valleys, and that actually represents an intermediate stage between the antelope an-telope and the goat. In the forests of Manchuria is the long-haired tiger of the Amur Kiver; a tiger larger and finer than the royal Bengal of Indian fame, which has furnished sporf for kings and emperors; a tiger living In caves amid forests drifted deep with snow. The scientific results of the third Asiatic expedition will be embodied In a series of volumes that should be, for many years to come, the standard stand-ard work on the natural history of Central and Eastern Asia, and also in popular books written In non-technical language., wishes seriously to study Asiatic zoology zo-ology one must go to the British Museum Mu-seum of London. It Is hoped that this expedition will bring to New York the greatest natural history collections which the world has ever seen and will make New York the center of Asiatic scientific activity. One of the reasons why so little Is known of the fossils of China and Interior Asia Is that material of this sort Is of considerable value to the Chinese. Fossils are supposed to have wonderful medicinal qualities. They are known as "dragon's bones" and whenever a fossil yielding locality has been found, It Is carefully concealed. Nevertheless "during the last three years Dr. J. G. Andersson, Mining Adviser Ad-viser to the Chinese Republic, has been carrying on Investigations on behalf be-half of Swedish Institutions and has made some remarkable discoveries. Dr. Andersson Is practically the first scientist sci-entist who has ever collected fossils personally In China. We know almost as little about some of the living natives of Asia as about the fossil history of the country. Long before" the Chinese arrived, China was Inhabited by aboriginal tribes, which were pushed south and west just as the Indians were driven westward by the white men when they ad-. vanced across the American continent. The remnants of v nearly thirty of these ancient tribes, such as the Loios, Mosos, Lisos and others, are rapidly disappearing and yet almost nothing is known of their origin, life or customs. cus-toms. Keep Chinese Out. Although many of the aborigines were scattered among the mountains of Yunnan and Kweichow and along the Tibetan frontier, the Lolos still maintain an Independent territory In Szechuan, one of the richest and most populous provinces of China. No Chinese Chi-nese Is permitted to cross the Invisible lines of their "kingdom" without the probability of incurring a violent death. - Continual raids are carried on back and forth along the border. Per- Great Expedition Will Explore Remote Re-mote Sections of Asia for Most Primitive Human Remains. GREATEST EVER ORGANIZED, China and Mongolia Expected to Yield Up Treasures In Anthropology Anthropol-ogy and Archaeology Chinese Superstition Big Drawback. New York To search for the most primitive human remains, the "missing "miss-ing link" between man and the apes, will be the object of a great expedition expedi-tion to be sent out by the American Museum of Natural History In co-operation with the American Asiatic association as-sociation and Asia Magazine. The expedition ex-pedition will be the greatest of Its kind which has ever been organized by any Institution in the world and will work for five years . with a large party of scientists In various remote regions of central Asia. It will be un-der un-der the direction and leadership of Mr. .Hoy Cliapman Andrews, Associate Curator of Mammals in the American Museum of Natural History, who for the last ten years has been carrying on zoological . explorations In various parts of the Far East. The expedition will be financed by a fund of $250,000, which' is being provided by the American Amer-ican Museum of Natural History, the Americun Asiatic association and Asia Magazine, and the private subscript tions of Mrs. Willard Straight, Messrs. J. P. Morgan, George F. Baker, Chllds Frlck, W. A. Harrlman and Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Bernhelmer. When In the year 1891, a Dutch army surgeon, Eugene Dubois, while excavating for fossils In central Java, discovered near Trlnll part of a skull, two molar teeth and a tlu'cli bone, ho had unearthed one of the most perplexing per-plexing conundrums In the study of human ancestry. Were the remains those of an extremely early fype of prehuman manlike animal? If so, this apeman must have lived approximately approx-imately five hundred thousand years ngo. . This momentous discovery has been supplemented by that of other indisputably in-disputably human remains of which the most ancient, found in southern Germany, is the Jaw of the so-called Heidelberg man who may be two hundred hun-dred and fifty thousand years old. With the exception of the Java specimen, spec-imen, nil fossil human fragments have been discovered In Europe or England. Nevertheless, the leading scientists of the day believe that Asia was the early home of the human race and that whatever light may be thrown upon the origin of. man will come from the great central Asian plateau. : -Appeals to Imagination. The subject is one that makes a universal appeal to the Imagination. The causes that led to man's evolution evolu-tion from the apes,- how that evolution evolu-tion was first accomplished, what primitive man looked like a.'d how he lived these are . all subjects upon which there Is much theory, but as yet very little fact. Leaving about the first of next February, Feb-ruary, headquarters for the expedition will be established In Peking; The first year will bo devoted to studies In paleontology and zoology In China ; the second year the work will be carried car-ried Into Mongolia and n geologist will be added to the field staff; the third, fourtl' and fifth years archeologlsts and anthropologists "will be sent out which with' the zoologists and paleontologists pale-ontologists will carry on work In various vari-ous part of Asia. The importance of this region long has been recognized, but no systematic system-atic study on a large scale ever has been attempted, and there Is no similar sim-ilar area of the Inhabited surface of the earth about which so little Is known. Whether or not human remains re-mains are found It will yield rich collections col-lections In all branches of science. The material will be exhibited in the proposed Hall of Asiatic Life In the American Museum of Natural History, which It Is hoped the city will add to the Museum buildings In the near fu-v;re, fu-v;re, At thjo present time lfojtto haps the Chinese will capture a score or more of Lolos who havs ventured to glimpse the world beyond their wild hills and valle3's. In retaliation, a few nights later, the Lolos will burn a whole Chinese village, kill all the men and carry 'the women Into slavery. Thus the Lolos have earned a reputation reputa-tion as barbaric savages. And yet a French explorer who crossed their territory, properly "chaperoned." reports re-ports them to be a charming people, of hospitable temper and high mentality. He Is one of the few scientists who. have penetrated the land of the Lolos and live to tell the tale. Mr. Andrews, who has hunted with Lolos In Yunnan, found them Independent,' to be sure, but delightful In their native courtesy and simplicity.' He says: "It Is Impossible 'not to be Interested In this strange people. They are totally unlike the Chinese, for they are tall and slender, with long faces and patrician noses, and they show every indication of Caucasian blood. If they have It, where did it come from? This is one of the questions ques-tions that should be answered before the Lolos disappear, as the other tribes as rapidly doing." v There are many reasons why Central Cen-tral Asia has remained scientifically unexplored for so long a time. It Is so remote nnd difficult of access that the cost of conducting work on a large scale Is enormous. Moreover, the country and Its Inhabitants present pre-sent unusual obstacles to scientific research. re-search. Not only are there vast Intersecting In-tersecting mountain chains, waterless deserts and treeless plains, but In many parts the climate Is too cold for effective work . in winter. In some places the natives are exceedingly suspicious of foreigners; religious superstitions su-perstitions greatly handicap research and make It'decldedly dangerous. Chinese Superstitious. The Chinese have many superstitions supersti-tions regarding the ground. The feng shul, the spirits of the earth, wind nnd water, must always be' favorable before a burial takes place, and It Is exceedingly unlucky to disturb the ground In the region of a cemetery. Though our paleontologists are cer- Would Help Chlnr. There Is a very real desire on the part of the sponsors for the expedition expedi-tion to make It a factor In the development devel-opment of the educational life of the Chinese Republic. China hpi no institutions insti-tutions wherein ratural history objects can be studied and exhibited by modern mod-ern methods and where the scientific work of her own people can be en couraged and directed. It was therefore there-fore decided to invite the Chinese government to co-operate with the expedition ex-pedition In carrying on its work In the Orient. China will be Invited to delegate to the expedition certain men who have had already preliminary prelimi-nary . instruction in various branches of science; under the best specialists iin the world, these men, while In the field, will receive training In moderi methods of scientific exploration and study. , When the expedition has been completed, com-pleted, its sponsors will agree to deposit de-posit in Peking a duplicate set of the collections, which will form the 'basin of the Chinese Museum of Natural History. The proposed Institution will then have a valuable nucleus of eee Imens for exhibition and study and n staff of expert Chinese to carry on the work. It will tremaln for the government gov-ernment to set aside a suitable building build-ing where the collections can be housed. The third Asiatic expedition, with Its rich possibilities for making important im-portant discoveries In the departments of paleontology, archeology, zoology, anthropology and geography, Is destined des-tined to Increase the prestige "7 the United States In the world of kelence. The AnTerlcnn scientists wl'j will promote pro-mote the advancement of Chinese science sci-ence will co-operate with the Chinese In an entirely new field. Americans, with far-seeing Idealism will welcome an alliance of this kind, tending to cement the friendly relations that already al-ready exist between the two creat republics re-publics of the East and the West. They will wish to Insure the possibility possi-bility of making the third Asiatic expedition ex-pedition the greatest expedition evei sent out to Increase the wealth of human hu-man knowledge. |