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CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

January, 1960

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

Wm. McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Chesser M. Campbell William H. Mitchell

Walter J. Cummings John T. Pirie, Jr.

Joseph N. Field Clarence B. Randall

Marshall Field, Jr. John G. Searle

Stanley Fibld Solomon A. Smith

Samuel Insull, Jr. Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Marilyn Jindrich Assistant in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

AUDUBON SCREEN-TOUR
ON 'WILD EUROPE'

A traveler may have toured, in the con-
ventional sense, all of Europe and never have
seen that side of the Old World continent
that the famous ornithologist, Roger Tory
Peterson will show in his color motion pic-
ture, " Wild Europe" when he lectures for the
Illinois Audubon Society in the James Simp-
son Theatre of the Museum on Sunday after-
noon, January 17.

In his film he will show such sights (usually
neglected by the average tourist) as the spec-
tacular gathering of oystercatchers at Hilbre
Island in the Irish Sea; the flamingoes in the
vast salt lakes of the Rhone delta; ruffs danc-
ing in the bogs of the Netherlands, habitat
of the white spoonbill; families of storks on
old churches in the Rhine valley; red kites,
black kites, and imperial eagles among the
cork oaks of Andalusia; great griffon vul-
tures soaring about the ancient citadels of
Spain, and bee-eaters, the most colorful birds
of Europe, hawking the Mediterranean air
for dragonflies. The screen-tour includes
wild life refuges on the coasts of Holland,
islands off Britain's shores, the great Ca-
margue region of France, and the forests of
Finland.

The lecture will begin at 2:30 p.m., and
admission is free.

-THIS MONTH'S COVER-

Our cover symbolizes the dawn-
ing of the New Year. Designed by
Staff Artist E. John Pfiffner and
prepared by him in collaboration
with Assistant Photographer
Homer V. Holdren, it is based on
the Museum's life-size diorama of
a Neolithic sun-worshiping priest
welcoming a new day. The scene
is the mysterious avenue of pre-
historic menhirs at Carnac in
France's ancient province of Brit-
tany. The time represented is
approximately 4,000 years ago.
The diorama is one in a series of
eight in the Hall of the Stone
Age of the Old World (Hall C)
illustrating stages in the develop-
ment of early man from about
250,000 years ago to the first days
of recorded history.

STAFF NOTES

The Museum was represented by three
delegates at the annual meeting of the Amer-
ican Anthropological Association in Mexico
City, December 28-30. Dr. Paul S. Mar-
tin, Chief Curator of Anthropology, pre-
sented a paper on "Recent Excavations in
Arizona." Dr. Donald Collier, Curator of
South American Archaeology and Ethnol-
ogy, presented one on "Agriculture and Civi-
lization in Peru." George I. Quimby,
Curator of North American Archaeology and
Ethnology, was the third Museum delegate.
. . . Dr. Roland W. Force, Curator of Oce-
anic Archaeology and Ethnology, presented
a paper on "Metonomy, Metaphor and Pa-
lauan Sociai Organization" at the annual
meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science held in Chicago
December 26-31. ... Dr. Rainer Zangerl,
Curator of Fossil Reptiles, Dr. Eugene S.
Richardson, Jr., Curator of Fossil Inverte-
brates, Dr. Robert H. Denison, Curator of
Fossil Fishes, and William D. Turnbull,
Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals, at-
tended the recent Darwin Centennial Cele-
bration and meetings of the Society for the
Study of Evolution, held in Chicago late in
November. Dr. Richardson was official del-
egate of the Paleontological Society. Dr.
Zangerl and Dr. Richardson also attended a
field conference with the Indiana Geological
Survey. Mr. Turnbull attended the meet-
ings of the Geological Society of America and
the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in
Pittsburgh. . . Most members of the Zoology
staff attended some of the Darwin Centen-
nial meetings at the University of Chicago.
D. Dwight Davis, Curator of Vertebrate
Anatomy, Rupert L. Wenzel, Curator of
Insects, and Henry S. Dybas, Associate

JANUARY 6 CONCERT
FEATURES SOPRANO

The Festival String Quartet makes its
second appearance on the stage of James
Simpson Theatre on January 6 when Phyllis
Curtin, soprano, and Ray Still, oboist, join
the quartet as special guest artists for the
evening's performance. The program will
include music by Haydn, Villa-Lobos, Hin-
demith, and Debussy. Miss Curtin, making
her first public appearance in Chicago, will
sing three Villa-Lobos songs, followed by
Hindemith's "Die Serenaden."

The quartet's debut in James Simpson
Theatre on December 9 was attended by
nearly 1,000. Members of the string quartet
are Sidney Harth, concertmaster of the Chi-
cago Symphony Orchestra, and his wife, Te-
resa— violinists; and two other members of
the Chicago Symphony — Rolf Persinger,
violist, and Harry Sturm, cellist.

Other concerts will be presented on Feb-
ruary 10, March 9, and April 13 — the entire
series presented free to music lovers by Free
Concerts Foundation, headed by Mrs. J.
Dennis Freund. Selection of James Simpson
Theatre for the free music series came as the
result of the discovery, last August, of the
theater's musical potentialities. At that time
time Mrs. Freund sponsored a program of
chamber music.

Roger Dettmer, drama and music critic for
Chicago's American, commented after the
program: "For many it came last summer
as a pleasant surprise to discover in the west
wing basement of Chicago Natural History
Museum, a theatre suitable for chamber
music that has (1) good acoustics, (2) com-
fortable seats, (3) unimpaired sight lines,
(4) ample parking facilities, (5) passable de-
cor . . . Simpson Theatre turned out to be
the best concert hall in Greater Chicago se-
lected by the committee (Pan American
Games) for anything." Similarly, Robert
Marsh of the Sun-Times, after the Decem-
ber 9 concert, called it the "city's finest audi-
torium for small instrumental groups."

Tickets are required for the concerts in the
series and may be obtained by calling in per-
son at the Museum or writing Free Concerts
Foundation, Chicago Natural History Mu-
seum (Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive,
Chicago 5) and enclosing a stamped, self-
addressed envelope.

Curator of Insects, attended meetings of the
Society for the Study of Evolution. Mr.
Wenzel also attended the Detroit meetings
of the Entomological Society of America,
and was elected to the standing committee
on entomological nomenclature. He has
been appointed a research associate in the
department of biology at Northwestern Uni-
versity. Mr. Dybas recently lectured on
Panama before the Chicago Entomological
Society and the Thornton Township High
School Biology Club, Harvey, Illinois.

January, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 3

By Stag Illu

: Marion Pahl

SOUTH SEA ISLES: WHAT LED TO EARLY DISCOVERIES

By ROLAND W. FORCE

CURATOR OF OCEANIC ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

Part I

IF YOU WANT to frighten yourself, con-
sider spending your life on a tiny speck
of sand which rises no more than twelve feet
above the surface of the ocean and upon
which you can make a complete and leisurely
circuit while smoking a cigarette. For as far
as you can see on all sides there is nothing
but wetness. And you can see only 12 miles
before the horizon limits your view to sky.
Beyond those 12 miles there may be 1,200
more — just as wet as those you can see;
1,200 miles which are seldom traversed by
either ship or plane — even today. Twelve
hundred miles of deep, dark blue treachery
that constantly try to submerge you. The
only thing that keeps you from wearing a
life preserver twenty-four hours a day and
refusing to budge from the top of the highest
coconut palm on the island is that if you are
there you belong to a "people of the Pacific."
In the first place, chances are extremely good
that you do not count a life preserver among
your possessions; and besides you have been
born in this environment, and a long list of
your ancestors has managed to stay alive and
reproduce and live normal "for your island"
lives. Surely some of them have been washed
away by violent storms, and others have
failed to return from a day's fishing junket
to the reef, only to be blown in their small
and flimsy canoes to another postage stamp
size home which, if looked at hurriedly, might
pass for your island anyway.

This hypothetical fantasy is not fantasy,
but fact, for several millions of people who
live in the part of the world we call the Pacific.

It used to be that people formed their ideas
about the Pacific in terms of Melville or
Maugham, or Nordhoff and Hall. Many
persons had read or seen the movie version
of Rain. Sadie Thompson was an exciting,
if somewhat tawdry, character — the Tuttles
of Tahiti, immortalized by Charles Laugh-
ton, were thought of as typical island folk.
Swiss Family Robinson and Robinson Crusoe
typified what "islands" were like.

Since then, tens of thousands of young
Americans learned about the more intricate
geography of Pearl City on Oahu, froze in
staging depots on New Zealand's North Is-
land, sweated through interminable months
in coastal New Guinea swamps, bounced

over countless reefs in landing craft, strug-
gled through unbelievable terrain to get close
enough to a concrete pillbox to use a flame-
thrower or automatic weapon.

And some stayed on — in the military cem-
etery in the Punch Bowl — that ancient and
quiet volcanic cone which stands guard over
Honolulu. The Coral Sea, Leyte Gulf, Mid-
way, Iwo and less well-known spots such as
a small isolated inlet of Iwayama Bay in the
Palaus where at low tide the aluminum skel-
eton of what looks strikingly like a ptero-
dactyl projects out of the mangrove mud, all
became well-known to many Americans.

Latter-day writers such as Ernie Pyle,
James Michener, Richard Tregaskis, and
Norman Mailer put zoom lenses on the Amer-
ican bifocals. Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza
did their bit, and Hollywood helped with a
movie of the play. Cinerama helped, and
then, of course, everyone rode Kon-Tiki to
Polynesia.

Even with the increased awareness of the
Pacific world that books, films, and personal
visits have brought about, most people actu-
ally know very little about the Pacific. If
asked they could probably tell their interro-
gator that Bikini was in the Pacific — some-
where, that the Philippines were beyond that,
and that Australia was more to the south —
down under. The geography of the area, let
alone the kind of people who live there and
their history and way of life, is baffling enough
to them.

Few are aware that the U. S. Department
of Interior (somewhat illogically) today ad-
ministers a portion of the Pacific which is
larger than the United States itself. Most
have probably never considered that each
time they button their shirt, wipe their feet
on a door mat, or shampoo their hair they
are en rapport with the Pacific.

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION

Even though Americans have rediscovered
the Pacific in mid-20th century, 400 or 500
years after the early Portuguese and Spanish
explorers did, there is a remarkable amount
of unawareness of the nature of the discovery.

The period we are concerned with here is
called the "Age of Discovery" in history
books and covers the years from about 1520
to 1780.

We may divide the period into three sub-
periods: (1) 16th century (Portuguese and

Spanish), (2) 17th century (Dutch), and
(3) 18th century (English and French).

Of course, the Pacific was sailed into by
Chinese junks for a limited distance as early
as 200 B.C. Contact was established with
Java, the Philippines, and Japan. Then, too,
there is the possibility that some unfortunate
voyagers from China or Japan actually got
lost and drifted across the Pacific from west
to east and landed on the Northwest Coast
of America or in the Hawaiian Islands. One
thing which has never been explained is the
existence of iron in Hawaii at the time Cap-
tain James Cook discovered the islands in the
late 18th century.

Prior to the rather late period of explora-
tion in the Pacific by Europeans there had
been a long tradition of "armchair" theoriz-
ing about the Pacific — even before it was
known as the Pacific.

Greek geographers reasoned that such an
ocean must exist — just to balance the one
they knew about (the Atlantic) which they
called the Western Ocean. Of course, this
conjecture was all before anybody knew that
there was anything like America in between
the two bodies of water. Maps made as late
as 1492 showed an unbroken expanse of
water from Europe to Asia.

Another matter of speculation was the pre-
sumed existence of Terra Australis Incognito
(the unknown southern land). Explorers
were still trying to find this continent until
Captain Cook reached Antarctica.

SPICE AND SCURVY

The Pacific takes its name from Magellan
who experienced exceptionally calm weather
on his voyage in 1520 around the tip of South
America. Seven years before, Balboa had
stood on his Panama promontory and had
become the first European to view the Pa-
cific from its eastern shores. Because he was
facing south at the moment, he logically
called the body of water the South Seas.
The name has been retained and even has
been applied to the Arctic areas of the Pacific.

At base, the absence of the refrigerator is
really responsible for most of the disturb-
ances of native life in the Pacific. It is truly
remarkable that the world-shaking events in
history can be laid to the most pedestrian
causes.

If some enterprising medieval Edison had
(Continued on page 8)

Chicago Natural Hi

Text by AUSTIN L. RAND

Chief Curator of Zoology

A NATURE CAL

JANUARY

S M T W T F S
I 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31

A silent landscape of
snow-covered fields, gray
leafless woodlots, frozen
ponds rimmed with dead
cattails, and Lake Mich-
igan with an ice barrier
along the shore and float-
ing, wind-driven ice fields.
Farmsteads snowed in.
Our coldest month with
days below zero. Plant
life is dormant, as are
most animals. But win-
ter ducks, goldeneyes, old
squaws, and gulls are on
Lake Michigan; other winter birds, chickadees,
woodpeckers, cardinals and evening grosbeaks
come to feeding stations, and some mammals,
such as rabbits, squirrels and raccoons leave
trails in the snow.

Soft warm breezes and sun-
shine, gentle showers, sudden
squalls, thunder and lightning,
hail, and even snowstorms — all
make April weather. Green
leaves appear on currant and
honeysuckle bushes, daffodils
and tulips bloom in gardens,
and the tide of woodland flow-
ers swells to form a living carpet
of two dozen species in the still
leafless woods. Smelts run up-
stream to spawn, small moths flutter against
lighted windows, small grasshoppers and leaf-
hoppers fly up from disturbing footsteps in the
grass, butterflies appear, dragonflies skim ponds
where turtles bask, and leopard frogs croak.
Another wave of migrant birds, hermit thrushes,
fox sparrows, and Bonaparte's gulls passes
through; the pond ducks leave and purple mar-
tins arrive. Gardeners plant peas, farmers oats, and fishermen angle for
perch and seine carp.

APRIL

S M T W T F S

I 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 II 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Not until late in the month does
winter relax its grip more than mo-
mentarily, with brief thaws that wipe
away the snow. Then plant activity
starts with the pussy willows coming
out; resident birds, titmice and cardi-
nals start to sing; great-horned owls
hoot and nest; and the early spring
migrants, doves, song sparrows, red-
wings and meadowlarks arrive and sing.
When sun shines strong on snowbanks
the tiny spring-tails or snow-fleas
swarm on the snow, making it look as
though dusted with soot; and skunk cabbage
pushes up through the snow and dead leaves.
While ice fishing continues on little lakes,
goldeneye ducks court on Lake Michigan; torn
cats begin to yowl; possums and coons become
more active; and children fly kites.

FEBRUARY

S M T W T F S

12 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 II 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29

Green fields and roadsides
with yellow dandelions and mus-
tard and white daisy fleabane;
growing leaves on trees cast a
summer shade; blue lupine
massed in dunes; yellow lady-
slippers bloom in pinery.

Lavish display of pink-white
blooms on fruit trees, shadbush,
wild crab and dogwood; migra-
tion of warblers and scarlet tan-
agers at height — you can see 30
species in one woodlot; vegetable gardens grow-
ing, rhubarb ready for pies; scarlet poppies and
blue iris brave in yards; young robins, thrashers
and screech owls out of nest, and young foxes
and squirrels running about; elm and maple
seed strewn on sidewalks.

MAY

S M T W T F S

I 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 II 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

MARCH

S M T W T F S

12 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 II 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31

Spring — and the returning sun
banishes cold and snow for longer
and longer spells. The ponds
thaw open and ducks, mallard,
shovelers, and widgeon swim on
them. The first frog chorus
comes from shallow sun-heated
pools, and robins and starlings
join the morning bird song
chorus; blackbirds roost in the
marshes and feed on our lawns;
lawns and winter wheat fields
are greener; snowdrops and cro-
cuses bloom in our yards, the
maples along our streets, the
first wild flower, pepper-and-salt, in the wood-
lots, and skunk cabbage in the swamps. By
late March the last of the shaded snow banks
are usually gone.

Summer: brown fields of planted
corn and soy beans at first contrast
with the green woodlots and wheat
and alfalfa, tall enough to wave in
the wind; white daisies, red clover
yellow clover, blackberries and later
multiflora roses bloom along road-
sides where catalpa trees also bloom
and ragweed and milkweed are up
enough to notice. Strawberries
and some cherries and peas ripen,
and first hay is cut. In the yards are added
peonies, red and white roses; white mock orange
and pink beauty bush. Young crows and jayf
are noisy, and robins nesting again; cricket frogs
click and bullfrogs boom in the marshes; crane-
flies and lacewings like a haze over hay fields at
sunset at end of month. Small flocks of English
sparrows inspect ripening oats and wheat; and
in the evenings fireflies rise like sparks from fields. Fishermen catching
perch in Lake Michigan and sunfish in little lakes.

JUNE

S M T W T F S

12 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 II

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30

>ry Museum presents . . .

iNDAR FOR 1960

Illustrations by RUTH ANDRIS

JULY

3 M T W T F S

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

0 II 12 13 14 15 16

7 18 19 20 21 22 23

4 25 26 27 28 29 30
1

Hot weather begins;
people flock to Lake
Michigan beaches; yellow
wheat and oats ready for
harvest contrast with
heavy summer green of
rest of landscape. Full-
grown young rabbits get
run over on roads; young
tree frogs transform and
leave ponds; mud daub-
ing wasps provision their
nest chambers with para-
lyzed spiders; ant lions
wait in their funnel-shaped pit-traps in the
sand; in some years egrets arrive on ponds; first
southbound migrants and sandpipers; black-
birds flock to sleeping roosts. Along roadsides
are thistles, Queen Anne's lace and chicory;
in yards zinneas, petunias, phlox and holly-
hocks; gardens yield string beans, beets and
carrots; swallowtail and cabbage butterflies are
daytime visitors. In the dunes, blueberries ripen
and cactus blooms.

The second hot month
and the deep green of
summer is tattered and
fading; early autumn col-
ors appear in sourgum
and swamp maple; sweet
corn is in season and
squirrel hunting started;
roadside stands sell gar-
den produce; flocking of
purple martins, robins and
blackbirds more conspicuous; gulls and terns
arrive on Lake Michigan where picnickers crowd
beaches; bats seem more common and some
strays are trapped in houses; a few birds are
singing after late summer lull — some start south.
Crickets and katydids sing at night; grasshop-
pers are growing up and swarms of small insects
come to lighted windows; big yellow garden
iders make their webs that trap grasshoppers.

Swamp and swales richly tapestried with Joe Pye weed, boneset, iron
;ed and sedges; wild sunflowers and goldenrod. In yards are marigolds,
lvia, cannas, and goldenglow.

It's autumn; the beach season
nds on Labor Day; soon it is top-
oat weather, smoke rises from
himneys and the countryside gets

golden, olive tinge with rustling
;aves and splashes of red and
range. Flycatchers and warblers
)in the southward exodus of land
irds that travel by night, while
ighthawks travel by day in long
nes; leopard frogs move back to
onds; and families of woodchucks
nd ground squirrels break up and the young
'ander widely. Apples, plums and grapes
pen; honey harvesting starts; haws are red,
le elderberries are black. There are asters,
iwel weed and sunflowers on the roadsides and
nnias and chrysanthemums in the yards.
Ionarch butterflies migrate southward. Black
irds on wires or on marshes in big flocks.

lUGUST

5 M T W T

12 3 4
7 8 9 10 II
4 15 16 17 18 19 20
I 22 23 24 25 26 27
$29 30 31

5 6
12 13

SEPTEMBER

S M T W T F S

I 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

II 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30

The month of the colored
leaves; early, the maples and
sassafras, elm and hickory are
red, orange and yellow; later
these fall as the oaks change to
purple reds and red browns.
Now comes smoky, golden sun-
shine of Indian summer. The
season of growth is about past.
The falling bright leaves out-
shine the vivid autumn chry-
santhemums, cover streets with
a rustling layer and feed bon-
fires in the evenings.

Bittersweet berries break open orange; osage
oranges fall, milkweed down floats on the breeze,
cattail heads break open; asters bloom on the
roadside and witch hazel in the woods of the
dunes.

Corn picking starts, pumpkins and walnuts
ripen; pond ducks arrive and geese go over;
seed eating birds such as juncos arrive from the
North, jaegers pass on the lake, and the blue
racers gather to hibernate.

OCTOBER

S M T W T F S
I

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 II 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31

NOVEMBER

S M T W T F S

12 3 4 5

6 7 8 9 10 II 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30

With leafless trees, bleached
cornfields, green fields of winter
wheat, here and there patches of
color left over from October, and
near freezing temperatures. Wind
whistles around corners and soughs
through bare branches. The last
garden flowers, chrysanthemums,
are nipped by the frosts, and the
witch hazel flowers soon go; duck-
weed is conspicuous on wooded
swamps; acorns are being harvested by black-
birds, jays and squirrels; little bands of tree
sparrows fly up from the roadsides and the
great blackbird roosts in the cattails are soon
deserted. Winter water birds appear on Lake
Michigan — grebes and mergansers — and jaegers
are passing along the shore. The highway main-
tenance people put little heaps of cinders and
salt by the roadsides at hills, reminding us that
slippery roads often come with a snowstorm
about Thanksgiving Day.

Winter's here — it may
be snowy like January, or
bare and bleak like late
November, or a mixture
of the two. Bird feeding
stations have a half-dozen
regulars and the winter
ducks and gulls increase
on Lake Michigan. The
ponds freeze over and the
ice barrier starts to build

up on Lake Michigan's shore. On December 21
comes the winter solstice when the sun reaches
its farthest south and starts north again for a
new cycle.

DECEMBER

S M T W T F S

I 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

II 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

January, 1960

NATURE GAVE THIS STRANGE FISH BUILT-IN BIFOCALS

By LOREN P. WOODS

CURATOR OF FISHES

LATE one hot, humid afternoon in
September the U. S. Fish and Wildlife
Service M.V Oregon found a berth at the
end of a long pier that crossed a mud bank
along the shore of the Surinam River at
Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. I was gather-
ing cameras and film to go ashore when an
engineer came running back with the news
that there were fish crawling all over the
mud flats. So postponing the shore trip until
a cooler hour, I spent the rest of the after-
noon watching numbers of the four-eyed
fish, Anableps, swim up out of the water
to wiggle across the mud or lie at the water's
edge with their tails remaining in the lapping
billows.

Almost every general popular book on the
natural history of fishes at least mentions
the four-eyed fish and its peculiar eyes.
Actually there are only two eyes, as in other
fishes, but in Anableps the eyes are in humps,
raised well above the rest of the head, and
are divided horizontally by a pigmented line,
so the eye appears to have two pupils. Ana-
bleps habitually swims at the surface with
the upper part of the eye in the air and the

Figure 1. Anableps, the four-eyed fish, shown
resting at the surface. Its eyes, on humps, project
partly above water. (Photo made at Shedd Aquarium)

lower part in water (Fig. 1). The lens is
pear-shaped with different focal lengths in
each half; the retina receiving light from
the air is of different structure from the
retina that receives light from the water
below. Their built-in bifocals enable them
to see in both air and water.

There are three species of Anableps, all
with similar eyes and, in many respects,
similar habits. All reach a length of 8 to
12 inches. One species lives in the Tehuan-
tepec River of southern Mexico, a broad,
shallow, clear stream where I collected them
several years ago. The range of this species
extends down the Pacific coast to Panama.
There are two additional species in South
America ranging from Venezuela to the
Amazon. One of these is chiefly marine,
entering brackish estuaries; the other lives
in rivers, bayous and lakes.

Although these fish and their peculiar eyes
have been described again and again in

Figure 2. Habitat of Anableps — the Surinam River at Paramarib
Guiana. The mud flats are seen at left.

scientific and travel literature since the mid-
18th century, very little is actually known
of their habits. Most accounts describe
them swimming and feeding in schools at
the surface. When alarmed they do not
submerge, but the school scatters, individual
fish rapidly skipping over the water, sculling
with their tails. It has been reported that
they cannot submerge for more than 30 or
40 seconds, but this is
not true. The Shedd
Aquarium formerly
had six or eight indi-
viduals acclimated in
a large tank 6 by 7 by
4 feet, containing ap-
proximately 1,200 gal-
lons of water. Surface
schooling and scatter-
ing was the usual pat-
tern of their behavior
in this tank, but when
fed they frequently
went to the bottom to
pick up food, remain-
ing well below the sur-
face for considerable
periods.

In Surinam none
was seen swimming in
open water during low
tides of the late after-
noon and early morn-
ing. When they went
into the turbid water
they disappeared. At

the river edge of the mud flat, one would
occasionally jump out of the water, imme-
diately curving back without much splash.
When heading toward the exposed mud, the
upper part of the eyes would be above water,

the fish frequently bob-
bing down to keep their
eyes moist. They are
wary and very active,
swimming so rapidly
they can rarely be
caught with a net. The
usual method of col-
lecting adults is with a
rifle loaded with dust
shot.

Certainly in the Gui-
anas, Anableps swims
and schools at the sur-
face; but in the section
of the sluggish, silty,
brackish portion of the
Surinam where the
tides change the river
level and salinity, large
numbers were out of
the water, small sec-
tions of the mud flats
being occupied by as
many as 50 fish at a
time. Most of the fish,
3 to 12 inches long, rested out of water on the
mud just where the ripples washed over them
and kept them moist (Figs. 2 and 3). Some
fish would travel with eel-like motions across
the flats as far as 30 feet from the open
water, but these would move into pools or
channels at intervals of five or ten minutes
and then back up on the mud again. The
passage of the fish across the mud would be

Dutch

Figure 3. A group of Anableps lying in a rivulet on mud flats.

marked by a smooth track about half an
inch wide. When established on the mud
and no longer awash, they used their pectoral
fins to brace their heads higher than the
body. They could see and hear quite well

January, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

in the air, for although we were 20-25 feet
away from them, sudden motion or scuffing
on the wooden dock would frighten them
back into the water.

The fish lying out on the mud formed loose
aggregations of all sizes with no evident at-
tempt to avoid contact with others or to be
near others. Neither was there any orien-
tation in relation to the position of the sun,
shore, water or pools; but they lay like so
much loose-strewn kindling, facing all direc-
tions. There were channels through the mud
— little drainage rivulets — and many fish
rested in or along the edges of these or with
the mouth over a little water-filled depres-
sion. At intervals the mouth would be dipped

■■■■■■11

Figure 4. A small pool where young Anableps live,
with holes for protective retreat when danger threat-
ens. The radiating lines mark areas in which the
young fish have been eating mud.

into the water and rapid movements of both
mouth and gill covers could be seen. I think
this action took in water to moisten the gills.
As the tide raised the river level, the fish
moved higher onto the mud flat maintaining
their relative distance from the edge of the
water ripples. By dark (6 p.m.) the advanc-
ing tide had completely covered the mud flat
and no fish could be seen anywhere.

As with many of their top minnow rela-
tives such as the guppy, sword tail and black
mollie, Anableps produces living young in-
stead of eggs. Fully grown fish are very good
to eat, and in the Guianas there is a great
demand for fish; but Anableps is avoided by
the majority of people because the young
found inside the fish has caused the belief
that Anableps is cannibalistic.

In Mexico a female Anableps 7 inches in
length was reported to contain nine young,
1 . 5 inches long. The young I observed in the
early morning in pools on the mud flats were
1 to 2 inches in length. Possibly the smallest
were only a few hours or few days old. They
were exceedingly abundant, as every pos-
sible puddle on the uneven surface of the
mud flat contained a large number. By the
time they are 3 or 4 inches long they swim
and behave as the adults described above.
None of the 1 to 2-inch young was seen to
swim, but only to crawl over the bottom.

The young under 2 inches in length lived
high on the mud flat in shallow pools three to
six inches across and one-half to one inch
deep (Fig. 4). These tiny fish could be de-

tected when they stirred up the loose silt
and, as the cloud settled, only the elevated
eyes could be seen. If I remained perfectly
still they would emerge not only from the silt
but from caves in the sides or holes in the
bottoms of their puddles, crawl to the edge
close against the water surface, and begin
eating the silt and straining it through their
gills for whatever organic material could be
extracted. This eating process was followed
by a fine cloud of silt ejected from the gill
opening and resulted in a pretty pattern of
lines radiating from feeding spots where each
fish had nibbled away the darker surface silt,
exposing lighter mud beneath (Fig. 4).

When I focused the camera close to them,
this movement caused all to disappear either
into the mud or into holes. Some of the holes
had two or more entrances and a fish would
seldom move far from its home, always re-
turning to the same hole. Some could feed
with their tails still part way down in the
hole. I never saw two fish using the same
retreat, though the entrances were some-
times only an eighth to a quarter-inch apart.
As the tide rose covering these miniature
pools the tiny fish disappeared completely
into the mud and into their holes. The bot-
tom could be seen as clearly as when the
pools were isolated but the fish were no
longer visible. This high tide retreat may
be to escape the larger fishes, drums, cichlids
and characins that come onto the flats to
feed when these flats are covered with water.
There are tracks of shore birds all around the
puddles, so shyness on the part of the young,
the ability to bury themselves where they
are, the alertness to withdraw quickly into a
hole are all necessary to their survival.

RARE FISHES OBTAINED
IN WEST INDIES

During the latter part of 1959, Loren P.
Woods, Curator of Fishes, participated in a
31-day exploratory fishing cruise of the U. S.
Fish and Wildlife Service Motor Vessel Ore-
gon to the West Indies. Very poor trawling
grounds were found at depths of 17 to 380
fathoms in the waters of the Virgin Islands,
Saba Banks and Puerto Rico. Everywhere
the bottom was very rough, rocky or cov-
ered with growths of coral or sponges, result-
ing in torn nets and relatively few fishes.
However, those few were of unusual interest
because so little collecting has been done in
such difficult areas. Many undescribed spe-
cies and many kinds previously very rare in
collections were secured along with a variety
of better known, widely distributed species.
These latest collections are especially useful
for comparison in the study of specimens
from the Western Caribbean and Brazil-
Guiana offshore waters gathered on Oregon
cruises during the past three years.

Activities were hampered by frequent
storms and high seas but these were not of
sufficient intensity or duration to prevent
covering of each island and bank area.

LAST CALL FOR ENTRIES
OF NATURE PHOTOS

Photographers, both amateur and profes-
sional, desiring to submit entries for the 15th
Chicago International Exhibition of Nature
Photography, are urged to send their prints
and color slides promptly. The deadline is
January 18. From the thousands of entries
the judges will select several hundred to be
exhibited in Stanley Field Hall of the Mu-
seum during the period from February 6 to
26. Medals and honorable mentions will be
awarded to those considered the best. The
exhibition is held under the joint auspices of
the Chicago Nature Camera Club and the
Museum.

While the facilities in Stanley Field Hall
are suitable only for the exhibition of prints,
either black-and-white or in color, the slides
will be exhibited by projection on the screen
of the James Simpson Theatre on two Sunday
afternoons, February 7 and 14 at 2:30 P.M.
Admission to the theatre showings is free.

The print division and the color slide divi-
sion each have three subject classifications:
(1) Animal Life; (2) Plant Life, and (3) Gen-
eral which comprises landscapes and sea-
scapes, clouds, and other inanimate natural
phenomena. Contestants are permitted to
submit up to four entries of prints plus four
of slides. Entry forms will be supplied by
the Museum on request. Photographs should
be mailed directly to the Museum.

The panel of judges is composed of Mrs.
George W. Blaha, APSA, photographer and
naturalist; Arthur Hunter, teacher and nat-
uralist; Ray Souers, photographer, and two
members of the Museum staff — Dr. Alan
Solem, Curator of Lower Invertebrates, and
Dr. John W. Thieret, Curator of Economic
Botany.

The Nature Division of the Photographic
Society of America will award special medals
for slides adjudged the best examples of color
harmony in nature. The other awards will
be made by the Nature Camera Club.

In volume of entries submitted by photog-
raphers all over the world, in number of pic-
tures exhibited, and in number of awards,
this contest has always been the world's larg-
est devoted especially to nature photography,
and in fact is one of the world's largest photo
contests of any type.

Mammalogist Completes Study Trip

Philip Hershkovitz, Curator of Mammals,
recently returned from a three-week trip
to study African and South American mam-
mals in the collections of the museums in
Cambridge of Harvard University, the
American Museum of Natural History,
New York, and the U.S. National Museum
in Washington, D.C.

The giant clam of the Pacific and Indian
oceans, largest known bivalve, is exhibited
in Hall M.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

January, 1960

SOUTH SEA ISLES-

(Continued from page 3)

occupied himself with bringing out the first
Frigidaire, then there would have been no
need for the Portuguese and the Spanish to
be so interested in beating well-worn tracks
over the seas to search out pungent spices to
preserve and camouflage the pungent meats
of European tables. In other words, the
quest for spices began it all.

Lacking spices, the food of most of Eur-
ope was unspeakably drab and insipid. Cen-
turies were to elapse before the fruits, tubers,
and the other products which now seem com-
monplace were to be used or acclimatized in
Europe. Potatoes, tomatoes, and corn — all
New World crops were of course unknown.
There were no lemons — and even if there had
been, there was no sugar, so lemonade was
out of the question completely. No coffee,
and no tea, so there couldn't have been a
British Empire quite yet. Even the groan-
ing boards of the wealthy suffered from a
monotonous sameness. Gluttony without
spice is hardly worth the trouble. So it was
that the jaded palates of Europe welcomed a
dash of pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, a little
ginger, or a smattering of cinnamon. More
and more spices became the variety of life.

The desire for spices soon became what
one anthropologist has called an "acquired
drive." If a little was good, then more was

better. Even beer was strongly seasoned
with ginger and mulled wine was so laden
with spices that it tasted like liquid fire.

Now, it would be quite unfair to conclude
that Europeans of this period were completely
oriented toward ingestion — or indigestion as
the case may be. The scents of the East were
important too. Musk, ambergris, attar of
roses, sandalwood, and incense came to be
much sought after. Fine fabrics such as silks
and damasks were essential to the noble ward-
robe. Pearls and semi-precious stones and,
of course, precious metals were the objects of
many voyages; but spices were more coveted
than any other products of the distant East.

There was a time when, for example, with
pepper you could buy land, pay dowries, or
purchase your freedom. You might even
pay your taxes with it. For bribes it could
hardly be surpassed. Ginger, cinnamon and
camphor were weighed by merchants in se-
questered shops with windows shut and drafts
eliminated so that none of the precious dust
would be lost to a vagrant breeze. The early
spice caravans had already introduced the
taste for these rare prizes shortly after Marco
Polo's magnificent travels. It was, however,
a deadly journey by caravan and the perils
of the route cost many a life, while cargo
after cargo was lost long before it got a good
start on the way to Europe. Obviously what
was needed was a short route; one which
would obviate the necessity for paying fees
to countless middlemen. In Malaysia the

clove and the nutmeg, the cinnamon-laurel
and the pepper plant grew thick as weeds
and were not considered rare at all. But by
the time the trade goods passed from hand
to hand the old story was repeated — too
many middlemen. Somehow they, too, had
to be circumnavigated. So now we must
burst another bubble — altruism did not in-
spire regents to sponsor expeditions at vast
expense. Ideals were served less than the
concern of royalty over the local exchequer.
In other words, throughout the age of dis-
covery, one of the chief driving forces was
the mercantile spirit and a certain quality of
hedonism. As one writer has phrased it, be-
hind the hero stood the trader, the royal fam-
ily that wanted to stay that way, and at times
the officer of the church who was seeking
wealth in terms of souls — an entrepreneur,
nonetheless.

The ignorance which spawned early voy-
ages is appalling in lofty retrospect. Pto-
lemy taught that life could not exist at the
equator because neither plant nor animal
could withstand the vertical rays of the sun.
Circumnavigation was impossible since Af-
rica connected somehow with Terra Australis
and sandy wastes extended to the South Pole.
Finally some intrepid souls got around to
challenging these ideas which had held sway
for so long a time. This was a period in
which the populace of Europe was, not unlike
the world today, on the verge of a space age.
(To be continued)

NEW MEMBERS

(November 17 to December 16)

Life Member

Joseph C. Belden, Jr.

Non-Resident Life Members

Herbert J. Watt, Mrs. Charles Deere
Wiman

Associate Members

Lorn E. Arnold, Robert M. Arnold, Dr. Al-
fredo Bellizzi, Mrs. G. L. Bergen, Dr. Henry
E. Bielinski, Dr. John F. Bimmerle, Dr.
Carroll L. Birch, Dr. Chester J. Black, H.
Templeton Brown, Adolph Buechler, Dave
Chapman, Clyde F. DeWitt, Tom Dolan,
Arthur E. Gibbs, Leslie S. Gordon, Jerry
Herdina, Howard G. Hokenson, Roy C. In-
gersoll, Dr. George N. Jessen, Hulburd John-
ston, J. D. Kelsey, Lorenz F. Koerber, Jr.,
Fenton D. Lapham, Miss Lilian Marchant,
Francis X. Mettenet, Paul K. Newberg,
Harry H. Patrick, Dr. D. J. Pellettiere, Mrs.
Gordon L. Pirie, Chester L. Posey, Clair M.
Roddewig, J. F. Rosenthal, John I. Shaw,
Mrs. Roy E. Sturtevant, Selwyn H. Torff,
Harry N. Wyatt, T. L. Yates

Non-Resident Associate Members

Dr. Sydney J. Johnson, Mrs. Sydney J.
Johnson, James H. McBain

Sustaining Members

Alfred Akerhaugen, Dr. Stanley Martin

Annual Members

R. J. Adelman, William H. Alder, Mrs.
A. G. Aim, John P. Ash, W. Russell Bagott,
A. C. Bailey, Mrs. Andrew Baird, Dr. Har-

old Balikov, Mrs. Ernest H. Ballard, Mrs.
Charles Bender, William Bessey, Frank L.
Bixby, Archie R. Boe, Ben F. Bohac, Dr.
P. R. Brachman, Martin H. Braun, Jona-
than Q. Caldwell, B. E. Callahan, Charles A.
Capek, Mrs. Arthur L. Conrad, Philip R.
Crippen, Jr., Miss Dorothy Daggett, Ray-
mond A. Danders, George Edson Danforth,
Joseph P. Demme, Mrs. N. Alfred Diggs,
Mrs. David Dimsdale, Mrs. H. F. Duncan,
Mrs. Angela Ebzery, David C. Eisendrath,
Mrs. Edwin P. Elliott, Mrs. Clarence W.
Elmer, Miss Frances C. English, L. E. Eng-
strom, J. O. Epeneter, Mrs. Joseph E. Esch-
bach, Peter Fagan, Louis Feinberg, Robert S.
Fiffer, George E. Filipetti, Maurice Fisher,
Mrs. Charles C. Fitzmorris, Sr., John Free-
man, Harry L. Gadau, H. H. Gawthorp,
Michael Grant, A. W. Hachmeister, Joseph
G. Hagstrom, David N. Hagues, Mrs. David
N. Hagues, Robert S. Halperin, Miss Alice
Hamilton, Miss Mildred L. Hannaford, Wat-
son D. Harbaugh, Robert E. Hattis, Miss
Nellie V. Haynie, James D. Head, H. Harry
Henderson, Dr. Paul G. Hesse, J. Homer
Hilf, Charles H. Hocking, Mrs. Charles R.
Hodgman, Jr., Jesse J. Holland, Joseph Hol-
lerbach, Clarence L. Holmberg, Thomas M.
Howell, Jr., James A. Jensen, Edward F.
Johnson, Howard J. Johnson, R. S. Kal-
wajtys, Mrs. Marion O. Kane, Miss Jessie
Katz, E. L. Kearney, Mrs. J. E. Keller,
Thomas R. King, William P. Klein, Robert
J. Koretz, Thomas D. Kurtz, Albert H.
Levy, Mrs. Raymond G. Lonnon, John T.
Love, Dr. Albert A. Loverde, Mrs. D. J.
Luick, Merrill W. MacNamee, Cecil E. Ma-

gid, Earle A. Mann, T. E. Marston, Mrs.
Louise C. M. Martin, John M. Maxwell,
Frederick Mayer, W. A. Mayfield, Robert
W. Maynard, Franklin McDermott, H. T.
McDermott, Martin J. McGuire, William
V. McKinzie, Hugh S. McLetchie, Harley
V. McNamara, Everett C. McNear, Samuel
E. McTier, Wesley C. Miller, Dr. E. M.
Moore, McGarry P. Murray, W. L. Myers,
Mrs. Herbert Nash, Ernest L. Newton,
P. K. O'Connor, Clarence Olsen, 0. W.
O'Neal, Richard Orlikoff, Mrs. Max D. Orr,
Franklin R. Overmeyer, William J. Payes,
Jr., Dr. Albert G. Peters, O. Ewald Peter-
son, Stanley R. Piatek, M. Hudson Rath-
burn, T. Hamil Reidy, John S. Reiner, Sr.,
R. Joseph Rich, Harry Rosset, Theodore
Rossman, Mrs. Eugene Smith Runions, Har-
old S. Russell, Jack L. Sachs, Mark J. Satter,
Dr. A. L. Schiller, A. Scheele, Aaron Schein-
feld, Norman J. Schlossman, Nathan H.
Schwartz, Dr. Steven O. Schwartz, John R.
Seib, Lee C. Shaw, Curtis Smith, David I.
Spark, Mrs. Humphrey Orr Spencer, Willson
Spielmann, David B. Sweeney, William Tray-
nor, Sol Uretz, Dr. Victoria B. Vacha, Dr.
Derrick T. Vail, Raymond J. Vonesh, Dr.
Rose Mary Wajoy, Dr. James M. Wall,
Wayne Wallis, Norman E. Watson, Dr. A. C.
Webb, Dr. William Weisdorf, Dr. Edward
Weiss, C. A. Wells, Alfred C. Wenzel, Dr.
Lucjan L. Witkowski, Herbert Zimmerman

Daily Guide-Lectures

Free guide-lecture tours are offered daily
except Sundays at 2 p.m., (Saturdays 2:30).

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

CHICAGO Q„MLs;L

HISTORY vh/.M JV0.2

MUSEUM &e faulty I960

Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

February, 1960

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Ishah

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

Wm. McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Chesser M. Campbell William H. Mitchell

Walter J. Cummings John T. Phue, Jr.

Joseph N. Field Clarence B. Randall

Marshall Field, Jr. John G. Searle

Stanley Field Solomon A. Smith

Samuel Insull, Jr. Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

John R. Millar Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR

Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
H. B. HARTEf Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Marilyn Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

f deceased

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

HORACE B. HARTE

1896-1960

. Mr. H. B. Harte, able public relations
counsel for the Museum for 32 years died
suddenly at his home on January 8.

Mr. Harte was born Nov. 5, 1896, in New
York City. His death
climaxed a newspaper
and public relations
career that started in
1918 when he joined
the staff of the Chi-
cago Daily News as a
reporter. Before that
time he had attended
Northwestern Univer-
sity and had served in
the United States
Coast Guard during
World War I. In 1920
he left the Daily News
for the editorial staff of "National Safety
News," publication of the National Safety
Council.

Mr. Harte became a Chicago Tribune staff
member in 1922, serving on the Tribune's
Paris edition, and at that time wrote a series
of syndicated articfes on post-World War I
Europe called "An American Observer
Abroad." He remained in that position until
1924 when he took up free-lance publicity

H. B. Fjarte

work. One year later he became assistant
city editor of the New York Daily Mirror.
He left the Mirror to join the Miami Tribune
and later to do publicity work in Hollywood,
Fla. In 1926 be became a copyreader for
the "Ohio State Journal."

In 1927 the seasoned writer and publicity
agent came to Chicago Natural History
Museum as public relations counsel, a posi-
tion he held until his death. He served also
as a copyreader at the Chicago Sun, from
1945 until shortly before the Sun-Times
merger in 1948. Son of Walter B. Harte, a
newspaperman, and Grace H. Harte, a vet-
eran Chicago lawyer who died in 1957,
Mr. Harte leaves a widow, Margaret Wagner
Harte, and one son, Robert.

All who knew Mr. Harte recognized as his
outstanding virtues his never-failing patience
and deep humility. He was reputed never
to have said an unkind word to anyone.
One of his great loves was for the city of
Paris, France, which claimed his heart when
he was a reporter there early in his career.
He had planned to visit that city with Mrs.
Harte during April and May of this year.

STAFF NOTES

Allen S. Liss, Department of Anthropol-
ogy's Custodian of Collections, recently at-
tended the annual meeting of the Illinois
Archaeological Survey, at which he was re-
elected a member of the board of directors.
. . . Dr. Rainer Zangerl, Curator of Fossil
Reptiles, participated in a seminar lecture
discussing marginal marine ecology at Mar-
quette University on January 15. Dr. Eu-
gene S. Richardson, Jr., Curator of Fossil
Invertebrates, accompanied Dr. Zangerl. . . .
Henry S. Dybas, Associate Curator of In-
sects, spoke on "Natural History and Ecol-
ogy of the Periodical Cicada" at a meeting
of the Chicago Ornithological Society. . . .
Loren P. Woods, Curator of Fishes, ad-
dressed the Chicago Academy of Science, the
Conservation Council, and the La Grange
Chemists' Group on the topic, "Great Lakes
Fishes and Fisheries." . . . Miriam Wood,
head of the Raymond Foundation, attended
the council meeting of the American Asso-
ciation of Museums in her capacity as presi-
dent of the Midwest Museums Conference.
. . . Mr. W. Peyton Fawcett, cataloguer
and classifier in the library, has returned to
his position at the Museum after two years
in the United States Army.

The following staff promotions, effective
January 1, 1960, are announced by the
Director:

Mr. Phillip H. Lewis, Assistant Curator of
Primitive Art, has been promoted to Asso-
ciate Cufator of Primitive Art.

Mr. Hymen Marx, Assistant in the Division
of Reptiles, has been promoted to Assistant

-THIS MONTH'S COVER-

Few creatures are more graceful
in the air than the fork-tailed com-
mon tern whose beautiful-to-watch,
deep wing beats send it gliding over
ocean swells in search of fish. This
month's cover is a photograph
titled "Common Tern at Nest,"
entered in the 15th Chicago Inter-
national Exhibition of Nature Pho-
tography (held in the Museum
from February 6 to 26) by Leslie A.
Campbell of Belchertown, Massa-
chusetts. It captures the upward
"brake action" of the tern's wings
as it alights on the sea shore to
tend to its brood. Because the
tern nests right on the sand, the
presence of cats and dogs, or
"man's camp follower," the Nor-
way rat, is nearly always disastrous
to a tern colony.

AUDUBON SCREEN-TOUR
OF APPALACHIANS

The Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains
of the Appalachian Range provide a back-
ground for "Roanoke Northwest," color film
and lecture to be presented in the James
Simpson Theatre of the Museum on Sunday,
February 21, at 2:30 p.m. under the auspices
of the Illinois Audubon Society. Lecturer
for this screen-tour, fifth in the Audubon
series of six, is G. Harrison Orians, naturalist
and university professor.

Orians' color film follows the wild life of
the region through the four seasons, and over
a geographic span from the Virginia shores to
the high hills of the Ohio River. By explor-
ing far from all beaten paths, he has obtained
intimate glimpses of the lives of small mam-
mals, birds, insects and wild flowers.

Admission is free. Members of the Mu-
seum are cordially invited to attend, and to
bring guests.

Daily Guide-Lectures

Free guide-lecture tours are offered daily
except Sundays under the title "Highlights
of the Exhibits." These tours are designed
to give a general idea of the entire Museum
and its scope of activities. They begin at
2 P.M. on Monday through Friday and at
2:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Curator of Reptiles.

Miss Janet Wright of the Division of Rep-
tiles has been promoted to Assistant.

Miss M. Dianne Maurer of the Division of
Birds has been promoted to Assistant.

Miss Marilyn K. Jindrich, Assistant in the
Division of Public Relations, has been pro-
moted to Associate.

February, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 3

SOUTH SEA ISLES: DISCOVERY NOT ALL ACCOLADES AND FAME

By ROLAND W. FORCE

CURATOR OF OCEANIC ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

Part II

THE PORTUGUESE voyages of discov-
ery owe much to a man who did not live
to see them. Prince Henry the Navigator
was practically a landlubber; he is rumored
to have set foot on a ship but once. He made
no map and published no treatise which has
survived; but he did put his wealth behind
"research." He provided as near an ap-
proach to the Ford Foundation as existed
in 15th century Europe. He furthered in-
quiry into navigation. This brave soul
might just as well have been dubbed Henry
the Doubter, because that is what he did.

He was not the first, but perhaps he was
the most ardent — or perhaps he just lived
at the right time and was in the right place.
There were reasons to doubt that Africa sup-
plied a rigid link with the land thought to
exist at the south. Herodotus recorded the
rumor that a Phoenician fleet during the
time of the Pharaohs had sailed south down
the Red Sea and then two years later had
miraculously returned quite unexpectedly
through the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits
of Gibraltar). Moorish slave traders had
told of a land of wealth beyond the Sahara
which they called "bilat ghana." Later the
area was termed the Guinea Coast and lately
the old name has come into the news again.
A map showing this area of Africa had
appeared as early as 1150. There were
reasons for believing, then, that there were
lands that could be reached by sea outside
the Mediterranean. Prince Henry died in
1460 before any of his dreams came to frui-
tion. But he had planted the seeds, and in
the years 1511-14 the Portuguese had
reached the Spice Islands of Malaysia (the
Moluccas).

Vasco da Gama is given credit for the
first voyage to the Indies (1498), but the
Cape of Good Hope was rounded earlier
by Dias in 1486. Portugal's security in
having found THE route to the riches of the
east was shaken by Columbus' Spanish-
backed venture westward. Feelings ran high.
A war loomed over the horizon, and it would
no doubt have materialized had it not been
for the paternal offices of the Pope. He

By Staff Illustrator Mation Pahl

stepped into the fracas and by papal bull
on May 4, 1493 drew a line of demarcation.
All undiscovered land westward of this line
(a hundred leagues west of the Cape Verde
Islands — 320 miles west of Cape Vert in
extreme West Africa) was to belong to
Spain — territory to the east was to be Portu-
gal. A year or so later on, under the Treaty
of Tordesillas, the line was shifted (at Portu-
gal's insistence) to 270 leagues west which
meant ultimately that Portugal would re-
ceive the still undiscovered Brazil.

EVER WIDENING HORIZONS

There followed in the next few years a
tremendous time of vast discovery. Cabot,
an Italian in the English service, reached
Newfoundland in 1498. In 1500 Pinzon
(Spanish) and Cabral (Portuguese independ-
ently discovered Brazil. In the same year
Cortereal (Portuguese) reached Labrador
and other Portuguese reached Madagascar.
Shortly thereafter, Vespucci went down the
South American coast as far as the Rio de
la Plata. The Portuguese reached Malacca
on the Malay Peninsula in 1509. Four years
later Ponce de Leon discovered Florida and
Balboa caught sight of the Pacific.

In case the impression is given that the
lot of these early voyages was all accolades
and fame, history records that Balboa was
ultimately beheaded, Cortez fell into dis-
grace, Columbus was brought back to Seville
in chains, and Pizarro was murdered. Later
on Magellan was to end his life in the
Philippines, Mendatia his in the Solomons,
and Cook his in ignominious fashion in
Hawaii. There were safer occupations. Nor
did the less well-known and unsung heroes
of the age, the seamen, fare much better.
Of the estimated 268 men who sailed with
Magellan from Spain on his voyage across
the Pacific, only 18 returned. Out of 1,955
men on seven vessels who sailed with Anson
in 1740, 1,051 died of scurvy. The Spanish
fleet sent to intercept Anson met with even
greater disaster — only 100 out of 3,000 men
survived.

In spite of the early strides by the Portu-
guese, the 16th century in the Pacific be-
longed to the Spanish — the Portuguese had
to content themselves with all of Africa,

India, and Brazil — plus a few islands in the
Indies thrown in. Though Magellan was Por-
tuguese and had served the Portuguese flag in
the Indies and in Morocco for many years,
he sailed under the Spanish flag when he
rounded the tip of South America and sailed
through the strait that bears his name. As
will be recalled, Magellan accomplished the
remarkable feat of sailing all the way across
the Pacific as far as the Marianas without
sighting inhabited islands.

Magellan was rebuffed by the Portuguese
King Emanuel I, so he took his idea that
the Indies might be reached by going around
the southern tip of South America (as da
Gama had gone around the tip of Africa)
to Spain. There his idea met with favor.
He swore new allegiance and set out shortly
in five refurbished ships. It is interesting
to note that he carried, among his supplies,
trade goods to be used in barter. Items
such as these were included: mirrors, bells,
(20,000 of the latter), 4,800 common knives
(stamped Made in Germany), 600 pairs of
scissors, colored kerchiefs, red caps, brass
bracelets, paste jewels, tinted glassware, and
bright lengths of wool and satin. All in all,
a mass of junk worth little in Europe, but
of fabulous importance to primitive peoples.

ADVENTURE IN DISASTER

The story of the voyage of Magellan and
his men as recorded by his chronicler, Piga-
fetta, is a real adventure in disaster. In
the first place, Magellan implied in his peti-
tion for support that he knew of the passage
he sought, where as actually he only sus-
pected its existence. The other four ships
in the expedition were in the command of
Spanish officers who resented the authority
demanded by the Portuguese sailor. Ma-
gellan is characterized as a stern and taci-
turn leader who confided nothing to his com-
{Continued on page 7, column 2)

Pagz k

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

February, 1960

NATURE PHOTO EXHIBIT OPENS ON FEBRUARY 6

Rare moments of
beauty and mystery in
nature that have been
caught by the split-
second action of a cam-
era will be on display
in Hall 2 of the Muse-
um from February 6
to 26 in the 15th Chi-
cago International Ex-
hibition of Nature
Photography.

Co-sponsored by the
Museum and the Na-
ture Camera Club of
Chicago, the contest
for many years has
been the largest in the
world devoted to na-
ture photography, with
number of entries sub-
mitted totalling in the
thousands. The en-
tries include color and black-and-white prints,
and color slides, of scenic and unusual natural
phenomena, plant life, and animal life photo-
graphed by amateur and professional pho-
tographers. Several hundred of the best of
the prints will be selected for display in the
exhibition, and on February 7 and 14 (Sun-

T. S. Lai of Quilon, S. India, named his photo entry "Frightened Group."

tive in printing so that the flow of lines was
more pleasing to him. But in the process he
had endowed the land snails shown with a
highly unorthodox left-hand spiral.

The panel of judges for this year's contest
was composed of Mrs. George W. Blaha,
APS A, photographer and naturalist; Arthur
Hunter, teacher and naturalist; Ray Souers,
photographer; and two members of the Mu-
seum staff — Dr. Alan Solem, Curator of
Lower Invertebrates, and Dr. John W.
Thieret, Curator of Economic Botany. Sil-
ver medals and honorable mentions will be
awarded in the various print and slide classi-
fications. Objective of the contest is "to
make the photographer a better naturalist
and the naturalist a better photographer."

"White Sands Yucca," an entry in the Nature Photo
Show, by M. S. Barrett of Adams, Massachusetts.

days) at 2:30 p.m. slides will be exhibited by
projection on the screen of the James Simp-
son Theatre.

Judging of the contest covers two exhaust-
ing days and involves great alertness and
acute observation, as well as photographic
and artistic sense, on the part of the judges.
In past years some photographs given pass-
ing scores by the judges, on later and closer
examination proved to be pictures of mounted,
dry, dead insects with missing parts, or for-
mal arrangements of flowers. In one year's
contest a photographer even reversed a nega-

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of the principal gifts
received during the past month:

Department of Anthropology

From: Miss Edna H. Bahr, Ridgefield,
Conn. — archaeological materials, China; Dr.
David C. Graham, Englewood, Colo. — eth-
nological objects, China; Mrs. Robert A.
Harris, Oak Park, 111. — photographic slides,
Philippines; Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence E.
Norem, Hubbard Woods, III. — ethnological
materials, India, China and Japan; Dr. Al-
bert L. Raymond, Northfield, 111. — replica
of petroglyph, Oregon

Department of Botany

From: H. R. Bennett, Chicago — 713 phan-
erogams, Middle West and Oregon; Dr. C.
Earle Smith, Jr., Oak Park, 111.-1,101 phan-
erogams, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela;
F. A. Swink, Willow Springs, 111. — 236
phanerogams, Saskatchewan and Middle
West; Dr. L. O. Williams, Beltsville, Md —
25 publications

Department of Geology

From: Dr. E. P. Henderson, Washington,
D.C. — slice of meteorite, 546 grams, Florida

THIRD CONCERT FEATURES
CONDUCTOR-PIANIST

Walter Hendl, associate conductor of the
Chicago Symphony and an accomplished pia-
nist, is scheduled as featured guest artist for
the Free Concerts Foundation's third cham-
ber music concert on February 10, 8:30 p.m.
in the Museum's James Simpson Theatre.

Hendl will appear with the Festival String
Quartet composed of Sidney Harth, concert-
master of the Chicago Symphony orchestra,
and his wife Teresa — violinists; Rolf Per-
singer, violist; and Harry Sturm, cellist.
Both Persinger and Sturm share first chair
positions in their sections in the Chicago
Symphony orchestra. The musical program
for the evening includes three selected works
by Vivaldi, Paganini's" String Quartet," and
"Piano Quartet, A Major, Opus 26" by
Brahms. A special composition, "Trio for
Violin, Violoncello and Piano" by Glasow
will also be included in the program, a work
that has its world premiere performance at
the February 10 concert.

The second free concert on January 6,
which featured Phyllis Curtin, soprano, and
Ray Still, oboist, drew a packed house and
glowing reviews by Chicago's music critics.
Headlines appearing above the reviews ranged
from "Free Concert Group Program Re-
warding," to "Chamber Concert Packs Sur-
prisss," to"Second Program Was First Rate."

Free Concerts Foundation, Inc. is headed
by Mrs. J. Dennis Freund, who is also founder
of the organization. Subsequent concerts
will be presented on March 9 and April 13.
Tickets are required for the concerts and are
obtainable by writing Free Concerts Foun-
dation, Chicago Natural History Museum
(Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive,
Chicago 5) and enclosing a stamped, self-
addressed envelope.

Department of Zoology

From: Mrs. Dorothy E. Beetle, Laramie,
Wyo. — non-marine land shells; Mrs. Rose
Burch, Los Angeles — a cowry shell, Cooks
Island; Dr. Francisco Campos R., Ecuador
5 bats; Mrs. Maude A. Farber, Beverly Hills,
Calif. — a duck-billed platypus, New South
Wales; Harry Hoogstraal, Cairo, Egypt —
156 bird skins, 23 mammals, a sea turtle;
Ernest J. Roseoe, Chicago — land snails,
western United States; Dr. Jeanne S. Schwen-
gel, Scarsdale, N. Y. — marine shells, Hawaii ;
Dr. Charles H. Seevers, Chicago — 581 bee-
tles, Africa; Dr. Alan Solem, Chicago — 2,500
sea mollusks, world-wide; Mrs. Margaret
Teskey, Marinette, Wis. — 2 land snails, Ten-
nessee; Robert E. Woodruff, Gainesville, Fla.
— 21 Scarabaeid beetles; Loren Woods,
Homewood, 111. — a raccoon, and non-marine
snails, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico; Dr. Frank
N. Young, Bloomington, Ind. — 24 water
beetles; W. D. Thomas, Balboa, Canal
Zone — 250 non-marine snails; U. S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C. — 5 fish
specimens; U. S. National Museum, Wash-
ington, D.C. — 56 reprints on mammals; Dr.
John Williams, Nairobi, East Africa — a
bird skin

February, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

BURIAL YIELDS CLEWS TO RED OCHER CULTURE

By GEORGE I. QUIMBY

CURATOR OF NORTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY
AND ETHNOLOGY

THE PEOPLE of the Red Ocher Culture
were Indians who first lived in the Upper
Great Lakes region and adjacent areas a
thousand years or more before the birth of
Christ. When these Indians buried their
dead, they sprinkled powdered red ocher,
usually in profuse quantities, over the body
and offerings in the grave. Thus, some
thousands of years afterwards when archae-
ologists discovered the
cultural remains of
these people, they
named this assemblage
of tools, weapons, or-
naments, and burial
customs the "Red
Ocher Culture."

The name is not a
very good one because
it has since been found
out that other groups
of Indians living in the

region at the same time, as well as some earlier
groups and some later groups, also used pow-
dered red ocher in their graves. But to re-
member this fact is less confusing than to try
to change the established name of this cul-
ture to something more suitable.

In the Upper Great Lakes region the Red
Ocher Culture has a time span of about 1,000
years. It had its beginnings in the Algoma
Stage of post-glacial lake levels at 1100 or
1200 B.C., when the water plane in the basins
of Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior
stood at 595 feet above modern sea level,
or about 1 5 feet higher than at present. This
culture had ended by the time of the migra-
tion of Hopewell Indians into the region
around 100 or 200 B.C.

ARTIFACTS IN MUSEUM

Early Red Ocher Culture or Red Ocher I
lasted from about 1100 B.C. to perhaps 500
B.C. in the Upper Great Lakes region, and
it is a typical culture of the Late Archaic
period. It can best be illustrated by this
Museum's collection of characteristic tools,
weapons, and ornaments from a site in Dyer,
Indiana that was excavated in 1915 by
Philip C. Schupp of Chicago.

The Dyer site consisted of a burial in a
sandy ridge that was once a shoreline fea-
ture of glacial Lake Chicago. At the time
of its use by Red Ocher Indians this ridge
was a marked elevation at the edge of a
swamp or shallow lake and near the mouth
of a creek that emptied into the lake or
swamp.

The burial in a once deep pit was that of
an adult male in a flexed position. At the
side of the right arm there was a bar amulet
6% inches long made of ground and polished
slate. Near the left arm there was a double
pointed copper awl, square in section and

4% inches long. Around the neck of the
skeleton were 45 globular, thick copper beads
graduated in size and ranging from }4 inch
to %/i inch in diameter.

On top of the skeleton there were three
copper celts, or axes, ranging in length from
4}4 to 5% inches, and a tremendous leaf-
shaped blade of whitish flint with the point
broken off. This blade was 153^ inches
long as found in the grave, but when re-
stored in accordance with other whole blades

A large leaf-shaped ceremonial knife of chipped flint, typical of the Red Ocher
Culture, excavated at Dyer, Indiana, in 1915, and now in the Museum's collections.

of this class, it is at least 19 inches long.

Beneath the skeleton there were two side-
notched, leaf-shaped blades of the type called
"turkey-tail," so named because the basilar
part of the blade, in silhouette, resembles
the posterior of a plucked turkey. These
"turkey tail" blades were made of a dark,
blue-gray flint and were 5 to 5}^ inches long.
With them there was a stemmed blade made
of the same kind of flint and otherwise
similar.

Other objects found in the grave were a
faceted lump of galena, or lead ore, and a
small, broken point of brown and dark gray
flint that looks as if it might have had
multiple side notches.

Powdered red ocher was scattered through-
out the grave. It covered the skeleton and
all of the stone and copper artifacts, and
permeated the sand at the borders of the
grave pit.

OTHER CULTURE TRAITS

Although the site at Dyer is typical of
Red Ocher I it did not have all of the types
of artifacts known for that culture. Prob-
ably there is no site that contains all of the
characteristic tools, weapons, and ornaments.
Various other Red Ocher I sites have pro-
duced additional traits such as bird-stones,
shell beads, leaf-shaped knives of copper,
slate gorgets, grooved and ungrooved axes
of stone, caches of trianguloid blades, and
copper harpoons with multiple barbs on
one. side.

However, the diagnostic traits of the Red
Ocher culture are the "turkey tail" blades
of blue-gray flint and the large leaf-shaped
knives, usually of white flint. If either or
both of these traits are present in caches
or burials, with or without red ocher, the
culture is identifiable as Red Ocher. Al-

MUSEUM ATTENDANCE
INCREASED IN 1959

"Probably the year of greatest impact upon
the people of Chicago" is the description
given to 1959's activities and events at Chi-
cago Natural History Museum by Dr. Clif-
ford C. Gregg, Director.

Attendance increased to 1,075,426 from
1,049,401 in 1958. This was the 3rd con-
secutive year in which the number of visitors
has exceeded a million.

"Chicagoans were made more aware of
what the Museum is, what it does, and what
it has to offer the public than ever before,"
said Dr. Gregg. "There were more special
events, more special exhibits, more innova-
tions than in previous years, and Chicago
responded to these attractions. One way in
which the Museum's role in the city's life
has been emphasized has been by the silhou-
ette-illumination of the exterior of the white
marble building every night since June 16
when, along with other public buildings in
the park system, it completed installation of
the new lighting system. During the sum-
mer the Museum remained open to visitors
beyond the normal hours on a number of
evenings, and late in the year evening cham-
ber music concerts once a month were in-
augurated in the James Simpson Theatre.
During the period of the Pan American
Games and Festival of the Americas the
Museum staged, for the first time anywhere
in the United States, a special exhibit assem-
bling American Indian art of the entire west-
ern hemisphere, ranging from Alaska to
Patagonia. In November and December
the centennial of the publication of Dar-
win's Origin of Species was celebrated with
a special exhibit of Darwiniana. Many new
permanent exhibits were also added in the
Museum's four departments — Anthropology,
Botany, Geology, and Zoology."

As always, Dr. Gregg noted, a full program
of scientific research and field work by expe-
ditions in various parts of the world was con-
tinued. There were zoogical expeditions
working in the Belgian Congo, Peru, Pan-
ama, Nepal, the Philippines, Dutch Guiana,
Mexico, Colombia, and at sea collecting
fishes in West Indian waters.

though Red Ocher I shares many of its
traits with other Late Archaic cultures, par-
ticularly one called Glacial Kame, it does
not share the "turkey tail" blades of chip-
ped stone and the particular type of large
leaf-shaped knives.

Red Ocher II, which lasted in the Upper
Great Lakes region from about 500 B.C. to
100 B.C., can be recognized by the addition
of burial mounds and/or Early Woodland
pottery. In adjacent regions Red Ocher II
seems to merge with Early Adena culture,
and like Early Adena is one of the im-
mediate ancestors of the famous Hopewell
culture.

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

February, 1960

a

THE VOICE OF YOUTH"-LETTERS APPRAISE THE MUSEUM

to see a lot more of in critics' reviews —
glowing and completely honest. "Genile-
men: You had what other Museums Didn't
have. You had everything from A to Z
I just want to say thanks a million for letting
me have a wonderful time in fact that was

IT HAS BEEN occasionally commented,
concerning the structure of the American
family, that in this country we have not a
patriarchy, or a matriarchy, but a filiarchy
— a child-centered society. In a number of
instances where the child is the center of in-
terest in a family, or
literally seems to dom-
inate his home, the
preceding statement
very definitely seems
to be borne out. All
too familiar are the
words cooed by a dot-
ing parent, "All right
Herbie, now show the
nice people how you
can sing like Jimmy
Durante," etc., etc.,
keeping their guests
"entertained" for hours
in this manner, with
supplementary stories
about what Herbie has
said or done in the
past.

Kegardless Of hOW Thjs js one o{ a number Q£ color cart00ns painted on the walls of the Museum's
tiring this parental pro- "p;cllic room" by Staff Illustrator Marion Pahl. The lunchroom is used by
clivity may be, it Can- school groups visiting the Museum.

not be denied that at

times "kids do say the darndest things" (to
use an expression coined by Art Linkletter
and used as the title of a book he wrote). In
fact, without any conscious effort, children
very often are top humorists in their own
right, supplying material for countless news-
paper and magazine columns, and humor
books.

Here at the Museum we, too, have re-
served a space for juvenile humor. It is a
bulletin board located at our south entrance.
Posted on the board from time to time are
letters and drawings received from the many
children who visit the Museum daily on spe-
cially organized school tours. (The Ray-
mond Foundation has been conducting tours
for school children since 1922; last year
121,898 children participated in the program.)
It is to the Raymond Foundation members
that most of the correspondence is written.
Following are a few of the letters, sent with
serious purpose to the Museum by visiting
students, that have elicited chuckles, and
sometimes roars, from Museum staff mem-
bers.

This first letter is from the kind of school
group about which every Museum guard
dreams. "Dear Sirs: Class 29 have planned
to take a trip to the Museum. We will
come on April 18, 1959. We will keep the
place clean. We will not touch any thing.
We will walk in a double line and look
around. We will bring our own lunches
and eat there."

By the same token, this next letter is the
kind of commentary the theatre would like

the first museum I ever been to. And I bet
all the money I have I had more fun then
any body else. The thing I like best is
where I could go real high and see that big
white room of yours." (Stanley Field Hall,
to most people who visit the Museum.)

The following letter no doubt would have
made a Museum curator blanch, had he
read it, and cause him to hope that the
youngster's observations had not been too
accurate. "Dear Miss Smith, I enjoyed
the tour very much with you. Even thow
we did not stay together. Sue saw a spider
on one of the mummies she thought. I
thank you for taking time off to show the
dinosaurs and fossils."

Obviously, this next little girl cares little
for the "rugged" he-man look. "Dear Sir,
I went to the muzeim, I saw cave men, I
thought they needed a shave. But my
sister said that they didn't have any rasers
blades. I thought they looked very funny.
But they looked very small compeard to
the men now."

Here's another youngster with a little con-
structive criticism for the Museum. "Dear
Miss Smith and Miss Svoboda, I had a good
time. The whale was big. I like things
that are very big. I wish you could have a
big whale in the museum even if you have
chop down the walls." (Maybe, "destruc-
tive" is a better word for his suggestion.)

This next letter illustrates the difficul-
ties that can arise from the problem of
interpretation and reinterpretation. "Dear
Miss Cox, I enjoyed the tour of the museum

with the class. The most interesting thing
of all was the movies about Carl's Bad
Cavern. . . ."

Even in little children there seems to be
an inherent feeling for equality and a revul-
sion for the double standard. This feeling
for justice is brought out quite clearly in
this next letter. "Dear Miss Svoboda,
Thank you for telling us about the different
things at the museum. The things I liked
best were the mummies. The thing I didn't
like was when you said that boys went to
school and the girls stayed home. " (He
is referring to the ancient Egyptian educa-
tional system.) "I'd rather have it the other
way around" (written by a boy, of course).

In this next letter, the youngster even
goes so far as to question the art of the
ancient Egyptian embalmers. "Dear Miss
Smith, I enjoyed the tour very much. I
liked the x-ray pictures of the mummies
best. I wonder who would make a mummy
that was only part there." (He is referring
to the x-ray of one of the Museum's mum-
mies that exposes the deceptive practice by
an Egyptian undertaker of substituting a
stick of wood for the torso of the mummy.)

This next one, although not exactly exhibit
oriented, does give a thorough rundown of
the writer's day at the Museum. "Dear Miss
Fleming, I liked my trip to the Museum,
not mentioning the bus. I liked Bushmen,
the mummies . . . the best. Everything
was terrific. When it was time to eat, 1
had coke, cherries, and a couple of cookes
and when I got back on the bus I said whose
sandwiches are these. Then I shut my
mouth because they were mine. And at
the museum, we all bought (to) little steel
Triceritops and Tyrannosauris."

The following letter illustrates maturity
and unselfishness that even some adtilts
don't possess. "Dear Mrs. Cox, We thank
you for showing us the dinosaurs and the
cavemen. You were a good guide to us.
You told us to stand back so other people
could see."

In this next letter you can see that the
the little girl who wrote it has a keen insight
into the functions of the Museum and a deep
understanding of the role of the Museum in
relation to her. " I learned lots of work from
you. Thank you for showing us around."

But perhaps one of the most heartwarming
of the letters sent to the Raymond Founda-
tion is this next one, with which we shall
close this digression from the strictly scien-
tific and academic side of the Museum.
"Dear Miss Smith, I couldn't come to the
Museum of Natural History because I was
a bad boy in the room and the teacher
rfused to take me would you please send
me a booklet on the forest Indians. Henry
Jones."

—M.J.

February, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

SOME SPECIMEN LABELS
TELL ODD STORIES

By ALAN SOLEM

CURATOR OF LOWER INVERTEBRATES

IN THE RESEARCH COLLECTIONS
housed on the third and fourth floors
of the Museum are thousands upon thous-
ands of specimens, neatly arranged in trays
in dust-proof cabinets. Each specimen must
have a label, telling certain vital bits of
information about it.

Such a label is a very terse, straight-
forward bit of writing — number, name, geo-
graphic locality, date collected, and name
of the collector. This is hardly an item of
romance or adventure, yet there is often
a fascinating story behind the label which
sometimes breaks through the paper barrier.

Only a zoologist could appreciate the
thrill of unpacking a shell and reading "Red
Sea, Forskal, 1769." Here is a specimen
collected by a student of the famous Linneaus
who died while searching for specimens in
the Middle East. The same story can be
found from labels of all well-known collec-
tors. Unpacking Pupina brazieri from Erro-
manga in the New Hebrides brings to mind
Brazier's statement that he collected on
Erromanga while under attack by natives.
A notable case of devotion to science.

Yet occasionally, a universally interesting
label is found. Recently Chicago Natural
History Museum received some western
North American land shells on exchange
from Munroe L. Walton. With specimens
of Oreohelix amariradix (a rare Montana
land snail) was the cryptic message "All
taken dead which may be excusable with
the rancher beside you with a shot gun
making sure you did not set the place on
fire."

Several malacologists have called atten-
tion to a note with the type specimens of
Melania brerispina J. G. Anthony which
reads " New species determined when I was
blind, by touch alone."

A former curator at the University of
Michigan, Calvin Goodrich, even wrote a
brief paper on the unusual labels he'd seen.
A Mr. S. C. Shoup sent specimens with the
unscientific data "This is at the site of
'Maggie's Mill' where the song, 'When You
and I were Young Maggie,' was written."

A former Illinois resident, W. W. Calkins,
added "Battle Field of Chickamauga, near
which on the second day of the battle I was
wounded."

From the labels seen, it is an easy step
to contemplate those not yet written. Last
winter Henry S. Dybas, Associate Curator
of Insects, and I were collecting insects
and snails from the Rio Tribique in the
hinterlands of Panama. The village women
were doing the weekly laundry in the same
stream and were quite curious about the
activities of the "Locos gringos." On find-
ing that I was after "caracolitos" (snails)
one woman excitedly kept insisting that

there were bigger ones around the bend of
the river. I was interested in some tiny
snails only found in stream riffles and did
not desire the large Neritina found in the
calmer stretches. She kept insisting I see
the bigger snails and waved her machete
wildly. At last I went and collected a few.
Perhaps it would be slightly misleading,
but these snails were "Collected at knife
point."

Calvin Goodrich relates the acme of un-
written labels. A famous entomologist,
E. B. Williamson, went on a Sunday after-
noon excursion. Slipping away from the
crowd, he changed into old pants for collect-
ing and started after dragonflies. Spotting
a species known previously from only two
specimens, the afternoon passed quickly.
Finally he just barely caught the train
home — still wearing his old pants. The
others were left by the stream. The speci-
mens really could have been labeled "This
is the spot where I lost my pants!"

SOUTH SEA ISLES-

(Continued from page 3)

panions. He was autocratic, uncompromis-
ing, ploddingly stubborn — a characteristic
which allowed him to persevere and to ac-
complish deeds which would have defeated
less sturdy wills, but which also brought
him to an untimely end at the very apogee
of his success.

After months of exploration of the nooks
and crannies of the east coast of South
America and a bleak winter season spent
in a cove or two near Patagonia, success
was met and the strait that now bears his
name was found. Not, however, without
mutiny and the defection of one of the
larger ships in the convoy (it turned around
and went back across the Atlantic to Spain),
and the loss of another vessel before Tierra
del Fuego was reached.

Magellan overcame the mutiny, buried
his scurvy-ridden dead, and finally, much
depleted in supplies, set out across the un-
known Pacific with three remaining ships.
These weathered and worn craft left behind
the desolate slopes of bleak Patagonia and
sailed northwestward in calm seas where wa-
ter tanks became putrid, flour crawled with
vermin, rats were bartered for at high prices,
and finally even the leather hides in the
rigging were cooked and chewed along with
sawdust to sustain life.

A trail of withered corpses dropped be-
hind as the course proceeded westward.
Finally land was sighted and unspeakable
disappointment followed when it was found
to be several treeless atolls in what must
have been the northern Marshalls in Mi-
cronesia. These they called St. Paul's and
Shark Islands, or the Desadventuradas.
Weeks later the Marianas were sighted and
contact with the natives made. These Ma-
gellan called the Islands of the Lateen sails.
It was March, 1521.

CHILDREN'S MOVIES
BEGIN MARCH 5

The Raymond Foundation will open its
spring series of free programs for children on
Saturday morning, March 5, with color mo-
tion pictures on "China, Land of the Dragon."
On the same program there will be a cartoon.
Other programs scheduled for March are:

March 12 — Falconry — the Sport of Kings

(To be presented in person by Lou Gaeta
and his live falcon, Jezebel)

March 19 — My Home State — Illinois

(Cub Scout day)

March 26 — Conservation Is Our Business

(Camp Fire Girl Day)

Except for the March 12 program, all
these shows are motion pictures. More films
will be presented on each Saturday morning
through April, and the rest of the titles will
be announced in the March Bulletin. All
programs begin at 10:30 a.m. in the James
Simpson Theatre.

Pigafetta made drawings of the first con-
tact with islanders by Europeans, but he
neglected to give us any real idea of what
the people looked like. He did say, however,
that "They go naked, and some are bearded
and have black hair that reaches to the waist
.... Their amusement ... is to plough the
seas with those small boats of theirs," and
the "thieves stole whatever they could lay
their hands on, so that we could not protect
ourselves .... They even very deftly stole
from us the small boat which was fastened to
the poop of the flagship." In a fracas
arising out of a shore party's attempt to
recapture the boat, the native population
was attacked and displayed their absolute
ignorance of the bow and crossbow by stand-
ing dumbly while the arrows pierced their
bodies. The record states that a wounded
native would look surprisedly at his impaled
arm and try to pluck the missile from his
flesh with an amazing lack of understanding
as to how it got there. The retreat was
general. The islands were renamed the
Islands of Thieves (the Ladrones) because
of the obvious propensity of the natives.

Newly provisioned, and with crews in a
healthier state of mind, the vessels sailed
on to the Philippines, which were at first
taken by Magellan to be the famed Spice
Islands for which he was headed. Even
when it became apparent that this was not
the case, Magellan lingered, exploring more
and more of the small islands which form
the central and south-central Phillippines.
He came ultimately to Cebu and with much
pomp and ceremony "Christianized" the
chief's family and as many of his subjects
as appeared. Success was within his grasp —
he could have left and sailed on to the

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

February, 1960

Moluccas which were not too far distant.
He knew he was close, because his trusty
slave Enrique (a Sumatran who had come
into his possession in Malacca on the Malay
Peninsula many years before) found to his
surprise that he could understand what the
natives in the Philippines were saying.
However, Magellan's stubbornness intruded
itself once more, and in an attempt to
show the invincibility of the warriors of
the new sovereign to whom the chief from
Cebu had just sworn his allegiance, Ma-
gellan took 60 men on a war mission to
the neighboring island of Mactan. He de-
clined any assistance from local "troops"
and ordered 1,000 Cebu warriors to stand off-
shore in canoes and observe "how it was
done."

MAGELLAN SLAIN

At this point Magellan's success story be-
comes a tragedy. The boats in which his
forces attempted to make a landing were
stranded offshore out of firing range by an
encircling reef. A contingent with Magellan
in the lead therefore jumped into the waist-
deep water and began wading ashore to
close quarters. Fifteen hundred Mactanians
awaited them, and in the chaos that followed
eight men were slain — of these, one was
Magellan, who refused to retreat in what
ended as a complete rout. Face was lost
in immense proportions. Later on, even
negotiations failed, and a truce party of
some 30 men was also slain by the avid

warriors of Mactan. Magellan's body was
never recovered.

Prior to this time one of the three remain-
ing ships had been abandoned and burned
because it was impossible to stop its severe
leaking. Now there were two — and they
proceeded to the Moluccas under command
of a young Basque nobleman by the name
of del Cano who, ironically, had been one
of the mutineers prior to the rounding of
the tip of South America. It was he who
was to bring the one remaining ship back
to Spain with a crew of but 18 and four
native survivors. What is worse, after Ma-
gellan had secured the Moluccas for Spain
at the cost of his own and numerous other
lives, and after enduring indescribable hard-
ship in the process, the King of Spain ulti-
mately sold the islands to Portugal for a
paltry sum.

Moreover, nobody ever used Magellan's
strait. Those who tried often went aground
and were lost, and finally, much later, ac-
counts were plublished in Europe which
denied the existence of the channel — saying
that it had been closed by landslides. Still
later it was Drake who used the seaway in
sneaking up on Spanish shipping in the
Pacific. Since 1913 we have had the Panama
Canal to use, but even in the interim between
Magellan's voyage in 1520 and that date,
the passage was largely shunned for other
routes. Nevertheless, the voyage was a
landmark, and it marked a first in Pacific
exploration. (To be continued)

NEW MEMBERS

(December 17 to January 15)

Contributors

Herbert Baker, Mrs. Herbert Baker,
George I. Quimby, Dr. Alan Solem

Life Member

Mrs. Charles C. Haffner, Jr.

Associate Members

Dr. Joseph Ackerman, James R. Adding-
ton, B. H. Bunn, W. F. Crawford, Dr. Wil-
liam L. DeLarye, Samuel E. Entsminger,
Miss Grance S. Flagg, Don R. Grimes, Frank
Brookes Hubachek, George L. Irvine, Her-
bert M. Johnson, Gordon Lang, C. E.
McKittrick, Bryan S. Reid, Jr., Lester W.
Reinecke, Miss Marie Katherine Remien,
Robert S. Russell, H. R. Sampson, Harold
W. Schloss, Noel M. Seeburg, Jr., M. M.
Shoemaker, Joseph J. Stefan, Harold C.
Steiner, John C. Sturgis, Wayne Swonk,
Melvin Thillens, Richard Uslander, Andrew
J. Watt, Lafeton Whitney, Milton Zadek

Non-Resident Associate Member

Martin W. Hanson

Sustaining Member

Mr. Carroll G. Bowen

Annual Members

Mrs. Thomas Amberg, Osborn Andreas,
Mrs. Lucius A. Andrew, Jr., Dr. Cornelius
M. Annan, Mrs. H. D. Arneson, Joseph P.
Antonow, Mrs. W. C. Bachelder, William U.
Bardwell, Mrs. George A. Becker, Emery E.
Bergfors, Dr. Haskell E. Bernstein, George

Bixby, Jr., A. C. Boitel, Paul F. Boyyn,
O. S. Caesar, Charles J. Callanan, Francis P.
Canary, Larry W. Cantrell, Mrs. Oscar D.
Carlstrom, Joseph T. Carp, James P. Cody,
John J. Cogan, A. B. Costello, Walter W.
Cruttenden, Sr., Dr. Charles U. Culmer,
James H. Cunningham, Donald Defrees,
Alfred F. Finkel, John Jay Fox, Jr., Robert
Frankenbush, A. J. Frystak, Harold Geil-
man, Charles F. Glore, Jr., William Grage,
Carl I. Gustafson, Mrs. Edward K. Hardy,
Warren S. Hassell, Dr. David B. Hatcher'
Robert W. Havey, Paul H. Heineke, Kai
Henriksen, Mrs. Cyrus G. Hill, Dr. Walter
C. Hoag, John F. Hutson, Eric Isaac, Mil-
ton J. Isaacs, W. R. Isom, Mrs. Oscar W.
Issaacson, Frank Kaplan, John J. Kapov,
Christ Karafotias, G. E. Keister, John O.
Kindahl, Mrs. Roy Kroeschell, C. W. Kuh-
nen, Mrs. Philip R. Latta, Mrs. Louis Leavitt,
Raymond E. Lee, Clarence J. Lehecka, Rob-
ert Leighton, Miss Elaine Linnert, Mrs. John
L. Manta, Henry A. Markus, Mrs. Aquil
Mastri, Dr. William J. Mauer, Ralph R.
Minkler, Walter A. Monney, Myron T.
Monsen, Westley F. Mont-Pas, James C.
Moreland, Dr. Harry A. Oberhelman, Dr.
Abraham M. Oberman, Andrew Pettinger,
Mrs. S. C. Pirie, Jr., George B. Pletsch,
J. Rockefeller Prentice, James N. Rawleigh,
H. Edward Reeves, William Renouf, Scott
Robertson, Walter D. Rudolph, Mrs. F. H.
Sasser, Miss Edith E. Sayers, Mrs. Agnes K.
Schmitt, F. Girard Schoettler, Dr. Paul W.
Schroeder, Dr. Jerome L. Schulman, Don-
ald K. Searles, Bruce L. Simpson, Dr. Ed-

LECTURES ON SATURDAYS
TO START MARCH 5

The spring series of color films and lec-
tures for adults — the 113th such series to be
presented by the Edward E. Ayer Lecture
Foundation — will open on Saturday, March 5
with "The Pitcairn Story." Commander
Irving Johnson will be the lecturer.

On the three other Saturdays in March the
lectures will be:

March 12 — Pathways Through Pakistan
J. Michael Hagopian

March 19 — Sub- Antarctic Isle
Alfred M. Bailey

March 26— Rural England

Alfred Wolff

All the lectures begin at 2:30 P.M., and ad-
mission is free. Five more programs will be
given in April. Details on the entire series
will be published in the March Bulletin.

Research Grant to Museum Scientist

The National Science Foundation has
awarded a grant of $17,200 to the Museum
for the use of Philip Hershkovitz, Curator of
Mammals, in continuation of a three-year
research project for the purpose of preparing
for publication a Check List of Recent Mam-
mals of South America. Mr. Hershkovitz has
had extensive field experience in South
America, and spent more than four years be-
tween 1948 and 1952 as leader of the Muse-
um's Colombia Zoological Expedition, the
longest expedition continuously in the field
in the Museum's history.

Scientist from Israel Here
Prof. Oskar Theodor of the Medical School
of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, recently
spent two weeks in the Museum's Division
of Insects, studying bat parasites and con-
ferring with the staff. The Museum's col-
lection of external parasites of bats, es-
pecially bloodsucking flies, is one of the
most comprehensive in existence. Prof.
Theodor has won great distinction as a
medical entomologist and parasitologist. His
visit here is part of a study trip to the
United States and Brazil under a grant from
the National Institute of Health, Bethesda,
Maryland.

win S. Sinaiko, Dr. W. Walter Sittler, Leon
N. Skan, Ralph Skoner, Mrs. Hope Taylor,
William L. Taylor, Jr., Bruce T. Teller,
Nels E. Tessem, Mrs. Reuben Thorson,
Fred A. Tipple, Dr. David D. Turow, Del-
bert N. Urick, Dr. Pedro A. Valdes, Dr.
Cornelius A. Vander Laan, Steve Vargo,
Mrs. Leslie H. Vogel, Hamilton Vose, Jr.,
Dr. Carl F. Waters, Sheidon A. Weaver,
Dr. Marvin A. Weiss, Mrs. David Wenner,
Jr., Dr. Howard L. Werner, Dr. Robert E.
Westfall, Dr. Philip C. Williams, Dr. Ed-
ward J. Wiss

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

March, I960

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Ishaji

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

W». McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Chbsser M. Campbell William H. Mitchell

Walter J. Cummings John T. Ptrib, Jr.

Joseph N. Field Clarence B. Randall

Marshall Field, Jr. John G. Searle

Stanley Field Solomon A. Smith

Samuel Insull, Jr. Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain Fir* Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Tkird Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

E. Leland Webber Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Ckitf Curator of Anthropology

John R. Millar Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

Theodor Just Curator Emeritus of Botany

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
M arh-yn Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

STAFF NOTES

Dr. C. Earle Smith, Jr., Associate Cura-
tor of Vascular Plants, spoke on the topic,
Latin America, to the fifth grade class at
Oliver Holmes School, Oak Park, on Jan-
uary 27. He illustrated his lecture with ko-
dachromes and samples of economic plant
materials. . . . Dr. Alan Solem, Curator of
Lower Invertebrates, left for Florida Febru-
ary 16 to act as a judge for the St. Petersburg
Shell Club Show. . . . Mrs. Ruth Andris,
zoology departmental secretary and a fre-
quent illustrator in the BULLETIN, had a
piece of sculpture accepted for the Brother-
hood Week Art Exhibit displayed at Mar-
shall Field and Company Art Galleries from
February 22 through March 5. . . . Bertram
Woodland, Associate Curator of Petrology,
will appear on the WGN-TV program,
"Science In Our World Today," on March 7,
8:15 to 8:30 A.M.

Girl Scouts Give Aid to Botany

Eleven Senior Girl Scouts of the South
Cook County Council are participating in a
museum aid project in plant mounting by
contributing 36 hours of service on six alter-
nate Saturdays. Directing the project, which
will end March 19, are Mr. Robert Reich,
Custodian of the Herbarium, and Mrs. Dor-
othy Gibson, Botany Departmental Secretary.

FILMS FOR CHILDREN
BEGIN MARCH 5

An unusual and interesting program on
' ' Falconry, the Sport of Kings," will be offered
in the Museum on March 12 as part of the
Raymond Foundation's spring, 1960, series
of entertainment for children. The program
will present Lou Gaeta, in person, and his
live falcon, Jezebel, in an interesting session
demonstrating an art that has almost com-
pletely died in the world.

The spring series of entertainment is the
offering of the James Nelson and Anna Louise
Raymond Foundation. Programs are pre-
sented on Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. in the
James Simpson Theatre. Although five of
the shows have been designated as special
days for various children's organizations, all
children, regardless of whether they are affili-
ated with these organizations or not, are wel-
come at all programs. The programs are free.

Following is the complete schedule:

March 5 — China — Land of the Dragon

March 12 — Falconry — The Sport of
Kings

March 19 — My Home State — Illinois

(Cub Scout Day)

March 26 — Conservation Is Our Busi-
ness (Camp Fire Girl Day)

April 2 — International Friendship
(Girl Scout Day)

April 9 — The Voyage of the Beagle
(Museum Traveler Day)

April 16— NO PROGRAM— Easter
Weekend

April 23— The Red Balloon

April 30 — All Cartoon Program

Children may come alone, in groups, or
with parents or other adults.

STANLEY FIELD RE-ELECTED

At the January meeting of the Board of
Trustees, Mr. Stanley Field was elected
President of the Museum for the 52nd con-
secutive year. His accomplishments during
his term of office have been commented on
at some length in the 1957 and 1958 Annual
Reports of the Director of the Museum. His
continuing leadership is a source of inspira-
tion both to the Board of Trustees and to the
staff of the Museum.

Others re-elected to office include:
Hughston M. McBain, 1st Vice President
Walther Buchen, 2nd Vice President
Joseph N. Field, 3rd Vice President
Solomon A. Smith, Treasurer
Clifford C. Gregg, Director and Secretary

Mr. E. Leland Webber was elected Assist-
ant Director and Assistant Secretary of the
Museum.

THIS MONTH'S COVER-

The woman porter with the
whimsical smile pictured on our
cover is a native of Nepal, a small
independent state located between
India and Tibet. Of special inter-
est in the picture is the unusual
brooche of gold and turquoise worn
around the woman's neck. Typ-
ical of the Nepalese love of jewelry,
it is often used to carry snuff. In
many cases such an ornament rep-
resents all of a person's wealth.
Nepal, a country of about 56,000
square miles and 5,600,000 popu-
lation, is distinguished for having
many of the world's highest moun-
tains. It also has some rather
unique customs, as described in
Dr. R. L. Fleming's article on
page 3 of this issue. The photo of
the Nepalese woman porter was
taken by John Mover, of the Mu-
seum's staff, and is included in
a special Museum exhibit, "Peo-
ple and Places in India," on dis-
play in Hall 18.

MILLAR HEADS BOTANY

After having served more than the required
minimum of ten years as Chief Curator, Dr.
Theodor Just has been appointed Curator
Emeritus of the Department of Botany. Re-
lieved of his administrative burdens, he will
be free to devote his entire time to research,
writing, and editorial work.

John R. Millar, by unanimous vote of the
Board of Trustees at its last meeting, was
elected Chief Curator of Botany to replace
Dr. Just. Mr. Millar joined the staff of the
Museum on February 1, 1918, and was asso-
ciated with the Stanley Field Plant Repro-
duction Laboratory continuously from that
time until 1937 when he was appointed Cura-
tor of the N. W. Harris Public School Exten-
sion of the Museum. In 1946, Mr. Millar
became Deputy Director of the Museum and
served in that capacity until called to his
present assignment.

Mr. Millar's wide experience in botany in-
cludes collecting trips to South Florida, 1918-
1919; the Stanley Field Expedition to British
Guiana in 1922; the Captain Marshall Field
Brazilian Expedition in 1926; and the Sewell
Avery Expedition to Nova Scotia in 1938.

Spring Visiting Hours
Begin at Museum
Beginning March 1, spring visiting hours
will go into effect at the Museum. The build-
ing will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 P.M. every-
day. These hours will prevail until May 1
when summer hours of 9 a.m. to 6 P.M. will
be observed.

March, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

PageS

SOMETHING NEW IN CALENDARS-NEPAL'S UNUSUAL YEAR

Dr. R. L. Fleming, Field Associate
of the Department of Zoology, was sta-
tioned in Mussoorie, India, as high
school supervisor from 19^7 through
1953. While at Mussoorie, he made
trips into Nepal — from the lowlands up
to far above timberline in the Himalayas
— on which he collected many bird speci-
mens for the Museum. Since 1 953 he
has been superintendent of the Medical
Mission to Nepal of the Board of World
Missions of the Methodist Church.

His active interest in bird study re-
sulted in an extensive report on "Birds
from Nepal," which he co-authored with
Chief Curator Austin L. Rand. The
article which follows was inspired by the
nature calendar published in the Janu-
ary issue of the Bulletin.

By ROBERT L. FLEMING

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY FIELD ASSOCIATE

THE NEPALESE have worked out an in-
dependent measure of time compared to
Americans. They are well along in their
2016th year with New Year's Day slated for
the middle of April. Twelve lunar months
linked in six pairs make up their "seasons,"
but to the casual western observer in Kath-
mandu there seem to be only three — the
warm, the wet, and the cold seasons. At a
latitude of mid-Florida and an altitude well
under a mile, the days come and go in pleas-
ant succession.

To take a closer look at the seasonal pat-
tern in Kathmandu, let us begin with the
first day of spring in early February. Fields
glow with yellow mustard when the usual
chill of evening is suddenly broken by the
first faint puff of warm air. Spring comes
but oh so gently. Next day the wedding sea-
son breaks with gala sounds of fife and drum.
Processions carry large colored umbrellas un-
der which ride brides and grooms. This happy
time is reflected in a burst of melody from
the magpie robin, perched on a housetop.
In the neighbouring hills tree rhododendrons
with clusters of scarlet blooms brighten the
ridges and draw many birds, even the giant
weasel-like, pine martens, to feast on the
flowers.

March brings the festival of Holi, a season
of wild abandonment, when sins, in the form of
garbage, are thrown into the streets and when
the younger generation slop dirty colored
water on passers-by or pour crimson powder
down people's necks. It is " hallow'een" time
and wood is stolen to burn in the Holi fire at
street intersections at night. It is well to
have no errands down town for a week, and
if one does, he wears his oldest clothing. The
strengthening rays of the sun now stimulate
the bird population. Winter migrants with
layers of stored-up fat, are on their way from

India to their nesting grounds beyond the
Himalayas. Wild pears put forth their small,
white flowers in scrub jungle, while sprays of
peach and apricot trees decorate city gar-
dens. No more fog hangs over the valley at
dawn, but a dust haze, fanned by winds from
the Indian plain, already fills the air.

SEEK LEGENDARY "SNOW MAN"

The koel cuckoo announces the month of
April by screaming his harsh song both day
and night. The dust haze has thickened and
obscures the nearby hills. Expeditions led
by foreigners are on their way to the top of
Dhaulagiri or to the home of the abominable
snow man. On overhanging crags one finds
the beautiful white and yellow bride-of-heaven
orchids which grow in clusters of three to
seven flowers. Back in the valley, farmers
are busy with winter wheat harvest or are
preparing the earth for future rice planting.
The shallow rivers dry up and people travel
to and from Kathmandu over the sand of the
stream beds.

In May days are warm with the tempera-
ture in the 90's, but the ten to fifteen degree
fall at night makes it very comfortable. The
last of the migrating birds pass through the
valley, while on the neighbouring hills the
dawn chorus of resident and summer nesting
birds is at its height. By the end of the
month, mountaineers reach their upper lim-
its and "snow men" have again successfully
eluded their pursuers.

The tiny purple sunbird ushers in June
with a wild, clear warble as he alights on

gladioli and probes their bases with a long,
curved bill. Two weeks later immature males
and females overtake him — but he is off,
leaving his family in Kathmandu for a num-
ber of weeks. Crepe myrtle hedges burst
into bloom; some are trees forty feet high.
The Indian Embassy gounds are especially
beautiful. By the middle of the month peo-
ple begin to offer special prayers for rain, and
in a few days the first downpours occur.
Over night the great parade ground in the
center of Kathmandu turns from straw to a
deep green.

EVERY YEAR 'LEAP YEAR'

Summer months of July and August are
farmers' time of feverish activity. As soon
as the ground is moist, men work long hours,
turning up soil with a king-size, short-han-
dled "hoe." Squads of women rhythmically
break clods of earth with large wooden mal-
lets. The sprouting rice is taken from seed-
ling beds and planted by hand in flooded
fields. Long rows of women bend to their
task and sing love ballads as they work.
Boys on the banks of fields may sing a reply,
and should a girl win the contest which fol-
lows, she may propose marriage. This ver-
sion of leap-year comes annually and draws
a large number of smiling spectators.

By now monsoon rains are strong. Snakes
escape from their watery holes and seek shel-
ter in houses. Rat snakes and keelbacks are
the more common. People dread a dark-
colored snake, for should such a one glide
(Continued on page 7, column 1)

TIBETANS HOPE TO MAKE A SALE

In winter months Tibetans travel to Kathmandu with goods to sell. Above are two Tibetans with yaks

(large wild, or domesticated, oxen of Tibet).

Pagei

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

March, 1960

Discovery of Pacific isies . . .

IT ALL STARTED WITH SPICE AND ENDED WITH SCIENCE

By ROLAND W. FORCE

CURATOR OF OCEANIC ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

Part III

THE SALE of the Moluccas by Spain to
Portugal in 1528 demonstrated what
seems to have been a rather foolhardy ap-
proach to things. But what must be remem-
bered is that Spain had other involvements.
She retained the Philippines and spent 250
years sailing back and forth between the
west coast ports of Mexico and the Philip-
pines^— trying, for the most part, to miss the
scattered intervening islands which were con-
sidered of little value from the standpoint of
exploitation. Not all Spanish exploration
had an economic impetus. There was an
enormous amount of zeal to spread the gos-
pel— and where better spread it than in Terra
Australis Nondum Detecta. At various
times voyagers alternately thought that New
Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, the New
Hebrides, and even parts of the Solomons
belonged to this hypothetical mass of land
to the south.

In 1567 Alvaro de Mendana (a nephew of
the Viceroy of Peru) was commissioned to set
sail with two ships in search of the supposed
austral continent. He was to establish a set-
tlement there and convert the natives to
Christianity. The track sailed was westward
into Polynesia, between the Tuamotus and
the Marquesas, sighting neither. After a
typical voyage of the period in which starva-
tion and death played their usual roles, and
during which the Ellice Islands were sighted,
the expedition found itself in the Solomons.
Beyond a certain amount of plunder and
pillage, the voyagers succeeded in mapping
the islands in such an exclusive manner that
they could not be found for another 200 years.
After an unfruitful attempt at colonization,
Mendana turned homeward to the north
toward the Gilberts and Marshalls, but not
touching them, discovered Wake, and ulti-
mately returned, bedraggled, to Peru.

Undaunted, Mendana spent a quarter of a
century stirring up support for a return visit
to the Solomons, and finally, in 1595, went
to sea once more. This time he made it to
the Marquesas, where he managed to kill
several hundred "infidels," and from there
finally reached Santa Cruz in the Solomons.
The "colony" did not work out any better
this time, and Mendana, as well as many
others in his party, met his end in the Isles
of Solomon. The remnants of the voyage
ended up in Manila.

A later voyage of conversion was under-
taken by Pedro Fernandes de Quiros, one of
Mendana's subordinates. He found royal
favor and sailed in 1605 from Peru with three
ships. He ended up in the New Hebrides
after what (theoretically) was the cleanest
voyage in history — no gambling, swearing,
or mistreating of natives was condoned.

A colony was founded in the New Hebrides,
and it was called Australia del Espiritu Santo
or New Jerusalem — another testimonial to
the fervor with which Quiros was imbued.
Disease, native unrest, and mutiny — the
three horsemen of the Pacific — caused the
abandonment of the colony. Quiros returned
to Peru, and one of his ships under Torres
sailed west through the straits, which were
to bear his name, between New Guinea and
Australia. Quiros continued to petition for
new expeditions until his death in 1614.
With him died Spain's conquest of the Pa-
cific. She held onto what she had for some
time, but new discoveries were not sought.
During the Portuguese and Spanish period
some discoveries were made by English and
French pirates such as Drake and Caven-
dish, but they amounted to very little com-
pared with what was to occur later on.

DUTCH HARD CASH PERIOD

The Dutch were a breed apart. They were
hard headed, super-practical businessmen.
They were the men in gray flannel of their
day, without the ingredient of conformity
that has come to be associated with this cate-
gory of man.

The Dutch took astute advantage of the
decline of Spanish and Portuguese power on
the high seas and in the world of nations.
Many Dutchmen had sailed under Spanish
and Portugue&j command and when the op-
portunity presented itself (with the defeat
of the Spanish armada in 1588 and the gen-
eral weakening of Portuguese influence), the
Dutch stepped into the breach, and by 1602
held the East Indies in their grasp. In 1598
alone they sent five expeditions into the In-

Bf Staff TOestrafOf Marion Pahl

dies and in the short span of four years had
set up the famed United East Indies Com-
pany. Mostly the Dutch were interested in
trade, and there was more to be had with the
relatively sophisticated peoples in Southeast
Asia than in the more nether reaches of the
Pacific Ocean.

Several names stand out in terms of Pa-
cific exploration for the Dutch. LeMaire
and Schouten left Holland in 1615 to dis-
cover a means of beating the monopoly on
trade held by the United East India Com-
pany. They sailed around the tip of South
America and into Polynesia, touching the
Tuamotus, Hoorn (Home) Island in the Fiji-
Samoa area; skirted New Ireland and New
Guinea, and discovered the coastal groups
known now as the Admiralties and the Schou-
ten Islands. The thing that made it difficult
for independent Dutch merchants was that
the monopolistic United East India Com-
pany had exclusive rights to the only two
known passages leading to the Indies — the
Cape of Good Hope and the Strait of Magel-
lan. LeMaire and Schouten sailed around
the island at the tip of South America (Staten
Island) and through another strait which now
bears LeMaire's name. Upon reaching Ba-
tavia, however, the LeMaire voyage came to
an abrupt halt with the confiscation of the
ship and its property. Later, after much liti-
gation, it was proved that the route taken
was in fact a new one and the voyage had
not actually been in violation of existing reg-
ulations. This may have given LeMaire and
his father (the merchant) some satisfaction,
but little else.

We credit Van Dieman (a Dutch admin-
istrator) with having inspired most of the

March, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

real Dutch exploration in the western Pa-
cific. He was appointed governor-general
and appeared on the scene in Batavia in
1636. He commissioned certain explorations
to answer questions about land to the south.
In 1642 Tasman discovered Tasmania, which
he called Van Dieman's land, though it now
bears his name. He went on to discover New
Zealand and probably Tonga and Fiji. Later,
on another voyage, Tasman explored the
northern coast of Australia. Tasman's ven-
tures were considered failures by all except
Van Dieman who, after all, got an island
named after him; and when he died, the
sport came to an end. Not a single exploit-
able area had been discovered. The books
had to balance and tomfoolery such as ex-
ploration would not allow this. The only
other Dutchman who amounts to much in
our history books is Roggeveen, who in 1722
happened onto lonely Easter Island — so-
called since his arrival was on Easter day.
Roggeveen also sighted eastern Samoa and
was repaid for his trouble by having his ships
confiscated for having trespassed in areas
controlled by the all-powerful East India
Company.

SCIENCE AND STABILIZATION PERIOD

The period of British and French explora-
tion began with freebooters who devoted
themselves to looting Spanish galleons. Be-
tween 1695 and 1726 it is estimated that
there were more than a hundred British and
French voyages into the Pacific. The Eng-
lishman Dampier visited Guam, the Philip-
pines, Australia, New Ireland, and New
Britain, and is immortalized by having his
name attached to the passage between New
Guinea and New Britain. In many ways
more notable than his deeds were the writ-
ings of this buccaneer. He inspired many to
follow in his footsteps with his graphic de-
scriptions of island life. Here, in truth, dwelt
the noble savage, needless to say, walking in
beauty. Another seafaring subject of the
British Crown was Anson, who is also noted
for plunder and the vivid descriptions of his
voyages to the Marianas.

Byron, an Englishman, was one of the
first to benefit from competing government
sponsorship of exploration by Britain and
France. This was a situation not unlike to-
day's in which the United States and Soviet
Russia are vying to see who can get a man
into space first; and it, too, had a scientific
emphasis. During his voyages to the Mari-
anas, the Tuamotus, and the Gilberts, Byron
did a good deal of mapping, and numerous
errors were cleared up. Descriptions of the
flora and fauna were published, as well as
accounts of the native populations.

Wallis and Carteret, also sailing from Eng-
land, visited the Tuamotus, the Society Is-
lands (Tahiti), and Tinian and Saipan in
Micronesia. These latter islands were much
visited by voyagers in need of supplies. Car-
teret is credited with rediscovering the Solo-
mons, exploring the Bismarcks, mapping the

SECRET SOCIETY MASK

Used by women of the Mende tribe in Sierra Leone

Protectorate, West Africa. Seventeen inches high,

the mask is carved in wood, and decorated with a

fringe of dyed raffia.

Admiralties, and finding a channel between
New Britain and New Ireland.

Bougainville, a French captain, took scien-
tists along on his voyage and thereby estab-
lished a precedent. He visited Tahiti,
Samoa, the New Hebrides, and the Solomons.
Finally he ran up against the great barrier
reef of Australia and had to turn around.
He later mapped the Louisiade Archipelago
and ultimately had one of the Solomons
named after him.

This brings us to the famed Captain James
Cook. In three voyages (1768-79) he left
little else to be done by explorers in the Pa-
cific. He picked up the loose pieces and fit-
ted them together, finally paying for the
privilege by being killed by irate Hawaiians
who wanted to keep a ship's boat they had
stolen for the nails it contained. The penal-
ties for contact with South Sea Islanders
have always been high — but inestimably
higher from the islanders' point of view.

Cook, once and for all, settled the issue as
to the existence of Australis. He sailed on
two different occasions so far south that he
was stopped by ice fields. What is more, he
used newly developed instruments (the chro-
nometer and the sextant) to chart the Pacific
so expertly that little revision has been neces-
sary. Astronomical observations were made,
plants were collected, natives were sketched
and described, notes were taken on natural
resources, harbors were listed, currents were
noted ; and in general, exhaustive information
of all descriptions was collected. On his vari-
ous voyages, Cook and his men touched the
Societies, Antarctica, the Hervey Islands,
New Zealand, Hawaii, eastern Australia, the
Tuamotus, the Marquesas, Niue, New Cale-
donia, Norfolk, Mangaia, Tubuai, and many
other smaller islands. Most significantly

SECRET SOCIETY MASK
FROM AFRICA

BY PHILLIP H. LEWIS
Associate curator of primitive art

Widespread among the peoples of the Sierra
Leone Protectorate and Liberia is a women's
secret society called Sande, or sometimes
Bundu. The mask shown in the accompany-
ing illustration was used by members of that
secret society, and was collected from the
Mende people, who number about 600,000
and are found in Sierra Leone.

The Sande society is a women's organiza-
tion which parallels the better known Poro
society of the same area. The main func-
tion of the Sande society is to initiate and
educate young women to the proper fulfill-
ment of women's work.

The mask shown here is used as part of the
impersonation or representation of the Sande
spirit. A woman of high rank in the secret
society is given the honor of being allowed to
represent the spirit by wealing the mask.
The forms of the mask are derived from the
forms of a human head and face; but these
have been altered by making the face very
small, the forehead and head large, and by
emphasizing the hairdress.

Ideals of beauty current among the Mende
are expressed in the following translation of a
mourning song sung by a member of the
Sande society for a deceased woman:

"Let me not hear this! My child, big fore-
head, woman with plenty of hair, what
brought this for you?"

This suggests that the impersonated spirit
is thought of as a human-like creature. How-
ever, it is exaggerated and stylized so that
the Mende know, when they see the masked
figure, that they are looking at a supernatural
creature, and not an ordinary person. Art
is thus used to make visible and tangible a
part of the supernatural world.

perhaps, Cook overcame scurvy (a malady
stemming from insufficient vitamin C) by
rationing fresh lemon juice daily and by put-
ting in for fresh supplies as often as possible.
He also ran a clean ship and insisted on clean
quarters and dry clothing for his men. Of
importance to anthropology also is the fact
that Cook collected ethnographic specimens
which are now lodged in various museums
the world over.

All and all, this man and his companions
solved most of the major mysteries of the
Pacific. It has never been the same since.

The door was opened to future generations
of traders, missionaries, whalers, and other
latter-day representatives of civilization.
Gone forever was the isolation of the islander.
The last stronghold of aboriginality had been
pierced. It all started with spice and it ended
with science — the age of discovery was over.
(To be continued)

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

March, 1960

FILMS OFFER 'WORLD TOUR' WITH WELL-KNOWN LECTURERS

AROUND THE WORLD via motion
Xi picture camera! For the 113th time
the Museum offers the public a popular free
motion picture-lecture series, featuring well-
known lecturers and the color films they
have taken while traveling in remote and
famous places in the world. The programs,
sponsored by the Edward E. Ayer Lecture
Foundation, are presented on Saturdays at
2:30 P.M. in the James Simpson Theatre.
Members of the Museum may claim reserved
seats by presenting their membership cards
before 2:25 P.M. on the lecture day.

Following is the complete spring schedule:

March 5 — The Pitcairn Story

Irring M.Johnson, U£.N.R.

For Captain Irving M. Johnson and his
wife, "home" has come to mean a schooner
and brigantine called the "Yankee," a vessel
that seven times in the last 25 years has
carried the Johnsons to colorful Pitcairn
Island. The "Yankee," resembling the his-
toric "Bounty," mutineers of which in 1790
occupied Pitcairn Island (the present island
population is directly descended from those
early mutineers), has captured a place in
the history of the island — that is, the "Yan-
kee" and her camera-toting skipper, Captain
Johnson. Johnson's color motion picture
includes scenes illustrating life on Pitcairn
25 years ago, as well as life as it is now, with
some exciting camera accounts of under-
water diving operations to recover parts of
the famous "Bounty."

March 12 — Pathways Through Pakistan
J. Michael Hagopian

Pakistan is the world's largest Moslem
country — and its most important Moslem
country, according to J. Michael Hagopian,
who will bring to the Simpson Theatre in-
teresting glimpses of Pakistani life with a
personal commentary on the country's past,
its present, and its future. His color film
highlights city life in Karachi, Sukkur, La-
hore, Dacca, and Chittagong; the historical
heritage of the Mogul Emperors; peasant
life along the riverfronts of the Indus,
Ganges, and the Brahmaputra; and tribal
dances of the Bengal jungle. In addition,
Dr. Hagopian will speak on the Communist
threat to Pakistan, the Pak-India contro-
versy over Kashmir, and Pakistan's relations
with the United States.

March 19 — Su ban tare tic New Zealand
Alfred M. Bailey

A destroyer escort doing picket duty on
the fringe of the Antarctic, as part of the
of the program of the International Geo-
physical Year, is the vehicle for Alfred M.
Bailey's screen tour to rugged subantarctic
Campbell Island. Located in the "howling
fifties," four hundred and fifty miles south

of the main islands of New Zealand, Camp-
bell Island is one of the most isolated weather
stations in the world. However, its remote-
ness does not rule out the existence of a
wealth of interesting wildlife — the Royal
Albatrosses (largest flying birds in the
world), droll penguins, and great herds of
gigantic elephant seals — that is included in
Bailey's film, along with an interesting
camera study of the unusual activities of a
meteorological station.

March 26 — Rural England

Alfred Wolff

The impressive "trooping of the colors"
ceremony on the Queen's birthday, changing
of the Guard at Windsor Castle, Stratford-
upon-Avon, Tintagel Castle of King Arthur,
Canterbury, quaint Cotswold villages, old-
fashioned Cornwall seaports — all spell Eng-
land and will be a part of Alfred Wolff's
presentation that concentrates on the rural
life of the island nation. The motion picture,
not limiting itself to traditional and cere-
monial England, will present also a little of
modern England with a look at the world's
first atomic energy plant, and intimate
glimpses of the people at home and at work.

April 2 — Holland

Gerald Hooper

Holland, a country that has been waging
a ceaseless battle with the sea for many
years, provided interesting subject matter
for Gerald Hooper's camera when he roamed
the lowland country from Amsterdam's
canals and odd architecture, to the Hague,
Rotterdam, and on, and on, creating an
informative motion picture as he traveled.
Hooper has made a special camera study of
the world's greatest drainage venture — the
dikes, the pumping, newly claimed ground,
fertile farms — and will give his audience a
taste of the colorful Holland Festival, which
features performances of the world's leading
artists and musical groups.

April 9 — Yankee Spy in Texas

Robert Daris

Robert Davis, as a "yankee spy in dis-
guise," invaded Texas to make a compre-
hensive film of our great western state noted
for its oil, cattle, and vast expanses of graz-
ing land. In his film, however, Davis pays
special attention to the fantastic develop-
ment that has taken place in agriculture,
industry, and fishing, with side excursions
to such places as the famous King Ranch
and an arabian horse ranch. He also points
out the necessity of border patrols and air-
planes, the role the armed forces play in
Texas, and its splendid educational institu-
tions. As a background for his film Davis
includes bits of historical information on
the development of the "Lone Star" state.

April 16 — Switzerland
Kenneth Richter

The theme of Kenneth Richter's "Switzer-
land" is the strikingly successful union of
three greatly different peoples — German,
French, and Italian — in a confederation
which has served them well for centuries and
today stands as an example to the whole
world. Richter's audience will travel with
him high into the Alps by chair lift, and then
journey on foot in the mountains. The film
takes you into the home of a Swiss family
and shows the Swiss people at work in watch-
making, dairy farming, and heavy industry.
Stops on the tour are Geneva and Zurich,
financial centers of the world.

April 23 — The Mighty Mississippi
James W. Metcalf

The mighty Mississippi winds its way
south from its source in a small northern
Minnesota lake called Itasca to the Gulf of
Mexico, weaving a pattern of beauty, indus-
try, and commerce in the land through which
it passes. James Metcalf has recorded the
complete story of the Mississippi's 2,552-mile
journey to the sea, giving special attention
to the lovely landscapes along its banks and
to some of its important industrial cities.
These cities ship much of their produce on
the Mississippi, upstream or down, on an
endless water conveyor belt that transports
more than 40 per cent of the nation's bulk
freight.

April 30 — The Shandon Hills

JohnE.Taft

A love for wildlife and the wild lands in
which it lives brought about the develop-
ment of John E. Taft into an enthusiastic
naturalist and ardent conservationist. The
Shandon Hills of his native California pre-
sent a rare combination of harsh, lonely ter-
rain and lovely meadows which attract a
wide variety of wild creatures, both resident
and migrant. In his color motion picture
Mr. Taft takes his audience along the trail
of the four seasons, portraying animal life in
its ceaseless struggle for existence against
enemies and hostile weather, as well as in
the beauty of the California springtime. A
little-known area in Californiapresents scenes
of surprising beauty and interest.

Five Antioch Students

Join Museum Stall

Five students from Antioch College (Yellow
Springs, Ohio) are employed in the Museum's
scientific departments as part of Antioch's
specialized eductional program of in-the-
field study. The students will remain with
the Museum three months, during which
time they are adding to their education while
rendering valuable assistance to the Museum.

March, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

DR. KENNETH STARR LEAVES
FOR FAR EASTERN STUDY

Dr. Kenneth Starr, Curator of Asiatic Ar-
chaeology and Ethnology, departed Febru-
ary 17 for Taiwan (Formosa) to pursue a
special study-research assignment for the
Museum. His trip will take him around the
world, as he plans to return via Asia, Europe,
and across the Atlantic, making stops at spe-
cial points of scientific interest.

Main objectives of Dr. Starr's trip, which
will cover a period of six months or more, are:
(1) to pursue further his studies in the anthro-
pology and cultural history of China and (2)
to examine the large holdings of Chinese ink-
rubbings in public and private collections.
Rubbings are ink-on-paper copies of low-
relief or incised inscriptions and designs on
stone, metal, fired clay, and other hard ma-
terials. They often have been very illumi-
nating in studying the history and art of
China and other Asiatic countries.

Some of the special stops on the tour will
be the Bernice Bishop Museum in Hawaii,
where Dr. Starr will confer with Dr. Ken-
neth Emory on an unusual collection of rub-
bings of petroglyphs made by Dr. Emory;
Japan, where Dr. Starr will spend some time
studying Japanese collections of rubbings;
Taiwan's National Central Library and the
Institute of History and Philology of Aca-
demia Sinica; and the ancient ruins of Angker
Wat in Cambodia. The trip is being spon-
sored by the Museum, the American Coun-
cil of Learned Societies, and Science Re-
search Council.

NEPALESE YEAR-

(Continued from page 3)

across the road it is a sure sign of the ap-
proaching death of a member of the family.
On wet hillsides, earthworms occasionally
form living chains yards long. Leeches
abound in certain areas. Not content to inch
their way along the ground, they cluster at
ends of grasses along a trail or drop from
trees with extreme accuracy.

Blue-green fields of August give way to
yellow-green fields of September as rice and
corn ripen. Boys now fly kites to inform the
rain god that no more moisture is needed on
harvest fields. Many dogs roam the city
streets and about half the females come into
heat at this time. Now is the season for
naspatis, an apple-pear which makes good
sauce, and for guavas, brought in eared string
sacks carried on the backs of villagers. Birds
begin to appear in the "down migration"
from Siberia, led by the wagtails. Over a
hundred species of ferns cover trees and the
ground while a dozen or more species of or-
chids cling to oaks and rhododendrons. The
rice harvest begins and continues for six weeks.

October is "Christmas" for the Nepalese.
Schools and government offices close. Peo-
ple come home from India for this Dusai
season. They put on new clothing, visit fam-

*I'm Innocent*' by M. J. Schmidt, of Chicago, won
an honorable mention in nature photo show.

** Animal With Scales" by Madam Van der Bussche,
of Belgium, awarded honorable mention in photo
show, one of many photos from foreign countries.

ily and friends, feast and make merry. Regi-
ments sacrifice young buffaloes and goats;
the commander-in-chief of the army bathes
his hands in the blood and marks their flags
with his handprint. Gardens are full of mari-
golds. Crickets and other insects still chorus
at night. Tree and house sparrows gather at
dawn and dusk in a noisy community chit-
chat. The rainy season ends and billows of
cumulus clouds fill the sky.

The Festival of Lights in early November,
concludes the fall holiday season. Dealers
whitewash their shops and brighten them at
night with oil lamps or electricity in honor
of the goddess of wealth. It is the end of the
fiscal year. It is also the marriage season
again; people don their best clothing and
feast with family members. In the market,
the first oranges appear, along with huge
heads of cauliflower and radishes two feet
long. Rice fields are clear of grain, and when
the first shower comes, soil is prepared for
potatoes, beans and cabbages. Poinsettias
leaf out and are twenty or more inches across.
Skies are clear and ranges of glittering snow
peaks stretch away toward Tibet.

During the winter months of November,
December, and January, Tibetans and north-

NATURE PHOTO CONTEST
BREAKS ALL RECORDS

The 15th Chicago International Exhibition
of Nature Photography held this February
broke all previous records in numbers of
prints and slides submitted, and in the num-
ber of persons who entered the contest.

Approximately 600 prints and 3,400 slides
were entered in the contest by over 1,000
photographers. Entries poured in from the
four corners of the world, including Austria,
Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Germany, Belgium,
Luxembourg, England, India, Japan, Ma-
laya, and South Africa. This year, for the
first time in the contest's history, a packet
of 52 prints was entered by Russia's Union
of Soviet Societies of Friendship and Cul-
tural Exchange with Foreign Countries.

After a weekend of judging, 6 entries were
selected to receive silver medals and 117
were chosen for honorable mentions. Win-
ners of silver medals are: Prints — "White
Sands Yucca," M. S. Barrett, Adams, Mas-
sachusetts; "Waiting," William Van Allen,
Bend, Oregon;"Storm Clouds," Caryl Firth,
Trappe, Maryland; Slides — "Lake of Lava,"
Bob Haugen, Hawaii National Park, Ha-
waii; "Winter's Embellishments," Leslie A.
Campbell, Belchertown, Massachusetts;
"Blue Quartet," Raymond Schortmann,
Easthampton, Massachusetts.

The contest is the largest in the world de-
voted to nature photography.

'WILDLIFE DOWN UNDER,'
LAST AUDUBON PROGRAM

The Illinois Audubon Society goes to Aus-
tralia for its final screen-tour in the 1959-60
lecture series with Alfred M. Bailey's presen-
tation of "Wildlife Down Under," on Sun-
day, March 20, in the James Simpson Theatre.

Dr. Bailey, director of the Denver Museum,
made his color motion picture during the
springtime, the most brilliant season in the
year in Australia. The film story of his most
recent expedition to Outback country in-
cludes such natural curiosities as magnetic
ants, vast hordes of waterfowl, emus, moni-
tor lizards, kangaroos, koalas — as well as the
aborigines.

The program will be presented at 2:30 p.m.
Admission is free.

em Nepalese come to Kathmandu with their
long-haired goats, sheep, and yak-tails for sale.
A dry, cold wind blows from the north, and
streets are quickly deserted after the short
work day from eleven to four. Colder days
bring birds like grosbeaks from higher eleva-
tions down to Kathmundu Valley. Even
then roses and sweet peas fill gardens, while
the nearby hills are fragrant with the scent
of daphne.

After a period of waiting, there comes that
first faint puff of warm evening air. Astrol-
ogers declare the marriage season open and
spring has come again.

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

March, 1960

Shell Collection Grows . . .

MUSEUM RECEIVES GIFT
OF LIFE-LONG HOBBY

By ALAN SOLEM

CURATOR OP LOWER INVERTEBRATES

THE UNPACKING of more than 13,000
sets of shells from the collection of the
late Fred Button of Oakland, California has
just been completed. Started by his father
in 1865, this collection represents the life-
long hobby of two busy men, dating from
Civil War days and continuing until Mr.
Button's death in 1926. Since then, it has
been stored in the attic of his daughter's
home until acquired by Chicago Natural
History Museum in 1959.

World events are no respectors of natural
history collections. Wars, natural disasters,
carelessness in museums, and minor acci-
dents all serve to lose valuable specimens
documenting early work of natural scientists.
The exchange of specimens with students in
other lands often leads to rediscovery of ma-
terial long assumed lost. Any old collection
may have a few important items, but never
have we seen so many as in the Button col-
lection.

SHELLS FROM HISTORY

Sea shells from the Red Sea collected by
a student of Linnaeus in 1769, sets of species
of which the original material was destroyed
in the San Francisco earthquake (now being
eagerly studied by scientists at the California
Academy of Sciences), a few shells from the
completely destroyed Hungarian and Ham-
burg museums, literally hundreds of sets of
shells from South African, Australian, and
Hawaiian authorities, and many others all
form valuable records of past research and

NEW MEMBERS

(January 18 to February 5)

Associate Members

Nathan Allen, Arthur I. Appleton, Wil-
liam A. Brandt, Robert M. Buddington,
Chesser M. Campbell, Arthur D. Chilgren,
Miss Bonnie Colvin, Eugene Cotton, John K.
Dorsey, Mrs. R. Taylor Drake, R. W. Fer-
guson, Patrick H. Hume, Paul Jorgensen,
Carl A. Kroch, Mrs. Herbert I. Markham,
James P. McGuffin, John Alden Morgan,
Bernard M. Peskin, Walter S. Snodell, Jr.,
Henry F. Tenney, Wilfred Tracy, Miss Fran-
ces Tyrrell, S. E. Ullmann, Dr. Ernest H.
Wakefield, J. L. Young.

Non-Resident Associate Member

Dr. Sidney Soanes

Sustaining Member

J. E. Warner

Annual Members

Miss Mary L. Allfree, Mrs. A. Robert Alt-
schul, Mrs. Walter P. Alvis, Mrs. John D.
Ames, Dr. E. A. Archer, Mrs. Charles B.
Armour, Samuel B. Bass, Mrs. Maurice H.
Bent, Ralph C. Blaha, William G. Budinger,
Mrs. Frank J. Calvin, Sherman H. Canty,
Dr. C. L. Crean, Joseph DeCesare, Edward

provide reference sets on which to base new
studies.

Life-long residents of West America, the
Buttons had naturally concentrated on shells
from their own region, but also made an
effort to obtain duplicates for trading with
foreign students. Probably this is the most
complete private collection of West Ameri-
can species in existence. But Mr. Button
did not limit his collecting to American shells.
Several thousand glass vials contain minute
shells from all continents and all imaginable
habitats. Unlike many collectors, the But-
tons were very partial to minute shells, and
more material of this kind than was con-
tained in the Museum's entire collection has
come from this addition.

IMPORTANCE OF AMATEURS

Of greater interest to most shell collectors
are the cowry shells. Approximately 168
species are recognized, and a few amateur
collectors who specialize in nothing but cow-
ries, have managed to accumulate up to 156
species. The Button collection contained
143 species, and wooden cabinets from the
collection have been exchanged to add an-
other seven species, giving Chicago Natural
History Museum the largest representation
of the family iD any American museum.

In connection with another project, I re-
cently estimated that fully 90 per cent of our
mollusk collection is the result of the activi-
ties of amateur conchologists, either through
gifts to the Museum or from collections pur-
chased from estates. Mostly, amateurs col-
lect big pretty shells, but the rare exceptions,
such as the Button family, do exist.

From the standpoint of research, this is
one of the finest collections received by our
Museum to date.

J. Donahoe, S. M. Dover, H. Folger Fellowes,
Aaron G. Gaines, Mrs. William Goodman,
Sidney S. Gorham, Jr., Walter Haines, Her-
man F. Hajen, John W. Heddens, Alan
Hindmarch, Miss Miriam L. Hockman, Dr.
Melvin R. Homer, S. J. Ives, Arnold B.
Kalnitz, Mrs. Anthony Kamenjarin, Fred
R. Kaufmann, Jr., Joseph J. Keene, Law-
rence A. Kerns, Gerald C. Kimes, George L.
Knoll, John M. Knowlton, Walter R. Kole-
siak, Dr. Leonard F. Kowakski, Walter C.
Kurz, Miss Jane A. Laird, Donald B. Lourie,
Dr. Anthony V. Madonia, Frank McCallis-
ter, Milton T. Miller, H. C. Murphy, Ralph
G. Newman, Walter J. Nickel, Harold L.
Norby, James D. Norman, John S. Osborne,
Mrs. George E. Pabich, Dan Pagenta, Paul
J. Panuce, Alfred L. Parme, Elliott H. Pen-
nebaker, Dr. Charles B. Puestow, Robert
W. Record, D. B. Regan, Dr. Joelle Rentfro,
Miss Irma L. Richards, Frank W. Riederer,
Dr. John A. Sanfiiippo, Mrs. Edward A.
Slindee, Edgar H. Smith, Dr. Harold M.
Spinka, R. L. Smith, Jr., William I. Temple-
man, F. W. Terry, Dr. Anthony B. Vacante,
Dr. D. M. Vachout, Mrs. Alexia Wasleff,
French Waterman, Dr. Gurli Wernstrom,
Dr. Ralph P. White, Mrs. Frank E. Wil-
helm, Albert M. Wolf, Miss Genevieve A.
Zaczek.

NEW CHILDRENS' JOURNEY

LEADS TO CHINA

Children may journey to the fascinating
land of China without ever leaving Chicago
by participating in the Raymond Founda-
tion's new spring journey, "China — Land of
the Dragon," beginning in March and con-
tinuing through May. The journey into the
Republic of China (covering a period from
1911-1940) directs young "journeyers" to ex-
hibits of Chinese puppets and Chinese thea-
tre, and to a special exhibit that demonstrates
the typical curricula of a grade school stu-
dent in China during the early 1900's.

The journey may be taken by any boy or
girl, and travel instructions are available at
the north and south doors. After completion
of four different journeys, the "journeyer"
becomes a certified Museum Traveler; after
eight, a Museum Adventurer; and after 12,
a Museum Explorer. With the completion
of 16 different journeys a child becomes eli-
gible for a special journey and then member-
ship in the Museum's Discoverers' Club.

FREE CONCERT FEATURES
LEONARD ROSE

Leonard Rose, noted cellist, will appear as
guest artist with the Festival String Quartet
at the Free Concert Foundation's fourth
chamber music concert in James Simpson
Theatre on March 9, at 8:30 p.m. Rose is
presently touring America, making a number
of guest appearances. He has recently re-
turned from an extensive European tour.

The evening's musical program will be
"Italian Serenade" by Wolf, "Duo for Violin
and Cello, Opus 7" by Kodaly, and Schu-
bert's "Quintet for Two Violins, Viola, and
Two Cellos."

Free Concerts Foundation Inc. was organ-
ized by Mrs. J. Dennis Freund so that Chi-
cagoans might have an opportunity to hear,
without charge, chamber music by gifted art-
ists. The final concert in the 1959-60 series
will be presented on April 13, when Eugene
Istomin will be the featured soloist.

Although admission to the concerts is free,
tickets are required. They may be obtained
by writing Free Concerts Foundation, Chi-
cago Natural History Museum (Roosevelt
and Lake Shore Drive), enclosing a stamped,
self-addressed envelope. Free parking is
available in the Museum's north and west
parking areas.

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

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Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

April, 1960

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

Wm. McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Chesser M. Campbell William H. Mitchell

Walter J. Cummings John T. Pirie, Jr.

Joseph N. Field Clarence B. Randall

Marshall Field, Jr. John G. Searle

Stanley Field Solomon A. Smith

Samuel Insull, Jr. Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

E. Leland Webber Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

John R. Millar Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

Theodor Just Curator Emeritus of Botany

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
MARrLYN Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

STAFF NOTES

Dr. Roland W. Force, Curator of Asiatic
Archaeology and Ethnology, attended the
Viking Fund Medals and Awards presenta-
tion dinner in New York City on March 4
at which the Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research presented awards
for outstanding achievement in the field of
anthropology. . . . Allen Liss, Custodian of
Anthropology Collections, was guest speaker
March 14 on WTTW's television sociology
(145) course in human relations. . . . Dr.
Ranier Zangerl, Curator of Fossil Reptiles,
and Dr. Eugene S. Richardson, Jr.,
Curator of Fossil Invertebrates, spoke on
the " Mecca Project" before the University
of Chicago's department of geology on
March 9. . . . D. Dwight Davis, Curator
of Vertebrate Anamony, recently spoke be-
fore an orthodontists' seminar at the Edge-
water Beach Hotel. . . . The Chicago Ento-
mological Society, meeting at the Museum
last month, heard Henry S. Dybas, Asso-
ciate Curator of Insects, speak on the topic,
"The Population Ecology of the Periodical
Cicada". . . . Dr. Robert F. Inger, Curator
of Reptiles and Amphibians, delivered a lec-
ture during March on the evolution of rep-
tiles before a comparative anatomy class
at the University of Chicago. . . . Melvin A.
Traylor, Associate Curator of Birds, de-

FRITZ HAAS

UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG
HONORS DR. HAAS

Dr. Fritz Haas, Curator Emeritus of Lower
Invertebrates, was honored February 22,
1960, by a diploma from his alma mater, the
University of Heidelberg, congratulating him
on his distinguished career of outstanding
service in research on
land and fresh water
mollusks. Written
congratulations were
also extended by the
Senckenbergische Na-
turforschenderGesell-
shaft, the natural his-
tory museum at Frank-
fort-on-Main.

Dr. Haas received
the degree of Doctor
of Natural Philosophy
from the University of
Heidelberg in 1910.

During his 50 year career in science Dr. Haas
has had 265 scientific papers published, 21
by Chicago Natural History Museum. Of
these publications, 201 are in German. Much
of the data in some of the publications was
gathered on expeditions to distant parts of
the world. The geographical range of Dr.
Haas' past expeditions includes Africa, Bra-
zil, Spain, Palestine, Germany, Norway,
Bermuda, Cuba, Florida, and the Great
Smokies.

Dr. Haas came to Chicago Natural His-
tory Museum in 1938 as Curator of Lower
Invertebrates, and in January, 1959, he was
named curator emeritus. In 1954 the Senck-
enberg museum presented Dr. Haas the
Cretzschmar medal for scientific achieve-
ment.

parted last month for a study trip to the
American Museum of Natural History in
New York. . . . Loren P. Woods, Curator
of Fishes, in March lectured to a group
of visiting biology students from the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin. . . . Rupert L. Wenzel,
Curator of Insects and Henry S. Dybas,
Associate Curator of Insects, attended the
meetings of the North Central States Branch
of the Entomological Society of America in
Milwaukee, March 23 and 24th. . . . "Science
In Our World Today," an educational pro-
gram on WGN-TV (Channel 9) on May 10
will have as guest speaker Dr. John W.
Thieret, Curator of Economic Botany, who
will talk on the topic, "Man Uses Plants."
The program is televised from 8:15 to 8:30
a.m. . . . Mrs. Meta P. Howell, Librarian,
recently attended sessions of the American
Library Association and Mrs. M. Eileen
Rocourt, Associate Librarian, as Chairman
of the Museum Division of Special Libraries
Association, attended the association's ad-
visory meetings. Both association meetings
were held in Chicago.

— THIS MONTH'S COVER

There's no mistaking the mas-
sive hulk of an African rhinoceros.
The one on our cover, who appears
to have just stepped out of a "lux-
urious" mud bath, can be seen in
the Pare National de la Garamba,
an animal reserve in the north-
eastern part of the Belgian Congo.
The picture was taken by Dr. H. S.
De Saeger, of the Institut des Pares
Nationaux du Congo Beige, and
is one example of the African wild-
life that Museum Members will
see on Members' Night, April 29,
in the special illustrated lecture by
Dr. Robert F. Inger, covering his
recent trip to the Belgian Congo.

EUGENE ISTOMIN TO PLAY
AT APRIL 13 CONCERT

Pianist Eugene Istomin will appear with
the Festival String Quartet in James Simp-
son Theatre on April 13 in a chamber music
program that concludes a season of free
concerts presented at the Museum by the
Free Concerts Foundation.

The program for the evening will feature
Beethoven's "Piano Quartet, E Flat Major,"
"String Quartet, A Minor," by Walton, and
Brahms' "Piano Quintet, F Minor, Opus 34."

Chicago's interest in and support of the
free concert series was demonstrated by the
large attendance at each performance, in-
cluding the February 10 concert that drew
close to 600 persons in spite of a traffic-
paralyzing snowstorm that raged all day
and into the evening. And at the March 9
concert when the weather was better but
not good, Guest Cellist Leonard Rose was
greeted by a packed house of more than 1,100
persons.

Free Concerts Foundation was founded
by Mrs. J. Dennis Freund, who organized
the Festival String Quartet especially for
the free concerts series. Members of the
quartet are: Violinist Sidney Harth, concert-
master of the Chicago Symphony orchestra;
Teresa Testa Harth, violinist; Rolf Persinger,
violist; and Harry Sturm, violoncellist. Mrs.
Harth is a member of the Lyric Opera or-
chestra; Peisinger and Sturm both play for
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Tickets for the final concert may be ob-
tained by writing Free Concerts Foundation,
Chicago Natural History Museum, enclosing
a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT
Friday, April 29

To those Museum Members who have
contributed to the Museum's growth and
progress, and to their friends, the Museum
extends a cordial invitation. This special
evening is planned in their honor.

April, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

PageS

Discovery of the Pacific isles

THE MISSIONARIES CREATE A PSALM BOOK CIVILIZATION

By ROLAND W. FORCE

CURATOR OF OCEANIC ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

Part IV

AMONG the first Europeans to venture
on the scene in Pacific island cultures
after their discovery were men and women
bent on bringing the Word of God to the
heathen pagans, who not only engaged in
sinful activities, but obviously enjoyed them.

By Start Illustrator Marion Pahl

Some of the descriptions of the quality of
sin in the island world are so graphically
explicated in early missionary reports that
the effect on some readers approximated
envy rather than pity.

One of the most famous junkets into Poly-
nesia was that of the missionary ship Duff
which arrived in Tahiti in 1797. The mis-
sionary party was composed of a motley
group of individuals among whom only four
were ordained ministers. The Duff, under
command of Captain James Wilson, included
among its mission members some tradesmen;
craftsmen such as tailors, carpenters, weav-
ers, and bricklayers; a surgeon, and even a
gentleman's gentleman. They were trans-
ported to various islands. Eighteen were
left on Tahiti while the Duff sailed on to
Tonga (1,200 miles westward) to leave off
half that number. Thence to the Marquesas
where one man was left. It took six months
to distribute the members of the party.

It was not very long until three members
of the Tonga contingent were martyred and
the rest fled hurriedly. In Tahiti three of
the women died within three months while
another member of the group went native.
In five years only seven of the original 18
were still alive.

MISSIONARIES TO MARTYRS

It is easy to see why the story of the first
venture of missionaries into the Pacific has
been described as an "epic of glorious failure
and brave endurance." One bricklayer
proved to be among the hardiest members
of the Tahiti mission and even taught one
of the high chiefs to write. Finally even
one of the native priests dragged all the
idols from the sacred marae (platform) and
in a fit of what seems to present-day museum
men sheer madness and wanton destruction,
made a bonfire of them on the beach. It
took Henry Nott, the bricklayer, until 1837
to completely translate the Bible into Tahi-
tian and get copies printed up for native use.

The London Missionary Society later sent
a few very able and devoted men into the
Pacific to take up the work of the hardy first
adventurers. One of these was the Reverend
John Williams who worked in Polynesia for
over 20 years and became a hero in England
to the point where he was referred to as the
"Ulysses of the Pacific." He stretched his
luck eventually and went farther west to the
New Hebrides where natives clubbed him to
death as he attempted to land on Erromanga.
"The blood of martyrs is the seed of the
church." Three or four missionaries later,
the Erromangese were finally missionized —
at least nominally and to the extent that
they no longer ate the zealots who came to
their shores.

The rather general emphasis which came
to be placed on the personal quality of re-

lations between natives and missionaries
caused one wag to compose this wry bit of
doggerel:

There was a young Reverend from Gait,

With whom Fiji chiefs found one fault;

He was tender and sweet,

As any you'd meet,

But he tasted quite bad without salt.

ASSESSING THE MISSIONS

The British missionaries in the Pacific
were preceded by the Spanish, who concen-
trated mostly on the Philippines, the Mari-
anas, and the Carolines. American Protest-
ant missionaries came on the scene much
later. The Boston Mission came to Hawaii
in 1820 and spread out to Micronesia, where
it still holds strong sway in the Gilberts, the
Marshalls, and the Eastern Carolines on
islands like Kusai.

Though the missionaries generally took
the natives' part in disputes with traders and
whalers, they probably did more than any
group to contribute to the downfall of island
cultures. It has been said that they "too
often taught uncritically that anything na-
tive was bad." They introduced clothing
and made the Mother Hubbard garb a hall-
mark of missionized islanders. They intro-
duced only certain elements of a culture com-
plex which we may call "the wearing of
clothing." Neglected were elements having
to do with the cleansing of soiled garments
and the necessity for changing wet clothing.

On the positive side, in many cases mis-
sionaries did reduce the native language to
writing. The missionaries also provided a
new experience for the islanders. Here for
the first time were white men who did not
come to pillage and plunder; who did not
carry off their food or their women. The
men and women who came to bring the
message of salvation to the islands were
hardy types who literally gave up their
lives for their fellowmen. Financial sup-
port was meager and though a few, such as
Chalmers, were hailed as heroes, most re-
mained the unsung variety.

"CIVILIZING" THE NATIVES

The reactions of the early missionaries
to the natives they came to save are interest-
ing to read. The famous Rev. Gill is some-
times quoted as having written of one island
group that: they roved about "in a state of
perfect nudity, they delighted to paint their
bodies; as you approached the miserable-
looking beings you could not suppress the
emotions of loathing and disgust which in-
voluntarily arose in your mind." Nudity
was one of the things that particularly both-
ered missionaries and led to a great evangel-
ical movement in the islands which is re-
ferred to by one author as "shirtism." One
particularly diligent missionary emphasized

Page i

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

April, 1960

shirts for natives especially. He apparently
had very little imagination — which has been
said by some to have been an enormous
asset in mission work — but this is probably
unkind. A oneness of purpose is perhaps
the best way to characterize the early men
of the Church. Such a man was the shirt-
emphasizing missionary called Geddie. He
is described as having been a real old-style,
hardbitten Presbyterian; a fine, clean, in-
tolerant, and tough 100 per cent all-talking,
hymning, and danceless sort of man; one
who wouldn't even go down to the beach
to get his once-a-year delivery of mail if it
happened to arrive on Sunday.

"whatever ye shall sew"

The shirt became the essential symbol of
Christianity in the islands — a native could
not be a Christian in his own clothes or
without clothing at all. Trousers and shirt
became the entrance requirements for church
attendance. The effects of shirtism were
far-reaching. On the economic side the na-
tives were first yoked to the trader and
later to the copra dealer so that they could
earn enough money to purchase clothing.
The clothes they were able to purchase were
usually of the poorest quality and soon
rotted in the humid tropics. Hygienically,
clothes could not be kept clean within the
native standard of living. Hence skin dis-
ease, pneumonia, tuberculosis and parasites

benefited. And, finally, psychologically, a
new element of shame and secrecy was into-
duced into the previously open and balanced
physical approach of the sexes.

The sandalwood traders did their best to
do away with the missionaries since they
saw that the clerics usually took the natives'
side in disputes. On more than one occasion
traders told natives that epidemics which
plagued their islands were brought about
by the missionaries. What followed was
usually another martyrdom. The effects of
disease in the islands were these: (1) the
natives were either driven into desperate
missionism, (2) they slaughtered mission-
aries with gusto, or (3) they came to hate
all white men with a vengeance. Some-
times the natives made all three responses
in various orders.

Practically nothing of the old culture
was tolerated by the missionary. In every-
thing he saw something heathen and "sex-
ual." Much of what happened in the Pa-
cific would have happened anyway, in time,
but the missionary sped the process up.
This is the missionary spirit. But with all
this, one must agree with Robert Louis
Stevenson that even with all their "gross
blots, with all their deficiency of candour,
humour, and common sense," the mission-
aries still were the best and most useful
whites in early days in the Pacific.
(To be continued)

DR. ALAN SOLEM DEPARTS
FOR FIELD WORK IN WEST

The path followed by two scientist^adven-
turers in Arizona 50 years ago will be re-
traced by Alan Solem, Curator of Lower
Invertebrates, on the first leg of a field trip
to the West, for which he departed last
March 9. He intends to visit collecting
sites first examined in the beginning of the
1900's to see what has happened to the snails
over a period of a half century, using as a
guide the detailed records kept by the two
earlier expeditioners of finds and exact areas
explored. Dr. Solem's early predecessors
were Henry A. Pilsbry, world-renown scien-
tiest formerly with the Academy of Natural
Science in Philadelphia, and James Ferriss,
one-time newspaper publisher in Joliet.

From Arizona Dr. Solem will travel to
California, Washington, Idaho, and Wyom-
ing. During his trip he is scheduled to make
a number of speaking appearances, including
an engagement with the Greater St. Louis
Shell , Club, a seminar at Emporia State
Teachers College, and a seminar at the Uni-
versity of Arizona.

In 1959 Dr. Solem visited Panama where
he made preliminary studies on the mixing
of the South American and North American
snail fauna in the geologically recent Isthmus
of Panama. The collecting in arid areas of
Panama showed that more data was needed
on the effects of drier climates on snails,
which led to this field trip to the West.

FEATURE WESTERN WORLD

IN APRIL SCREEN-TOURS

Five color motion pictures and lectures
on world travel are offered by the Museum
during April with the geographic emphasis
shifting to the West — to western Europe
and the United States. This spring's pro-
gram of free travel-tours by well-known lec-
turers marks the 113th time the Museum
has presented the special travel-film series.
The programs are made possible by the
Edward E. Ayer Lecture Foundation and
presented at 2:30 p.m. in the museum's
James Simpson Theatre. Members of the
Museum may claim reserved seats by pre-
senting their membership cards before
2:25 P.M. on the lecture day.

Following are the programs for April:

April 2 — Holland

Gerald Hooper

April 9 — Yankee Spy in Texas

Robert Davis

April 16 — Switzerland

Kenneth Richter

April 23 — The Mighty Mississippi

James W. Metcalf

April 30— The Shandon Hills

JohnE.Taft

AWARDS TO BE PRESENTED

TO 67 "JOURNEYERS"

"The Voyage of the Beagle," a motion
picture that traces Charles Darwin's historic
trip around the world on the "Beagle" (the
voyage on which he formulated many of his
first ideas concerning evolution), will begin
Chicago Natural History Museum's special
children's awards program on Saturday,
April 9.

The awards program honors children who
have completed specified numbers of mu-
seum journeys to achieve various merit
ranks, the highest of which is membership
in the Museum's Discoverers' Club. To
become a Museum Traveler a youngster
must have completed four different journeys;
eight must be completed for Museum Ad-
venturer status; 12, for Museum Explorer.
With the completion of 16 different journeys
a child becomes eligible for the special "Voy-
age of the Beagle" journey, and then mem-
bership in the Discoverers' Club.

This spring 67 boys and girls will receive
awards — 35 will become Travelers; 15, Ad-
venturers; 5, Explorers; three will start the
special advanced journey; and nine will be
named new members of the Museum's Dis-
coverers' Club. The program begins at
10:30 a.m. in the James Simpson Theatre.

Other childrens' programs offered during
the month of April follow:

April 2 — International Friendship

(Girl Scout Day)

April 9 — The Voyage of the Beagle

(Museum Traveler Day)

April 16— NO PROGRAM— Easter
Weekend.

April 23— The Red Balloon

April 30 — AH Cartoon Program

Children may come to these free programs
alone, in groups, or with parents or other
adults. The programs are made possible
by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Ray-
mond Foundation. All are offered on Satur-
days at 10:30 am..

MUSEUM MEMBERS' NIGHT
Friday, April 29

April, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

MUSEUM PLANS EVENING HONORING ITS MEMBERS APRIL 29

BEHIND THE SCENES. Staff Artist E. John Pfiffner in picture on the left
is working in his studio on the third floor on an oil painting for and exhibit. In
the picture on the right Albert Forslev, Associate Curator of Mineralogy, is

seen operating the department of geology's X-ray diffraction unit. Museum
Members will have a chance to meet the scientific staff on the evening of April 29,
when the Museum opens its doors to its Members.

IT'S SPRING and once again Chicago
Natural History Museum will open its
doors to its more than 7,000 members for
behind-the-scenes glimpses of the Museum's
staff at work. The date set for 1960 Mem-
bers' Night is Friday, April 29.

That evening an exciting new experience
in museum educational entertainment, called
"Sound Trek," will be offered free to mem-
bers. What is "Sound Trek?" Briefly, it is
a new dimension in museum exhibition tech-
nique— a "radio guide" system that enables
the visitor not only to see the exciting world
of natural history but to hear, as well, in-
formative commentaries about the exhibits
by members of the Museum's scientific staff.
All you do is pick up a "radio guide" — small,
light, and compact — at the door, and let it
do the rest as you wander wherever you
will through the Museum. Twenty halls
are now wired for "Sound Trek," and you
have a choice of two channels in each. One
carries a scientific and detailed commentary
on the exhibits, and the other a shorter, less
technical commentary by a member of the
Raymond Foundation staff. Although there
are in the world a few museum's with similar
systems, Chicago Natural History Museum
has the only system which carries two simul-
taneous commentaries in a single hall.

A second highlight of the evening is a
special illustrated lecture on Africa. Last
year Dr. Robert F. Inger, Curator of Rep-
tiles and Amphibians, assisted by a grant
from the Institut des Pares Nationaux
du Congo Beige, spent three and one-half
months in the Pare National de la Garamba,
in the Belgian Congo. He brought back with

him outstanding color slides of African wild-
life and landscapes, as well as tape recordings
— and just as many stories to tell. Museum
members will have an opportunity to hear
some of his interesting stories and scientific
findings at 8 p.m. on Members' Night.

Also planned for the Museum's members is
a premiere showing of a collection of photo-
graphs depicting human racial types from
all parts of the world. They were taken by
New York Photographer Nicholas Muray on
a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation
for Anthropological Research. The Wenner-
Gren Foundation has generously lent the
collection to the Museum for use in this
special exhibition. The photographs will be
on display in Hall 2 on the first floor, adja-
cent to the Hall of Man, which features the
sculptures of Malvina Hoffman.

As indicated elsewhere in this Bulletin, a
number of additions to exhibits and exhibit
halls have been made in the last year. These
include the addition to Hall 8 of considerable
ancient Aztec material and the unusually
fine Aztec Great Market diorama by Alfred
Lee Rowell, as well as new exhibits in Hall 7
showing the silver craftsmanship of the In-
dians of the Southwest. Also in anthropol-
ogy, exhibits from Ancient Rome and Etruria
were recently moved from Hall 2 to a new
home in Hall L on the ground floor. A
doorway has been constructed to connect it
with the adjacent Hall of Egypt.

In the botanical halls on the second floor,
the North American Tree Hall (Hall 26),
started last year, has been completed. Simi-
larly, the Hall of Meteorites, Moon, and
Minerals (Hall 35), housing the world's most

comprehensive meteorite collection, has been
augmented by a number of new screens
during last year. On the same floor, the
impressive hall of fossil mammals, Hall 38,
last year was subjected to an extensive res-
toration program. Four fossil giants — the
mastodon, northern mammoth, great ground
sloth, and Irish giant deer — were re-mounted
on new steel frames and in new positions.
In zoology the "Birds of the World" exhibit
in Hall 21 was expanded to include a new
screen featuring swifts, night jars, humming
birds, and horn bills. Finally, in Hall 18 can
be seen the special Darwin Centennial ex-
hibit that graphically explains Darwin's the-
ory of evolution.

No matter how attractive the "show case"
may be, people somehow never outgrow a
sort of childhood "Alice in Wonderland"
curiosity to see what goes on behind the
scenes, whether it be in a factory, in a tele-
vision studio, or in a newspaper plant. At
Chicago Natural History Museum a look
behind the scenes is particularly interesting
because it is in the areas closed to the public
that most of the Museum's activity takes
place. From 7 to 10:00 P.M. on Members'
Night the Museum's scientists, artists, pre-
parators, technicians and other staff spe-
cialists will meet with the Members in the
offices and laboratories on the third, fourth,
and ground floors to explain each staff mem-
ber's particular function in the museum's
operation and to demonstrate the intricate
processes involved in the creation of Mu-
seum exhibits. The vast study collections
which far outnumber the specimens in exhi-
bition halls will also be open to members.

Page6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

April, 1960

SUPPOSED APE=MAN OR "M/SS/NG LINK" OF SOUTH AMERICA

By PHILIP HERSHKOVITZ

CURATOR OF MAMMALS

EVER SINCE DARWIN expounded his
theory of evolution, man has engaged in
a search for links between himself and the
apes. Discoveries of fossil man-like apes or
ape-like men have always created a stir,
but today the excitement is rarely felt out-
side scientific circles. On the other hand, ru-
mors or equivocal reports of a live ape-man
or "missing link" tracked down in the wilds
of Africa, Asia or South America arouses the
interest of the entire world. Curiosity about
man's relatives, usually wholesome but some-
times varied with prejudice, has made the
public an easy target for charlatans, pseudo-
scientists, deluded travelers and explorers,
and even forgers with "missing links" their
stock in trade.

The most notorious hoax perpetrated on
the public, and not a few anthropologists,
was the Piltdown Man. This supposed an-
cestral species, the widely acclaimed Dawn
Man, was discovered before World War I in
a gravel bed in Piltdown Common, Sussex,
England. The animal was represented by
some human skull fragments and an ape-like
lower jaw with two molar teeth. A number
of authorities questioned the association of
skull bones and lower jaw, but not until 1953
was it conclusively demonstrated that these
bones and teeth were cunningly altered and
cleverly planted where they would be con-
veniently "discovered." The skull fragments
proved to be of modern man, the lower jaw
and teeth those of a young orangutan. Some
prompt results of the expose were the re-
writing of pertinent parts of text books and
encyclopedias and quiet re-designings of ex-
hibits on man's evolution in a number of
natural history museums.

Among purported living ape men, the best
known currently is the abominable snowman.
This mysterious creature of the Himalayan
snowfields has so far eluded capture. The
orang-pendek, or ape man of Sumatra, is
another example. The footprints, bits of
hide, hair and other concrete evidence attrib-
uted to it turn out to have belonged to some
common animal, most often the sun bear,
orangutan or gibbon.

"APE MAN" BUILD UP

The New World can also lay claim to a
few bogus ape men of which the best known
is based on a photograph of a dead spider
monkey and the uncorroborated and succes-
sively garnished statements of an adven-
turer. The hoax was exposed 30 years ago
and references to the animal have long been
expunged from the family tree of man ex-
hibited in the dignified Musee de 1'Homme,
or Museum of Man, in Paris. A recently
published popular book on animal mythology
entitled "On the Track of Unknown Ani-
mals" by Bernard Heuvelmans, revived the
story of the South American "ape man"

De Loys' photograph of the "Ape Man" he alleged-
ly discovered and killed in the virgin forests of the
Colombian-Venezuelan boundary region. The ani-
mal is a female of the common spider monkey of
northwestern South America.

with embellishments and background effects
never thought of by the original promoters
of the fraud. This pseudoscientific book in-
spired a second round of sensational news-
paper and magazine stories built around
copies of the original photograph of what,
paradoxically, is so obviously a spider mon-
key that the wonder is how it can be foisted
off as anything else.

The originator of the South American
ape man story was Frangois De Loys, a
French, or perhaps Swiss, geologist, who
prospected along the border of Colombia
and Venezuela between the years 1917 and
1920. While encamped on the banks of the
Tarra, a tributary of the Catatumbo River,
De Loys heard a strange noise in the bord-
ering forest. He hurried with several of his
assistants toward the source of the sound
and noted that it originated at some dis-
tance below the tops of the trees. Once
in the forest the men were surprised by
two raging animals charging toward them.
Thinking they were being assaulted by bears,
De Loys and his companions leapt for their
guns and made ready to receive the attackers.
The infuriated beasts rushed forward shout-
ing, gesticulating and breaking and throwing
branches at the men. The individual in
front, a female, was shot on the spot, while
the other, said to be a male, retreated and
disappeared. The dead animal was taken to
the border of the Tarra River, propped up
on a crate in a life-like pose, and photo-
graphed. According to De Loys, the animal
had no tail, stood 4 feet 5 inches (135 centi-
meters) high, and the number of teeth in its
mouth was given as 32 — the same as in man.

The story is vague in important details.
Nothing is divulged of De Loys' antecedents
or the precise nature of his mission in South
America. De Loys never specified the day,
the month, or even the year in which he
made what he pretended was a most re-
markable discovery. The action of the ani-
mals in breaking branches and throwing
them, a frequently observed trait of spider
monkeys, seems to have made a deep im-
pression on De Loys. Nevertheless, he does
not say the animals were actually moving
through the trees, and he gives no reason
to believe they were running on the ground.
Indeed the connections made by De Loys
between the time and place sequences of his
actions and those of the animals are ex-
tremely misty. The subject of the photo-
graph, however, cannot be denied — but it
is posed from the wrong side for proving
it has no tail. The number and kind of
its teeth cannot be determined from the
picture and, except for a wooden box of
problematical dimensions, there is no famil-
iar object such as a gun, a hat, or a person by
which to gauge the real size of the animal.

"science" brought in

Several unspecified years after his return
to Europe, De Loys showed the photograph
and told his story to a French anthropol-
ogist, Dr. Georges Montandon. Why De
Loys kept the matter secret all this time is
not explained. In any case, Dr. Montandon
had developed a unique theory of several
independent origins of man and anthropoid
apes in different parts of the globe and was
prone to find comfort and support in De
Loys' account of the existence of a man-like
ape in South America. Like De Loys before
him, the anthropologist withheld knowledge
of the find for a few years.

At last, in March 1929, at least 10 years
after the events happened, Professor Mont-
andon presented a paper before the members
of the French Academy of Sciences detailing
the discovery of the first New World anthro-
poid known to science, an animal, he de-
clared, more human in appearance than any
ape of the Old World. The anthropologist
was careful to base his conclusions on the
invisible characters — the great size, the tail-
essness, and the human dental formula. The
beast was then dutifully given the technical
name Ameranthropoides loysi in honor of the
explorer, and its official description was pub-
lished in the prestigious Comptes Rendus
of the Academy. In justice to Montandon
it must be recorded that the description is
hedged with the avowed reservation that
the anthropoid might, after all, prove to be
only a large species of spider monkey.

Two months later, Dr. Montandon pub-
lished another account in the more popular
Illustrated Scientific Review of Paris. This
time, the standing height of the beast was

April, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

raised to 157 centimeters, or nearly 9 inches
more than when first described. Emboldened
by public interest in the fanciful aspects of
the South American primate, Montandon
published still another version. Now the
animals which supposedly attacked De Loys
and his company are not moving in trees
and breaking branches. They advance in-
stead in erect posture, supporting them-
selves by seizing the shrubbery along their
path.

A thin light was also shed on how De Loys
may have counted the monkey's teeth. The
skull was supposedly removed from the body
and entrusted to the expeditionary cook for
safe keeping. This dignitary, according to
the story imprudently converted his pre-
cious charge into a salt cellar. It is difficult
to understand how or why such a fragile,
perishable, if not putrid, and unwiedly ob-
ject as a monkey skull would be used for a
salt dispenser. In any case the salt, accord-
ing to the narrator, caused the skull to dis-
integrate, and the fragments of bone were
forever lost to science.

The fantastic history of the supposed an-
thropoid ape was too exciting to be over-
looked by foreign newspapers and magazines.
Francois De Loys himself made capital of
the find bearing his name by writing an
article for the June 15, 1929, issue of the
Illustrated London News.

EXPERTS EXPOSE CLAIMS

In his account, captioned as the discovery
of the ancestory of man on the American
continent, De Loys accepted Montandon's
exaggerated dimensions of the animal and,
not to be outdone, ventured that the
weight "guessed, it is true, without scales,
was probably well over eight stone, or 112
pounds." Continuing in the same vein De
Loys confided that his animal had "ground
habits," but neglected to describe them.
That the long arms, hooked fingers, grasping
toes, and, particularly, the large opposable
great toe of the animal shown in the photo-
graph are telltale characters of a creature
with decidedly arboreal habits seems to have
escaped the notice of the geologist.

The claims made by Montandon and De
Loys were almost immediately scotched by
experts. The renowned British anthropolo-
gist, Sir Arthur Keith, who had been be-
guiled by the Piltdown hoax, made no mis-
take here. De Loys' animal, he declared,
"belongs to the genus Ateles; in brief it is
a spider-monkey, whether of a known species
we cannot say owing to a lack of evidence."
Dr. Angel Cabrera, the world's leading au-
thority on the mammals of South America,
scathingly rebuked both Montandon and
De Loys for their zoological pretensions.
At the same time he pointed out that even
if the alleged anthropoid ape was as large
as claimed, lacked a tail, and possessed 32
teeth, instead of the 36 normally present
in American monkeys, it would still be either

a spider monkey or some closely related
species of the same family.

The famous primatologist, Ernest Hooten
also identified the animal in the photograph
as a spider monkey. In addition he had
word from an acquaintance in South Amer-
ica that men who accompanied De Loys
had testified that the animal shot and photo-
graphed was indeed a spider monkey.

PROOF IN THE BAG

During the course of my early field work
in northern Colombia I made a point of
exploring the same Tarra river region visited
by De Loys. The area is one of the wildest
in South America. It is inhabited by a
savage tribe of the Motilones Indians, but
not any man-like apes. Spider monkeys,
however, were abundant and I secured a
large series for laboratory study. These mon-
keys agreed in everything from the thumb-
less hands to the triangular blaze on the
forehead, with the photograph of Ameran-
thropoides loysi, a copy of which I carried
with me. The animals proved to belong
to a race of the common species of spider
monkeys known technically as Ateles belzebut
hybridus. The largest specimen I secured,
a female, measured 21 inches from crown to
base of tail. The largest spider monkey
on record, also a female of the same species,
measured 26 inches in combined head and
body length.

How these dimensions compare with those

of the animal photographed by De Loys
is impossible to judge with accuracy. Stand-
ing height measurements such as those given
by De Loys and Montandon for Ameran-
thropoides loysi are not reliable. It may
be possible, however, to make a rough esti-
mate of the size of the animal by using for
a scale the box in the photograph. Accord-
ing to De Loys this was a petrol crate.
If it was of the common sort used in northern
South America it packed two 5 gallon cans
and its height is not over 15 inches. The
cans themselves are 13 inches high. The
height of the monkey from seat to crown
is 1.8 times the height of the box or 27
inches. This is the combined length of head,
body and buttocks. Account must be taken
of the fact that the head and feet of the
animal are nearer the camera than the crate
and, therefore, appear disproportionately
larger in the photograph than they are in
life. The adjusted dimensions for combined
head and body length alone would probably
be under 25 inches. It may be safe to con-
clude, therefore, that far from being a giant
ape, Ameranthropoides loysi is not only a
common spider monkey but is hardly an
extremely large one.

From time to time our attention is called
to expeditions being formed, or only planned,
for the purpose of finding a real specimen of
the ape man of northern South America.
It is hoped that the information in this
article may be of some help.

NEW MEMBERS

(February 8 to March 4)

Associate Members

Wayne M. Allen, Louis Ancel, Mrs. Otis
G. Andrews, C. M. Blumenschein, George
T. Bogert, Richard P. Brown, Jr., Nicholas
J. Bua, Louis Buffardi, Dr. G. L. Christopher,
Aaron H. Cohn, William F. Coale, Jr., Harry
A. Coldiron, Mrs. David P. Cordray, Charles
J. Cretors, Miss Natalie Crohn, John H.
Darby, William E. Dunlap, Carl H. Ebert,
E. E. Ellies, James Fitzmorris, Thomas
Fullerton, Paul W. Guenzel, Mrs. Marion
Hilker, Dormand S. Hill, William H. Hillier,
Robert Hirtenstein, Miss Alice Howe, Miss
Amy L. Howe, Mrs. Florence H. Hunter,
Dr. George M. Kramer, William Bross Lloyd,
Jr., Eugene W. Maters, Carl A. Metz, Byron
S. Miller, DeWitt O'Kieffe, Wendel Fentress
Ott, Dean Rottenberry, Harry R. Sanow,
T. R. Sorensen, John B. Ughetti, Herman
Wendorf, Lloyd Woodall

Non-Resident Associate Member

Gordon K. Palais

Sustaining Member

David A. Hill

Annual Members

Paul J. Aicher, Dr. Nathaniel S. Apter,
Carl A. Arend, Mrs. Robert M. Atwater,
William H. Avery, Jr., Mrs. Joseph W. Baer,
Mrs. Herbert Baker, Mrs. C. R. Barker,
Dr. George 0. Baumrudker, David Becker,
Oscar J. Becker, Dr. John G. Bellows, Dr.
M. D. Bennin, Mrs. George V. Bobrinskoy,
John C. Bulger, Ara A. Cambere, Mrs.

Charles Carey, Mrs. William T. Carlisle,
Arthur T. Chameroy, Norman M. Chase,
Joseph M. Cody, John I. Cole, George M.
Craig, James A. Dooley, Mrs. Heber T.
Dotson, Dr. Clifford L. Dougherty, M. C.
Duensing, Mrs. James F. Gallagher, William

B. Gardner, Howard Goodman, Leonard
Gordon, Miss Addie Clark Harding, Mrs.
Robert Henner, A. E. Hibbs, Dr. Victor Izui,
G. McStay Jackson, Thomas G. Johnston,
Nat M. Kahn, Jacob Kalnin, J. Peter Kass,
Mrs. Harold A. Katz, Alan D. Katz, Joseph

C. Kay, Victor P. Kayser, William P. Kear-
ney, Richard B. Kemp, Henry W. Kenoe,
Carl W. Koehn, Mrs. David H. Kraft,
Melvin A. Kramer, Mrs. Winnifred Levin-
son, Reuben J. Liffshin, Paul B. N. Lind,
LeRoy A. Lindberg, Harrison C. Lingle,
Dr. Roland P. Mackay, Leo S. Maranz,
Dr. Richard E. Marcus, Dr. Bernard S.
Margolis, Morgan F. McDonnell, Miss Dor-
othy McMahon, Mrs. Howard C. Meadors,
J. F. Mele, Seymour H. Merens, James F.
Milburn, Charles F. Naser, Dale O'Brien,
Dr. Franklin T. O'Connell, Jr., Miss Alice
Olhausen, Mrs. William H. Page, II, Alfred
B. Perlman, Roger Pettit, Milton T. Raynor,
Dr. Arthur G. Rink, Mrs. Margaret H.
Robb, George G. Rossit, Robert M. Scott,
Miss Susan Shepard, Charles L. Stewart, Jr.,
Robert C. Taylor, Francis Edgar Thacker,
Mrs. Joseph L. Valentine, S. M. Vance,
John L. Vollbrecht, Dr. Hans H. Wagner,
Dr. Arthur M. Weiss, Richard H. Weldon,
Marvin J. Welfeld, Dr. Donald C. Wharton,
Dr. Jasper F. Williams, Dr. Alvin M.
Winograd, Norman M. Yeretsky, Ores E.
Zehr, Maurice M. Zusser.

MEMBERS' NIGHT
ATTRACTIONS

Friday, April 29

(7.00 to 10:30 P.M.)

BEHIND THE SCENES—

The Museum's scientific staff will be on
hand in their offices, laboratories, and
work rooms from 7 to 10 p.m. to explain
various phases of a museum's operation.
In addition, the doors will be open to the
working quarters of the Museum's editors,
librarians, staff artists, photographers,
taxidermists, preparators, and plant re-
production artists and craftsmen.

FEATURING—

"Congo Safari" by Robert F. Inger.

An illustrated lecture by Dr. Inger on
his three and one-half-month field trip
to the Pare National de la Garamba in
the Belgian Congo.

"Peoples of the World." A premiere
showing of a splendid photographic collec-
tion of people from all over the world
taken by the well-known New York pho-
tographer, Nicholas Muray, and loaned
by the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

SOUND TREK f RADIO GUIDES— a

new dimension in museum exhibition

HAVE YOU SEEN THESE EXHIBITS?

Archaeology of Etruria and Rome —
newly installed; Ancient and Modern In-
dians of Southwestern United States, Mex-
ico, and Central America; Hall of North
American Trees; Hall of Plant Life —
nowhere in the world is to be found a com-
parable collection of plant models; Clarence
Buckingham Hall — exhibiting a model of
the visible face of the moon, as well as
meteorite and mineral collections; Restored
and Remounted Fossil Giants; Birds of
the World; Darwin's Origin of Species
Centennial Exhibit.

FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE—

Free Motor Bus Service from the Loop
will be available for Museum Members
and guests. Buses marked for Museum
shuttle-service will leave from Jackson
Boulevard and State Street every 15
minutes beginning at 6:30 p.m. The last
bus will leave the Museum at 10:45 p.m.
Stops will be made both ways at Seventh
and Michigan, and at Jackson and Michi-
gan.

Ample Free Parking space is available
in the Museum's north parking lot.
For Dining, the Museum's Cafeteria will
be open from 6 to 8 p.m.
Refreshments will be served in Stanley
Field Hall and in the General Library.

NATURAL
HISTORY yum
MUSEUM ^%

/

Photo by Muray

Page 2

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

May, 1960

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: W Abash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Ishah

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

Wm. McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Chesser M. Campbell William H. Mitchell

Walter J. Cummings John T. Pirie, Jr.

Joseph N. Field Clarence B. Randall

Marshall Field, Jr. John G. Searle

Stanley Field Solomon A. Smith

Samuel Inslll, Jr. Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

E. Leland Webber Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

John R. Millar Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

Theodor Just Curator Emeritus of Botany

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Marilyn Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

NAMED TOP HONOR BOOK

Indian Art of the Americas, a Museum
publication by Dr. Donald Collier, Curator
of South American Archaeology and Eth-
nology, was selected by the Chicago Book
Clinic as a Top Honor Book for display
in its Eleventh Annual Exhibition of Chicago
and Midwestern Bookmaking. The book
was judged by a set of standards for good
bookmaking in design, planning, binding,
printing, publishing intention, and reader
appeal. Certificates of Award were pre-
sented by the Chicago Book Clinic to Greer
Allen of the University of Chicago Printing
Department, the designer of the book, and
to Chicago Natural History Museum, the
publisher. Dr. Collier, as author, accepted
the publisher's award on behalf of the Mu-
seum at a private showing of Top Honor
Books at the May meeting of the Chicago
Book Clinic at the Tower Club. The award-
winning books will be on exhibition during
May at the Chicago Public Library and
at many midwestern libraries throughout
the year.

Indian Art of the Americas (64 pages, 65
illustrations, paperbound) is a catalogue of
the special exhibit held at the Museum in
late summer and fall on the occasion of the
Festival of the Americas and the Third Pan
American games. The book is on sale at
the Museum.

— HMacM—

STAFF NOTES

Dr. Roland Force, Curator of Oceanic
Archaeology and Ethnology, presented a pa-
per, "The Concept of Process and the Start
of Cultural Change," at the annual meeting
of the Central State Anthropological Society
held in Bloomington, Indiana, April 23. . . .
Dr. Paul Martin, Chief Curator of Anthro-
pology, spoke recently on "Excavations in
the Southwest" before the Highland Park
Archaeology Club. . . . "The Applications of
Clay Mineralogy to Civil Engineering" was
the topic of a lecture given by Albert W.
Forslev, Associate Curator of Mineralogy,
before the Illinois Institute of Technology
chapter of the American Society of Civil
Engineers on March 22, 1960. . . . Miss
Maidi Wiebe, Geology Artist, won the
Frederick War Memorial prize for her oil
painting, "Evolution," exhibited at the
Austin, Oak Park, and River Forest Art
League's annual spring exhibition. . . . Dr.
R. M. Strong, Research Associate, attended
the Seventh International Congress of An-
atomists, the first to be held in this country,
and the Seventy-third Annual Meeting of
the American Association of Anatomists in
New York City. . . . Henry S. Dybas,
Associate Curator of Insects, discussed the
"Population Ecology of the Periodical Ci-
cada" in a lecture delivered at Purdue Uni-
versity. . . . Loren P. Woods, Curator of
Fishes, was interviewed by Phil Lind on
station WAIT April 22 on the subject of
"The Great Lakes." During April he also
visited various fish and wildlife stations in
Michigan to study their operations. . . .
Maryl Andre of the Raymond Foundation
has written a series of programs based on
natural history subjects which will be pre-
sented, starting May 4, on the WGN-TV
children's show, " Lunchtime Little Theatre."

THIS MONTH'S COVER

Matabele women of South Af-
rica are introduced at an early
age to one of the vanities of life —
the wearing of jewelry. The two
little Matabele girls on our cover,
who live in Mapoch Village near
Pretoria, South Africa, are already
in beads. As they grow older, the
circlets must be cut off and re-
placed with larger ones. Nickolas
Muray snapped the youngsters'
picture while touring the world
on a trip commissioned by the
Wenner-Gren Foundation for the
purpose of obtaining pictures of
people in other lands. Other pic-
tures he took on his photography
assignment are featured in the
new exhibit, "Peoples of the
World," on display in Hall 2. The
exhibit of more than 200 photo-
graphs was loaned to the Museum
by the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

The half-hour show is on Channel 9 at noon
Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Mrs.
Andre is also helping direct the programs. . . .
Miss Lillian Ross, Editor of Scientific Pub-
lications, on April 25 attended the Confer-
ence of Biological Editors held in Cleveland.
. . . The Adult Education Seminar of the
University of Chicago, headed by Dean Cyril
Houle, last month visited the Museum and
heard a talk on Chicago Natural History
Museum by Director Clifford C. Gregg.
. . . John R. Millar and Col. Clifford C.
Gregg acted as spokesmen for the Museum
recently on a WCLM half-hour interview
program, "This Is Chicago," sponsored by
the Office of the Mayor.

1960 CHICAGO AREA SCIENCE FAIR WILL OPEN

IN STANLEY FIELD HALL, SATURDAY, MAY 14

May 14 is "fair" day at the Museum.
But on that Saturday don't expect to see
cotton candy venders, barkers, or "try your
skill" booths. Instead, the "side shows"
will feature elaborate demonstrations and
intricate models covering such diverse sub-
jects as atom smashing, mathematical prob-
ability, mutations in mice, or the embryonic
states of a chick, put on by youngsters from
6th grade through high school — seemingly
unusual entertainment for a fair, but not
for this one. For this is the annual Chicago
Area Science Fair sponsored by the Chicago
Area Teachers Science Association in co-
operation with Chicago Natural History
Museum.

The children participating in the fair rep-
resent public, private, and parochial schools,
as well as youth organizations, located in
Chicago or within a 35-mile radius of the
city. In this respect it differs from the

Chicago Public Schools Student Science Fair
held in April, which was limited to public
schools within the city limits.

The students design and assemble their
own projects and are prepared to give accu-
rate expository lectures on their exhibits for
the benefit of interested visitors. That some
of the students often select unique subjects
to exhibit was demonstrated by a number of
last year's entries — "Mummification," "Con-
tact Lenses," and "Variation of Ulcer Pro-
duction in the Shay Mouse." Prizes and
awards are given on the dual basis of what
knowledge the entrant has of his project and
its background, and on the exhibit itself.
Awards will be made according to subject-
area in grades 10 through 12, and according
to grade level in grades 6 through 9.

The exhibits will be displayed in Stanley
Field Hall from 9. a.m. to 5 P.M. This year
more than 150 entries are expected.

C*

May, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 3

TWO NEW EXHIBITS ON DISPLAY DURING MONTH OF MAY

"PEOPLES OF THE WORLD"

In 1956 Nickolas Muray, well-known
New York photographer, was commissioned
by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthro-
pological Research to create on film an
ethnological study of certain areas of the
Pacific, Asia, and Africa. Muray spent six
months on this mission, during which time
he made more than 1,000 pictures.

Chicago Natural History Museum,
through the efforts of Dr. Roland Force,
Curator of Oceanc Archaeology and Ethnol-
ogy, is fortunate in being the first museum
given the opportunity to exhibit any of the
collection — a collection that in future years
will travel to museums all over the country.
From the complete collection Dr. Force se-
lected the approximately 200 prints that
appear in the new exhibit, "Peoples of the
World," on display in Edward E. and Emma
B. Ayer Hall (Hall 2).

The photographs chosen feature peoples
from islands in the South Pacific, from Ja-
pan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Burma, Ceylon,
India, Pakistan, and Africa. However, it
was in Africa that the shutter of Muray's
camera had its greatest work-out. His con-
centration on that continent is reflected in
the "Peoples of the World" exhibit, which
displays more photographs from Africa than
from any other area Muray visited. The
countries of Africa featured in the exhibit
include Kenya, Uganda, Southern Rhodesia,
Nyasaland, Swaziland, The Union of South
Africa, and the Belgian Congo.

Nicholas Muray has long been acclaimed
in his field. As far back as 1925 he won a
first prize in the British Westminister Pic-
torial Photographic Exhibition. Since that
time he has presented numerous one-man
shows, taught photography at New York

Two of the more than 200 photographs by Nickolas Muray that appear in special "Peoples of the World"
exhibit. On the left are two little Japanese girls in holiday garb. On the right, a young mother of Bulawayo.

Sigrid Ruckser, 15, of the Junior School of the Art

Institute painted this picture that appears in student

art exhibit on display during May.

University, and lectured at other institu-
tions. In 1955 Muray photographed some
270 examples of craftsmanship and skill of
aboriginal America from ths Robert Bliss
collection in Washington, D.C. The plates,
both black and white and in color, were pub-
lished in the volume, Robert Woods Bliss
Collection: Pre-Columbian Art.

"Peoples of the World," which had its
premiere showing on Museum Members'
Night on April 29, will remain on display
in the museum until the end of June.

ART INSTITUTE SCHOOL EXHIBIT

Visitors touring Chicago Natural History
Museum find it a rather common occurrence
to come upon an intent artist, seated on a
chair or sitting cross-legged on the floor,
busily at work with a sketch tablet or
drawing board. For a number of years the
Museum's exhibits have provided young art-
ists from the School of the Art Institute
with colorful and interesting subject matter
for their artistic skills, as well as supplying
a wealth of information on the development
and history of art.

During the month of May the Museum
is highlighting the lively and imaginative
art work created by students of the School
of Art Institute in an exhibition that will
also include some special work by teachers
in the school. Diversity marks this year's
exhibit, and ceramics, etchings, metal and
enamel work, and design will be part of the
display, in addition to paintings and draw-
ings in many media.

Contributing to the art show are students
of all ages, from first graders to adults,
their work providing an interesting study
in the development of artistic skills. Teach-
ers whose own art work will be specially
exhibited are Leah Balsham (ceramics),
Vera Berdich (etching), Kathleen Black-
shear (history of art), William Frederick
(metal design), Whitney Halstead (history
of art), Ethel Spears (enameling), Raymond
Yoshida (enameling).

Marion Pahl, Museum Staff Illustrator,
and Walter Boyer, Ceramic Restorer, were
responsible for the selection and display of
art work appearing in the exhibit in Edward
E. and Emma B. Ayer Hall (Hall 2).

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
is headed by Dean Norman B. Boothby.

A nine-year-old, Beverly Voss, interprets Alaska
brown bear habitat group. Drawing on display in
current student art exhibit in Hall 2 of the Museum.

Page b

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

May, 1960

Discovery of the Pacific Isles

a

BLACKBIRDING" AND THE DECLINE OF ISLAND CULTURES

By ROLAND W. FORCE

CURATOR OF OCEANIC ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

Part V

THE FORTUITOUS OCCURRENCE
of a mere bit of flora disturbed a number
of Pacific island communities in the early
19th century. China, in particular, was an-
xious to secure sandalwood (Sanlalum al-
bum), which was discovered first in Fiji in
1804. New Caledonia and the New Hebrides
proved to be wonderful sources for this tree.
Sandalwood had been much in demand by
the Chinese from about 500 B.C. The oil
was used for perfume. The wood was carved
into fans and boxes, and was used by Bud-
dhists in funeral rites. Brahmins wanted it
for caste marks. It also was used as a
remedy for various pains and aches. Prior
to its discovery in the Pacific, India had
been the only source and prices were high
indeed.

In 1828, whalers discovered sandalwood
grew in the New Hebrides and after that
these islands were never the same. Here is
a missionary's account of one of the early
excursions for sandalwood. "Three ships
stole 250 pigs from Efate. Crew shot 26
natives; women and children were trapped
in a cave, wood was piled in the mouth and
the whole made into a savory roast so that
totally 130 natives were killed." On one
island in the New Hebrides the native popu-
lation responded in kind and in one two-
year span 12 foreigners were eaten and 30
more killed without the occurrence of canni-
balism. The Encyclopedia Britannica tells
us that "The loss of life in this [sandalwood]
trade was at one time even greater than in
that of whaling. ..." Anyone with an old
ship, a stout heart, and plenty of gunpowder
could go into the business. An average
profit has been estimated to have been in
the nature of $3,000 per voyage.

The price of sandalwood varied from £12
to £100 per ton and the supply was rapidly
exhausted. The natives placed no value on
the wood. In 1830 they were trading a
whole dinghy full of sandalwood for one
piece of hoop iron. Some buyers used to-
bacco exclusively. Goats brought a ton
apiece, while cats were in demand once the
hardy ship's rats had been introduced to
island shores.

There was very little of what we might
call "team spirit" among the sandalwood
traders. Each one was out to beat his com-
petition. One of the best ways to make it
unhealthy for those who might follow you
was to shoot a few natives after you had
made your haul.

Then, too, introducing diseases was popu-
lar. The brig Edward from California in-
advertently brought smallpox to one of the
islands of Melanesia in 1853. But in 1861,
another ship deliberately took from one is-

land natives who had measles (a particularly
virulent disease to islanders who had had
no opportunity to develop selective immun-
ity) and landed them on another island.
The result — one third of the population
promptly died. Islanders who refused to
sell sandalwood were either fired upon, or a
hostage was taken until they did. The wood
became the ransom for the chief taken host-
age. Sandalwood supplies were pretty nearly
gone by 1860 and fortunes could no longer
be made in this venture.

SLAVES BECOME TRADE "ITEMS"

As the sandalwood supplies became ex-
hausted by over-exploitation, the ships and
men employed in that trade sought new
methods of money-making. They turned to
traffic in humans. Labor was urgently
needed to work newly established plantations
and mines. At first labor recruitment was
accomplished by bribe (largely iron and
trinkets) and promises of more goods later
on. Later when reluctant natives declined
invitations to leave their homes for slavery

on a strange island away from family,
friends, and familiar scenes, the captains
of the economic navy took them by force.

Fiji planters in particular could not re-
cruit enough labor at home so they com-
missioned various ship's captains to secure
it from other islands. Between 1864 and
1868, 1,649 natives were imported from
the New Hebrides and from the Gilberts.
Missionaries began to notice the decimation
of their flocks and became alarmed. Over
an 18-month span as many ships arrived
on one New Hebrides island and made off
with 250 natives. Several other small islands
were literally stripped of all their males.
The story was the same in many parts of
the Pacific.

In the late 1850's, for example, the ex-
ploitation of the guano deposits on islands
off the Peruvian coast was seen as a profit-
able business, but workers were needed and
the recruiting of labor became a flourishing
business. As early as 1859 or 1860 a few
Easter Islanders were "kidnapped" from
their island and sold as slaves, but in 1862

By Stag Illustrator Marion Pahl

May, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 5

a real war expedition was planned against
the island. During December of that year
eight ships set sail for Easter Island for the
purpose of "recruiting" workers. A force
of 80 men went ashore and failing to per-
suade the natives to accompany them, took
them by force instead. A group of 500 were
assembled and in the process several were
shot while resisting the aliens. The others
took to their heels, and after the smoke
of battle had cleared, 200 Easter Islanders
lay securely trussed up. The natives who
escaped dove into the sea or ran for eleva-
tions or caves. Another means used on other
occasions on Easter Island was to throw
trinkets on the ground and while the natives
were on their knees scrambling for them,
they were bound up and rendered helpless.
The raids quickly disheartened the natives
and to escape from future slave raids they
took refuge in the caves of the island where
they lived in great discomfort and constant
anxiety and neglected the care of their crops.
The guano slaves never returned, but died
on the barren, foreign islands.

WITH SLAVE TRADE — CRUELTY
Finally, in 1868 a Polynesian Laborers Act
was put through Parliament in England and
wages were fixed at not less than the
stupendous sum of £6 a year (about $17
today). The Act could not be enforced,

IN MEMORIAM

Mr. Joshua Daston, 66, an assistant in
the department of botany since 1934, died
suddenly April 19. Mr. Daston was born
in Coosa Station, Alabama, but was edu-
cated in Italy. He received his bachelor of
science degree after attending Colleggio
Mario Pagani, Bologna's University, and
Firenza's University. In his botanical ca-
reer he participated in a number of collecting
expeditions including expeditions for the
Italian Royal Botanical Gardens, the La
Mortonal Gardens in Italy, and the F. A.
Haege of Germany.

Two Museum guards also died last month.
They are Samuel Colovos, with the Museum
since 1955, and Clarence Chambers, a guard
since 1958.

Longer Museum Hours

Begin in May

Beginning May 1 the Museum's doors will
remain open to the public from 9a.m. to
6 p.m. seven days a week. These longer
hours will remain in effect throughout the
coming summer months and through Labor
Day. On Memorial Day, May 30, and on
July 4 the Museum will observe its regular
hours of 9 to 6 p.m. Admission to the
Museum is free on Thursdays, Saturdays,
and Sundays. Children, students, and teach-
ers are always admitted free.

of course, so the traffic in humans continued.
Atrocities became even more common. One
account tells of a group of Melanesian na-
tives who were cut off from the shore by a
blackbirding boat and were dragged aboard
— the chief by means of a boat-hook through
his cheek. They were jammed into a musty
and airless hold where before long they began
to suffocate. They clamored and tried to
escape their prison, whereupon the crew
fired at them through some small holes in
the bulkhead. Three were killed and ulti-
mately thrown overboard. The old chief
was not quite dead so he was dispatched
with an ax. Later on when this atrocity
was discovered, the culprits were brought
to trial in Australia, but native evidence
was disallowed on the grounds that there
were no oaths binding over such people.
Finally, one Christianized native was allowed
to testify. Most perpetrators, however, es-
caped punishment. This was partly so be-
cause non-British ships and British ships
under other national flags were not account-
able to British law.

Trickery was also used to lure labor re-
cruits. One captain had a glass eye, another
a wooden leg, and another wore a Ku Klux
Klan type of garment with a large bag
underneath; then he drank quantities of sea
water to show his magic. Young men could
be bought sometimes from chiefs if gifts
amounted to enough. Typical were gifts of
guns with the going rate, one firearm for
one man. An especially liberal gift was con-
sidered ten fathoms of calico, a pipe, and
some tobacco.

One of the chief effects of blackbirding was
depopulation. In 1886 for example there
were over a thousand Melanesian labor re-
cruits in Queensland, Australia. High death
rates existed among recruits. If they lasted
out the voyage to their destination in old
ships which were leaky and overcrowded as
well as dirty, they still didn't fare too well.
Poor diet, lack of medical attention, and
overwork were the most potent factors in
maintaining a high death rate. Plantation
work hours were from 10 to 14 hours per
day with an hour off for a meal. Contracts
were usually for a three-year period.

The native could only lose. Punitive ex-
peditions were sent by governments whose
subjects had been arrested while trying to
steal laborers, and little by little the old
cultures decayed.

One of the most potent stimuli for change
in the islands was the return of the in-

Studies North Borneo Fishes

Chin Phui Kong, fisheries officer with the
department of agriculture of North Borneo
in Jesselton, is visiting the Museum on a
National Science Foundation grant. He will
be working for approximately six months
with Dr. R. F. Inger, Curator of Reptiles
and Amphibians, on fresh water fishes of
North Borneo.

dentured laborers to their island homes.
Most often returns were delayed or pre-
vented by bright lights, flesh pots of the
cities of the day, or death. But those who
did return brought with them new ideas and
different customs. As late as 1913 the
British anthropologist W. H. Rivers had
this to say about the situation:

At the present moment there exists
in Melanesia an influence far more likely
to produce disintegration of native in-
stitutions than the work of missionaries.
I refer to the repatriation of laborers
from Queensland which has been the
result of the movement for a white
Australia. Large numbers have re-
cently returned to nearly every island.
Some have been many years in Queens-
land, and have quite forgotten all they
knew of their native institutions, some
even have that contempt for these in-
stitutions that often accompanies a
smattering of "civilization."

The end result of the sandalwood and
slaves period in the Pacific was tremendous
depopulation and Europeanized heathenism
■ — another unhappy chapter in Pacific island
contact history.

SCHWEITZER DISCUSSION
HERE SATURDAY, MAY 14

Four Nobel Peace Prize Winners will be
featured at an 85th Anniversary Tribute
to Albert Schweitzer to be held at the Mu-
seum May 14 at 8:30 P.M.

The Nobel Prize winners are the Rt. Hon.
Philip Noel-Baker, R. F. Georges Dominique
Pire, Sir Norman Angell, and Lord John
Boyd Orr. They will participate in a panel
discussion on the topic, "Albert Schweitzer's
Blueprint For Peace." The discussion is a
part of a symposium to be held that week
on the subject, "The Wisdom of Albert
Schweitzer."

The May 14 program will be held in the
James Simpson Theatre and is sponsored
by the Albert Schweitzer Education Foun-
dation. Tickets for the evening are available
upon request by writing the foundation at
55 E. Washington St., or calling RA 6-3140.

Life Member Wins Prize
in Game Competition

A trophy of big horn sheep shot by Mr.
William D. Cox, a life member of the Mu-
seum, won third prize in the 1958-1959
North American big game competition spon-
sored by the Boone and Crockett Club.
Mr. Cox bagged his sheep last summer at
the head of the Ghost River in Alberta,
Canada. The trophy was measured by
Chicago Natural History Museum prior to
its submission to the Boone and Crockett
Club Big Game Competition.

The Art Institute conducts classes in this
Museum, deriving motifs from exhibits.

Page 6

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

May, 1960

BOOKS

Reviewed By Our Staff

A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE
TO AMERICAN MAMMALS

A Romantic History of the Pacific

VIKINGS OF THE PACIFIC. By Peter H.
Buck. Phoenix Books, Chicago, 1959.
339 pages; three maps; 53 illustrations in-
cluding reproductions of early engravings,
line drawings, and photographs. $1.95.

An old friend has appeared wearing a new
dress. First published in 1938 under hard
cover as Vikings of the Sunrise, this new
paper-back edition will please readers anew.
The centuries-old drama of the settlement of
the exotic South Seas by stalwart and fear-
less bands of men and women is nowhere so
vividly portrayed as on these pages.

Sir Peter Buck, or as he preferred to be
called — Te Rangi Hiroa — was a man of rare
inspiration. He wanted to learn about his
own people. His mother was a Maori chief-
tainess and taught him to read and write in
the Maori language. He also received much
guidance and training from his maternal
grandmother. Sir Peter's father was an
Irishman. Of his mixed racial heritage he
was proud and is quoted as having said that
any success he achieved was largely due to
his good fortune in having been a mongrel.
Portions of his life were devoted to work as
a medical doctor, statesman, and soldier.
But he will be remembered most for his
work in ethnology. In order to discover more
about Maori culture he devoted himself to
studies of related Polynesian societies. He
was a peculiar combination of meticulous,
painstaking scientific inquirer and of ro-
mantic poet. A chauvinist at heart where
the Maori were concerned, his feelings ex-
panded to include other Polynesians, ances-
tral to the Maori, as well.

At one moment he was able to concentrate
on a complicated weaving technique and at
another he became engrossed in the transla-
tion of a chant, paddling song, or lament
which he rendered with great artistic skill.
His skills ran the gamut from straightfor-
ward analysis of material culture to the ex-
amination of ephemeral oral traditions —
often with great personal artistic creativity.

The book under review is a romantic ac-

count of how Buck thought the early navi-
gators from Southeast Asia conquered the
vast Pacific. These early voyagers he im-
bued with enviable heroic stature. Buck was
ethnocentric to a fault, but somehow he is
easily excused, for his zeal and inspiration
are contagious. The reader thrills with Buck
at the pageantry of enormous high-prowed
double canoes, skimming over the sheen of a
calm lagoon with half a hundred oars flash-
ing wet in the sunset's glow. He also shares
with the author the awesome glimpse of the
storm-lashed and leaking hull of a once proud
and elegant craft, separated from its armada,
lost on a gray and tempestuous ocean of flail-
ing winds and pelting tropical squalls. There
is romance, too, in the mastery of puny man-
kind over the cruel elements. The sea is an
enemy to be fought and vanquished. The
cost of victory — the lives of countless valiant
explorers, extracted over a span of centuries.
There is an opportunity in Buck's book for
the reader to share with the stalwarts of old
(the Vikings of the Pacific) in the sense of
achievement in having bested superior forces
and having at last found a new homeland
green with palms, with soaring volcanic spires
offering testimony of the rich, untilled soil
awaiting on the pristine dot of land.

The great strength of this book is its color-
ful rendering of a great exodus from the
known to conquer the unknown — the settle-
ment of the last great block of the earth's

surface by mankind.

ROLAND W. FORCE

Curator of Oceanic Archaeology and Ethnology

THE TALE OF A MEADOW. Written
and illustrated by Henry B. Kane. Alfred
A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1959. 115
pages, photographs and drawings. $3.00.

A well illustrated little book telling what
goes on in a meadow as seen through the
eyes of "the boy". The actors range from
insects to mammals, against a background
of plants. The volume is pleasantly written.
A. L. RAND, Chief Curator of Zoology

THE MAMMALS OF NORTH AMER-
ICA. By E. Raymond Hall and Keith R.
Kelson. Ronald Press Company, 1959.
In two volumes, vol. 1, pp. xxx+ 1-546+
1-79; vol. 2, pp. viii+547+1-79. 500
maps, 724 text figures. $35.

The Mammals of North America, by E. Ray-
mond Hall and Keith R. Kelson, is the most
comprehensive and authoritative guide to
the classification, distribution, and literature
of North American mammals ever published.
All scientific names applied to the mammals
of this continent are listed in evolutionary
sequence. Every order, family, genus and
species is described. The identification of
each species is aided by practical keys to all
groupings, by 186 black-and-white illustra-
tions of the more common mammals, and by
538 line drawings of skulls. One of the most
valuable contributions of this work is the
500 original and lucid maps showing the geo-
graphic distribution of each species and sub-
species. The brief notes on habits are generally
of the kind which point up differences between
the species and higher groups of mammals.

The exhaustiveness of the work is reflected
in the index with its 79 four-columned pages
of technical and vernacular names for ani-
mals and the 30 two-columned pages of liter-
ature cited. The latter duplicates only a
small fraction of the more than 10,000 pub-
lications cited directly in the text in connec-
tion with the technical names quoted. A
gratifying feature of this two-volume opus
is the inclusion of an index to the entire work
at the end of each volume.

The first chapter of text is a dissertation
by the senior author on the origin and dis-
tribution of North American mammals. Prof.
Hall points out that the Tropical Zone of
North America has nearly three times as
many species as the North Temperate and
Arctic Zones combined. This is attributed to
the fact that the Tropical Zone provides more
kinds of places in which to live. Hall adds
that North America has received much from
the fauna of Eurasia but has contributed
little. On the other hand, North America
has contributed more to South America than
it has received. These generalizations are
true but only if the sum total of mammalian
history is considered.

There were times, however, when faunal
flows were stronger in opposite directions.
For example, the movement of mammals
today is greater from the Tropical Zone into
the Temperate Zone than in the reverse
direction, although Prof. Hall would deny
this. We cannot point to any species of
Temperate Zone mammal of recent origin
advancing into the Tropical Zone. On the
other hand, witness the spectacular north-
ward movement of the Tropical Zone opos-
sum and the even more striking northward
march of the Tropical Zone nine-banded ar-

May, 1960

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

Page 7

madillo. The coati-mundi, too, is an immi-
grant from the Tropical Zone. A number of
species of our common mice, including cotton
rats, rice rats, pygmy mice and certain kinds
of spiny mice most likely originated and
spread from the Tropical Zone of southern
Mexico or Central America into the Tem-
perate Zone. The ubiquitous white-footed
mice, or deer mice, of the Temperate Zone,
may also have originated in the Tropical
Zone. There is reason to believe that many

'THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS" EXPLORES HISTORICAL
BASES OF OUR CONCEPTS OF MATTER IN UNIVERSE

From "The Mammals of North America"

more kinds of mammals originated and ad-
vanced in the same way, but having disap-
peared from the Tropical Zone are now
counted as belonging to the Temperate Zone
only.

Although new species of North American
mammals are still being discovered, the total
number of those recognized by science is ac-
tually decreasing. According to Hall and
Kelson, the List of North American Mammals
by Gen-it S. Miller, Jr., published in 1924,
enumerated 1,399 kinds of mammals as full
species. The revised List by Miller, Jr. and
Remington Kellogg, published in 1955, shows
1,065 named forms as species. In the pres-
ent work, only 1,003 kinds of mammals are
treated as species. Reduction in the number
of species recognized as valid is the result of
comparisons of the original specimens with
additional material in the light of a more
precise knowledge of the processes of specia-
tion. Hall and Kelson suspect that ulti-
mately no more than about 800 truly distinct
species of North American mammals will be
recognized. One wonders why these authors
did not bring the millenium nearer by treat-
ing as a single species the 77 named forms of
brown bears they list, albeit against their
better judgment, as distinct "species."

Virtually all technical names ever used for
North American mammals have been brought
together in this work. Where more than one
name had been used for a given kind of mam-

THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS. By Helen
Miles Davis; revision by Glenn T. Sea-
bord, Nobelist in Chemistry. Published
jointly by Science Service, Washington,
and Ballatine Books, New York, 1959 (re-
vised). 204 pages. $.50.

This paper-back book on the chemical ele-
ments, the distinctive varieties of matter
making up the universe, gives a very in-
tersting account of their discovery. It is
unusual in that the author uses extensively
quotations and translations from the original
classical writings of such famous scientists
as Lavoisier, Sir Humphrey Davy, and the
Curies, which announced the discoveries to
the world. This approach results in con-
siderable variation in the treatment accorded
the various elements, but it serves to em-
phasize the historical aspect — the way in
which our knowledge of the fundamental
constitution of matter has been slowly built
up — and the problems which have been met
and overcome in recognizing, isolating, and
determining the properties of new elements.

The introductory chapter briefly describes
the structure of the atom, and shows that
the atoms of the 102 known elements are
composed of sub-atomic particles, protons,
neutrons, and electrons. The number and
arrangement of these particles produce the
differences between the elements — the chem-
ical properties, for instance, being deter-
mined by the outermost electrons. It is
shown how our knowledge of atomic struc-
ture provides the explanation of the periodic
recurrence of similar chemical properties
amongst the elements, although Mendeleef
based his Periodic Table of the elements on
their physical and chemical properties and

was even able to predict the existence of
then unknown elements. Tables are also
quoted showing the average elemental com-
position of the earth's crust and the esti-
mated relative abundance of the elements
in the universe.

The chapters that follow take up the ele-
ments group by group and also include top-
ics such as radioactivity, atomic power, and
the man-made elements. The chapters usu-
ally begin with an introduction outlining
some of the properties of the group or dealing
with some interesting aspect of one or more
of the elements. A number of the chapters,
are made up of quotations that refer to the
original discovery and properties of the ele-
ments. One minor criticism is that the for-
mat of the text often does not clearly in-
dicate the endings of excerpted passages.

The book closes with a list of the elements,
their atomic weights, isotopes and brief notes
on their uses, a chronological listing of the
dates of discovery of the elements, a glossary
of old chemical terms, and an an index.

Chemical Elements is a very useful, up-to-
date synopsis of the elements which brings
together information on their discovery and
properties. The author, Helen Miles Davis,
died in 1957 while this second edition of
the book was in preparation. Dr. Glenn T.
Seaborg, assisted by Dr. B. G. Harvey, both
of the University of California, Berkeley, re-
vised the text and incorporated the new
discoveries of the chemical elements that
have occurred since the first edition. Dr.
Seaborg received the Nobel prize for his
discovery of trans-uranium elements.

BERTRAM G. WOODLAND

Associate Curator of Petrology

mal, the authors list them in chronological
order under the oldest name which is the one
recognized as correct. This complete syno-
nymy makes it possible to compare what is
said about any animal in the present work
with what has been written about the same
animal under other names in other works.

Application of the principle of seniority,
or priority, in selecting the correct scientific
name for an animal insures a large measure
of stability and universality in scientific no-
menclature. Too strict an application of this
principle, however, sometimes yields unfor-
tunate results. For example, Hall and Kel-
son felt compelled to transfer the generic
name Dama, inadvertently used over 150
years for the European fallow deer, to the
North American white-tailed deer univer-
sally known as Odocoileus. It seems to me
that in this very exceptional case, the inter-
ests of zoology would have been better served
had the authors left each deer with its famil-
iar name.

Works such as the one under review are

compilations made possible by the hundreds
of check lists which preceded them. No less
than eight check lists of North American
mammals were published in this century
alone including several by Daniel Giraud
Elliot published by Chicago Natural History
Museum.

The Mammals of North America, by Hall
and Kelson, is a reference work; it is neither
light nor entertaining reading. Nevertheless,
if I were to recommend three publications on
North American mammals to anyone, be he
professional mammalogist, arm-chair natur-
alist, artist-naturalist, editor, or librarian, I
would select: first, The Mammals of North
America, by Hall and Kelson; second, its
natural complement, Lives of Game Animals,
by Ernest Thompson Seton (Doubleday,
Page and Co., 1925); and third, the visual
and practical Field Guide to the Mammals,
by W. H. Burt and R. P. Grossenheider
(Houghton Mifflin Co., 1952).

PHILIP HERSHKOVITZ

Curator of Mammals

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

May, 1960

New York Not All Concrete And Steel

NATURAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK
CITY. By John Kieran. Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1959. 428 pages. Illus-
trated by Henry Bugbee Kane. $5.75.

New York is more than the canyons of
steel and concrete one sees from a downtown
hotel. In the five boroughs (Manhattan,
Richmond or Staten Island, Brooklyn,
Queens, and the Bronx) there are 28,000
acres of parks, also truck gardens, farms,
and even a grove — a remnant of the original
forest that once covered Manhattan Island.
There are the ocean beaches, the harbor, and
the mighty Hudson River. This means a
host of plants and animals, from bedbugs,
pigeons, rats and mice in the thickly built-up
areas, to deer that wander into its landward
areas, and even a sperm whale stranded in
Brooklyn. Poachers still trap muskrats with-
in the city limits.

Kieran, veteran of radio's "Information,

Please," and author of several books on nat-
ural history subjects, gives an encyclopedic
store of information about the plants and
animals, selecting those he has seen, or those
likely to be seen. The treatment is a loose
arrangement by groups from the life in a cup
of water dipped up from sea or pond, to birds
and mammals, flowering plants, and trees.

From this volume the nature lover can get
a view of the great variety and wealth of life
that flourishes in and about a great city —
some because of man, some in spite of him.

A background of the geology and history
of the island, and a chapter on the cycle of
the seasons introduces one to the factors
which determined the flora and fauna upon
which man has placed a heavy hand. The
pencil drawings by H. B. Kane are a very
decorative feature of the volume.

Austin L.Rand
Chief Curator of Zoology

GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM

Following is a list of the principal gifts
recently received:

Department of Anthropology

From: Dr. William Bascom, Berkeley, Calif.
— ethnological specimens, West Africa; Mrs.
Maude A. Farber, Chicago — ethnological
specimens, Australia, Melanesia; Mr. & Mrs.
Clarence L. Frederick, Chicago — 62 ethno-
logical specimens, Africa; Capt. and Mrs.
A. W. F. Fuller, London, England — carved
Maori Tiki, New Zealand; Mrs. John A.
Holabird, Chicago — Navajo textiles, South-
west USA; Mr. & Mrs. Fred Mueller & Mrs.
Pauline Tuck, Chicago — ethnological speci-
mens, Polynesia, Samoa; Mr. Robert P.
Thacker, Chicago — model house, Kusai,
Micronesia

Department of Botany

From: Mr. H. R. Bennett, Chicago— 536
phanerogams, Oregon; Dr. E. E. Sherff, Has-
tings, Michigan— 13 phanerogams, Hawaii

Department of Geology

From: Mr. James E. Canright, Blooming-
ton, Ind. — a fossil insect, Nova Scotia; Uni-
versity of Chicago — fossil reptiles, Texas;
Mr. August Pivorunas, Chicago — slab of fos-
sil pelecypods; Dr. & Mrs. Robert H. Whit-
field, Evanston, 111. — fossil plant specimens,
Wyoming and Tennessee

Department of Zoology

From: Dr. James Brennan, Hamilton,
Montana — slides of chigger mites, North and
South America; Dr. C. M. Burgess, Hono-
lulu, Hawaii — snail specimens; Dominion
Museum, Wellington, New Zealand — 3 bird
skins; Mr. Stanley Dvorak, Chicago — 3 ma-
rine snails, Philippines and Sonora, Mexico;
Dr. Robert L. Fleming, Katmandu, Nepal —
110 bird skins, 3 lizards, 7 snakes; 1 hair-
worm; The Florida State Museum, Gaines-
ville, Florida— a bat skull, B. W. I., Ja-
maica; University of Florida, Gainesville,
Florida — 7 bats, Bahama Isl., Panama, An-
tigua; Mr. Harry Hoogstraal, Cairo, Egypt
— 32 mammals, 213 bird skins, 7 frogs, 14 liz-
arcs, 8 snakes, a lot of turtle eggs, uterus of a
mammal, Sudan, Egypt; Mr. Gunnar Hoy,

Argentina — 408 bird skins; Mr. Ralph Jack-
son, Cambridge, Maryland — land snails,
Ibarra, Ecuador; Miss Bess Kennedy, Graf-
ton, West Virginia —a pair of miniature ivory
dogs; Dr. N. L. H. Krauss, Honolulu, Hawaii
— 15 reptiles and amphibians, Mexico and
Central America; Mr. Borys Malkin, Seattle,
Washington — inland mollusks, Europe; Dr.
J. I. Menzies, Sierra Leone — 17 frogs, 3 liz-
ards; Mr. John C. Poynton, Pietermaritz-
burg, Natal— a frog; Mr. Kim T. Rawlinson,
Greencastle, Indiana — 8 fishes; John G. Shedd
Aquarium, Chicago — 3 fishes, Iowa; Walter
Suter and John Wagner, Evanston, 111. —
10,919 feather-wing beetles, Eastern United
States; Mr. Robert W. Tansill, Evanston,
111. — sea shells, Yap Id., Carolines; U. S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, Rogers City, Michigan
— 2 fishes; Dr. Conrad E. Yunker, Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada — 4 lizards, Egypt

Rarest Waterfowl

The nene or Hawaiian goose, a peculiar
species that evolved from a colonization of
the islands by Canada geese in the long ago,
is probably the rarest species of waterfowl
in the world. In 1950 there were only 17 in
captivity and another 17 in the wild. Since
then, the wild birds have increased to per-
haps 50 birds, and in addition 36 young
have been raised in captivity in Hawaii and
53 in England. The nene's breeding grounds
were discovered only in 1957, and a study
made of the possibilities of management of
the species to ensure its further increase
and safety

NEW MEMBERS

(March 7 to April 4, 1960)

Associate Members

Mrs. John W. Allyn, E. Henry Blume,
Joseph E. Brunswick, Robert S. Burrows,
Carl Cervenka, Mrs. David L. Coghlan, Dr.
Lome Costello, Ralph Cowan, Glenn R.
Curtis, Theodore C. Diller, Walter Erman,
Allyn J. Franke, Frank Gall, Harold S.
Guetzkow, Mrs. Burton W. Hales, Myron A.
Hecht, John S. Hutchins, Howard J. Jeffers,
R. J. Kennedy, Leslie S. Larson, Robert E.
Levin, Sidney D. Levin, Mrs. William Lipp-
man, Hervey L. MacCowan, E. S. Marsh,
Dr. W. Harrison Mehn, Paul H. Mesenbrink,
Mrs. Wilbur C. Munnecke, George Nielsen,
John B. O'Connor, Benjamin Franklin Olson,
Roy J. Pierson, O. Trumbull Scalbom,
Robert W. Smick, Bruce M. Smith, Dr.
Simon L. Sprtel, Mrs. C. Conover Talbot,
Munroe A. Winter, Edward H. Yonkers,
Mrs. Alma M. Zivin.

Sustaining Members

Jerome R. Sebastian, F. C. Shafer

Annual Members

Dr. John H. Abelson, Robert A. Abraham-
son, Elliott N. Adams, F. Denby Allen,
James Alter, W. A. Anderson, Mrs. Roy E.
Andrews, Dimitri T. Argoe, Willard Ayres,

E. Bachrach, William S. Baltz, Dr. C. J.
Barasch, Arthur K. Baxter, Robert W. Beart,
Dr. Allison Burdick, Jr., Walter W. Caddell,
Milton Cohen, Arthur F. Connelly, Hayden

F. Conway, Dr. Maxwell M. Corbett, Harry
I. Coy, Jr., J. H. Donovan, Mrs. A. D. Davis,
Dr. John J. Eichstaedt, Morton C. Eden, F.
Fahey, Daniel Gallagher, Dr. Benjamin J.
Gans, Joseph Getlin, Edward Gudeman,
Robert A. Hardt, William T. Hocking,
William C. Howell, Harold Jackson, Sidney
R. Johnson, Robert E. Johnson, James W.
Karstens, Edwin M. Katz, M. G. Kaufman,
Daniel Wilson Keatinge, John F. Keefe,
Ralph Keller, J. Edgar Kelly, John J. Kelly,
Jr., Thomas F. Kelly, Michael M. Kenyon,
Ben H. Kessler, Paul T. Kessler, Jr., M. G.
Lipinski, Marshall Long, Palmer G. Lykken,
John L. Marley, Jr., John L. Means, Robert
C. Meissner, Miss Ruth Miller, R. R. Minor,
Robert W. Mundstock, C. Frank Newburg,
A. J. Newhagen, Mrs. Peter A. Pershing,
Walter J. Peterson, William Pinsof, J. Louis
Plocek, Dr. George J. Porter, Robert Quayle,
Mrs. Irvin F. Richman, Harold Richter,
Frank Rutherford, W. Norman Schultz,
Henry L. Seaman, Dr. Sid John Shafer,
Mrs. Robert R. Sheehan, Roy J. Succa,
Irvin Swartzberg, George Swope, Dr. Henry
A. Szujewski, Vernon Travers, Irwin R.
Tucker, Dr. Willard Van Hazel, Eugene R.
Ward, Henry L. Warshell, Dr. Harold H.
Was, Mrs. Harriet P. Webber, Gene Wede-
reit, Dr. Leon H. Weiss, Harold A. William-
son, Joseph J. Wilson, C. Harry Youngquist,
Dr. Fred R. Zeiss.

CHINA-
LAND OF THE DRAGON
JOURNEY

Continues Through May

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

MUSEUM NEWS

Members' Night

On the evening of April 29, a gala
assembly thronged up the Museum's
floodlighted steps and into Stanley Field
Hall. Expectantly they scanned their
printed guides, and then surged toward
the variety of programs and exhibits
that were being featured on every floor
of the Museum. It was Members' Night
1960, and Chicago Natural History Mu-

—THTS MONTH'S COVER —

Our cover does not show a coiled-
cephalopod fossil nor a portion of a
nautilus shell, which a first glance
might suggest. We see the ventral
plates or scales of a coiled rattle-
snake, which was carved by an
Aztec sculptor in the fourteenth
century A.D. Views of the top
and the complete underside of this
serpent, with its thirteen rattles,
are shown above. The coiled mass
of the snake, which is of red ba-
salt, is 24 inches in diameter and
weighs about 300 pounds. Addi-
tional examples of Aztec sculpture
are shown on pages 4 and 5.

seum was playing host to the largest
Members' Night crowd in its history.

Museum personnel welcomed 1,767
guests — 147 more than last year's rec-
ord-topping number. Hundreds of these
guests began their evening's tour with
Nickolas Muray's visually exciting pho-
tographic display, "Peoples of the
World," on loan from the Wenner-
Gren Foundation for Anthropological
Research. Dr. Robert F. Inger, Cura-
tor, Amphibians and Reptiles, twice led
a standing-room-only crowd on a "Con-
go Safari," by means of colored slides
and the recorded sounds of insects, frogs,
and jungle drums. Some visitors took
advantage of their last opportunity to
see the exhibit that had been prepared
in honor of Darwin's centennial celebra-
tion, while many others investigated
"Soundtrek," the Museum's pioneering
radio guide system.

Featured on the ground, first, and
second floors were the re-installation of
Halls 7 and 8, Indians of the Southwest,
Mexico, and Central America; the series
of exhibits on the archaeology of Etruria
and Rome, which are now completely
re-installed on the ground floor; and the
new additions to the Birds of the World
exhibit in Hall 21 . On the second floor
the newly completed hall of North
American trees, and the re-installations
of several huge fossil mammals drew
particular attention. Areas "behind the
exhibits" also attracted capacity crowds,
who saw a diversified array of objects on
display ranging from mysterious Tibet-
an books through unique rock forma-
tions, rare deep-water fish, poisonous
plants, and octopus teeth. Over and
over again, the scientific staff explained
the special exhibits they had prepared
illustrating their research to new groups
of people who seemed to find it hard to
tear themselves away from exquisite
plant models, giant beetles, fossil sharks
in process of being uncovered, and prim-
itive musical instruments. Many visitors
were attracted by the variety of intri-
guing titles displayed in the Library,
and lingered to discuss them over a cup
of coffee with the hospitable library staff.
Others were impressed by the scope and

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

Wm. McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Chesser M. Campbell William H. Mitchell

Walter J. Cummings John T. Pirie, Jr.

Joseph N. Field Clarence B. Randall

Marshall Field, Jr. John G. Searle

Stanley Field Solomon A. Smith

Samuel Insull, Jr. Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

E. Leland Webber Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

John R. Millar Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

Theodor Just Curator Emeritus of Botany

MANAGING EDITOR
Paula R. Nelson Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Marilyn Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

quantity of the Museum's scientific pub-
lications produced during the past year.
Before the evening was over, almost
everybody traipsed up to the fourth
floor to see taxidermy work in progress
and to marvel at the magnificent array
of animal skins.

As last reminiscences were exchanged
around the refreshment tables, snatches
of conversation drifting through Stanley
Field Hall indicated that everyone had
experienced a memorable evening.

Conference Participation

Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of
Anthropology, Dr. Donald Collier, Cura-
tor of South American Archaeology and
Ethnology, and Dr. George I. Quimby,
Curator of North American Archaeol-
ogy and Ethnology, last month attended
the Annual Meeting of the Society for
American Archaeology at Yale Univer-
sity. Dr. Martin was chairman of a
study section entitled "Southwestern
and Iowan Archaeology" and Dr.
Quimby presented a paper on "The
{Continued on page 7)

Page 2

By ALAN SOLEM, Curator of Lower Invertebrates

Rocks, Snails, and Cactus Spines

During the last two weeks of March,
Munroe L. Walton of Glendale, Cali-
fornia, and I searched the foothills and
mountains of Southern Arizona for land
snails.

The desert seemed an unlikely place
for the soft-bodied, moisture-loving snails,
and living specimens were few and far
between. After moving an estimated
twenty tons of desert rocks, I decided
I'd be happier counting snails obtained
than rocks moved, although the rocks
greatly outnumbered the snails !

Of course, the snails didn't move into
the desert; the desert came to the snails.
Thousands of years ago, many areas of
Southern Arizona were humid river val-
leys which had an entirely different flora
and fauna from what we see today. As
the climate gradually changed the mois-
ture-loving creatures died out, retreated
to the still humid mountain tops, or
found some hidden niche that stayed
wet for at least a few days each year.

Today, the mountain masses of Ari-
zona are separated by miles of flat,

An adult and young "Sonorella dalli," known only
from Tanner Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains,
are clinging to the rock. The white rings show where
the snails have cemented themselves to the rock
during dry spells. These rings may last 200 years in
the dry climate, and usually 200 or 300 rings will be
seen before even the first dead snail is found.

grass-covered or desert tablelands. The
sides of the mountains are sculptured by
tortuous canyons — some wide, some
narrow. Huge piles of rocks and boul-
ders provide evidence of landslides, wind
and frost erosion, and occasional torren-
tial rains, which produce the turbulent
flash floods.

On the fringes of these rock piles a few
scraggly plants survive, shedding leaves
that sift down to the bottom of the slides.
Each year, the brief showers wash in soil
among the leaves and moisten the at-
mosphere. Under the sun's glare, the
surface water soon evaporates, but deep
in the dark slides it lasts just long enough
for a few hardy snails to move about,
eat, and multiply. Most of the year
they are inactive, sealed to the rock.
Occasionally they are discovered and
eaten by some small rodent, but with
better luck they may live fifteen or
twenty years before an extraordinarily
long dry spell kills them. In the re-
cesses of the rock piles, decay is slow and
the "bones" of dead snails may accumu-
late for who knows how many hundreds
of years before being disturbed by a col-
lector's searching hands.

Isolated, as they have been, for cen-
tury after century by impassable desert
waste lands between mountain masses,
and restricted in the drier areas to a
single canyon or even rock slide, a be-
wildering number of species and varie-
ties have evolved. Arizona has perhaps
200 named kinds of land snails, more
than any other mainland state except
California. This great proliferation of
species is directly traceable to the dry-
ing climate and long isolation of rela-
tively small populations of snails.

EARLY COLLECTORS
Little was known of this vast fauna
until the late 1880's and early 1890's.
A Congregational missionary preacher,
E. H. Ashmun, and E. A. Mearns, an
Army surgeon attached to the Mexican

boundary survey of 1890, sent back the
first few species to interested scientists.
Intrigued by these remarkable shells, a
Joliet, Illinois, newspaper publisher,
James Ferriss, collected for the first time
in the Chiricahua Mountains in 1902.
Again in 1904, Ferriss made another

These arsenals, whose weapons range from slender
prickles to large daggers, guard the nearby rock piles.

collecting trip with Henry A. Pilsbry,
the greatest malacologist of this century
and Curator at the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia. From then
until 1919, mountain range after moun-
tain range were explored for shells by
Ferriss; Pilsbry; A. A. Hinkley, an Al-
gonquin, Illinois collector, and an In-
diana resident, L. E. Daniels.

Pilsbry and Ferriss, in eleven papers
totaling 504 printed pages, reported on
the results of these field trips and de-
scribed most of the presently known spe-
cies. The deaths of Hinkley and Daniels,
the ill health of Ferriss, and Pilsbry's
other duties ended the survey before it
could be completed. When Pilsbry died
in 1957, his collection remained in Phila-
delphia. Hinkley willed his to the Uni-
versity of Illinois, Daniel's went even-
tually to the University of Michigan,
(Continued on page 8)

Page 3

1. Head of a pulque god

2. The calendrical glyph "Four Rabbit"

3. Ehecatl, the wind god

AZTEC SCULPTUH

The stone carvings shown on these pages and the cover are ret

jM objects may be seen in two recently installed exhibits in Hall 8.

Aztec sculptors were concerned mainly with the depiction of
shown immediately to the left (No. 15) represents Chicomecoatl
trayed deities was Quetzalcoatl ("Quetzcal Snake"), god of cres
having both human and plumed-serpent forms. Variations in t
8-11). No. 8 shows his face in the jaws of a serpent; on the side of
from his ear lobe with a bone skewer. No. 3 portrays Quetzalcoatl wearing a bi
in No. 2 was carved on a stone box used by priests to store sacrificed human he:

Another strain in Aztec art, typified by the dog in No. 5, was naturalistic ra
than symbolic. Probably the realistically portrayed sculptures of human beij
animals, and insects were created primarily for pure pleasure, although som
these animals also had religious significance.

14. Goddess of water

13. Plumed warrior from a wall relief

12. Seated man

11. Quetzalcoatl

4. Head of a serpent (note large poison fang)

rj DONALD COLLIER

•J Curator of South American Archaeology and Ethnology

sentative of the Classic Aztec style dating from A.D. 1400-1520. These

dties and the dramatic portrayal of religious symbolism. The figure
Seven Serpent"), goddess of maize. One of the most frequently por-
>n, learning, winds, and the planet Venus, who was conceived of as
depiction of this god are shown in the accompanying pictures (Nos.
is stone is carved a man sacrificing to Qiietzalcoatl by drawing blood
•beak mask in the guise of the wind god. The glyph
s.

jr

s,
)f

7. King of Coatlinchan

9. Plumed serpent from a stone column

8. Front and side of carved boulder

S 0 U N d TREK

Visitors to Chicago Natural History
Museum are cautioned not to be dis-
turbed if they observe some rather un-
usual behavior taking place in the ex-
hibition halls these days. Throughout
the building, people with little black
boxes around their necks pass by with a
faraway expression in their eyes. They
appear, in fact, to be guided by some
mysterious force as they walk, turn, and
stop in almost synchronized precision
before exhibit after exhibit.

Unusual? Yes. But there is no need
to be alarmed, for at the bottom of this
phenomenon is an exciting innovation
designed to make a trip to the Museum
more memorable, enjoyable, and edu-
cationally rewarding. It's Soundtrek,
a new closed circuit radio guide system.
First introduced to our members on
April 29, Members' Night, it is the only
operational radio guide system in Chi-
cago, and one of the very few in the
world.

THE SOUNDTREK SYSTEM

Soundtrek consists, first, of a receiver,
which is a light, portable plastic box to
which an ear piece is connected. The
receiver is equipped with a dial that en-
ables the Museum visitor to tune in the
proper channel for each hall. Com-
mentaries on the exhibits are recorded
by the Museum staff on tapes which
are played continuously in each Sound-
trek equipped hall. The purpose of the
commentaries is to give Museum visi-
tors a more exciting and purposeful in-
troduction to the exhibits by providing
the next best thing to a personally es-
corted tour by a Museum scientist. For
a touch of additional realism, some of
the tapes include actual sounds of na-
ture — the calls of wild animals, birds,

Page 6

By MARILTN JINDR1CH

Associate Editor
Illustrations by Marion Pahl

frogs and reptiles, and even the rarely
heard whisperings of the ocean and
underwater life — as well as authentic
Indian ritual drums and ceremonial
music.

The idea of radio guides for museums
originated in Europe in Amsterdam,
where in the Rijksmuseum a one-chan-
nel installation was developed which
lacked additional radio frequencies.
This meant that adjacent halls could
not be wired for sound because two
commentaries, each operating in near-
by halls on the same radio frequency,
would be picked up simultaneously on
the receiver as a mere jumble of sound.
In spite of this limitation on the number
of halls that could be wired, the Am-
sterdam experiment was a success. In
a short time the idea spread across the
ocean, and a few similar, one-channel
radio guide operations were installed in
museums in the United States.

One of the first to use the system was

PyMER/CAN'

7

the American Museum of Natural His-
tory in New York, which today has six
exhibit halls wired for one-channel re-
ception. Similar operations were also
installed in Washington's National Art
Gallery and the Detroit Institute of Art.
All of these early guide systems have
two things in common : they operate on
a single channel or radio frequency, and
they can be used in only a limited num-
ber of exhibition halls, since none can
ever be adjacent to one another. It is
here that Soundtrek has imparted a new
approach to museum closed-circuit
radio guide systems. By expanding the
number of radio frequencies used for
the taped commentaries, Soundtrek has
accomplished something new — the wir-
ing of adjacent halls.

The result is that 18 exhibition halls
at Chicago Natural History Museum
now offer Soundtrek commentaries —
a record-breaking number. In addi-
tion, in many of these halls visitors may
choose between two distinct narrations,
each offered on a separate channel.
One is shorter and less detailed, while
the other is longer and more scientific-
ally explicit.

PUBLIC RESPONSE

What has been the public reaction to
Soundtrek during its infancy and first
growing pains in the Museum over the
past few weeks?

Almost without exception, visitors
have been fascinated, delighted, and
very much enlightened through the ra-
dio guide system. In talks with many
of them, it has been discovered that
there are a number of subsidiary bene-
fits of the system that had not been real-
ized when it was in the planning stage.
For example, a mother of eight lively

and inquisitive young boys found in
Soundtrek the means of keeping her
brood in tow, so that for the first time
she was able to really enjoy a trip to the
Museum. And there is the little girl
who, upon returning her radio guide,
announced that she had listened to the
commentary on the Museum's prehis-
toric man restorations no less than twelve
times ! She was writing a school paper
on that subject and did not want to miss
a single detail.

On the humorous side, impartial ob-
servers have been heard to comment:
"Soundtrek users look as though they
are tuned in on outer space." Or there
is the sympathetic reaction of the woman
who somehow missed seeing the Sound-
trek booth at the main entrance to the
Museum, but did see a young boy with
a radio receiver: "Did you see that poor
little boy? Imagine having to use such
a powerful hearing aid at his age!"
Then, of course, there are always some

who quickly return to the booth lament-
ing they can't hear a thing, only to dis-
cover they haven't turned on their radio
set.

SOUNDTREK'S FUTURE

What of the future of Soundtrek? En-
visioned is an ambitious plan to wire the
halls for additional channels that will
carry commentaries on the exhibits in
other languages, for the benefit of Chi-
cago's linguists as well as foreign visitors
to the Museum. In addition, it is hoped
that every hall in the Museum might
eventually be included in the system.
But no matter how long it takes for these
long-range plans to materialize, there is
no question that Chicagoans now have
the opportunity, for the nominal fee of
50 cents (25 cents for children), to avail
themselves of the most advanced radio
system in the world . . . and it's right
here, at Chicago Natural History Mu-

MUSEUM NEWS-

(Continued from page 2)

Old Copper Culture and the Copper
Eskimos and Hypothesis" . . . Mr. John
R. Millar, Chief Curator of Botany, at-
tended the Conference of Directors of
Scientific Collections held May 9—11.

Citation

Research Associate Harry Hoogstraal
has received the Department of Defense
Distinguished Civilian Service Award,
the highest honor conferred on D.O.D.
civilian employees, for his research on
ticks and tick-borne diseases of man
and animals. The citation reads: "His
unique work is not only of major signifi-
cance to military medicine but to the
welfare of all the peoples of regions
where tick-borne diseases are a serious
health problem."

New Staff Member

Mrs. Paula R. Nelson joined the Mu-
seum staff on May 1 as Public Rela-
tions Counsel. To this position, Mrs.
Nelson brings a background of nearly
ten years' experience in editorial work,
public relations, and adult education.

Mrs. Nelson attended the University
of Chicago and Roosevelt University,
and did graduate work in adult educa-

tion at the University of Chicago. In
the Radio and Television Office of the
University, she edited the Round Table
pamphlet, developed educational radio
programs, and assisted with the public-
ity program of the committee of educa-
tional institutions (of which Chicago
Natural History Museum was a mem-
ber) that was instrumental in securing
Channel 1 1 for educational broadcast-
ing in Chicago. Later, Mrs. Nelson was
editor for the University's Orthogenic
School — its publications comprising sci-
entific books and monographs as well as
articles prepared for wider distribution
in popular magazines.

At the University of Chicago's Down-
town Center, as Assistant Director of the
Informal Program, Mrs. Nelson worked
with community groups and university
faculty to develop adult discussion
courses. Under a grant from the Fund
for Adult Education, she was in charge
of a sociological study of the Downtown
Center's student body of more than 5,000
persons; handled all publicity for the
Center's Informal Program; and directed
two unique courses for women, "Know
Your Chicago," and "The Board Mem-
ber Training Institute."

"In a society that has grown increas-
ingly organized and compartmental-

ized," Mrs. Nelson believes that "the
arts of communication and interpreta-
tion perform a necessary service. The
increase in leisure time available to
adults today provides new opportuni-
ties for our educational and research
institutions. A balanced public rela-
tions program, in touch with a variety
of media and community resources, can
communicate a multi-dimensional im-
age of the Museum to the diversity of
publics it wishes to reach and serve. We
shall work to build such a program."

Scientific Meetings Here

Scientists from 53 leading universi-
ties, museums, and research laboratories
in the continental United States, Alaska,
Canada, and Pakistan, will converge at
Chicago Natural History Museum dur-
ing June for the annual meetings of the
American Society of Ichthyologists and
Herpetologists. The Museum's wel-
come to these distinguished guests will
be given by E. Leland Webber, Assist-
ant Director.

During the three-day meetings, scien-
tific papers will be read reporting a wide
variety of research on fishes, reptiles,
and amphibians. Among the subjects
to be presented are: "Piranhas — Fact
and Fiction," "A Technique for Fish
Photography," "Anesthetizing and Op-
erating on Large Sharks," "Case Report
of a Bite by a Red Diamond Rattle-
snake," "Opportunities for Ichthyolog-
ical Research in National Parks," "Vo-
cal Variation in Two Species of Chorus
Frogs," "Effect of Temperature on De-
velopment in Snakes," "Pattern of Re-
placement in Frog Teeth," "Fishery
Survey in Arctic Canada" — as well as
many other titles of a more technical
nature.

Field Research

Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of
Anthropology, accompanied by Dr.
John B. Rinaldo, Assistant Curator of
Archaeology, departed on May 1 4 for a
four-months' expedition to Arizona.
Assisted by seven high school and col-
lege students, the two Museum curators
will direct exploration of a number of
sites for ancient Pueblo ruins.

Dr. Fritz Haas, Curator Emeritus of

Page 7

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

June, 1960

Lower Invertebrates, will leave in early
June for the Southwestern Research
Station in Portal, Arizona, where he
will conduct the 1960 Arizona Zoolog-
ical Field Trip.

Children's Journey

"Thar she blows," signals the start on
June 1 of the Museum's summer Jour-
ney for children. Entitled "Whales —
Monsters of the Sea," the Journey fo-
cuses on the strange things that have
happened to these largest animals ever
to live on the earth, who long ago
left the land to go back to the sea. The
"whale hunt" is available to all children
during regular Museum visiting hours
during the months of June, July, and
August. Travel instructions and spe-
cial Journey questionnaires prepared by
the Raymond Foundation are available
at the north and south entrances to the
Museum.

New Exhibit

Prize-winning entries in the Tenth
Annual Amateur Handcrafted Gem and
Jewelry Competitive Exhibition spon-
sored by the Chicago Lapidary Club,
are on display from June 6 to July 6.

The exhibition features an array of
nearly 60 handcrafted gems and jewelry
by talented amateurs. Included are
cabochoned and faceted gems; gem col-
lections; individual pieces of jewelry and
jewelry sets; polished stones and slab
collections; and enameled stone work.
These fine examples of lapidary art were
selected by a panel of professional jewel-
ers from hundreds of gem and stone ex-
hibits.

Many gems and jewelry appearing in
the Museum exhibition represent the
culmination of years of work by the am-
ateur lapidaries. Oftentimes they begin
with a hunt for slabs in upper Michigan
or Wisconsin, or a search of the south-
western part of the country, which yields
an abundance of lovely stones. Other
stones may be purchased from the Chi-
cago park district or from private firms.
Agates, jades, sapphires, quartz, and
African tiger-eyes are included in the
exhibits, and even a collection of pol-
ished dinosaur bones has been known to
appear in the show.

ROCKS, SNAILS, CACTUS-

{Continued from page 3)

We excavated a six-foot-deep hole in this rock slide
to find 204 dead shells, but not one living specimen.

while Ferriss's wound up at a Joliet pub-
lic school. In 1955, Dr. Fritz Haas
arranged for its transfer to Chicago
Natural History Museum. My first
job on joining the Museum staff was to
work on this collection.

One could, of course, continue the
survey where these pioneer collectors
had stopped, adding to the information
already compiled. But perhaps more
interesting to an evolutionary biologist
was the question of what had happened
to these snail colonies after half a cen-
tury. Did they still exist? Could they
be located? If found, would the snails
be the same as those collected fifty years
earlier? Some colonies sampled in 1 904
seemed to be in the middle of rapid evo-
lutionary change. How far had these
changes progressed in the nearly sixty
years since then?

MAPS GUIDE NEW FINDS

Pilsbry and Ferriss had often pub-
lished crude maps in an effort to pin-
point localities where they had collected.
Thus, with luck and perseverance, there
was a chance that I might locate the
very rock slides they had visited.

In this task, I had been anticipated.
A Los Angeles shell collector, Mun-
roe L. Walton, had been making trips
after Arizona land snails for thirteen
years, and had managed to collect about

80 per cent of the named species and
subspecies. We were introduced at the
American Malacological Union Meet-
ing in Redlands last summer, and he
soon agreed to accompany me on an
Arizona trip this spring.

We met in Tucson during the latter
part of March and in a busy two weeks'
period collected more than one-third of
the known species. What had to be
done was to quarry three to five feet into
old rock slides. Constantly, the slides
would cave in on us just as we sighted a
shell, and more than once the only liv-
ing individual seen would get crushed
by rocks. At times we found 100 dead
shells for each live one. Localities were
often miles apart, and of neighboring
slides, one might be good collecting
while the next was barren. We found
that some areas were snowed in, while
many others could not be visited in the
time available. The work of the two
weeks was possible only through Mr.
Walton's sharing of his hard won knowl-
edge and patient help in the field. I
might add that not the least of his aid
was help in cactus spine extraction !

COLLECTION COMPLETED;
RESEARCH CONTINUES

The work of cleaning and processing
the more than 5,000 specimens taken is
now under way. It was possible to
identify most specimens in the field, since
only one kind is generally found in one
place, but this material will now have to
be compared with the original collection
in the Museum. We already know that
we have rediscovered a "lost" species of
land slug. Originally collected in 1913,
the specimens were lost before they
could be adequately studied. We also
obtained a number of new locality rec-
ords, and even a few species that Mun-
roe Walton had been unable to locate
in his earlier searches. The knowledge
of techniques gained from this trip will
greatly aid future work, while prelimi-
nary results indicate that this research
will be well worth while.

Moving rocks is unquestionably hard
work, but there is a fascination to these
desert snails which is hard to resist, de-
spite bruised fingers from rock slide
cave-ins, sore muscles, and cactus spines !

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

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CHICAGO
NATURAL
HISTORY ^M
MUSEUM $u,

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4960

MUSEUM NEWS

THEODOR K. JUST
1904-1960

News of the death of Dr. Theodor K.
Just, for many years Chief Curator of
the Department of Botany, was received
at the Museum with deep regret. Dr.
Just was taken ill
early in January and
since that time had
been continuously ill
at Billings Hospital
and at his home in
Oak Park. Death
occurred at his home
shortly after noon
on June 14.

Dr. Just was born

in Austria On OctO- Theodor K. Just

ber 27, 1904, and

was educated in that country, receiving
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at
the University of Vienna in 1928. After
a year with the Museum of Natural His-
tory in Vienna, he came to the United
States and joined the faculty of the Uni-
versity of Notre Dame, beginning as an
instructor and finally becoming head of
the Department of Biology of that insti-
tution. He joined the staff of the Mu-
seum in August of 1 946, becoming Chief
Curator of the Department of Botany in
January of 1947.

In addition to his research and writ-
ing in the fields of botany and paleo-
botany, Dr. Just served as contributor
or editor of a number of scientific jour-
nals, including the American Midland
Naturalist; Lloydia, founded by Dr. Just
and published by the Lloyd Library and
Museum of Cincinnati; Plant and Animal
Communities, published by the Univer-
sity of Notre Dame; and Chronica Bo-
tanica.

He was a consultant to the Office of
Strategic Services in World War II. He
also served as chairman of various com-
mittees of the National Research Coun-
cil and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Just was a Research Associate in
the Department of Biological Sciences
at Northwestern University and had
conducted seminars at Northwestern
University and St. Louis University.

Page 2

He will be missed at the Museum not
only because of his outstanding scholar-
ship but because of his consistently cheer-
ful personality.

Honors

Melvin A. Traylor, Jr., Associate Cura-
tor of Birds, has been awarded a $12,000
grant by the National Science Founda-
tion for support of basic research in orni-
thology. The grant will be applied over
a two-year period to the compilation of
a check-list of the birds of Angola, a re-
search project of special significance for
its contribution to an understanding of
the stages of evolution of many African
birds. Part of the government grant
will be used by Mr. Traylor for a five-
months' study trip to the Portuguese
colony on the west coast of Africa. He
will also make a critical study of some
5,200 specimens of Angola birds now in
Chicago Natural History Museum.

In June, 1959, a Maori carving of a
tattooed face from the Museum's famous
Fuller collection appeared on the cover
of the WFMT Fine Arts Calendar. In
addition to the cover picture, a number
of other photographs of art objects from
the Museum's Pacific collections ap-
peared throughout the issue. Last month
the June, 1959, issue of the WFMT guide
was honored by the Society of Typo-
graphic Arts by being selected for exhibit
in its 33rd Annual Exhibition held in
the Art Institute.

New Museum Service

A new service awaits Museum visitors
at the north end of Stanley Field Hall,
which will streamline the visitor's trip
to the Museum. It is the Museum's In-
formation Booth staffed by Mrs. Angela
Womble, formerly of the Charleston,
North Carolina, Museum and a grad-
uate of Winthrop College. At the booth
visitors may rent Soundtrek radio guides,
purchase Museum guide books, and ob-
tain information about the exhibits that
is not readily apparent by a quick scan-
ning of a Museum floor plan. Museum

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

Wm. McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Chesser M. Campbell William H. Mitchell

Walter J. Cummings John T. Pirie, Jr.

Joseph N. Field Clarence B. Randall

Marshall Field, Jr. John G. Searle

Stanley Field Solomon A. Smith

Samuel Insull, Jr. Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

E. Leland Webber Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

John R. Millar Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

Theodor Jusrf Curator Emeritus of Botany

t deceased

MANAGING EDITOR
Paula R. Nelson Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Marilyn Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

THIS MONTH'S COVER-

Three men from Mars? No, the
right-hand two are actually Mu-
seum staff members while the fig-
ure on the left is, of course, not a
man at all, but a primitive cere-
monial mask. What has drawn
the strange gathering together is
the poisoning of one of the storage
rooms in the department of an-
thropology's Pacific Research Lab-
oratory. The room is filled with
a highly poisonous gas, a mixture
of carbon tetrachloride and ethy-
lene dichloride, used to preserve
valuable Museum collections. The
masks worn by the two men in the
picture are a self-contained canis-
ter type, one of two kinds in use at
the Museum.

Journey instructions and questionnaires
formerly kept only at the north and
south doors are also available at the
desk. {Continued on page 5)

The feather ornamentation on this katchina makes
it a likely victim for insect destruction, therefore it
is stored in a Museum "poison room."

WHO would ever guess that with-
in seemingly placid Chicago
Natural History Museum there rages
a serious and unabating war — a war
whose persistence over many years has
led to the development of ingenious
means of retaliation and defence, in-
cluding poison gas!

The battlefields? . . . approximately
500 Museum exhibit cases and a large
number of rooms storing research col-
lections.

The aggressors? . . . moths and insects
called dermestidae, both insect enemies
possessing the secret weapon of being
able to rapidly reproduce offspring who
have voracious appetites.

The defending forces? . . . Allen Liss,
custodian of anthropology collections,
Walter Reese, anthropology preparator,
and the Museum's entire maintenance
department.

The precipitating factor in the Mu-
seum's unusual war probably was the
discovery by a few "insect-adventurers"
that Chicago Natural History Mu-
seum housed some succulent morsels
for insect consumption. For a mu-
seum whose collections are in most
instances both priceless and irreplace-
able, the danger posed by such a de-
velopment demanded stringent meas-
ures. Experimentation was begun to
find effective means to exterminate the
insect pests. The answer was poison gas.

Now, exhibit cases and storage rooms

INVADERS, BEWARE/

BY MARILYN JINDRICH

containing specimens vulnerable to in-
sect damage — fine textiles, feathers and
animal skins are favorite prey — are pro-
tected with a poisonous gas composed of
carbon tetrachloride and ethylene di-
chloride. For the past few weeks (and
for a number of weeks to come) Allen
Liss has been engaged in "poisoning"
the anthropology department's eight
storage rooms and approximately 300
exhibit cases. Poisoning the exhibit
cases is a relatively simple operation,
with each case generally requiring only
a pint of the liquid carbon tetrachloride
and ethylene dichloride. The mixture
is poured into a container at the top of
the case by means of a quart bottle with
a copper pouring tube. The tube is in-
serted in a small hole that may be op-
ened and closed at the top of the case,
and reaches down into the poison con-
tainer. It takes only a few minutes for

the liquid to empty from the inverted
bottle into the poison container, from
which it eventually evaporates to per-
meate the case interior, rendering the
contents of the case safe from insects.
The special construction of the cases,
which are nearly air-tight, insures that
almost none of the gas can escape. How-
ever, even if it did, it would be diluted
with air in the larger exhibit hall, and
lose its potency. It is only when it is
confined to a small area and in a con-
centrated form that it may cause as-
phyxiation.

Museum visitors often view the poi-
soning of cases with questioning stares,
since it appears rather as though the
cases are being transfused with a special
kind of plasma. But visitors never see
the even greater drama and interest
that accompany the poisoning of the
{Continued on page 8)

Bushman, one of the world's all-time animal favor-
ites, was brought to the Museum after he died. His
exhibit case is filled with poison gas for protection
against damage by insects.

Especially popular with the children is the giant
panda, Su-Lin, who, like Bushman, is protected
from insect damage by the carbon tetrachloride and
ethylene dichloride gas mixture.

Page 3

DEAD

ON

ROAD

by ROBERT F. INGER

CURATOR, AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES

As

ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN PFIFFNER

S A BOY I remember whiling away

the miles on long auto trips by
counting white horses. Today, white
horses are scarcer along the roads than
they were in the early thirties. But my
interests still focus on animals (I grew
into a zoologist) and on auto trips now,
I look for DOR's — animals Dead On
Road.

One summer my wife and I drove
from our home, in a suburb of Chicago,
to the Colorado Rockies and eastern
Wyoming. We kept a record of all the
mammals we saw dead on the road.
Because we couldn't stop to inspect each
DOR on a busy highway, we slowed
down when we saw one ahead and made
an identification at reduced speed. If
the DOR was just a bloody mass with
fur, we recorded our entry as "unidenti-
fied." On the whole, I think our iden-
tifications were reasonably accurate.
We didn't bother with anything smaller
than a rabbit. But whenever we spot-
ted an especially interesting DOR, or
whenever there was little danger to our-
selves from the kind of predator we rode
in, we stopped for a good look.

Few predators are equally adept at

Page .4

catching prey in all kinds of country.
Some are better adapted to mountains
than to plains; others do better in forest
than in grassland. In this respect, the
automobile is like any other predator.
It racks up more animal kills in flat,
sparsely inhabited country on paved,
relatively straight roads, where its speed
finds few restrictions.

Wyoming was a good example. We
spotted 166 DOR's in 425 miles of Wy-
oming highway, or one for every two
and one-half miles of travel, while in
Illinois only eight DOR's were seen in
370 miles of highway. The difference
is undoubtedly accounted for by the
greater distance between towns in Wy-
oming, which provides the predator with
the opportunity for the kind of speed
build-up that exacts a greater toll from
the natural population.

Again, for the mountains of Colorado,
our records show an average of only one
DOR every 19 miles; while in the rela-
tively flat country east of Denver on
US 34, and north of Rifle on state route
13, we noticed one DOR at least every
six and one-half miles.

An important factor in the life of any
predator is the distribution of prey ani-
mals. Obviously, a predator can feed
only on those animals living within its
geographic range. If the predator has

an extensive range (as does the automo-
bile), its diet may vary from one area to
another. For example, the automobile
cannot possibly kill a yellow-bellied mar-
mot in Illinois, Iowa, or Nebraska, but
it can and does kill this woodchuck-like
creature in central Colorado, its eastern
limit. For the same reason, the auto-
mobile can get the porcupine in Colo-
rado but not in Iowa or Illinois. Or
take the case of the opossum, which oc-
curs from Nebraska eastwards. We saw
one DOR in Nebraska and one in Iowa,
but none in Colorado or Wyoming.

Generally, the diet of a non-special-
ized carnivore, that is, one that feeds on
a variety of animals, will reflect the rela-
tive abundance of the various kinds of
prey found in the environment. If rab-
bits are the most numerous of the po-
tential prey in a given area, then more
rabbits will be eaten by coyotes, say,
than any other food animal. The kill
of the automobile follows the same prin-
ciple. The most abundant mammals on
the plains are the rabbits — -jack rabbits
and cottontails. Of the 64 DOR's whose
remains we were able to identify in Wy-
oming, 58 were rabbits. And of the
102 DOR's recorded as "unidentified,"
we estimated that 75 per cent were
probably rabbits.

The statement that rabbits are the

most abundant mammals in the plains
needs qualification. We were concerned
only with those animals that could ac-
tually be considered as potential prey.
The species that a given predator will
attack fall within certain size limits. A
lion, for example, does not bother with
mice, which are too small to warrant
the effort; nor will a lion attack an adult
elephant. Similarly, when we arbitrar-
ily decided not to try to identify mam-
mals smaller than rabbits, we were
placing a lower limit on the size of the
automobile's prey. As for the upper
limits, although cattle are occasionally

run down, they are large enough to
damage seriously any passenger car that
tangles with them. Consequently, driv-
ers make strenuous efforts to avoid this
kind of prey. We saw no dead steers on
the road.

A fundamental principle of biology is
that a system of checks operates to con-
trol the population size of any animal.
If a species becomes too numerous, it
may be reduced by a lack of food or
breeding sites. Also, as its numbers in-
crease, the species is attacked more often
by predators. This principle was ex-
pressed very neatly by the elderly gen-

tleman who acted as caretaker of Ayer's
Natural Bridge State Park east of Casper.
We had been astonished at the number
of rabbits dead on the road in Wyoming
and mentioned this mortality to the care-
taker. "Well," he said, "some of the
sheep ranchers around here lost a lamb
or two to coyotes. So they got after the
government and the game men poisoned
and trapped out the coyotes. Then we
had a plague of rabbits. Finally the
state put in the hard top and the cars
started getting the rabbits. You know,
Nature has a way of taking care of these
things."

MUSEUM NEWS

Field Research

Mr. Harry Changnon, Curator of Ex-
hibits, conducted a field trip on May 21st
for the Chicago Academy of Sciences to
Thornton, Illinois, for the purpose of
studying the limestone bedrock of the
Chicago region. . . . Dr. Fritz Haas,
Curator Emeritus of Lower Inverte-
brates, left on June 6 for a three weeks'
field trip to Arizona to study the snails
of the Chiricahua Mountains.

Resignation

Effective with the close of business,
June 17, Mr. Robert Reich resigned as
Custodian of the Herbarium, in order
to further his education.

Meetings Attended

Mr. John R. Millar attended meetings
of the newly formed Association of Sci-
ence Museum Directors (as representa-
tive of Dr. C. C. Gregg) and attended
the annual meeting of the American
Association of Museums, both in Bos-
ton, Massachusetts, May 24-27. . . .
Mr. Philip Hershkovitz, Curator of Mam-
mals, Dr. Karl Koopman, Assistant Cura-
tor of Mammals, and Miss Sophie Andris,
Osteologist, attended the 40th annual
meeting of the Society of Mammalogy
at Tacoma, Washington, June 20-22.
. . . Mrs. M. Eileen Rocourt, Associate
Librarian, attended the Convention of
Special Libraries Association in Cleve-
land, Ohio, June 5-8. Mrs. Rocourt

(Continued from Page 2)

has served as Chairman of the Museum
Division of the Association during the
past year, and in this capacity presided
at the Division's annual business meet-
ing, which included a round-table dis-
cussion on "Rare Books and other
Special Materials in Museum Libaries."

From the Bookstore

The Story of the Platypus
By Alfred G. Milotte. A Borzoi Na-
ture Study Book published by Alfred
A. Knopf Inc., New York. 114 pages,
23 illustrations (by Helen Damrosch
Tee-Van). Clothbound $2.75.

New Exhibit

The historic panorama of "Eleven
Centuries of Icelandic Culture" is por-
trayed in a new photographic exhibit in
Hall 2 opening July 1 in the Museum
and continuing through August. The
photographs, assembled by Cyrus T.
Brady, Jr., depict "The Land and the
People," "Iceland's Cultural Develop-
ment," its "Architecture and Industry,"
and its "Contemporary Art and Life."
The exhibit comprises 50 large photo-
graphic prints of unusual interest, many
drawn from rare sources.

Longer Museum Hours

During the months of July and Au-
gust, and through September 4, the
Museum will remain open from 9 a.m.
to 8 p.m. on Wed., Fri., Sat., and Sun.,
and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mon.,
Tues., and Thurs. The 9 to 8 p.m. hours
occur on the evenings of the free Grant
Park concerts, thus providing Chicago-
ans with a cultural twin-bill for the sum-
mer. The Museum's cafeteria will be
open from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for those
who would like to dine conveniently.

From "The Story of the Platypus"

Press Covers Museum

Members of the press photographed
"prospectors" swarming through the
Museum's department of geology last
June 21, armed not with picks and shov-
els, but with a berylometer. They were
(Continued on page 8)

Page 5

THE MUSEUM'S NEWEST EXHIBIT

By MELVIN A. TRATLOR, JR., Associate Curator oj Birds
The newest bird screen in Hall 21 adds the families from Sandgrouse to Owls to the systematic series of the Birds of the World.

SINCE THE PURPOSE of the most
recent exhibit to appear in the bird
halls is to entertain and stimulate as well
as to instruct, pride of place has been
given to the colorful family of parrots.
The parrots, which include the various
groups known as macaws, cockatoos,
parrakeets, lovebirds and lories, show a
great diversity of size and color, and
there are few that can be considered dull.
As pets they have always excited inter-
est and amusement because of their
"human" qualities: they learn to talk
well, they use their feet to feed them-
selves (not a truly human characteristic,
but the effect is like that of using their
hands), and, having a longevity beyond
that of most birds, they make almost life-
time pets. The finest talkers are the
African Gray and the Amazons; at times
they seem almost capable of carrying
on a conversation. We must be docile
in the face of facts, however, and admit
that this is not a sign of real intelligence
but of their ability and delight in mim-
icry. On the other hand, it is hard to
deny them intelligence when you dis-
cover, as I did on my first trip to Mex-
ico, that they easily learn to speak excel-
lent Spanish!

Two of the least typical but most in-
teresting parrots are the Kea and the
Kakapo, or Owl-parrot, of New Zea-
land. The Kea was originally a vege-
tarian, as are most parrots, but after the
arrival of the English settlers it devel-
oped the habit of eating meat, and
will now occasionally attack and kill
sheep. In areas where the habit has
become general the bird is a serious pest
and must be killed off, but fortunately
the majority of Keas live in relatively
inaccessible country above the timber-
line and there is little present danger of
their being exterminated. The Owl-
parrot is the only member of its family
that has lost the power of flight. To

Page 6

reach the top of the trees on which it
feeds it must climb up using its beak and
claws; from there it can glide down to
the foot of the next tree, but then must
start climbing all over again.

The other families on the screen are
also of interest, though less spectacular
in appearance. The sandgrouse inhabit
the arid regions of the Old World, which
seems a strange choice since they must
have water at least once and usually

twice each day. Since water holes are
scarce in the desert, each will draw birds
from hundreds of square miles around.
At dawn and dusk there are spectacular
flights of birds coming to water. The
sandgrouse share with pigeons the un-
bird-like habit of immersing their bills
and sucking up water like a horse or a
man, rather than dipping up a few drops
and then tilting back their heads to let
the water run down their throats.

The young cuckoo on the nest has ejected its rightful occupants. Meanwhile, the smaller foster parent works
hard to satisfy the usurper's voracious appetite.

Painting by Staff Artist John Pfiffner for the newest bird screen in Hall 21. which adds the families from
Sandgrouse to Owls to the systematic series, "Birds of the World." The birds were mounted by Taxidermist
Carl Cotton and Assistant Taxidermist Peter Anderson. The exhibit was designed by the Museum's
Division of Birds.

Pigeons and doves (or doves and pig-
eons, for there is no difference between
them) comprise a family almost as nu-
merous and diverse as the parrots. They
have been deliberately scrimped in our
treatment here, however, since we al-
ready have two wall cases showing the
variation in wild and domestic pigeons.
The extinct Dodo was a close relative of
the pigeons, although the resemblance
is difficult to see now. When the Dodo
lost its power of flight it also lost its in-
centive to keep its slim, streamlined
shape, so that by the time it was discov-
ered in the 1500's it was the size and
shape of a turkey.

The cuckoos are as widespread as
either the pigeons or parrots, but as a
rule much more soberly clad. Cuckoos
are mostly remembered for their para-
sitic breeding habits; the female lays her
egg in the nest of some other bird and
then goes off, leaving the foster parents
to hatch and feed the young. This habit
is found mostly in typical cuckoos of
the Old World and is not confined to
this family, for we find it, among others,
in the Cowbirds of North America. It
is among the cuckoos, however, particu-
larly the European Cuckoo, that we find
the greatest disparity in size between
host and parasite. As you can see in the
figure, the foster parent seems almost
m danger of disappearing down the
young cuckoo's throat as it tries to satisfy
the youngster's clamorous appetite.

Although in this country a warbler
may often be seen feeding her own young
along with the parasitic cowbird, that
seldom happens with the cuckoo. When
just hatched, the young cuckoo's first in-
stinct is to eject any other object from
the nest. This it does by crawling be-
neath it, then humping its back and
working its way up the side of the nest
till the other object, the egg or young of
its host, falls over the edge. As a further
method of insuring the success of their
young, individual cuckoos seem to spe-
cialize on one host species and will lay
eggs that match in color those of the host.

Touracos are a small family of brightly
colored birds confined to Africa. They
were formerly called plantain-eaters, but
recent studies have shown that they feed
on almost any fruit and berries except
plantains, so the name is being discarded.

Most members of the family have a bril-
liant red patch on the wing. It is caused
by a pigment with a copper base, called
turacin, found nowhere else in the bird
world. For a long time it was thought
that turacin was soluble in water and
that birds soaked by a heavy rain would
lose their color. This is not true, how-
ever, and washed-out birds are never
seen.

The last two families on the screen
are the Barn Owls and the typical Owls.
Superficially they are much alike and
are usually lumped together in people's
minds although there are well-marked
anatomical differences to separate them.
The barn owl is one of our most familiar
owls because of its habit of nesting near
human dwellings. Despite its eerie calls
it is a good neighbor, for it feeds exclu-
sively on mice and is a boon to the
farmer. Recent experiments have shown
one reason for its success as a hunter:
when placed in a pitch black room a

barn owl is just as capable of catching
mice by sound as it is by sight.

The big horned and eagle owls are
the real "hoot" owls of song and story
and are the source of the many super-
stitions about owls as birds of ill omen.
The source of the "wise old owl" prob-
ably traces back to the sacred owl of
Athena; in fact, the epithet Glaukopis,
meaning "keen-eyed" in Homer, may
have originally meant "owl-faced." The
snowy owl is a form of the high Arctic
that we get to see only occasionally
around Chicago. Irregularly, when their
food supply fails in the north, there will
be an eruption of snowy owls that brings
them to these latitudes in considerable
numbers. The last year that happened
I spent my spare time combing the
beaches and fields trying to find one.
When I had just about given up hope,
I arrived at work one morning to find
my elusive bird sitting on the roof of the
Museum !

After you have seen the new bird exhibit described by

Associate Curator Traylor, why

not revisit these?

A unique exhibit in this Museum is that
illustrating the cultures of the people of
Madagascar, who are of mixed Asiatic and
African origin. The collection is the only
one of importance from this island in the
United States, and is one of the most com-
plete in existence.

*Long before the United Nations was or-
ganized, representatives of the peoples of
the world were gathered together in this
Museum's Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall
(Hall 3— Races of Mankind).

The largest, and one of the most spectacu-
lar habitat groups in the Museum, is the
African waterhole in Carl E. Akeley Mem-
orial Hall (Hall 22). Representing a scene
in southern Ethiopia, it includes twenty-
three animals of six different species.

Now largely irreplaceable, the Museum's
Melanesian collection in Hall A, most of
which was obtained by an expedition in
1909-13, is considered the finest and most
complete in the world.

Distension of ear-lobes, often with large
round objects as much as three inches in
diameter, is a fairly common form of personal
ornamentation in northeast Africa. In Hall
E are shown examples of wooden ear-plugs
and fine metal chains of the Akikuyu tribe.

*Salmon fishing as practiced by Indians of
the Northwest from about A.D. 1000 to
1800 is illustrated in an exhibit in James
Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Hall
(Hall 4).

Primitive jewelry, both ancient and
modern, as well as productions of the modern
jeweler's craft, is shown in H. N. Higin-
botham Hall (Hall 31).

Antiquities of the Roman Empire, re-
covered from ancient Pompeii and Bos- The anatomy and some amazing struc-
coreale where they were buried by an erup- tures of bats are illustrated by models ex-
tion of Vesuvius in a.d. 79, are exhibited in hibited in Hall 15 (Mammals in Systematic
Hall L. Arrangement).

Sound trek tours available

Page 7

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

July, 1960

INVADERS,
BEWARE!-

(Continued from page 3)

storage rooms that house some of the
research collections. As our cover pic-
ture shows, to observe that operation is
almost like watching a scene from a sci-
ence fiction movie.

Gas-masked and rubber-gloved, the
poisoner enters the storage room, imme-
diately shutting the specially constructed,
tightly sealed door behind him. The
poison is contained in a 55-gallon drum
from which it is poured through a hose
into a number of large pans distributed
throughout the room. There are no
openings in the room other than the
door and an exhaust vent. The exhaust
vent is turned on to ventilate the room
when a research project requires that a
member of the Museum's scientific staff
remain there for a prolonged period.
When this occurs, the staff member does
not enter the room for eight to ten hours
after the exhaust fans are started. How-
ever, in most instances, rather than ex-
haust the rooms entirely, gas masks are
used.

The mask shown on our cover is a
self-contained canister-type, which gives
protection for about 30 minutes. An-
other kind of mask used covers more of
the face and is hooked up by an air hose

Press photographers and young "tourist" friends both enjoyed the Soundtrek publicity opening.

The Museum's valuable mummy collections are
stored in special "poison rooms," entrance to which
requires use of a gas mask.

to an air compressor, allowing longer
periods of exposure in the poison rooms.

MUSEUM NEWS-

(Continued from page 5)

surveying the department's collections
for beryllium, an essential metal used in

As a precautionary measure it is a rule
in the use of either of the masks that the
person working in the room report at
regular intervals to a colleague who re-
mains outside, within call.

The department of anthropology has
eight storage rooms for research collec-
tions— one houses mummies; another,
the Museum's Far East collections; two
more, collections based on North Amer-
ican Indian cultures; and another, speci-
mens collected from Central and South
America. The remaining poison rooms
are in the Museum's Pacific Research
Laboratory on the ground floor, which
contains the Museum's unusually fine
oceanic collections.

And so, through the use of poison gas,
the Museum has been able to gain the
upper hand in the battle to preserve
both its outstanding collections of speci-
mens from the animal world and some
of the rarest and finest artifacts of man's
diverse cultures.

space vehicles, missiles, atomic reactors,
automatic computers, and X-ray tubes.
Beryllium is a metal that has not yet
been found in great quantities in this
country. The berylometer, a detection
instrument built around a unique nu-
clear characteristic of beryllium, is
owned by International Minerals and
Chemical Corporation, which has also
examined collections at Northwestern
University and the University of Chi-
cago for possible new sources of the
metal.

Soundtrek, the Museum's radio guide
to the exhibits, was officially intro-
duced to Chicago on Friday, June 10,
when members of the press, radio and
television, and the educational world
gathered at the Museum to try out the
revolutionary sound-tour system. Stan-
ley Field, president, and Dr. Clifford C.
Gregg, director, were present to greet
the guests. Soundtrek originators Eu-
gene Miller, John Orr, and Rudolph
Gans answered many questions from
the press and public concerning their
electronic achievement, while an NBC
mobile television unit video-taped a de-
lighted group of children and adults
enjoying their Soundtrek tour.

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

IISTORY vht.3* jfo.8

IUSEUM *dupuU 4960

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NUMBER 12

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MUSEUM NEWS

Membership Growth

Two nation-wide trends are illustrated
by new membership figures just released
by the Museum — the public's increasing
awareness of the importance of basic
scientific research, and the growing de-
mand for opportunities to continue edu-
cation into the adult years.

In keeping with these national trends,
Museum membership now stands at
7,302 persons, the highest in the institu-
tion's history. "In the majority of cases,"
states Mrs. Gloria Pagano, head of the
Membership Division, "the outstanding
reason why people become members is
their keen awareness of the essential
value of the research being done by the
Museum's scientists, both in the United
States and in many other areas of the
world. People feel a sense of responsi-
bility toward the continuation of basic
research, and know that their contribu-
tion to the Museum is helping to support
it." There is also evidence that the
growth in Museum membership reflects
increased public interest in adult educa-
tion activities — an interest arising out of
the vital need for continuing education
in a complex world and maintained
through the greater amount of leisure

— THIS MONTH'S COVER —

-

Our cover portrays two impor-
tant elements in anyone's enjoy-
ment of a balmy summer evening
in Chicago — a visit to Chicago Nat-
ural History Museum capped by
a free concert under the stars at
the Grant Park Bandshell. This
double treat is made possible by
the Museum's summer evening
hours of 9:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M.
on the days of the concerts —
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and
Sunday. We suggest that you get
the family together some evening
soon, come downtown to the Mu-
seum for dinner between 5:30 and
7:30 P.M., enjoy a Soundtrek tour
or two until eight, and then go on
to the concert. But hurry — sum-
mer hours end September 4. The
cover photograph featuring two
of Chicago's cultural landmarks
was designed by Staff Photogra-
pher Homer Holdren.

time available to adults today.

In the last two years alone, more than
2,000 persons have been added to the
Museum's membership rolls. Mrs. Pa-
gano reports that the greatest percentage
increase has occurred in the associate
category (those who contribute SI 00 to
the Museum). Not only do a large
number of first-time members give this
amount, but many annual members
transfer to associate membership at the
end of the year. The majority of Mu-
seum members live in the Chicago area,
but applications also come from cities
all over the United States and a number
of countries abroad.

The Musem's categories of member-
ship are: Benefactors: those who con-
tribute $100,000 or more; Contributors:
those who give $1,000 to $100,000 in
money or materials; Life Members: rep-
resenting contributions of $500; Asso-
ciate Members: $100 contributions; Sus-
taining Members: who give $25 for six
years, and then become associates;
and Annual Members: who give $10 an-
nually. The Museum also recognizes
honorary, corresponding, non-resident,
and corporate members, as well as pa-
trons.

All Museum members are kept in-
formed of the institution's activities and
research through the Chicago Natural His-
tory Museum Bulletin. In addition to re-
ceiving the Bulletin, members are en-
titled to:

1) Free admission to the Museum
(families, too!) at all times.

2) Free use of Soundtrek, the Mu-
seum's new radio guided sound-
tour system.

3) Reserved seats at all Museum lec-
tures and film showings.

4) Discount privileges at the Muse-
um's Book Shop, which carries
popular books on the natural sci-
ences for adults and children, as
well as unusual gift items from all
over the world.

5) Use of the Museum's library — one
of the largest scientific libraries in
the country.

6) Museum publications, such as
the Annual Report and certain

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field. 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

Wm. McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

CHESSER M. CAMPBELLt WILLIAM H. MITCHELL

Walter J. Cummings John r. Pirie, Jr.

Joseph N. Field Clarence B. Randall

Marshall Field, Jr. John G. Searle

Stanley Field Solomon A. Smith

Samuel Insull, Jr. Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

E. Leland Webber Assistant Secretary

t deceased

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

John R. Millar Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
Paula R. Nelson Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Marilyn Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

scientific publications issued dur-
ing the period of membership.

CHESSER M. CAMPBELL
1897-1960

The Museum noted with regret the
death on July 10, 1960, of Chesser M.
Campbell, a member of its Board
of Trustees. Mr.
Campbell had been
elected to the Board
of Trustees on Janu-
ary 19, 1959, and
during his relatively
brief term of service
had shown an out-
standing interest in
the work of this in-
stitution.

Mr. Campbell
was born at Sault
Ste. Marie, Michigan, December 12,
1897, and entered the newspaper pro-
fession in that city immediately after
graduating from high school. Subse-
quently, he attended the University of
Michigan where he made an outstand-

Chesser M. Campbell

Page 2

ing record, being elected a member of
Phi Beta Kappa. He served as an En-
sign in the United States Navy during
World War I.

He was associated with the Chicago
Tribune since 1921, becoming President
of the corporation on April 5, 1955. At
that time, he also became publisher of
the Chicago Tribune.

Mr. Campbell was widely known in
Chicago business and civic circles. It
would be redundant to list his many
achievements in this publication. His
loss will be deeply felt by his fellow
members of the Board of Trustees.

Lions in the Museum

"It's wonderful!" said Professor Isaac
Budnik, president of a Mexican cosmetics
laboratory, and a delegate to the Lions
International Convention in Chicago.
"I have never seen anything like it." He
was talking about Soundtrek, the Mu-
seum's new radio guide to the exhibits.

Professor Budnik and a large group of
Lions conventioneers and their families
from Monterrey, Mexico, spent three
and one-half hours at the Museum last
month, taking a Soundtrek tour in
Spanish. Special sound-tours in Spanish
and in French were part of the red-
carpet treatment extended the city's
guests from Latin America and Europe
by the Museum. The response from the
Lions was so overwhelming that all the
Museum radio guide receivers were in
continual use, while long lines of con-
ventioneers waited for fellow Lions to
return their sets.

Honors

Clifford C. Gregg, Director of the
Museum, has just been honored by an
invitation extended by Mr. Glen A.
Lloyd, Chairman of the Board of Trus-
tees of the University of Chicago, to join
that University's Citizens Board. In his
letter welcoming Dr. Gregg to member-
ship in this distinguished group, Chan-
cellor Lawrence A. Kimpton of the Uni-
versity writes that the function of the
Citizens Board is to broaden the ac-
quaintance of its members with the
scholars and scientists on the Midway.
This is accomplished through a series of
programs and luncheon meetings featur-
ing the scientific and scholarly work
being done at the University.

PROBABLY FEW PEOPLE KNOW,
even in a general way, the identity
of such names as hogchoker, lumpsuck-
er, fat sleeper, popeye catalufa, glassy
sweeper, stargazer, rainbow runner, and
toothless blindcat. Most would go far
astray in trying to identify, out of con-
text, a California smoothtongue, Flor-
ida smoothhound, brown Irish lord, sen-
orita, molly miller, Amazon molly, warty
poacher, Atlantic torpedo, or bar jack.

All these, along with the more famil-
iar cod, trout, darter, pike, shark, min-
now, and shiner, help make up the list
of 1,892 common names of the fishes of
the United States and Canada just pub-
lished by the American Fisheries Soci-
ety, of which our Curator of Fishes,
Loren P. Woods, is one of the authors.

When people begin to talk about the
subject matter of a science, we have one
criterion as to its progress. The science
has entered the public domain and be-
come a part of everyday conversation
and interest. For this to happen, there
must be some appropriate words to use.
An ichthologist discusses Stizostedion vit-
reum, Menticirrhus saxatilis and Lepomis
gibbosus, but a fisherman tells of catch-
ing walleyes, kingfish, and pumpkin-
seeds.

The best common names grow out of
the language. Colorful, romantic, fan-
ciful, and otherwise distinctive and orig-
inal names add richness and interest to
the nomenclature — names like Dolly
Varden, madtom, flier, angelfish, and
chilipepper. Indian names have also
been incorporated, such as muskellunge,

eulachon, mummichog, chinook, tautog,
Cui-ui (pronounced kwee-wee) men-
haden and cisco. Some well known
names have been introduced by fisher-
men of various other nationalities: bar-
racuda, grouper, pompano (Spanish),
bocaccio (Italian), capelin, and incon-
nu (French).

Other names stick in one's mind be-
cause they are descriptive of form, of
habitat, or of habits — sail fish, half beak,
needle fish, cave fish, seahorse, croaker,
opaleye, and tripletail.

But sooner or later the same name ap-
pears in different places for quite differ-
ent fishes. The trout of Eastern Canada
is not the trout of Georgia and the name
perch is used in at least nine different
families of fishes. Sometimes the same
fish may be known by two different
names, which become firmly entrenched
in common usage : red fish and ocean
perch for Sebastes marinus and cisco and
lake herring for Coregonus artedii. Here
the layman as well as the scientist needs
scientific names.

The present list of 1,892 freshwater
fish and ocean fish living in shallow
water down to 100 fathoms, all in the
United States and Canada, supersedes
the earlier list of 570 names compiled in
1948.

A List of Common and Scientific Names of
Fishes from the United Slates and Canada by
Reeve M. Bailey el al., 1960, pp. 1-102
may be obtained from E. A. Seamen,
American Fisheries Society, Box 483,
McLean, Virginia; $1.00 paper cover;
$2.00 cloth cover. A. L. RAND

Page S

AMAPA

fabebu/a balmen

B1RNAM WOOO COMES TO OUNSINANE

ty C.EoJik Smitk , Ja. associate curator of botany

Traditionally, the botanist working on the nomenclature of plants studies
the outer appearance of the individual plant. For practical reasons, many plants
cannot be collected in their entirety. In herbaria throughout the United States,
pressed and dried plants are mounted on sheets of paper 11 V2 by 161-2 inches.
It immediately becomes apparent that some leaves will be larger than this, and
only a few of the plants of the world can be folded so that an entire plant can be
mounted.

On many kinds of plants, the foliage is so nearly alike that other features,
such as the flowers and fruit, must be studied to distinguish one kind from another.
To illustrate the necessary features as completely as possible, several herbarium
specimens from different parts of the plant are prepared. Amapa, a tree from the
dry hills of Mexico, can be effectively classified from the flowers alone. Hoja de
pantano, a giant herb from the moist forests of the Andes in South America (see

C. N. H. M. Bull. vol. 30, K
herbarium. Because thet
additional parts of the c
collected so that size anc
foliage of the fleshy plate i
herbarium sheets.

Illustrated on this p|
"bureau of standards'* f<
tory Museum. The herli
in more than 750 steel cl
plants from Central and
botanists have special!
small blrns.

PLATANILLO

helicon/a

CEDRO

cedrela

angustifo/ia

1 4), must be divided into five separate specimens for the
dividual parts of plants frequently are widely variable,
•o, a common timber tree from Mexico to Brazil, are
tape comparisons can be made. The flower head and
:lo from the wet forests of Panama are shown by three

\i are some of the vouchers which comprise the large
riant names in the herbarium of Chicago Natural His-
ium has grown to more than 1,500,000 sheets housed
is, and is undoubtedly the finest collection known of
restern South America — areas in which the Museum's
Truly, Blrnam Wood is come to Dunsinane — but in

HOJA DE PANTANO

gunnera
magnifies

Museum scientists take seriously
their responsibility to the Jay public

When Encyclopedias
Ask the Experts

WHEN YOU CONSULT Encyclo-
paedia Britannica, or any other
standard reference work, on subjects re-
lated to anthropology, botany, geology,
or zoology, chances are good that you
are reading a definitive article by one of
the research scientists at Chicago Nat-
ural History Museum.

We called on John V. Dodge, Execu-
tive Editor of Encyclopaedia Britannica,
to get the story behind the Britannica
certificate. "We have always enjoyed
excellent relations with the Museum,"
Mr. Dodge told us. "One of my first
projects as an editor was the planning of
the insect page, which we photographed
right in the Museum some years ago.
Just recently, Loren Woods, your Cura-
tor of Fishes, worked very closely with
our artist, Tom Dolan, to assure that the
paintings of fishes in Britannica Junior
are scientifically accurate in every de-
tail. We are quite proud of these color
plates, and grateful to Mr. Woods for
his help."

Dodge continued, "The Britannica
relies on Museum scientists in many
ways. In addition to the fact that your
staff contributes a large number of arti-
cles each year, two of your scientists are
advisers to our editorial board. Our
group of advisers is composed of a num-
ber of scholars from the United States,
Canada, and other parts of the world.
Each adviser is responsible for a subject-
matter area — we call them classifications
— such as zoology or botany. From time
to time, the adviser plans the reorgani-
zation of the classification for which he is
responsible, so that we have a blueprint
for the necessary revision of each section
before our Chicago or London editorial

Page 6

offices begin to solicit contributors.

"The adviser also nominates the per-
sons whom he would like to see write
the articles needed for each subject-area.
He selects these writers both on the basis
of their knowledge, which must be fore-
most in their field, and on the basis of
their ability to put their knowledge into
good writing. Britannica contributors
are not writing for a learned publica-
tion, but for the intelligent layman who
wishes information outside his own field
of interest or specialty. The legal arti-
cles should be comprehensible to the
physician, and the medical articles help-
ful to the attorney, engineer, astrono-
mer, or business man."

Rupert Wenzel, the Museum's Cura-
tor of Insects, is the adviser to Encyclo-
paedia Britannica in the field of ento-
mology. His job is to keep track of the
more than 200 articles covering approx-
imately thirty world orders of insects.
He recommends when articles should be
revised, brought up-to-date, or com-
pletely re-written. He suggests that
illustrations be changed or introduced.
When a manuscript is sent to him, he
reviews it critically, advising, where nec-
essary, on problems of organization or
emphasis to be given to the various top-
ics. His task requires an overall knowl-
edge of the field of entomology — both of
its history and of the research currently
being published throughout the world.

Because Wenzel feels that the Britan-
nica should be an appropriate reference
not only for the intelligent layman but
for the more advanced student as well,
he takes seriously his responsibility to
recommend the best specialists in his
field. "This means that sometimes we

By Paula R. Nelson

have to go outside the English-speaking
countries. For example, for a recent
article revision, I recommended three
top scientists: the officer in charge of
entomological activities for the Army
Medical Service Corps, a member of
the British Museum, and a member of
the Berlin Zoological Museum. If the
entomologist from the Berlin Museum
does the article, the contact will be han-
dled through Britannica's London office,
and they will provide a translation."

Dodge and Wenzel both emphasize
that the ability to write for the lay pub-
lic is an important consideration in se-
lecting a contributor. On the other
hand, scholars are most at home in writ-
ing for scientific and learned journals.
Dr. Austin L. Rand, Chief Curator of
Zoology, excels in both kinds of writing.
His file of contributions to encyclope-
dias goes back to 1952, and includes a
number of articles on birds and mam-
mals for the American Peoples Encyclo-
pedia, as well as the colorful revision of
World Book's bird section.

"If you really understand your sub-
ject," Rand says, "there is no reason
why you can't put it out so other people
can understand it, too. I learned how
to simplify my popular writing a great
many years ago when somebody asked
me how to stuff birds. I told him at
great length the technique of removing
the body parts, of filling the skin with
excelsior, and the proper way to place
the delicate wires that hold the excelsior
in place. 'Ah !' this fellow summed up,
'you rip out the guts and stuff 'em with
straw!' So for my encyclopedia article
on birds, I started out the section on
flight by saying: 'Birds fly by flapping

their wings.' Which is precisely what
they do.

"The advice I often give to people
writing for the general public is to imag-
ine that someone is sitting across the
table from you, listening to you talk.
You don't want that person to be stifling
yawns, or looking at his watch. So you
try to use sentences that mean some-
thing and hold his interest."

Rainer Zangerl, Curator of Fossil
Reptiles, compares writing for the gen-
eral public with the preparation of an
exhibit. "The same problem is involved
in attracting people and holding their
interest long enough so that they will
take at least one reasonably profound
look." Zangerl enjoys writing for dif-
ferent audiences, and points out that
"the level of writing is not the same even
for all encyclopedias. When you write
for the Britannica, you write for the gen-
eral lay public. The new McGraw-Hill
Encyclopedia of Science and Technol-
ogy is intended primarily for people in
the technical professions, while the Rein-
hold Encyclopedia of Biological Sciences
is for professional biologists." Zangerl
has contributed to all three reference
works, as well as to the two-volume
Treatise on Marine Ecology and Paleoecol-
ogy published by the Geological Society
of America, a compilation of scientific
information, used as a reference by sci-
entists themselves. Of his three-page
lead article "Cretaceous System" for the
Britannica, Zangerl says, "I had in mind
a reader who may never have heard of
the cretaceous system, so I held techni-
cal terms to a minimum and presented
as general a picture of the topic as pos-
sible. On the other hand, when an engi-
neer looks up a subject in the McGraw-
Hill Encyclopedia, I assume that he has
more scientific background than the gen-
eral public and that the level of the
writing can be more specific and tech-
nical. In an article for Reinhold, I go
still beyond this to use the technical bio-
logical terms and concepts that profes-
sional biologists understand. However,"
Zangerl emphasizes, "even when writ-
ing for the general public I don't think
that the article should be scaled down
to the point where it is no longer com-
municating anything important about
the subject. There must be scientific
validity at every level."

One of the devices a writer can use to
help communicate scientific information
is illustration. Maidi Wiebe, Geology
Artist, drew the maps that illustrate
Zangerl's text on the cretaceous system,
thus making an important contribution
to the layman's understanding of the
material.

Philip Hershkovitz, the Museum's
Curator of Mammals, points out that
the effort involved in writing for the
layman is as great as in writing for a
scientific audience. "Whether the arti-
cle is 50, 500, or 1000 words, almost the
same amount of effort is involved in

The Board of Editors of the

ENCYCLOPEDIA
BRITANNICA

is greatly honored to welcome you
to the company of its distinguished
contributors throughout the world

Publisher ond Oioirmon of 'he Board of Director!

Ooirmon ol rhe Board of Editor*

ut— - f*L- 7 ~i il. a.

'Cu~r*J~f

Chairman ol iho Board ol Editon

writing it. I gather together all the
data and arrange them in a certain se-
quence. The larger articles permit me
to use most of the material the intelli-
gent reader wants, but the shorter arti-
cles force me to make difficult and pain-
ful decisions between what goes in and
what gets left out. Sometimes the en-
cyclopedia editors ask me to write an
article that presents a challenge I can't
resist. But I much prefer to spend the
same time doing the basic research which
results in the source materials for both

encyclopedia articles and textbooks."

Donald Collier, Curator of South
American Archaeology and Ethnology,
also makes this point. "Although I have
written for the encyclopedias, within the
last year I have had to turn down re-
quests to do articles because I didn't
have the time. I cannot simply sit down
and dash something off. It takes just as
much effort to do an encyclopedia arti-
cle as to write for a professional journal,
and frankly, I would rather spend my
time on a technical article which I hope
will make a contribution to my field.

"On the other hand, from time to
time some really basic scientific work
has appeared in encyclopedias. In the
1929 edition of the Britannica, for ex-
ample, Edward Sapir, then the leading
anthropologist-linguist in the United
States, wrote an article on American In-
dian languages and their classification
which remains a classic. He put to-
gether language families that had never
been related before, and though he
couldn't give in an encyclopedia article
all the evidence and insights which made
his synthesis possible, it is considered a
brilliant piece of work. Usually, how-
ever, the results of original research or
the really great syntheses appear in the
scientific journals. On the other hand,
encyclopedias are valuable, and there is
both a demand and a need for them.
Since the need exists, they ought to be
good."

What makes an encyclopedia article
good? Rand began his answer to this
question by talking about what makes
such an article bad. "So many writers,
instead of boiling down all the material
on their subject and using the concen-
trate, skim off the froth that comes to
the surface and use this instead. This
tends to happen to writers who do not
really know their subject. They will
use the highlights, the embroidery, and
lose sight of the animal himself. Any
encyclopedia article, particularly in the
400 to 800 word category, is a challenge
to see if you can present the animal and
its life so that the article is intelligible
and reasonably complete. The thing
you have to watch out for is to avoid the
exceptions as much as possible. It's
the main characteristics of the group
that you have to get across, so you say
that birds fly, and only mention at the

Page 7

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

August, 1960

end the ones that don't fly. Of course,
just because there are so many excep-
tions, you must be careful not to make
your general statements all-embracing."

Zangerl agrees. "The important
thing in popular writing is not to over-
emphasize relatively unimportant as-
pects of a topic. The cretaceous system
is not a particularly glamorous topic,
for example. I could have tried to make
it more exciting by emphasizing the vol-
canic action that occurred and the dino-
saurs. But these are only two of many
aspects which should be brought out
about this period which lasted so long
and during which so many events took
place. I feel that it is not justified in a
Britannica article to single out the more
popular aspects and forget the rest, just
because you know the general public
will take to it. Of course, you are al-
ways limited by space. But within that
framework, an encyclopedia article
should present as balanced a picture of
the subject as possible. That usually
means that any single sub-topic can be
treated in only a relatively short para-
graph. In that paragraph you have to
say all the essentials."

Rand suggests that the problems aris-
ing from lack of space impose a disci-
pline that provides good writing practice.
"There is no space to ramble. You have
to pick out the gist of the matter, ex-
press it coherently and concisely, choose
words with care, and make one word
do the work of two."

What are the sources of the infor-
mation that goes into an encyclopedia
article? Hershkovitz states that a "com-
petent scientist does not get his basic
data from such secondary sources as
textbooks. He gets his facts from the
animals themselves or from the original
publications about them. This is the
principle difference between the meth-
ods of a scientist, or a specialist in a
particular group of animals, and a gen-
eral writer of encyclopedia articles. The
specialist routinely keeps abreast of the
knowledge in his field. A mammalo-
gist, for example, is particularly con-
cerned with the number and kinds of
mammals in the world, their origin, dis-
tribution, interrelationship, habits, eco-
nomic importance, and so forth. This

is the sort of information that the spe-
cialist here at Chicago Natural History
Museum is charged with collecting and
adding to through his own research,
observations, and field expeditions."
Hershkovitz adds, "My meaning of the
term 'information' includes specimens
of animals with complete field docu-
mentation. In this sense, the informa-
tion available to us at the Museum
through our collections is vast, compre-
hesive, and world-wide in scope.

"Our library, which is one of the fin-
est of its kind in the world, is also charged
with collecting information. It ex-
changes scientific literature written by
our Museum staff and published by our
own press, for similar literature pub-
lished by scientific institutions all over
the world. As individual scientists we
also receive published reports of the lat-
est discoveries from our colleagues every-
where. This scientific literature is not
ordinarily seen by the layman and is
too technical for him to bother with. In
writing an encyclopedia article we must
translate this literature into a prose and
style that the average reader under-
stands. Writers who lack training or
experience in evaluating and translating
scientific literature can easily give a mis-
leading and distorted concept of the
subject."

"Or they tend to emphasize the wrong
points altogether," Zangerl continues.
"Writers for children, for example, often
seem to think that nothing is very excit-
ing about animals except their size and
voraciousness. But other aspects are at
least equally interesting and more im-
portant scientifically. For instance, the
mode in which animals live today, or
have lived in prehistoric times. Or the
way in which the flipper of an ichthyo-
saur is the equivalent of a shark's pec-
toral fin. A writer or teacher can point
out to a child of almost any age that the
ichthyosaur was a reptile that at one
time walked on land and then for some
reason gradually became a sea dweller.
In the course of this transition, its body
became modified into the shape of a fish.
Its limbs, which had been walking limbs,
were modified into flippers that looked
and acted at least superficially like fish
fins. If this kind of material is presented

properly almost anybody can under-
stand it and find it interesting."

All the scientists at Chicago Natural
History Museum who write for, or ad-
vise, various encyclopedias do so on their
own time, after the Museum working
day is over. These activities cut into
their leisure hours. For most of them,
too, writing for the general public re-
quires as arduous an effort as writing a
scientific article. Why, then, do they
undertake the task? Many of the staff
— Quimby, Davis, Turnbull, Blake,
Richardson, Denison — express similar
views to those of Hershkovitz who says,
"I regard writing for encyclopedias as a
contribution. I do it because an ency-
clopedia is consulted as an authoritative
source of information, and I feel an obli-
gation and a responsibility to see to it
that the public gets the most accurate
information possible." Hershkovitz
adds, "Part of this is in self-defense, you
know. The better informed the public,
the better the climate we work in, and
the less time we waste arguing misleading
and false information out of students!"

The scientist's sense of responsibility
to the public and the community was
deeply felt by the late Karl P. Schmidt,
for many years the Museum's Chief Cu-
rator of Zoology. Dodge names him as
"one of Britannica's most distinguished
advisers." In Schmidt's early days at the
Museum, he found himself an amused
victim of the very authoritativeness that
Museum staff members consider essen-
tial in their articles for standard refer-
ence works. Clifford C. Gregg, Director
of the Museum, tells the story.

"Karl had a fine association with Dr.
Wilfred Hudson Osgood, who preceded
him as Chief Curator. But as one must
expect, there are points of disagreement
even between scientists. Sometimes the
exact meaning of a word came into
question. Again and again when they
couldn't agree on a definition, Dr. Os-
good would say, 'Look it up in the
dictionary, Karl, and see for yourself.'
And it seems that Dr. Osgood was al-
ways right.

"And," Karl added, "that went on
for ten years before I learned that Dr.
Osgood had written the zoological defi-
tions for that dictionary!"

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

ouuetin

MUSE SPe/ilemte>i 496C

MUSEUM NEWS

Archaeological Discovery

A unique sacred image — the first of its
kind ever to be unearthed — which was
of key importance in the religious cere-
monies of Pueblo Indians living in Ari-
zona between 1250 and 1350 A.D., has
just been discovered by Chicago Natural
History Museum's Southwest Archaeo-
logical Expedition under the direction
of Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of An-
thropology.

This is a copy, made on the site, of the sacred stone
image found in a secret crypt of a rectangular kiva
being excavated by Dr. Paul Martin in Arizona.
The kiva was used by Pueblo Indians living about
1250-1350 A.D. The right arm of the image, which
was found broken off, has been restored in the model.

Dr. Martin reports that the stone
image, very probably a katchina, was
found in a secret crypt within one of the
largest rectangular kivas, or religious
ceremonial chambers, ever excavated in
the Southwest.

"This may well be one of the impor-
tant discoveries of the 20th Century in
Southwestern archaeology," Dr. Martin
writes from the site of the excavations
near Vernon, Arizona. "To my knowl-
edge no one has ever before found a
katchina of either wood or stone in a
kiva. As far as I can determine, the
image is unique."

Present-day Hopi Indians carve wood-
en katchina figures to represent various

Page 2

deities, and use them in the religious ed-
ucation of their children. But while the
figures are more than playthings, they
are not, in themselves, sacred. How-
ever, masks and other paraphernalia
used by men who impersonate the katch-
ina deities are extremely sacred and are
stored in kivas when not in use. The
fact that the stone image was hidden in
a secret masonry vault within an un-
usually large kiva suggests that this im-
age possessed god-like sacredness and
power in its own right.

The three-dimensional sacred image,
nine inches high, is carved in sandstone
and painted with gay colors — black,
orange, green, blue. The right arm is
broken off and was not found in the
crypt — perhaps indicating that it was
broken intentionally in order to curtail
the powers of the katchina when the In-
dians using the kiva moved away from
the pueblo. With the image in the foot-
square stone vault was a tiny jar painted
in red and black crosses, and containing
a few beads of stone, shell, jet, and tur-
quoise. "These two objects," continues
Dr. Martin, "the stone figure and the
little jar, were probably of indescribable
sanctity."

The crypt in which the religious ob-
jects were found appears to duplicate on
a small scale the architecture of the great
kiva itself. It has been suggested that
the crypt may have symbolized the en-
trance to the underworld — in the reli-
gious belief of the Hopi Indians, it was
through such a passage that their an-
cestors emerged into the world from their
place of origin in the underworld. Thus
the stone figure may be related to un-
derworld ceremonies that are still a part
of the religion of the Hopi people today.
Other preliminary interpretations place
the unique stone katchina figure as an
ancestral cult deity. "We expect," re-
ports Dr. Martin, "that further research
will reveal more of the full import and
significance of this sacred object, which
has remained mute and buried in its
secret crypt for the past six or seven cen-
turies."

This is the fifth season in which Dr.
Martin has conducted archaeological

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

Wm. McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Walter J. Cummings William H. Mitchell

Joseph N. Field John T. Pirie, Jr.

Marshall Field, Jr. Clarence B. Randall

Stanley Field John G. Searle

Samuel Insull, Jr. Solomon A. Smith
Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

E. Leland Webber Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

John R. Millar Chief Curator of Botany

S ii ah at K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
Paula R. Nelson Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Marilyn Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

THIS MONTH'S COVER-

September — and it's summer's
end. But while the livin's still
easy, these youngsters are making
the most of it. They linger at will
before their favorite exhibits,
knowing that in a few weeks their
teachers will be bringing them
back to the Museum to absorb
more formal learning from the
well-organized school 7 programs
planned by the Museum's educa-
tional division, the Raymond
Foundation. Altogether, more
than 400,000 children visited Chi-
cago Natural History Museum last
year. Of these, 206,583 came in
organized school groups. About
78,000 students, or more than
2,000 groups, were given programs
and tours by the Raymond Foun-
dation. Many other students
found that Soundtrek, the Mu-
seum's radio guide system, pro-
vided them — and their teachers —
with an excellent educational tour
of the Museum's major exhibits.

work at the site near Vernon, Arizona.

(Museum News continued on page 6)

A "Case" of Mistaken Identity

By ERNEST J. ROSCOE, Division of Lower Invertebrates

IN 1830 ISAAC LEA, Philadelphia
publisher and naturalist, described a
new species of snail which he called Val-
vata arenifera. In his paper presented
before the American Philosophical So-
ciety, and subsequently published in the
Society's transactions for 1830-31, Lea
wrote, "This snail has the singular prop-
erty of strengthening its whorls by the
agglutination of particles of sand, etc.
by which it is entirely covered. . . ." He
further pointed out the resemblance it
bore in this respect to certain marine
snails (the Xenophoridae, or carrier
shells) which attach small rocks or other
shells to their own exoskeleton.

Unfortunately, Lea's "discovery" was
all a mistake. What he had thought
was a snail shell was in reality the larval
case of a group of insects known to ento-
mologists as Trichoptera. You prob-
ably know them under their common
name, caddis flies. Or if you are a fisher-
man you may call them case flies. On
several different occasions, despite what
might seem obvious differences between
insects and mollusks, these larval cases
have been described as new species of
snails by both American and European
naturalists.

Lea may perhaps have been misled in
his identification by the apparent anal-
ogy between his specimen and the car-
rier shells. In fairness to him it should
be noted that, so far as I can determine,
he had never observed a living specimen
of his "Valvata." However, when one
of these cases is crushed, there is no evi-
dence whatever of any shelly material.
The sand grains covering the surface of
the case are held together entirely by
the salivary secretions of the larval in-
sect. This is in distinct contrast to the
carrier shells, in which the extraneous
matter is attached to a definite calcare-
ous shell. One other interesting fact
with regard to the carrier shells. Cer-
tain individual snails seem to exhibit a
preference for particular types of mate-
rial with which to adorn their shells.

Some use only rocks, and so have been
called "mineralogists" (I like to think
of them as the first rock hounds) ; other
snails use only shells, and thus are called
"conchologists." Curiously enough,
there actually is a parallel to the shell
collecting mollusks among the caddis
flies. One group (not the pseudo-snail
shell-builders we have been discussing)
builds more or less cylindrical cases out
of small, fresh-water bivalve and gastro-
pod shells — so we have not only mol-
lusk, but insect conchologists!

Lea also described his "snails" as hav-
ing a "striated, horny operculum." Now
an operculum is a structure characteris-
tic of the gill-breathing snails (the Proso-
branchiata), to which the true Valvata
belongs. This operculum is attached to
the posterior part of the body of the
snail and serves to close the aperture of
the shell when the snail retracts inside.
Here Lea may have mistaken the oper-
culum for the mouth parts of the larval
caddis fly, or he may have misinter-
preted the membrane with which the
larva seals off the opening of its case
just prior to pupation. In any event, he
knew that his "snail" should have an
operculum, and he managed somehow
to observe one.

I have been unable to determine who
first discovered the true nature of these
larval cases. Certainly by the early
1840's some American (DeKay for ex-
ample) and European naturalists were
aware of their true identity. In the
summer of 1862 the American conchol-
ogist, Thomas Bland, kept specimens of
Lea's "Valvata arenifera" alive in an
aquarium. During the ensuing autumn
and winter he observed the habits of the
larvae, and in the spring of 1863 he col-
lected the adults as they emerged from
their cases. Bland then published his
correct observations in 1865. At about
the same time the entomologist, Hagen,
also noted that these cases had been
mistaken for mollusks and that similar
mis-identification had been reported

from Europe and New Caledonia as
well as America.

Yet, these observations notwithstand-
ing, in 1864, R.J. Lechmere Guppy de-
scribed another caddis fly case from
Trinidad as a new species of Valvata.
"This fresh description," commented
the Philadelphia Academy of Natural
Science's conchologist, George Tryon, in
1865, "is amusing; naturalists seem re-
solved to consider them Mollusca!"

These true mollusks attach either small stones or
other mollusk shells to their own shells. We might
call them the first rock hounds and conchologists.

After the mid-1 860's, however, there
appear to have been no further mis-
classifications of these larval cases.

The reader may be interested in a
short account of the caddis flies them-
selves. The adult is a rather small
(seldom exceeding an inch in length)
dull-colored, moth-like insect not often
observed on the wing unless disturbed.
They are most commonly found in the
vicinity of the ponds and streams in
which the early stages of their life cycle
are passed. The eggs are laid in masses,
covered by a gelatinous coating, in or
near water. The larvae are aquatic,
generally living in cases made of some
foreign material — leaves, twigs, gravel,
sand, or mollusk shells — held together
by salivary secretions. The larva is at-
tached to the case by hooks on the last
body segment. Most of the cases are
tubular, generally tapering toward the
posterior end. Only the members of a
single genus, Helicopsyche, construct the
(Continued on page 8)

PageS

". . . in the middle of one of the finest
forests in the world . . . a large arched
cavern, several hundred feet broad and
over two hundred feet high; huge sta-
lactites were pending from the ceiling
and a fringe of vegetation drooped
from its outer edge [while] many col-
oured rays of light [cast] a dim . . .
light over the scene ..."

THE GREAT CAVE OF NIAH

By Paula R. Nelson

TINY fossil fragments — bits of reptil-
ian limb bones; the pharyngeal teeth
of an as-yet-unknown fish — found in the
Great Cave of Niah on the island of
Borneo, are now being studied and iden-
tified at Chicago Natural History Mu-
seum by Dr. Robert F. Inger, Curator
of Amphibians and Reptiles. The Niah
cave, located 300 miles up the coast from

Page U

Kuching, Sarawak, and a few miles in-
land from the sea, is the oldest home of
man known from South Asia. From
this stone age site, fossils of the reptiles,
amphibians, and fish that undoubtedly
were used as food by these prehistoric
cavemen have been collected and sent
to the Museum. When these fossil frag-
ments have been identified, we shall

know significantly more about the en-
vironment in which paleolithic man
lived and struggled to survive.

It was Alfred Russell Wallace who
first suggested that the caves of Borneo
might be important places to search for
evolutionary evidence. In 1855, while
living at Santubong on the Sarawak
River delta, he wrote "The Law which

has Regulated the Introduction of Spe-
cies"— the first in a series of papers that
culminated in his classic exposition of
natural selection and evolution theory.
Taking up Wallace's suggestion, T. H.
Huxley recommended in 1864 that an
expedition be sent to Borneo, but noth-
ing was done in this area of the world
until A. Hart Everett, animal collector
and naturalist in the service of the Sara-
wak government, explored the Niah
caves in the 1870's. In a colorful report
published in the Sarawak Gazette for July,
18731, Everett described the rugged jun-
gle trek that led to his first glimpse of
the awesome cavern that came to be
known as the Great Cave of Niah:

"After my [former] experience of jungle
walking, I was prepared to meet with diffi-
culties [Everett writes] and I was not dis-
appointed. In all the walks I had yet
made there was nothing to compare with
this. We started through swampy jungle,
black mud holes had to be crossed on small
sticks, the ends of which only were visible;
there was not time to speculate as to
whether it was a trap or not, but with a
blind faith in the existence of the other
part of the stick which you do not see . . .
you make a dash; a false step and you find
yourself up to your middle in mud and
water, much to the amusement of your
native followers, who have no sympathy
with the unfortunate traveller; you are
dragged out of this and started across tan-
gled roots of trees, and as you are covered
with mud, it is not long before you slip off
with a jerk which sends you up to your
knees in soft black mud, whilst your feet
are caught in a trap of interlacing roots
below. After a great deal of exertion and
strong language, you get out of this with-
out your boots, which are produced after
a prolonged search. Away you go again
with extra steam to catch up your guide,
who does not condescend to wait; and now
by way of variety you have to cross ravines
on batangs (felled trees) lying at an angle
of 30 degrees. . . . After about two hours of
this work ... I came up to my guide drip-
ping with perspiration, but was disgusted
to find he had not turned a hair."

And there, "right smack dab in the
middle of one of the finest forests in the
world," as Dr. Inger describes it, was

1 pp. 59-60. Quoted by Tom Harrisson,
"The Caves of Niah : A History of Prehistory,"
in The Sarawak Museum journal, Vol. VIII,
No. 12 (New Series); Kuching, Sarawak: De-
cember, 1958. We are indebted to this article
for the historical and descriptive material given
here regarding the Niah cave discoveries; and
to Mr. Harrisson for making available to us the
photographs illustrating this article.

an enormous cave. Everett reports his
own reactions to the sight in the fol-
lowing words:

"We found ourselves standing at the
mouth of a large arched cavern, several
hundred feet broad, and over two hundred
feet high; huge stalactites were pending
from the ceiling and a fringe of vegetation
drooped from its outer edge; across a beau-
tifully wooded valley rose a small limestone
hill. . . . Through rifts in the mountain side
stole many coloured rays of light, throw-
ing a dim religious light over the scene.
Through this ghostly dimness, the black
mouth of branch caverns could be seen."

Inside the cave were human remains;
Everett found a skull "in good preserva-
tion . . . [and] after a great deal of per-
suasion, I prevailed on [the native guide]
to allow me to carry it off. He was,
however, quite aghast at my temerity,
as he felt convinced that I should bring
down vengeance dire on my head by
offending the evil spirits. ... I had to
carry the head myself, [as] all my fol-
lowers [were] afraid to touch it . . ."

This fear on the part of the native
people of Niah prompted them to con-
fine their cooperation with future ex-
plorations to those caves containing only
a minimum of removable relics. These,
unfortunately, were of more recent date.
Thus, in spite of continuing sporadic ex-
plorations by European scientists and
prospectors, it was believed for nearly
seven decades that the Bornean caves
were barren of remains of high antiquity.

Tom Harrisson, Government Ethnol-
ogist and Curator of the Sarawak Mu-
seum made the first discoveries that
eventually proved the Great Cave of
Niah to be a habitat of prehistoric man.
His explorations at Niah in 1947 turned
up human bones and "ancient looking"
pottery on the floor of a small grotto
close to the Great Cave. Although these
did not appear extremely old, he per-
sisted in his conviction that the Niah
caves held promise for future archaeolog-
ical work. In 1954, two small trial pits
were dug under Harrisson's direction as
leader of a Sarawak Museum field expe-
dition to reconnoitre the caves and de-
termine the value of full-scale excavation.
Within the month, he was rewarded with
appreciable evidence of human occupa-
tion during Neolithic and Mesolithic
times. By 1957 sufficient support was
obtained to begin wide-scale excavations

at the most promising site, the Great
Cave itself. In succeeding years, human
bones were found in association with
cultural artifacts and fossil animal re-
mains. Carbon 14 tests have now estab-
lished that the earliest human remains
in the Great Cave date from the Middle
Paleolithic, or 40,000 to 50,000 years b.c.

Among the objectives of the present
program being undertaken at Niah is a
faunistic study of reptiles, amphibians,
and fishes found in or near the Great
Cave. This study is being carried out
in conjunction with Chicago Natural
History Museum. Not only fossil ma-
terial, but specimens of the present fauna
of the cave region are being sent to Dr.
Inger for identification and comparative
studies, which will make possible a re-
construction of the environment of the
prehistoric cave people.

We asked Dr. Inger how he became
involved in the Sarawak cave studies.
"I think Harrisson asked me to work on
the faunistic material," Inger replied,
"because he knew I had been in Borneo
and am writing a monograph on the
reptiles and amphibians of the region.
When the Museum sent Dwight Davis2
and me to North Borneo in 1950 to make
general zoological collections and ob-
servations on the ecology of the forest,
Harrisson helped us a great deal with
labor and transportation in the field.
I didn't work in Sarawak on that trip,
but in 1956 I went to Borneo again for
the Museum, and this time I did get to
work for about a month in Sarawak it-
self. At that time we were trying to ex-
tend the collections and information
gathered in 1950, building on what we
had learned during the earlier trip and
visiting additional areas. This summer,
Mr. Chin Phui Kong, Fisheries Officer
of the Agriculture Department of North
Borneo, is here at the Museum working
on the fishes and fish fossils with me.

"Harrisson is interested in the history
of the cave people. I am interested in
the history of the fauna. In the Borneo
fauna of today there are elements that
look as though they are remnants of an
ancient fauna now found only on the
fringes of the oriental tropics. The best
(Continued on page 7)

2 D. Dwight Davis, Curator, Vertebrate
Anatomy.

Page 5

MUSEUM NEWS

Fall Hours

Beginning September 6, the Museum
will be open from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.,
seven days a week.

Free Film Series for Children

The fall schedule of free motion pic-
tures for children begins on Saturday,
October 1, at 10:30 A.M., and will con-
tinue each Saturday through November.
The first program presents some favor-
ites of past series — four motion pictures
based on well-known folk tales. "The
Steadfast Tin Soldier," is a film made in
Denmark from the Hans Christian An-
dersen story of a one-legged toy soldier
who has many adventures while under
the spell of a goblin jack-in-the-box.
"The Town Musicians" tells the story
of a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster who
set out for Bremen to become town musi-
cians. A third film portrays the familiar
tale of the race between "The Tortoise
and the Hare." And the final movie,
"The Loon's Necklace," is based on a
charming Indian legend of how the loon
received its "necklace" pattern.

The second children's program, to be
presented on Saturday, October 8, is
"The Great Adventure," a beautiful na-
ture film about two Swedish farm chil-
dren's adventures with animals. Made
by Arne Sucksdorff in Sweden, this film
classic has won outstanding awards from
Parents Magazine and the Cannes Inter-
national Film Festival.

Fall Lecture Series for Adults

The free lecture series for adults also
begins on October 1, at 2:30 P.M., with
a showing of the color motion picture,
"New England in All Four Seasons,"
narrated by Don Shaw. On October 8,
"Island Treasure," a film portraying
wildlife on a dot of land in the Missis-
sippi's northern waters, will be presented
by Walter J. Breckenridge, director of the
Minnesota Museum of Natural History.

The complete schedule of free fall
programs for children and adults will
be printed in the October issue of the
Bulletin.

Page 6

(Continued from page 2)

Chamber Music Concerts

Pianist-composer Lucas Foss and his
Chamber Ensemble improvisation group
will be presented in the Museum's James
Simpson Theater on October 24, in the
first of a series of eight concerts to be
given during the 1960-61 season by the
Free Concerts Foundation, Inc. The
ensemble of five players will be heard in
their specialty, which is improvisation
within a framework described by Foss
as "a system of controlled chance." With
Foss at the piano, the group includes
Robert Drasnin, flute, Richard Dufallo,
clarinet, Howard Coif, cello, and Charles
DeLancey, percussion. Free tickets for
the first concert in this series are avail-
able on written request to Free Concerts
Foundation, Chicago Natural History
Museum, East Roosevelt Road and Lake
Shore Drive. A stamped, self-addressed
envelope should be enclosed. Mailing
of tickets will begin during the latter
part of September.

Distinguished Visitors

Two important visitors from China,
Chiang Fu Tsun, director of the National
Central Library, Taipei, Taiwan, and
Professor Mao Tzu-Shui, of the Univer-
sity of Formosa, a member of the Aca-
demia Sinica, were greeted by Dr. Hoshien
Tchen of the Museum's Department of
Anthropology on Monday, July 18. The
two noted scholars came to Chicago from
Seattle, where they had just participated
in a conference on Sino-American intel-
lectual cooperation.

An interesting example of such coop-
eration is the research project on Chi-
nese rubbings now being carried out by
Kenneth Starr, the Museum's Curator of
Asiatic Archaeology and Ethnology, at
the National Central Library in Taiwan.

In addition to seeing Chicago Natural
History Museum's extensive Chinese
and Tibetan collections, our visitors were
impressed with the Museum's American
Indian collections, with The Stanley
Field Collection of Plant Models exhib-
ited in Hall 29, and with the presence in
the Museum of many interested children.

Conference Participation

Donald Collier, Curator of South
American Archaeology and Ethnology,
participated in three important scien-
tific meetings in Vienna and Paris this
summer. In Vienna, the Wenner-Gren
Foundation for Anthropological Re-
search sponsored a symposium organ-
ized by Professors Robert J. Braidwood,
of the University of Chicago, and
Gordon Willey, of Harvard University,
on the subject: "From 1500 B.C. to the
Threshhold of Urban Civilization: A
World-Wide Consideration of Cultural
Alternatives." Twenty anthropologists
from several countries were invited to
submit papers reporting on different
world areas under this general heading,
and these monographs were circulated
to all conferees in advance of the meet-
ings. The meetings themselves were held
in the Foundation's European Confer-
ence Center — an Austrian castle in which
the conferees lived and worked for eight
days — and consisted of discussions of
each scholar's contribution. Collier's
paper was entitled: "To the Thresh-
hold of Civilization in the Central
Andes."

Also in Vienna, Curator Collier at-
tended the 34th annual International
Congress of Americanists and presented
a preliminary report of the results of his
1956 Museum expedition to the Valley
of Casma in Peru. During this expedi-
tion, investigations were made of over
sixty prehistoric sites, and a large col-
lection of ceramics, textile fragments,
organic materials from refuse deposits,
and wood samples for radiocarbon dat-
ing, were shipped back to the Museum
for detailed study. Painstaking research
has now made it possible to begin to
reconstruct the lives of the ancient
farmers and town dwellers of the Casma
Valley.

In August, at the International Con-
gress of Anthropological and Ethnolog-
ical Sciences in Paris, Collier gave an
illustrated lecture on "Recent Archaeo-
logical Exhibits in Chicago Natural His-
tory Museum," featuring the American

olj \r^ a r^r\

Indian exhibits in Halls 4 and 8. His
lecture illustrated the aesthetic aids
which make these exhibits colorful and
attractive, and the various didactic de-
vices used to explain cultural processes
or the ways in which archaeologists work
— such as the display of artifacts, vig-
nettes, photographs, full scale and mini-
ature models, labels, dioramas, comic
strips, and the like. *

While he was abroad, Collier visited
museums in Munich, Vienna, Basel,
Paris, London, and Cambridge, under
a travel grant from the National Science
Foundation, and studied the famous
prehistoric art of the Lascaux Cave in
the Dordogne River valley in France.

Sharat K. Roy, Chief Curator of Geol-
ogy, and Bertram G. Woodland, Associate
Curator of Petrology, represented Chi-
cago Natural History Museum at the
International Geological Congress held
during August in Copenhagen. As
an integral part of the scientific con-
ference, which was attended by geolo-
gists from all over the world, a program
of field trips throughout northern Eu-
rope was planned. Dr. Roy studied
metamorphic rocks in the vicinity of
Oslo, Norway, while Mr. Woodland

observed rock formations near Bergen.
Dr. Roy was also especially interested in
the research on meteorites that was pre-
sented at the meetings. The Interna-
tional Geological Congress takes place
every four years and has not been held
in the United States since the 1930's.

C. Earle Smith, Jr., Associate Curator
of Vascular Plants, presided at a sym-
posium on regional and local floras at
the annual meeting of the American In-
stitute of Biological Sciences in Still-
water, Oklahoma, during August. Dr.
Smith also presented a paper on Cedrela
(Spanish cedar) before the joint meet-
ings of the American Society of Plant
Taxonomists and the Systematic Section
of the Botanical Society of America.

Honors

Roland W. Force, Curator of Oceanic
Archaeology and Ethnology has been
elected 2nd Vice President of the Central
States Anthropological Society for the
year 1960-1961.

ciate in the Department of Biological
Sciences of Northwestern University.

Staff Changes

Albert W. Forslev, Associate Curator of
Mineralogy, resigned from the Museum
in August to take up a position as Asso-
ciate Professor of Geology at the College
of William and Mary in Norfolk, Vir-
ginia. As part of his new duties, he will
help to set up a geology department for
the college. Mr. Forslev had been with
the Museum since 1956. Readers of the
Bulletin will remember his interesting
articles on tektites and diamonds for
this publication.

Henry S. Dybas, Associate Curator of
Insects, was appointed Research Asso-

The new Associate Curator of Miner-
alogy for the Museum is Edward J. Olsen,
who comes to this institution from a po-
sition as Assistant Professor of Geology
at Case Institute of Technology and
Western Reserve University. Dr. Olsen
was born in Chicago and did both his
undergraduate and graduate work at the
University of Chicago, where he received
his Ph.D. in 1959. In 1953 he was field
assistant for the Geological Survey of
Canada, and in the following year, field
{Continued on page 8)

THE GREAT CAVE OF NIAH

example among the Bornean reptiles is
a single species of glass snake which, of
course, is really a lizard. This species is
widely separated from all the rest of its
living relatives in the temperate zone.
Perhaps among the Niah fossils we will
find species that no longer live on Bor-
neo. It is to get at questions regarding
the historical changes in the Bornean

{Continued from page 5)

fauna that I am interested in the mate-
rial from Niah.

"One of the things that has turned up
already among the living species Har-
risson sent us," Inger continued, "is a
new species of lizard from the Great
Cave itself. When we have compared
this and other contemporary fauna with

Tom Harrisson views excavating
equipment at main entrance to
Niah Great Cave.

Ancient human burial found in
Great Cave.

Photograph by K. F. Wong

the fossil remains, we will be in a posi-
tion to make some evaluations as to what
the environment was like at Niah in
paleolithic times."

The Great Cave at Niah is indeed pro-
viding a fruitful opportunity for museum
scientists to enrich man's knowledge of
human and animal history in prehis-
toric, stone age times.

Page 7

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

September, 1960

A "CASE" OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY

(Continued from page 2)

Fig. 1 : An adult caddis fly. Like the may flies, its adult life is brief. Fig. 2: Some caddis flies construct these more or less cylindrical cases out of small fresh
water mollusk shells. Fig. 3: The larval case of the caddis fly "Helicopsyche." Similar "shells" have repeatedly been described as a new species of mollusk.
but are actually the larval cases of an aquatic insect. Fig. 4: "Valvata," the mollusk with which the larval case of the caddis fly "Helicopsyche" has often

been confused.

pseudo-snail cases that deceived even
trained observers. Caddis fly larvae
have well developed mouth parts and
feed on plants and small aquatic ani-
mals. In turn, they are an important
element in the diet of fish. During the
pupal stage, the cases are sealed at both

ends. A pair of well developed mandi-
bles enable the pupae to cut their way
out of the case. The pupal skin is cast
at the surface of the water or nearby.
Little if any food is taken in the adult
state which, like that of the may flies,
lasts for a relatively short period of time.

About 3,500 species of caddis flies are
known, of which about 800 are found in
North America. Herbert H. Ross, of
the Illinois Natural History Survey,
states that four species of the snail-case
makers (Helicopsyche) are known from
the United States.

MUSEUM NEWS

geologist for the U. S. Geological Sur-
vey. Before joining the staff of Western
Reserve, he was employed by the Ca-
nadian Johns-Manville Co., Ltd. He is
a member of Sigma Xi, the Geochem-
ical Society, and the Mineralogical So-
ciety of America.

Dr. Olsen is interested in research on
the physical chemistry of magnesium sil-
icates— serpentine, olivine, and pyrox-
ene. "I am delighted," he states, "with
the Museum facilities available for the
study of these minerals, and expect to
make good use of the X-ray diffraction
equipment in the Chalmers Mineralog-
ical Laboratory."

Miss Dolla Cox has resigned from the
Raymond Foundation to move to San
Francisco, California. She has been as-
sociated with the Museum since 1952
and with the Raymond Foundation since
1 953. Many school programs and tours
in the field of geology and related sub-
jects were ably planned and executed by
Miss Cox during this period.

(Continued from page 7)

New Book

The University of Chicago Press has
announced publication in the fall of
Indian Life in the Upper Great Lakes:
11,000 B.C. to A.D. 1800, by George I.
Quimby, Curator of North American Ar-
chaeology and Ethnology. Museum
members have already had a preview of
some of the fascinating material pre-
sented in this book, since several chap-
ters were first published in the Bulletin.
These chapters form a part of Curator
Quimby's authoritative treatment of the
archaeology, ethnology, and geography
of the Upper Great Lakes region — a
region of 200,000 square miles.

The documented history of this area,
beginning with the appearance of white
explorers, fur-traders, and missionaries
in the seventeenth century, is compara-
tively well known. But much less is
known of the prehistory of the region,
which goes back some 13,000 years.
Now this prehistory has been recon-
structed from data written in the land
forms, glacial deposits, and plant and
animal fossils, and in the unintentional

records left by the Indians themselves in
the form of fragments of tools, weapons,
and ornaments. Drawing on his own
original research in addition to that
of other specialists, author Quimby tells
the story of the Indian of the Upper
Great Lakes — from the earliest comers
who followed the retreating glaciers into
the woodlands and shores of the Great
Lakes and hunted mastodons with stone-
pointed spears; through the Indians of
the Old Copper culture, the first in the
hemisphere to fabricate metal; up to
those tribes originating about A.D. 800
whose names are so familiar and evoca-
tive: Huron, Fox, Ottawa, Chippewa,
Sauk, Menomini, and Winnebago.

It is particularly fitting that Mr.
Quimby's new book should be published
by the University of Chicago Press,
since he is also Lecturer in that uni-
versity's Department of Anthropology.

Soundtrek

We were pleased to learn that Sound-
trek, the Museum's pioneering radio-
guide to the exhibits, is now being in-
stalled in Milwaukee's Public Museum.

PRINTED BY CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PRESS

CHICAGO
NATURAL
HISTORY
MUSEU

puuetln

VOLUME 31 NUMBER 10

octoU/i

1 960

MUSEUM NEWS

New Staff Member

The Museum announces the appoint-
ment of Louis 0. Williams as Associate
Curator of Central American Botany.
Prior to joining the staff here, Dr.
Williams was botanist, Plant Introduc-
tion Section, New Crops Research
Branch, Agricultural Research Service,
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Belts-
ville, Maryland; and before that, bota-
nist and sub-director at the Escuela Agri-
cola Panamericana near Tegucigalpa,
Honduras. In that position he was en-
gaged, over a period of more than eleven
years, in developing reference botanical
collections for south Mexico, Central
America, and Panama. At the same
time he built up a reference library cov-
ering all phases of natural history, ex-
ploration, and travel for that part of the
world. His extensive field experience in
the tropics of both North and South
America especially prepare him for the
duties he will undertake in his present
position, particularly in the completion
of the Flora of Guatemala.

Dr. Williams was born in Wyoming,
received his bachelor's and master's de-
grees at the University of Wyoming and
his doctor's degree at Washington Uni-
versity. For ten years he was a Research
Assistant at the Ames Orchid Herbarium
of Harvard University. He has engaged
in extensive expeditionary work in Mex-
ico and Brazil, and has made repeated
study trips to all Central American re-
publics. Most recently he spent four
months collecting for the U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture in west central and
southern Africa. When he was with Es-
cuela Agricola Panamericana he founded
the publication, Ceiba, and was its editor
until 1957. For three years prior to the
second World War, he was editor of the
American Orchid Society Bulletin and was
instrumental in strengthening the posi-
tion of that journal and converting it
from a quarterly to a monthly Bulletin.
The list of his published papers and
books is a lengthy one including such
titles as A Monograph of the Genus Mer-
tensia, The Orchidaceae of Mexico, and Enu-
meration of the Orchidaceae of Central
America.

Page 2

Expedition

Chicago Natural History Museum has
officially joined Sir Edmund Hillary's
Himalayan expedition in search of the
"abominable snowman." A grant from
the World Book Encyclopedia, sponsors
of the expedition, has made it possible
for Dr. Robert L. Fleming, field associate
in the Museum's department of zoology,
to accompany Hillary and his expedi-
tionary party on their ascent into the
Himalayas this fall.

Dr. Fleming, a medical missionary
who has lived in Nepal for the past seven
years, brings to the expedition an exten-
sive knowledge of the animal life — and
particularly the birds — of the region. In
the past, Fleming has made several trips
from the lowlands of Nepal to far above
timberline in the Himalayas in search of
specimens for the Museum's collections.
Readers of the Bulletin will remember
his report (December, 1954) of the expe-
ditions he has directed for the Museum
in the Himalayas and in other parts of
India, as a result of which many fasci-
nating and unusual birds were sent back
to the Museum. Now it is expected that
the Museum's study collections, as well
as its exhibits of Asian birds and other
animals, will be enriched again by the
addition of rare specimens from the
higher reaches of the Himalayas.

The Hillary party began its nine-
month high-altitude expedition at Kat-
mandu, capital of Nepal, a small inde-
pendent state between India and Tibet.
Focus of the expedition is Mt. Makalu in
Nepal, fourth highest mountain in the
world. The mountain is located 170
miles from Katmandu.

Objectives of the expedition, which is
officially known as the "1960 World
Book Encyclopedia Scientific Expedition
to the Himalayas Led By Sir Edmund
Hillary" are: (1) to carry out extensive
physiological research into the acclima-
tization of the human body to extreme
altitudes, (2) to pursue exploration,
mountaineering, mapping, and glaciol-
ogy in the ranges to the east and west of
Mt. Everest, and (3) to sustain an im-
partial search for evidence to prove or

{Museum News continued on page 8)

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

Wm. McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Walter J. Cummings William H. Mitchell

Joseph N. Field John T. Pirie, Jr.

Marshall Field, Jr. Clarence B. Randall

Stanley Field John G. Searle

Samuel Insull, Jr. Solomon A. Smith
Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

E. Leland Webber Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

John R. Millar Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
Paula R. Nelson Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Marilyn Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

■This Month's Cover-

On a remote string of islands in the south-
west Philippines live the Mohammedan Sulus.
Strategically located on one of the world's ma-
jor trade routes, the Sulus for centuries plied
the seas as traders. When the Spaniards con-
quered the Philippines, the proud and inde-
pendent Sulus refused to accept either Spanish
Christianity or Spanish domination of their
seas.

Instead, they turned to piracy. In their
swift and silent "vintas" and "prahus," the
Sultan of Sulu's motley fleet terrorized the
shores of the Spanish-held isles, burning, kill-
ing, and seizing food and slaves. Then, with
the coming of the Americans, piracy declined.
Today, the Mohammedan Sulus are a peace-
ful, sea-going people, whose boats still sport
the striped sails that once inspired terror.

Lucie Palmer, artist and geographer, lived
among these Sulus for six months. In approxi-
mately fifty oil sketches on public exhibit at the
Museum during October, she vividly portrays
the dazzling hues of sky and sea, the gaily
colored sails set against a backdrop of palm
trees and mountains, white-costumed partici-
pants in Moorish ceremonies, and the lonely,
spindly-legged "Badjow," or Sea Gypsy,
houses shown on our cover.

Snow-topped mountains reflect their
beauty in the clear water of a Nor-
wegian inland lake. From Hjordis
Kittel Parker's "Norway, Changing
and Changeless" to be presented No-
vember 5.

Adult Travel Programs

\//<

Chicago Natural History Museum's
11 4th series of free, illustrated travel lec-
tures begins Saturday, October 1, in the
Museum's James Simpson Theatre.

Last summer more than 500,000
American tourists traveled to Europe in
the greatest tourist invasion of that con-
tinent in history. Similarly, resort cen-
ters in the United States report unprece-
dented numbers of visitors during the
past summer. For Chicagoans who were
not able to go traveling this year, as
well as for those who would like to relive
the excitement of their vacation excur-
sions, the Museum's fall series focuses on
those two continents. All lectures are
narrated in person by well-known lec-
turer-photographers.

The programs will be presented each
Saturday in October and November at
2:30 p.m. under the auspices of the
Edward E. Ayer Lecture Foundation.
Members of the Museum may claim re-
served seats by presenting their mem-
bership cards before 2:25 p.m. on the
lecture day.

Following is the complete schedule:

son, Hawthorne, Thoreau — and see
them come alive in scenes recreating
the landing of the Mayflower, life in
an authentic pioneer village, and the
tracing of the story of the Revolution,
from the first shot heard 'round the
world to the new-born country's shrines
in Boston.

October 8 — Island Treasure

Walter J. Breckenridge

Just a dot of land, almost lost in
the broad expanse of the great Mis-
sissippi. But explored through the dis-
cerning camera of Dr. Walter J. Breck-
enridge, director of the Minnesota Mu-
seum of Natural History, that dot dis-
closes a treasure-house in microcosm.
This world-famous naturalist has studied
his island as man has rarely done. He
knows the age of every soft-shelled tur-
tle; he has watched the beaver cut a
Cottonwood twenty inches in diameter;
he has captured in color film the dra-
matic arrival of the great blue heron,
who comes each spring to fish the la-
goon-

October 1 — New England in
All Four Seasons

Donald Shaw
All the beauty and tradition, the his-
toric and scenic panorama, of the cradle
of American civilization — New England
— are revealed in this color film by
Donald Shaw. Visit locations hallowed
by history and legend — Plymouth, Con-
cord bridge, the homes of Revere, Emer-

yi

October 15 — Romantic Old
New Orleans

Phil Walker

Spanish moss veiling trees and tele-
phone wires; wrought iron balconies;
plantation homes still sturdy with their
original framework and neoclassic col-
umns of swamp-bred cypress; gourmet,
Creole cookery; and — Mardi Gras! All

these spell New Orleans. In this exciting
film, not only are the city's French-
Spanish flavor and gay holidays por-
trayed, but the viewer thrills to the
mysterious beauty of outlying swamps
and bayous, as he goes afield with the ,
camera for crawfish, tarpon, and alli-
gators.

October 22— Pika Peaks

Emerson Scott
No, it's not a typographical error!
"Pika Peaks" focuses the color camera,
not alone on Pike's Peak in Colorado,
but on the entire Western Rockies, home
of the elusive "pika," or "rock rabbit."
While following the "pika," the viewer
adventures with an experienced guide
along the trails of the San Juan Moun-
tains of Colorado, sometimes called the
Switzerland of America; through Gla-
cier National Park, a refuge for countless
wilderness creatures; and on to Jackson's
Hole, Wyoming.

October 29 — Voici L'Amgrique
(Here is America)

Arthur F. Wilson and Frederick J. Keiffer
Two French children enjoy the red
carpet treatment in a delightfully fresh
and "different" journey across the
United States. The children are the
guests of Arthur F. Wilson, who is re-
turning the kindness shown him by their
family when he was stationed in France
as an American G.I. The film renews
the thrill of your own first trip west as it
records the unsophisticated joy of these
young travelers at their first sight of our
majestic scenery from the plains states
to the coast and then back again to
New York.

{Continued on page 8)

Page 3

The large and colorful parrot family, which
ncludes the cockatoos, macaws, parakeets,
ories and lovebirds, numbers 316 species. These
re distributed throughout the tropics and oc-
asionally in temperate regions. With their
irge heads, powerful, hooked beaks and short
sgs, parrots are easily recognizable; and their
ttractiveness as pets has made them one of the
riost familiar families of birds.

'/

Parrots were mentioned by Greek writers as
arly as 400 B.C., but the first live birds (prob-
bly the Indian Parakeet) were brought into
ireece by Alexander the Great's soldiers about
28 B.C. They quickly became popular as pets.

BY M.A.TRAYLOR,ASSOCIATE CURATOR OF BIRDS
AND E.JOHN PFIFFNER, STAFF ARTIST , J^~

Parrots vary in size from the tiny,
three-inch pygmy parrots of New
Guinea to the giant, three-foot
Scarlet Macaw of South America.
However, all parrots share a com-
mon structural peculiarity of the
beak: the upper as well as the lower
mandible is hinged at the base, pro-
ducing a much wider gape and more
powerful crushing action than in
most other birds. The beak also
serves as a third "foot," being used
to grasp perches unattainable by
the short legs. In feeding, the feet
are frequently used as "hands," and
individual parrots are as definitely
right- or left-"handed" as baseball
pitchers

HINGED

mandYbi-ES

Parrots may be divided into two
groups, those feeding on seeds, nuts
and buds and those feeding on fruits
and nectar. The former have strong,
blunt tongues and powerful bills; this
group is best exemplified by the ma-
caws, which are capable of crushing a
Brazil nut. The latter types, including
the lories, have brushy tips to the
tongue, which they use to lap up soft
fruits and nectar. Some parrots have
developed quite peculiar tastes: the
Kea of New Zealand has become partly
carnivorous through feeding on the
discarded offal of sheep, and will now
sometimes attack and kill live sheep;
the Macquarie Island Parakeet lives
on an island where there are enormous
penguin colonies, and has been seen
wandering around the rookeries eat-
ing, not the contents, but the empty
egg shells.

Numb

in rep *-

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1

cfl

v

\\

The only parrot
that ever reached
the northeastern
United States was
the yellow-headed
Carolina Parakeet.
It is now extinct,
the last unques-
tionable record of
a wild bird being
1904, while the last
zoo bird died at
Cincinnati in 1914.
The main cause of
extirpation was al-
most certainly per-
secution by man,
but the early set-
tlers should not be
judged too harshly
since enormous
flocks would virtu-
ally destroy grain
fields and orchards.
Now the only
United States par-
rot is the Thick-
billed Parrot,
which occasionally
is found in south-
ern Arizona and
New Mexico.

The most aberrant and interesting of the parrots is the
flightless Owl Parrot of New Zealand. Before the coming
of the white man and his carnivorous pets there were no
serious predators on New Zealand, and the Owl Parrot was
widespread ; now it is confined to the forests of North Island.
Here it keeps to dark forest glades, clearing trails along
which it forages, and feeding on rootlets, tender twigs and
fruits. It occasionally climbs trees, using its rudimentary
wings to assist it in hopping from limb to limb.

The vast majority of par-
rots nest in hollow limbs or
holes in trees, and less fre-
quently in crevices in rocks.
Odd variants occur, however.
The Pygmy Parrot of New
Guinea, rather than have his
tunnel run down from the
nest hole, has it run up, so
that the nesting chamber is
above the entrance. Even
more peculiar are the large
communal stick nests of the
Monk Parrot of South Amer-
ica : not only do several pairs
of these parrots nest togeth-
er, but they have been re-
ported to tolerate ducks and
opossums as guests. The
Rosy-faced Lovebird, which
nests in rock crevices, has
the strange habit of carrying
strips of nesting material
tucked under its rump feath-
; while th

I f parrots found

Iitative areas,
ralia 57

By ALAN SOLEM , Curator of Lower Invertebrates

HIDDEN RELICS of the

OCEAN

MAN has climbed the highest moun-
tains, peered through telescopes
into the farthest corners of the universe,
hurled his rockets past the moon, sent
sound waves racing to record the con-
tour of the ocean floor. Now he is even
trying to communicate with life on other
worlds. Yet much of the life of man's
own planet is shrouded from him in
mystery and unseen by human eyes.

Naturalists have scoured the forests
and fields, the lakes and tide pools, for
new animals and plants. Geologists have
chipped rocks and painstakingly recon-
structed fossil fragments, to reveal a sur-
prisingly detailed picture of life in past
eras. Over 1,500,000 living animals and
plants have been named and classified,
and untold thousands of fossil organisms
similarly recorded.

Much of the scientist's work in the
museum is to collate new facts about a
few of these organisms, to name and
classify some of the perhaps 1,000,000
still undescribed species, and to prepare
new summaries about certain small
groups.

In field and forest an unusual crea-
ture is occasionally found, but the great
frontier of research is the ocean. Though
the ocean covers 70 per cent of the earth's
surface, man's penetration of it has been
limited to a few feet unaided, 300 feet
with an aqualung, and 500 feet with a

Page 6

diving suit. Only encased in a steel
sphere can man briefly explore the sea's
dark depths.

Our knowledge of deep ocean life is
based upon tantalizing flash pictures;
the catch of the scientist's blind grop-
ings with dredge and sampler, and of
the fisherman's trawl; the refuse of storms
on ocean shores. Despite this pitifully
inadequate sampling, the two major zoo-
logical discoveries of this century have
come from the ocean.

A five-foot blue fish, Latimeria, is now
familiar to the general reader. It is
a coelacanth, a group not far removed
from man's own ancestry, which was
believed to have been extinct for 75,-
000,000 years. A much more recent
discovery is a rather ordinary looking
one-and-one-half-inch mollusk, Neopi-
lina. This animal belongs to a group
supposed to have been extinct for over
350,000,000 years! Moreover, while
Latimeria provided striking confirmation
of prior conclusions by palaeontologists
in regard to the evolution of vertebrate
life, Neopilina is forcing a complete re-
vision of our ideas of molluscan evolu-
tion, and has upset our definition of a
whole phylum of animals.

The chance discovery of Latimeria is
quite well known, but a brief resume of
the story can point out the important
contribution sometimes made by non-

scientific personnel to scientific discov-
ery. On December 22, 1938, a fisher-
man brought up his trawl from 234 feet
of water off the mouth of the Chalumna
River near East London, South Africa.
A strange blue fish caught his attention,
and he took it to the local museum.
There, the decaying soft parts were re-
moved and the skin was stuffed. Unable
to identify the specimen, a staff member
at the museum called in a zoologist from
a local college for help. J. L. B. Smith
immediately recognized the fish as a
living coelacanth, a group thought to
be extinct since the Cretaceous Period.
Meeting a dinosaur would not have been
more startling.

Circulars describing the new fish were
widely distributed among fishermen in
Madagascar and South Africa in hopes
of obtaining a whole specimen. Many
fishermen claimed to know the fish, but
not until December 21, 1952, was a sec-
ond coelacanth captured. The very iso-
lated Anjuan Island, in the Comorros
group northwest of Madagascar, radi-
oed news of the capture, which was
flashed around the world. Such was
the interest in this living fossil that the
premier of South Africa dispatched an
Air Force plane with Latimeria's de-
scribe^ Dr. Smith, aboard to save the
specimen for study.

Since then several more coelacanths

have been captured, and a magnificently
illustrated monograph of its anatomy is
being published.

What is the scientific significance of
this rather unprepossessing fish? Sev-
eral generations of geologists had been
studying the bones of extinct animals
which they had carefully chipped out of
various rock strata. From the fragmen-
tary evidence available, a gradual out-
line of the path of vertebrate evolution
had been charted, and the probable tree
of man's ancestry traced. It was known
that amphibians, and eventually all
higher vertebrates, arose from a branch
of the lobe-finned, or crossopterygian,
fishes. The coelacanths (to which Lati-
meria belongs) were crossopterygians,
and the public immediately labeled Lati-
meria a "missing link between fish and
man." Actually the coelacanths were
a side branch of the crossopterygians,
while the higher vertebrates were de-
rived from the main crossopterygian line,
the Rhipidistia.

Prior to the discovery of Latimer ia, in-
formation about the evolutionary ances-
try of man had been based on studies of
skeletal parts alone. The opportunity
to study other systems is thus a marve-
lous one for students of vertebrate evo-
lution, and the anatomy of Latimeria will
yield much data. While it is not a
"missing link" at all, Latimeria does rank
as one of the important zoological finds
of the century.

In contrast, the discovery of Neopilina,
though of even greater scientific signifi-
cance, received no immediate fanfare of
attention. The Danish Deep-Sea Expe-
dition undertaken around the world on
the "Galathea" in 1950-52, was the
fourth world marine biological voyage.
Among its achievements was the col-
lection of living organisms from 10,100
meters below the ocean's surface, the
deepest catch ever recorded. But our
interest lies in a less spectacular haul.
On May 6, 1952, the "Galathea"
dredged off the west coast of Costa Rica
at a depth of 3,570 meters. A rich haul
of many species was sorted, washed, and
preserved in alcohol and formalin.

Thirteen specimens of a brownish, con-
ical, thin, one-and-one-half-inch shell,
ten collected alive with the soft parts,
did not attract immediate notice. Until
1956 they lay, unstudied, in bottles of

preservative. Then, routine examina-
tion at once revealed their unusual char-
acters. In early 1957, the British weekly,
Nature, carried the first description of
the most unusual mollusk ever found by
scientists.

About twenty to thirty major types of
structural arrangement among animals
had long been recognized. These pat-
terned groupings, called phyla, represent
basic stages in evolution and differing
plans of physical organization. For ex-
ample, all animals with a dorsal nerve
cord and internal body support, or skel-
eton (fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds,
mammals, and a few primitive marine
organisms), belong to the Phylum Chor-
data. Similarly, all animals with a ven-
tral nerve cord, an external skeleton,
and jointed legs (insects, spiders, scor-
pions, crustaceans, mites, and the like)
belong to the Phylum Arthropoda.
Other groups, such as the echinoderms,
mollusks, segmented worms, flat worms,
round worms, sponges, coelenterates,
protozoans, lamp shells, and a number
of less familiar groups, each represent a
different basic pattern of structure and
form a separate phylum.

In other words, the difference be-
tween a fish and an amphibian, or a
reptile and a monkey, is much less than
the difference between an insect and an
earthworm, or a flat worm and a mollusk.

The marvelous thing about Neopilina
is that it provides a "missing link" be-
tween phyla. It shows conclusively that
the mollusks were derived from a worm-
like ancestor, since it still preserves cer-
tain primitive, worm-like features within
its own anatomy. Not only that, but
the fossil records of Neopilina-like mol-
lusks are all older than 350,000,000 years.

The annelid, or segmented, worms
and the arthropods have long been
known to be related. Their bodies have
hard external coverings and are divided
into a series of more or less modified seg-
ments. Primitive insects can readily be
compared with certain worms, and one
small group of organisms is almost inter-
mediate between the annelids and ar-
thropods. Because of similarities in the
structure of their larval forms, the mol-
lusks have usually been considered as
distantly related to the annelids and ar-
thropods. Yet this has always been dif-
ficult for beginning zoology students to

understand. What possible similarity
does the soft-bodied, slimy mollusk with
its shell of calcium carbonate bear to
the segmented worms and insects with
their chitinous exoskeleton?

Neopilina provides the answer. Its soft
parts show definite signs of segmenta-
tion, proving that mollusks were origi-
nally derived from a segmented ancestor.
The structures are much modified from
the simple pattern of an earthworm, but
the presence of five pairs of gills, six sets
of nephridia (nephridia are kidney or-
gans), several very complex paired mus-
cles, and many other details, shows that
Neopilina and its early fossil relatives
were partially segmented and that
mollusks were derived from a segmented
ancestor.

Subsequent to the news of Neopilina
in 1957, the research vessel, "Vema,"
dredged another species of Neopilina from
3,183 to 3,201 fathoms off the coast of
Peru. This shows that Neopilina is fairly
widely distributed, and of course raises
the question of what other "missing
links" are likely to be found in the sea.

Few people realize what a rare acci-
dent it is for an animal to be preserved
as a fossil. Certain unusual conditions
must take place, and even then only a
tiny percentage of the organisms present
will be preserved. Of organisms living
in water, only those living in or washed
into shallow waters can be fossiled. We
have no records of deep sea organisms
as fossils.

Thus, whenever a group of organ-
isms, under the spur of competition for
food and shelter, leave shallow waters
for the ocean deeps, they disappear from
the fossil record. The ancestors of Neopi-
lina made the change 350,000,000 years
ago; the ancestors of Latimeria "only"
75,000,000 years ago. No one knows
what other groups may still be found.
Each deep trawler's net may contain a
startling fish or other large animal; each
scientist's dredge may pull up another
missing link in the pattern of evolution.

Man will continue groping blindly
on the ocean bottom, taking tempera-
tures, sampling mud, collecting speci-
mens, and divising better chambers in
which to invade this realm. Life forms
from other planets will hardly be more
exciting to scientists than the organisms
still to come from the sea.

Page 7

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

October, 1960

ADULT

LECTURES-

(Continued from page 3)

Winter Wonderland: Fresh snow against a bril-
liant winter sun in New England. Scene from
Donald Shaw's "New England in All Four Sea- J
sons," program for October 1.

November 5 — Norway,
Changing and Changeless

Hjordis Kittel Parker
The dramatic landscape of Norway
from rocky peak to the sea, spine-
tingling scenes of mountain scaling by
the country's most famous mountain
climber, expert skiers skimming across
virgin snows, a day spent on a mountain-
side farm inhabited by three generations
of a 1000-year-old family, and an ab-
sorbing study of the primitive, nomadic
Laplanders — all these document a fas-
cinating, comprehensive picture of Nor-
wegian life.

November 12 — Water World

Stanton Waterman
Going beyond the standard subjects
of color photography, this photographer-
lecturer has chosen to master an en-
vironmental medium that presents a
whole new range of challenges to his
skill with a camera. Four years in the

making, the finished motion picture
emerges as a unique study of undersea
life. Highlights are a rare encounter
with massed barracuda, the exploration
of modern and ancient wrecks, and a
descent into one of the mysterious Ba-
hamian "blue holes." Occasionally the
camera "surfaces" for a dazzling glimpse
of Nassau, Bimini, Cat Cay, the Berry
Islands, and Abaco Cays.

November 19 — Portrait of
London

Curtis Nagel
Sprawling, "grand old dowager" city
of the world, London has entranced visi-
tors for hundreds of years with its char-
acteristic charm. Now, the motion pic-
ture camera distinguishes all the com-
ponents of that charm — beginning with
a sunrise over the Tower Bridge, and
from there following each corner and
turning of the city's physiography —
Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, No.
10 Downing Street, Hyde Park, Ken-
sington Gardens, Petticoat Lane open-
air market, Windsor Castle — recording
for our pleasure the colorful, stirring
sremonies for which England is famous.

'November 26 — Venice and the
Italian Lakes

Thayer Soule
To Thayer Soule, people are as im-
portant as buildings, and the present as
vital as the past — even when portraying
a city as beautiful and ancient as Venice.
His motion picture, therefore, not only
traces the city's beginnings as an island
refuge from barbaric invaders to its
heights as a Renaissance world power,

Pete E. Winter, 16, [right] of
2310 Burr Oak Road, Northfield,
knew just what to do when he came
across this giant puff ball while walking
on the bridle path in the Nixon Forest
Preserve. He picked it up and brought
it down to the Museum. Measuring
16\£ inches long, 11% inches wide,
and 12l/w inches high, the puffball,
though not a record size, turned out to
be the largest that members of the Mu-
seum's Department of Botany had ever
seen. Pete and his brother Bill, 13,
[left] enjoyed comparing his find, which
he has donated to the Museum's study
collections, with the model on exhibit in
the "Hall of Plant Life" in Hall 29.

but also shows us the practical problems
of a modern city afloat — the market, the
omnipresent coffee machine, the arts of
lace and mosaic making. Finally, the
camera throws the city's essence into
bold relief through the magic of con-
trast, as the viewer is transported from
the lowlands to the Alps and the Italian
Lake Country.

MUSEUM NEWS-

(Continued from page 2)

disprove the existence of the Yeti, or
"abominable snowman."

Dr. Fleming is Superintendent of the
Medical Mission to Nepal of the Board
of World Missions of the Methodist
Church. In a delightful Bulletin ar-
ticle for March, 1960, Dr. Fleming fol-
lowed the calendar through the colorful
Nepalese year. We are looking forward
to publishing his personal report of the
"snowman" expedition.

Audubon Lectures Start

The Illinois Audubon Society opens
its 1960-61 lecture season at the Mu-
seum on Sunday, October 9, with a
panoramic screen tour of our youngest
state, Hawaii. In color film, Fran
William Hall of Northfield, Minnesota,
pictures the natural history, the people,
the lavish beauty of the island state.
The program begins at 2 :30 p.m. in the
James Simpson Theatre. The general
public is cordially invited.

VOLUME 31 NUMBER 11

ftmmkit

1 960

CHICAGO
NATURAL
HISTORY
MUSEU

ffuuetin

SACRED

IMAGE

OF THE

PUEBLO

INDIANS

1250-

1350

A.D.

for

picture

story

see

pages

4-5

MUSEUM NEWS

Adult Lecture Series

Color motion pictures narrated in
person.

November 5 Norway, Changing and
Changeless

Hjordis Kittel Parker

November 12 Water World

Stanton Waterman

November 19 Portrait of London

Curtis Nagel

November 26 Venice and the Italian
Lakes

Thayer Soule

James Simpson Theatre. Saturday
afternoons at 2 :30. Free.

Children's Programs

November 5 Nature's Half Acre

{Museum Traveler Day)

November 12 Fantastic Alaska

(Simeon Oliver, "Nutchuk,"
in person)

November 19 Getting Ready for
Winter

(Also a cartoon)

November 26 Toys of Many Lands
and Children

(Plus a cartoon)

James Simpson Theatre. Saturday
mornings at 10:30. Free.

TOYS OF MANY LANDS AND MANY CHILDREN will be the last of the Fall Series of motion picture
programs for children on Saturday, November 26, 10:30 a.m. This will lead into the Winter Journey on

TOYS available to all boys and girls in December, January, and February. The above photograph shows a pre-
view of some of the toys the youngsters will be directed to in the Winter Journey.

Honors

The American Malacological Union,
consisting of more than 800 professionals
and amateurs, has an exclusive category
of membership, called Honorary Life
Member, which is restricted to a maxi-
mum of five individuals. At the recent
meetings of the Union in Montreal, Dr.

Page 2

Fritz Haas, Curator Emeritus of Lower
Invertebrates, in recognition of his out-
standing contributions to malacological
research, was elected an Honorary Life
Member.

Free Concert

The Festival String Quartet will be
joined by Kerstin Meyer, leading mezzo

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahler

Wm. McCorhick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Walter J. Cummings William H. Mitchell

Joseph N. Field John T. Pirie, Jr.

Marshall Field, Jr. Clarence B. Randall

Stanley Field John G. Searle

Samuel Insull, Jr. Solomon A. Smith
Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

E. Leland Webber Assistant Secretary

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

John R. Millar Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
Paula R. Nelson Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Marilyn Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

soprano of the Royal Opera, Stockholm,
on Dec. 7 in the Free Concert Founda-
tion's second chamber music concert of
the 1960-61 season. It will be Miss
Meyer's first Chicago appearance. The
program will begin at 8:30 p.m. in the
James Simpson Theatre. Tickets may
be obtained by writing Free Concerts
Foundation, Chicago Natural History
Museum, Roosevelt Road and Lake
Shore Drive; and enclosing a stamped
self-addressed envelope.

New Staff Member

Mrs. Bertha Gibbs has been appointed
to the position of Cataloger on the staff
of the Museum Library. She was for-
merly on the library staffs at Harvard
University Library, Boston University
Library, and more recently at Armour
Research Foundation of Illinois Institute
of Technology, where she organized a li-
brary for the Fluid Dynamics and Sys-
tems Research Division. Mrs. Gibbs was
graduated from Fisk University and the
University of Illinois Library School.
(Museum News continued on page 8)

By ERNEST J. ROSCOE

Assistant, Lower Invertebrates

A SNAILS PACE

At the end of the day's work, you're
anxious to get home. The elevator
carries you swiftly to the ground floor.
On the street you get into your car and
pull out into the line of traffic. Catch-
ing up to the car ahead, you stop, move
on a short distance, and then brake
again as the line of cars slowly inches
forward. After a few minutes of this
rate of progress you are ready to protest
vehemently that traffic is moving "at a
snail's pace!"

But how fast, exactly, is a snail's pace?
Several years ago, John Oughton, then
on the staff of the Royal Ontario Mu-
seum of Zoology, ran a series of tests on
a number of common North American
land snails and slugs. When we convert
his results, which were reported in centi-
meters per minute, into more familiar
measurements of speed, we find that the
slowest snail was clocked at about %
inch per minute (0.000192 miles per
hour). The fastest gastropod was a slug,
or shell-less snail; it was able to make
about 20 inches per minute (0.00758
miles per hour). On the other hand,
when the recorded speeds of sixteen
kinds of North American land snails and
slugs were compared, the average "snail's
pace" was found to be 6.5 inches per
minute (0.00248 miles per hour).

Many factors affect the speed at which
these animals move. Some are physical
— temperature, humidity, type of ter-
rain, direction of travel with respect to
the pull of gravity, and the like. Other
factors are biological, and relate to the
condition and habits of the animal itself.

That there are differences between indi-
viduals is demonstrated in my own work
with Oreohelix strigosa depressa, one of the
largest land snails of the intermountain
region. I found considerable variation
between individuals of comparable size
tested at the same time under uniform
conditions. Another investigator has re-
ported that young snails move more rap-
idly than adults of the same kind. He
also thought that snails having a secre-
tive mode of life moved more quickly.
And several writers have stated that

carniverous forms are more active than
herbiverous ones.

One of the most interesting questions
centers on the influence of the snail's
shell on its rate of locomotion. In the
study that compared the speeds of six-
teen species of North American land
snails, with two exceptions all snails
with shells were slower than the shell-
less slugs. Apparently slugs are not as
"sluggish" as shelled snails. It would
seem reasonable to conclude that the
additional weight of a shell slows the
snail down. But some biologists are in-
clined to believe that just the reverse is
true — that sluggish habits are a cause,
not a result, of having a shell. The ar-
gument, in brief, runs that sluggish gas-
tropods cannot get rid of excess calcium
as well as active ones. The sluggish ani-
mals, therefore, tend to deposit calcium
in the form of a shell or other skeletal
structure. The interested reader will
find a thought-provoking discussion of
this "sessile" theory of the origin of cal-
careous skeletons in Percy E. Ray-
mond's Prehistoric Life (Harvard Uni-
versity Press, 1947). The question is
far from being resolved, but it does pro-
vide an excellent illustration of the fact
that, in science, one cannot always jump
to the obvious conclusion.

Shell Air Speed

Kind Diameter Temperature Inches per Miles per

(mm.) (°C.) Minute Hour

SNAILS

Stenotrema fraternum 6 (immature) 23.2 9.1 .00346

Triodopsis tridentata 12.5 23. 5 12.7 . 00480

Euconulus chersinus 2.5 23 4.1 .00154

Viirina limpida 4.2 21 6.9 .00259

Vitrina limpida adult 23 7.9 .00298

Zonitoides arborea 4.0-5.3 29 6.1 .00230

Zonitoides arborea 4.9 23.5 5.8 .00221

Zonitoides nitida 4.5-6.0 27 6. t .00260

Rotinella indentata 4 22.4 6.4 .00240

Discus cronkhitei anthonyi 5 21 2.0 .00077

Discus catskillensis 3.8-5.0 .. 3.0 .00115

Anguispira alternata 14. 3 5.8 .00221

Anguispira alternata 7.0 23.5 5.3 .00202

„,,.,., 2.0 .00077

Oreohelix strigosa depressa 16 0 00605

Cochlicopa lubrica 6.51ong 21 3.0 .00115

Vallonia costata 2.3-2.6 .. 0.8 .00029

Carychium exile adult 0.5 .00019

Length of
SLUGS animal (mm.)

Deroceras gracile adult 21 19.1 .00720

Deroceras gracile 18.5 26.6 20.2 .00758

Pallifera dorsalis 1 1-24 .5 21 11.2 . 00422

Pallifera dorsalis 15 23 11.7 .00442

AVERAGE 6.5 .00248

Sources: Basic data from J. Oughton, "University of Toronto Biological Series 57,"
except on Oreohelix, which is from the writer's unpublished M.S. thesis.

Page 3

A A

Dl

1 — This is the Great Kiva, or religious ceremonial chamber of the ancient Pueblo Indians,
excavated by the Museum's Southwest Archaeological Expedition under the direction of Dr.
Paul S. Martin. The structure's dimensions are fifty feet by forty-seven feet, making it very

probably the largest rectangular kiva ever excavated. The block of dirt running diagonally
across the kiva from lower right to upper left is a farm utility road that was not removed in the
excavation process. At the top center can be seen the ancient ramp entrance down which cere-
monial processions probably marched into the chamber. Set at the ramp's base is an unusually
large stone slab that served to deflect drafts from the chamber' s fire pit {the small circle half
hidden by the farm road). On benches surrounding the four sides of the kiva sat the participants

in the sacred rituals. To the right is a stone-lined pit over which planks may have been laid to
serve as foot drums, the space underneath acting as a resonator. Encircled is the masonry vault
within which lay the sacred stone effigy shown on our cover and a miniature votive far containing
eleven beads. During the excavation process, some 800 tons of dirt and rock were removed in
750 man-hours.

Our knowledge of
between 1250 and 1351
covery made by Chic
Expedition, under the
pology. On a new sit
excavating for the pa:
tributed significantly
Pueblo Indians. The
news and scientific n
"Bulletin" readers th.

the

2 — The crypt containing the stone
image was surmounted by a ring slab
top. A worked stone slab covered the
hole. The cover was carefully sealed
into position with adobe, and remained
tight enough to exclude the mud and
dirt that might otherwise have washed
into the vault during the next six cen-
turies. The ring slab entry to the crypt
resembles, in miniature, the ring slabs
used to frame the entry hatchways on

the roofs of smaller ceremonial cham-
bers. The Pueblo Indians believed —
and still believe today — that their an-
cestors emerged into the world through
fust such a passage from their place of
origin in the underworld. Thus every
time the god was removed from the
crypt for a ceremonial occasion, it may
have been a symbolical reenactment of
the Indians' ancestral emergence from
the underworld.

Page U

lotable

icovery

i t culture of the Pueblo Indians who lived in Arizona
30 D. was greatly enriched this summer by a unique dis-
ics Natural History Museum's Southwest Archaeological
le ection of Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of Ant hm
. ithin an area that the Southwest Expedition has been
as ve years, a sacred image was unearthed that has con-
v ;>ur understanding of the religious beliefs of the ancient
e--y of this discovery, which has been reported in major
ma in the United States and abroad, is highlighted for
hrgh the pictures and captions on this page.

jPeering within the ring slab, we glimpse
k'.e effigy and votive vessel in the position

in which they were found. The arrow points
to magnetic north.

This model of the stone im-
age shows how it must have
appeared to the ancient Indians
of the pueblo.

4 — Here the ring slab has been re-
moved to reveal not only the sacred ob-
jects but the construction of the crypt.

The vault is about twelve inches square
by twelve inches deep. Its sides and
floor are lined with sandstone slabs
carefully matched and fitted together.
The image itself, nine inches in height,
is carved of sandstone and painted with

stripes of black, orange, green, and
blue. It was found lying face down,
with its right arm broken off. Such a

cult deity would have been placed on an altar within the Great Kiva
during certain religious ceremonies, and then returned to its sacred
vault, whose architecture mimics that of the smaller kivas. Possibly
the ceremonies in which the effigy figured pertained to the underworld
and were a ritualistic reenacting of tribal origins; perhaps they were
also related to births and deaths in the tribe. The fact that the
image was found face down may signify that no one dared to look

at it, and that on ceremonial occasions it may have been covered or
used face down. There is little doubt that the image had great
sanctity and that only certain persons would have been allowed to
touch it. When the priest carefully placed the sacred carving in its
crypt for the last time after some powerful and moving religious
ceremony, did he realize that he would never see the god again? Or
could the priest deliberately have broken the arm of the effigy to de-
stroy its power when his people decided to move from the pueblo six
hundred years ago?

Page 5

The ALE WIFE

by LOREN P. WOODS

curator of fishes

A RECENT INVADER OF THE UPPER GREAT LAKES
IS A SERIOUS NUISANCE TO RECREATION AND
FISHERIES OPERATIONS AND IS COM-
PETING WITH MORE VALU-
ABLE FISH FOR FOOD
AND LIVING SPACE

FROM time to time during the past
75 years, fishes that were not native
to the region have been found in the up-
per Great Lakes. Some invaded these
waters by extending their ranges; others
were introduced, either by accidentally
escaping from connecting lakes or from
an angler's bait bucket, or through a de-
liberate effort by man to plant some pre-
sumably desirable food or sport fish.

The "colonization" of the Great Lakes
by these immigrant fishes has generally
been documented, so that the approxi-
mate time and place of their arrival,
their first spawnings, and their spread
over the lakes can be traced with a rea-
sonable degree of accuracy.

During the late nineteenth century,
three foreign fishes became established
in the Great Lakes within a few years'
time. The first, and the one that has be-
come most numerous in bays and shallow
waters, was the carp. In 1 877, they were
introduced into Illinois; by 1880 they
were widely distributed. Exactly when
the first introduction occurred in Lake
Michigan is not recorded, but reports on
commercial fisheries of the Great Lakes
for 1890 do not mention carp. During
1899, however, 25,000 pounds of carp
were taken by commercial fishermen, in
spite of there being only a limited mar-
ket for this fish.

After the 1893 world's fair in Chicago,
goldfish that had been planted in the la-

Page 6

goons of the fair grounds escaped into
Lake Michigan. They have since been
abundant in many bays and lagoons
that connect with the lake as well as in
the harbors formed by breakwaters along
the Illinois shores. Since then, goldfish
have been re-introduced many, many
times by anglers, who use them for bait.

Also following the world's fair, rain-
bow trout that had been on display in
exhibition tanks were released in the
lake, and for many years afterward were
reported at intervals from the water sup-
ply cribs. Rainbows were introduced, as
well, into many streams of Wisconsin
and Michigan. In the waters of northern
Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, rain-
bows now are fairly abundant locally
and good spawning runs occur in several
streams.

The invasion of the upper lakes by the
sea lamprey in the early 1920's, its sub-
sequent spread, and its devastating effect
on the lake trout fisheries are well known.
The introduction of the smelt into Crys-
tal Lake, Michigan, its escape into Lake
Michigan in 1923, and its occupation,
by 1936, of all the upper lakes were the
subject of a previous Bulletin article
(March, 1954). Because of their num-
bers and habits, both the sea lamprey
and the smelt have had a profound effect
on many species of native fishes and on
the long-established lake food chains.

In addition to these major invasions,

at least twelve other species of fish have
been introduced into the Great Lakes,
either directly or through the con-
necting waters of the drainage system.
None of these has become so conspicu-
ously widespread or abundant as the
five fishes named above.

However, to the growing list of foreign
fishes that have successfully taken up res-
idence in these lakes, we must now add
the alewife. This is a fish of the herring
family, which is closely related to the
American shad. It is silvery in color,
with a series of saw-like plates forming a
sharp ventral surface. In the Great
Lakes, the alewife reaches a size of only
seven to ten inches.

Alewives have been abundant in Lake
Ontario for at least 70 years. Just how
they got into Lake Ontario — whether
they were left there at the close of the
last glacial depression of this area;
whether they strayed in through the St.
Lawrence River or were brought in acci-
dentally by man — has not been deter-
mined. The only ocean fish known to
migrate regularly through the St. Law-
rence to Lake Ontario is the freshwater
eel. In the early 1870's, however, shad
were introduced into Lake Ontario, and
there is a possibility that alewives were
included in the shipment.

For the past 50 years, at least, they
have been a conspicuous nuisance.
Nearly every summer large numbers die
and, drifting inshore, clutter the beaches
— sometimes in such quantity that they
form windrows. On occasion it has been
necessary to haul them away, or bury
them on the beach. The floating dead
fish soon are covered with a light tan
fungus (Saprolcgnia) and are not only un-
sightly and unpleasant to run into while
swimming, but also give the water a
strong, fishy odor. I have cruised all
afternoon in July along the north shore
of Lake Ontario through dead and float-
ing alewives. At any time, hundreds
could be counted in a circle around our
boat.

Since alewives are migratory, running
upstream to spawn, they eventually
arrived in Lake Erie. They were first
recorded as having been found there
in September, 1931. According to Dr.
R. R. Miller of the University of
Michigan, this was only to have been
expected. Presumably their invasion

route was through the Welland Canal.
Eighteen months later, in March, 1933,
one was captured in northern Lake
Huron, while another was found in
April, 1935. Although they were now
within a few miles of Mackinac Straits,
they did not pass through, for none were
noticed in Lake Michigan until 14 years
later, in May, 1949. Perhaps they were
prevented from establishing themselves
by the lake trout and burbot that were
abundant in Lake Michigan until about
1946. Once these fish populations were
decimated by the sea lamprey, alewives
could move in and survive.

Four years after being first noticed in
Lake Michigan, they had spread to all
parts of the lake. The first evidence of
their spawning was observed in Green
Bay during the summer of 1953. The
first large specimen from near Chicago
was brought to Chicago Natural History
Museum in March, 1954. In October
of 1956, the Museum received young
that had hatched the previous summer.
The following spring, large numbers of
dead alewives were found floating in
Burnham Park lagoon and in the harbor
north of Shedd Aquarium. One evening
near dusk in July of 1957, Mr. William
Braker of the Shedd Aquarium and I
saw hundreds of alewives, in schools of
ten to twenty-five individuals, darting

The "Cisco," United States Fish
and Wildlife Survey vessel, has
been cruising the Upper Great Lakes
for six years locating fish and
studying the general productivity
of the lakes. It is equipped with
the latest in fishery research equip-
ment, including an electronic fish-
finder, modern hydrographic equip-
ment, and research laboratory.

the harbor north of the Aquarium, in
the lagoon, and on the 12th Street beach.
Alewives spend the summer in shallow
water, wintering in offshore waters 72—
1 50 feet deep. In the early spring, along
with many other kinds of lake fish, they
begin to migrate toward shore. The
most reasonable theory to account for
the death of such large numbers of ale-
wives is that they are very slow to adjust
to abrupt differences in temperature. If
the inshore waters are too warm (60-
68° F.) during the time of their inshore
migration, there is great mortality. A
day or two of calm water and bright sun-
shine may be enough to produce lethal
conditions. Another possibility is that
the springtime "bloom" of some particu-
lar plankton may cause death by poison-

Left: After dragging the
bottom for fish, the men
haul in the "otter trawl"
with their catch. In the
foreground is a boom for
lifting the net.

ing, either when eaten by the alewife or
merely through contact. Neither of
these theories has been demonstrated.
Certainly large numbers of alewives
survive each year, and in some years
apparently none are killed at all.

Alewives from Atlantic coastal streams
and along the shore are considered ex-
cellent food, whether fresh, smoked or
salted. When taken from the Great
Lakes, these fish are not as large or fat as
ocean fish, and very little use has been
made of them. They are nothing but a
pest to many gill-net fishermen, who
find their herring and chub nets filled
with valueless alewives. Although they
can be sold as cheap food for mink and
fox farms, or for fertilizer, the price is so
low that it is not profitable to take them
in gill nets or traps. In 1960, about half
a million pounds of alewives were taken
from Lake Michigan. This amount was
worth only $5,426, so it is evident why
the alewives are considered valueless by
commercial fishermen. As for their edi-
bility, last June I met a boy with a
bucket containing a dozen or so eight-
inch alewives that he had caught with
hook and line in Burnham Park Lagoon.

and chasing among the rocks north of the
Planetarium promontory. We could not
see well enough to determine whether
or not they were spawning. A few days
later many dead alewives were observed
floating near shore. These had fungus
infections but no apparent injuries. In
the following year, no dead alewives
were noticed, but in May of both 1959
and 1 960 hundreds of dead were seen in

Right: The catch, almost
entirely chubs netted at
40 fathoms, is poured
onto the deck to be ex-
amined and sorted.

Page 7

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

November, 1960

Asked what he intended to do with them,
his natural reply was, "Eat them." I
suggested that he might find them some-
what bony and dry, but he only nodded
his head and said, "I'll save them 'til
Friday." Unfortunately I was unable
to obtain a report on how they tasted.
It has been predicted that alewives
will become increasingly abundant in
the upper lakes. If this happens, ways
should be found to use them profitably.
There is already some indication that,
where alewives have increased (as in
Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron), the num-
bers of lake herring have decreased. This

may be because the alewife and lake
herring compete for food and space at
some stage during their life cycle. Ale-
wives feed chiefly on animal plankton
(crustaceans) and insects. With this diet
preference, they compete with the young
of most other lake fishes and with not
only the young but also the large white-
fish, lake herring, and chubs. If large
numbers of alewives die, and so become
a nuisance to harbors and beaches, traps
may have to be operated regularly in
order to keep their numbers down. So
far, the development of trawl fishing and
the use of alewives as an industrial fish

for processing into fish meal or fertilizer
appear to offer the best solution.

[After this article was set, we received the

followingurgentdispatchfrom Curator Woods.]

Grand Haven, Michigan

"Stop the presses ! Flash ! I have just
eaten an alewife! And a good thing I
did, too, because it turns out that my
rather disparaging assumptions about
its edibility are misleading.

"To go back a bit, I went out on Lake
Michigan this morning for some trawl-
ing. The wind was so strong and the
seas so high that we came back into port
after one drag. Fortunately our catch
consisted of a tubful of alewives, so I
selected the biggest one (seven inches)
and fried it. To my surprise, it was
quite tasty."

[If any of our Bulletin readers care to
participate in this phase of the research, we'd
be glad to have the results of their studies for
purposes of comparison.]

MUSEUM NEWS

Alfred Lewis Kroeber
1876-1960

The Museum has suffered a great loss
in the death of Dr.Alfred L. Kroeber,
Research Associate in American Archae-
ology. He died in Paris on October 5
while returning from an anthropology
meeting in Austria. He had been ap-
pointed Research Associate in the De-
partment of Anthropology in 1926, and
held this position until his death.

Dr. Kroeber was one of the great an-
thropologists of his time. His book,
Anthropology, written in 1923, was the
first general textbook in anthropology.
He taught at the University of California
in Berkeley from 1901 to 1946, and for
many of these years served both as Chair-
man of the Department of Anthropology
and Director of the Museum of Anthro-
pology. After his retirement, he con-
tinued until the end of his life to teach —
at Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Brandeis,
and Chicago — and to write, edit, and
take part in symposia and conferences.

Dr. Kroeber's association with the
Museum began in 1925, when he con-
ducted the First Marshall Field Archae-
ological Expedition to Peru. The follow-

(Continued from page 2)

ing year he headed the Second Marshall
Field Archaeological Expedition to Peru.
During these two expeditions he sur-
veyed the whole of the Peruvian coast,
carried out important excavations in the
Lima, Caiiete, and Nazca Valleys, and
made surface collections from a large
number of archaeological sites. His ef-
forts nearly doubled the Museum's hold-
ings in Peruvian archaeology and pro-
vided documented material that has
been of prime importance for scientific
study as well as display. As a result of
this field work, Dr. Kroeber published
two survey articles on Peruvian archae-
ology in the American Anthropologist, and
prepared four monographs, which were
published by the Museum, on the exca-
vations and collections. A fifth mono-
graph, on the excavations in Nazca, was
nearly complete at the time of his death.
The passing of Alfred Kroeber marks
the end of an era in American anthro-
pology. He was not only a great figure
but the last of the "universal" anthro-
pologists in this country, his greatest
achievements being in ethnology, lin-
guistics, and folklore. He did more than
any man to record and analyze the cul-
tures and languages of the California

Indians, and at the end of his life he
labored to help them press their claims
against the United States for broken
treaties. His greatest love was for the
history of culture — both of the Americas
and of the whole world. Here, he was
interested not only in what happened,
but in finding patterns or configurations
of culture growth that might contribute
to a universal culture history. Although
he dealt skillfully and enthusiastically
with the minutest particulars, he never
lost sight of the general significance of
what he was doing.

Dr. Kroeber's contributions to Chi-
cago Natural History Museum were
large and enduring. The Museum has
lost a great colleague and a great friend.
Donald Collier

Archie F. Wilson, Associate, Wood
Anatomy, and former resident of Floss-
moor, Illinois, died at his home in Sum-
mit, New Jersey, on 22 August, 1960.
Mr. Wilson's long and valuable assist-
ance in developing the Museum's refer-
ence collection of wood specimens was
recognized in 1954 by his appointment
to the honorary position of Associate in
the Department of Botany.

PRINTED RY rHlTAHO NATIIRAI HISTORY MI !SFI)M DRF<;^

MUSEUM

VOLUME 31

DECEMBER

1960

MUSEUM NEWS

Mr. Leland Webber, As-
sistant Director, presents an
award certificate to one of 69
youngsters honored by the
Museum on November 5 for
achievement in the Museum's
Journey program . This was
the largest number of awards
earned to date in the Ray-
mond Foundation's educational
program begun in 1955, in
which more than 3000 chil-
dren now are active partici-
pants.

Television Participation

The Raymond Foundation is cooper-
ating with CBS-TV to provide educa-
tional segments for one of the oldest and
most popular local television programs
for children, Lee Phillip's "Friendship
Show," presented on Channel 2, at 8:30
o'clock each Saturday morning. The
Museum's contributions to this program
will center on the scientific study of man
and animals. The subject for Decem-
ber 3, presented by Harriet Smith, will be
"Toys of Many Lands and Many Chil-
dren."

Honors

Austin L. Rand, Chief Curator of Zo-
ology, recently was named first vice-
president of the American Ornitholo-
gists' Union at its annual meeting held
recently at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Rand was one of two new officers
and three new council members named
by the organization, a group of 2,500
scientists and laymen who share a com-
mon interest in birds. Dr. George H.
Lowery, Jr., of Louisiana State Univer-
sity was re-elected president of the or-
ganization.

Page 2

Chamber Music Concert

Free Concerts Foundation, in its sec-
ond free concert of the season on Decem-
ber 7, will present a diversified program
of chamber music, including works by
Haydn, Brahms, Ravel, Bartok, and
Verdi. Featured soloist is the Swedish
mezzo-soprano, Kerstin Meyer, who is
making her Chicago debut on this occa-
sion. The concert also marks the first
appearance with the quartet of its new
cellist, Robert La Marchina, first cellist
with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The program will open with the play-
ing of Haydn's Quartet in D Minor,
popularly known as "The Fifths." Miss
Meyer will then join the quartet in "His-
toires Naturelles," five songs by Maurice
Ravel; two songs with viola obbligato
by Johannes Brahms; and the "Eight
Hungarian Folk Songs" by Bela Bartok.
The program will close with Giuseppe
Verdi's E Minor string quartet.

The concert will begin at 8:30 p.m. in
James Simpson Theatre. Tickets may
be obtained by writing the Free Con-
certs Foundation, Chicago Natural His-
tory Museum, Roosevelt Road and Lake
Shore Drive, enclosing a stamped, self-
addressed envelope.

Chicago Natural History Museum

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893

Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5

Telephone: WAbash 2-9410

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Lester Armour Henry P. Isham

t Sewell L. Avery William V. Kahi.er

Wm. McCormick Blair Hughston M. McBain

Walther Buchen J. Roscoe Miller

Walter J. Cummings William H. Mitchell

Joseph N. Field John T. Pirie, Jr.

Marshall Field, Jr. Clarence B. Randall

Stanley Field John G. Searle

Samuel Insull, Jr. Solomon A. Smith
Louis Ware

OFFICERS

Stanley Field President

Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President

Walther Buchen Second Vice-President

Joseph N. Field Third Vice-President

Solomon A. Smith Treasurer

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary

E. Leland Webber Assistant Secretary

t deceased

THE BULLETIN

EDITOR
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology

JOHN R. Mhxar Chief Curator of Botany

Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology

Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology

MANAGING EDITOR
Paula R. Nelson Public Relations Counsel

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Marilyn Jindrich Associate in Public Relations

Members are requested to inform the Museum
promptly of changes of address.

Sewell L. Avery
1874-1960

Chicago Natural History Museum sus-
tained a severe loss when Sewell L. Avery
died at his home on October 31, 1960.
Mr. Avery had been a member of the
Board of Trustees since January, 1 932,
and had served on the Pension Commit-
tee continuously since January of 1933.
His Life Membership in the Museum
dated from 1923.

His service to the Museum was note-
worthy and included the sponsorship of
botanical expeditions to Guatemala and
to Nova Scotia, as well as a geological
field trip within the United States and a
zoological expedition to British Guiana.

Mr. Avery was widely known as a
champion of free enterprise, and as a
courageous fighter for his beliefs. He
had been in ill health for more than a
year, and was 86 years of age at the time
of his death.

Word was received recently of the
death of Professor Gregorio Bondar,
{Museum News continued on page 8)

By KENNETH STARR

Curator, Asiatic Archaeology and Ethnology

Chinese Art

and

Christmas

OUR cover shows a detail from a
Chinese Christian painting of the
Madonna and Child, which is repro-
duced in full on the right. This painting
is in the study collections of the Depart-
ment of Anthropology.

The Madonna in her flowing mantle
and elegantly draped veil of light buff
color stands against a dark brown back-
ground, with nimbus and bodice in rich
red. The Christ Child is represented as
a little Chinese boy who wears the tradi-
tional tuft of hair and carries a Chinese
book. Despite this interesting represen-
tation of the subject in the Chinese man-
ner, the painting is obviously European
in origin. It has been suggested that it is a
copy of a painting or engraving brought
to China by the first great Jesuit mis-
sionary, Matteo Ricci (1552-1610 a.d.).

The painting has been attributed to
T'ang Ying, a famous painter active at
the end of the 1 5th century. This is un-
likely, however, since Christianity in its
modern form did not reach China until
one hundred years later. An 18th century
dating would be consistent with the in-
formation given to the Museum in 1910
when the painting was acquired, namely,
that it had been in the family of the
Chinese owner for six generations.

On the lower part of the page is a
rubbing of a clay tile made in the fourth
year of the T'ai-ho (Great Peace) reign
period of the Wei Dynasty. Of immedi-
ate interest is its remarkable resemblance
to the scene known in Christian tradition
as the Flight into Egypt. A woman
dressed in loose-flowing mantle and veil,
or wimple, is riding what seems to be a

fl : ■ . • \0 fa V-^wa ur ^ vs to

donkey or ass. A groom leads the beast,
while one of the two persons walking
beside it very carefully carries something
in his arms that could well be a baby.

The likelihood that this is a represen-
tation of the Flight is lessened, however,
by the fact that the tile is datable through
its inscription to a period at least 150
years before the known introduction of
Nestorian Christianity to China.

.Nevertheless, the scene still titillates
the imagination, still suggests some Chris-
tian or Near Eastern influence, and still
serves to remind us of the commingling
of cultural elements — here represented
by the clothing and mode of transporta-
tion— within Central Asia which has
enabled it to serve since prehistoric times
as a link between the Near East and
Europe, on the one hand, and China
and contiguous areas of Eastern Asia,
on the other.

Page 3

San Antonio, founded in 1650, is one of the Jew villages of
the colonial epoch. Honduras has been relatively free of the
elsewhere in Central America. The church in San Antonio i
the center of the villagers' Christmas celebration.

THE Christmas season in Honduras is
a joyful time for all people. Espe-
cially in the smaller towns and villages
of the interior, families still celebrate the
holiday in traditional ways.

The religious theme is, of course, of
primary significance in the festivities.
Preparing and decorating the nativity
scene, or creche, is an important activity.
The creche is usually begun early in
December. Much thought and care go
into its assembling, whether it is simple
enough to be set up on a table in the
corner of the living room or so elaborate
that it nearly fills that room. A small
creche may contain perhaps a dozen
figures. Larger re-creations of the stable
at Bethlehem may be filled with a hun-
dred or more figures, representing the
Infant Jesus surrounded by the Virgin

Page k

Mary, St. Joseph, adoring shepherds and
Magi, oxen, asses, and sheep. These
figurines, which are sometimes simply
made of clay, but are usually more elab-
orate objects of carved wood, porcelain,
or plastic, are treasured from year to
year for use in the creche.

The stage setting for the manger scene
also includes much plant material.
Mosses from the woods, especially those
that grow into great, sheet-like mats, are
used to represent grass. Animals carved
or molded in El Salvador, in Guatemala,
in Spain, in Czechoslovakia, or in Japan
"graze" contentedly on fields of moss
gathered from the forests of Honduras.
Together, they form a tableau repre-
senting an event that took place almost
two millenia ago not far from the east-
ern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

CHRISTM,

IN

HONDUR,

by
Louis O. William:

Associate Curator, Central Americ;
Photographs by the authot

Greenery is also used in other ways to
decorate the homes, the country people
gathering materials that are close at
hand, while city-dwellers buy what is
available in the markets. In the high-
lands of Honduras, many bromeliads are
at the height of their splendor as the
short, year-end days draw near. Great
basket-loads of blossoms are gathered
and brought into the markets, which are
like a flower garden during the Christ-
mas season, full of mosses, orchids, bro-
meliads, ferns, and palms. Each year I
visited the principal markets in Tegucigal-
pa to see what showy bromeliads the
plant gatherers had found which I had
not yet discovered in the country. Per-
haps the most brilliant Tillandsia of Hon-
duras is one that I knew for several
years only from two plants "collected"
in the market.

One small prostrate orchid with rather
attractive flowers, Epidendrum polybulbon,

j America that must still be very like those of

I kes that have destroyed most colonial villages

' possibly not more than 150 years old. It is

3

any

is also in flower at this season and is
sought for use in decorating creches.
Many mule loads of this little orchid
come into the Tegucigalpa market each
Christmas season.

In more recent years the use of Christ-
mas trees has become more common in
many homes, especially in the highlands
where pines are abundant. The use of
pine needles to cover the floor in dwell-
ings where festivities are to be held is a
very old custom in Central America,
coming down from pre-Columbian, and
therefore pre-Christian, times. The ex-
tension of this custom to the use of pine
trees in the Christmas celebration is an
importation and, as such, has often been
resisted by the clergy.

On Christmas Eve, late in the evening
or at midnight, everyone goes to church.
After returning home, families exchange
their gifts around the creche or Christmas
tree. Then comes one of the great, tradi-
tional feasts of the Christmas season, at
which tamales or nacatamales must be
the main course. Nacatamales are made
from corn meal ground very fine, turkey,

A dead pine tree in the mountains of Honduras bears a burden of bromeliads, orchids, and
ferns. These epiphytes occur mostly on the side of the pine facing the direction from which
the night mists and fogs come during the dry season, which is also the direction of the pre-
vailing trade winds that blow from about the Christmas season until May.

Indian women in the market area of Tegucigalpa sell palm leaves, bromeliads, orchids, and ferns
which they have gathered in the mountains.

vegetables, spices, and seasoning. This
stuffing is wrapped in banana leaves,
tied, and then boiled or steamed for sev-
eral hours. Nacatamales are a typical
Central American dish, which I have
seen nowhere else in Latin America.
Each nacatamale weighs about a pound
and well-prepared ones are very good.
The festive meal is seldom over until two
or three o'clock in the morning.

In Honduras, as elsewhere in Central
America, the setting off of fireworks to
celebrate the birthday of Christ is tradi-
tional. Even when a son is born, the
father announces the event to the world
by shooting off the biggest firecrackers
that he can find or afford. On Christ-
mas Eve, especially, the fireworks con-
tinue throughout the night.

Page 5

Collecting frankincense.
Woodcut from Pare's
"De Distlllatlonibus"
published In 1582.

Jffrattkmttfnstf nttb iUxjrrlj

by

John W. Thieret

Curator, Economic Botany

THE esteem in which frankincense and
myrrh were held in ancient times is
indicated by the Wise Men's choice of
these substances to rank with gold as
offerings to the young child Jesus. Frank-
incense and myrrh — which were used by
peoples of antiquity for embalming and
in cosmetics, perfumes, medicines, and
incense — are resins derived from plants.
They flow from wounds or natural fis-
sures in the bark of certain trees and

Page 6

shrubs of the bursera family that grow
on the parched, rocky hills of Somaliland
and south-western Arabia, the region of
the fabled land of Punt.

A detailed account of frankincense is
given by Theophrastus who relates, in
his On the History of Plants, that this com-
modity was produced in Saba, one of the
most active trading nations of antiquity,
located in southwestern Arabia. Accord-
ing to Diodorus, who lived in the time of

Julius Caesar, the Sabaeans sold their
frankincense to Arabs who, in turn,
passed it to many peoples. When the
army of Alexander the Great captured
Gaza (333 B.C.), that antique city once
so important as a junction of trade
routes, 500 talents of frankincense were
taken as plunder and sent to Macedonia.
An inscription on the ruined sanctuary
of Apollo at Miletus in Asia Minor re-
cords oblations of frankincense presented

by the monarchs of Syria and Cicilia.
Frankincense may have been known as
far away from its origin as China by the
tenth century a.d., and surely by the
twelfth.

The main use of frankincense by an-
cient peoples was for incense. Balls of
incense found in the tomb of King Tut-
ankhamen were identified as frankin-
cense. The resin was prominent in
Graeco-Roman materia medica. Ac-
cording to Celsus, it was an ingredient in
many prescriptions, including those for
pains in the side and chest, hemorrhoids,
hemorrhages from the mouth and
throat, broken heads, paralyzed limbs,
bruises, ulcers, and abcesses.

Frankincense is obtained from trees
belonging to the genus Boswellia. The
main source of the resin is Boswellia car-
teri, although at least one other species
contributes to the supply. Boswellia car-
teri is a small, shrubby tree, from seven
to fifteen feet tall, with a stout trunk and
smooth, pale brownish-yellow bark. Its
leaves have several pairs of leaflets ar-
ranged along a central stalk; its flowers
are white and are grouped in slender
clusters. The blossoms are so fragrant
that the air is redolent of them a con-
siderable distance away.

Most frankincense comes from Soma-
liland but some is gathered in Arabia.
No attempt is made to cultivate the in-
cense tree. In tapping the trees, deep
incisions are made in the bark, and the
resin exudes from these as a whitish, vis-
cous liquid that soon hardens into yellow-
ish tears. A tree may be tapped in one
or several places, depending on its size.
After about a fortnight, the dried resin is
removed and the wound is freshened.
Further collections are made every few
weeks until the work is halted by the ad-
vent of the rainy season. At each visit,
usually only the resin found on the
wound itself is gathered. Resin that runs
down the stem is regarded as an inferior
grade and is collected only after it has
accumulated for several months.

Most frankincense eventually is
brought to Aden whence it is shipped to
European or American ports or to Bom-
bay, the center of Asiatic trade in gums
and resins. In transit to Aden, the tears
of frankincense may fuse together be-
cause of the hot weather, making the
sorting of the resin difficult and expen-

sive. Frankincense consists of translu-
cent, pale yellow tears or darker yellow,
reddish or brownish lumps that may be
mixed with pieces of bark. The resin,
which usually is covered with a whitish
dust, is brittle and has a pleasantly aro-
matic odor and a bitter taste.

Myrrh is obtained from several species
of the genus Commiphora and is collected
mainly in Somaliland. The identity of
all the species involved is uncertain, but
Commiphora molmol appears to be the
principal source of the resin. Myrrh-
yielding plants may be scraggly, spiny
bushes or small trees ten to thirty feet
tall. They have a disproportionately
thick trunk and pale orange-brown to
whitish-grey bark. Their foliage is in
small tufts at the ends of stubby twigs.
The leaves have three leaflets, with the
two side-leaflets sometimes very small.
The flowers are white and are borne
singly or in tiny clusters among the leaves.

Myrrh exudes freely out of wounds or
natural fissures in the bark. After collec-
tion it is placed in goat skins and sent to
the coast for sale and export. Myrrh con-
sists of rounded, irregular, brownish-
yellow or red-brown tears or masses of
fused tears that may be as large as a
hen's egg. The resin usually has a dull,
dusty surface. It is aromatic and has a
bitter, acrid taste.

An old legend gives an interesting
account of the origin of Adonis, that
youth of remarkable beauty, from a
myrrh tree. Myrrha, daughter of
Theias, king of Syria, was inspired by
Venus with an unnatural love for her
father. By deceiving Theias as to her
identity, Myrrha conceived by him.
When the king learned of the deception,
he exiled his daughter to the barren
deserts of Arabia, where the gods trans-
formed her into a myrrh tree. After a
time the tree burst asunder and from it
came forth Adonis.

Turning from myth to history, we
learn that about 1,500 B.C., Queen Hat-
shepsut of Egypt, who acquired ever-
lasting fame through her magnificent
terrace-temple at Dehr el Bahri, sent a
treasure hunting expedition to Punt.
Paintings in the temple illustrate some of
the booty gained, including not only an
abundance of myrrh but also live myrrh
trees growing in tubs. Inscriptions in the
temple state that Hatshepsut rubbed

myrrh on her legs to impart fragrance.
During the feast of Isis, the ancient Egyp-
tians made a burnt offering of an ox
whose carcass was stuffed with myrrh
and frankincense so that the aromatic
fumes of these resins would mask the
smell of burning flesh. Myrrh was the
incense used on the altars of the sun god
at Heliopolis, the city of sun worship.
Persian monarchs wore the resin in their
crowns. The author of the Periplus of the
Erythrean Sea, a 90 a.d. geography, men-
tions that myrrh was an export of Ava-
lites, Malao, Mundus, and Mosyllon,
ancient ports on the African coast below
the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, the south-
ern outlet of the Red Sea.

One of the best-known ancient uses of
myrrh was in embalming. According to
Pliny, the embalming of Nero's wife,
Poppaea, was said to have taken a
"whole year's production" of myrrh. In
Egypt, the resin had a role in the process
of mummification: Herodotus tells us
that myrrh was one of the substances
with which the eviscerated and cleansed
body was filled. Some ancient medical
uses of myrrh can be learned by again
consulting Celsus, where we are informed
that this resin was prescribed by Graeco-
Roman physicians in the treatment of
quartan fever, dropsy, earache, eye dis-
eases, bladder stones, abscesses, and
broken heads.

Of the use of myrrh in mediaeval
Europe there are only a few records but
they show that the resin was highly re-
garded. Myrrh was recommended in
superstitious medical practice of the
eleventh century and was used by the
Welsh "Physicians of Myddfai" in the
thirteenth. In accounts of Edward I of
England is an entry dated January 6,
1299, for gold, frankincense, and myrrh,
which were offered by the king in his
chapel on that day, the Feast of Epi-
phany. Myrrh and frankincense were
purchased for the funeral of the infant
King John I, posthumous son of Louis X
of France, in 1316. Myrrh was among
the presents that the king of Cathay sent
to Pope Benedict XII at Avignon about
the year 1342. This shipment never
reached its destination but was plun-
dered enroute.

In the modern world, frankincense and
myrrh are still articles of trade although
they are not so highly valued as in former

Page 7

Page 8

CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN

December, 1960

Frankincense from the Museum's study collections. It is in two forms: fused
masses of tears and select tears.

times. Frankincense is an important in- fumigating. In most countries its use in
cense material and is said to be good for medicine has become obsolete. Myrrh

has antiseptic properties and acts as a
local stimulant. It is used in certain
mouth washes and in tincture of myrrh,
which is vividly, albeit somewhat grue-
somely, described by the United States
Dispensatory as "a local application to
stimulate spongy gums, aphthous sore
mouth, and ulcerations of the throat."
Some myrrh goes into incense. Essential
oils of myrrh and of frankincense, ob-
tained from the resins by distillation,
are valued ingredients in perfumes of
the oriental type. To find data on the
amounts of frankincense and myrrh im-
ported into the United States is no easy
task. In recent years our imports of
myrrh have varied from 19,040 to 43,607
pounds annually. Data on frankincense
could not be obtained.

Today, the collection of these resins in
Somaliland and Arabia goes on much as
it did centuries ago when these aromatic
plant-products were valued on a par
with gold. Their contemporary role is a
minor and prosaic one. But not so their
past. Resins derived from plants are
many, but few can boast so colorful a
history as frankincense and myrrh.

MUSEUM NEWS

Research Associate in Insects, in Feb-
ruary, 1959, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Pro-
fessor Bondar was trained as an agron-
omist and entomologist in Russia and
in France. In 1920, after narrowly es-
caping execution for his activities in the
anti-communist government headed by
Admiral Kolchak, he fled to Brazil from
Russia. He soon entered the services
of the Department of Agriculture of the
State of Bahia and held various posts in
that department, later becoming Tech-
nical Counselor of the Central Institute
of Economic Development of Bahia. He
was elected a Research Associate in In-
sects in 1942 in recognition both of his
scientific achievements and of his close
cooperation with the Chicago Natural
History Museum's Department of Bot-
any and Division of Insects.

Professor Bondar published several
hundred technical and scientific papers
in the fields of agronomy, botany, and
entomology. He was an authority on
economically important plants.

(Continued from page 2)
Holiday Hours

On Christmas and New Year's Day
the Museum will be closed to permit all
its employees to enjoy the holidays with
their families. These are the only days
in the entire year on which the Museum
is not open to the public. The Museum
will be open on December 26 and Jan-
uary 2.

Research

C. Earle Smith, Jr., Associate Cura-
tor of Vascular Plants, visited Harvard
University late this fall to photograph
the handwriting of various 18 th century
botanists in connection with the research
he is conducting on the Muhlenberg
Herbarium. Gotthilf Henry Muhlen-
berg was the first American botanist
to assemble a herbarium of American
plants, and his collection is presently on
loan to the Museum from the Academy
of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. In
many cases the collectors and original

locations of plant specimens in the her-
barium were incompletely identified by
Muhlenberg. Since complete informa-
tion is essential in using the herbarium
for comparative study purposes, Dr.
Smith is attempting to fill in the gaps
by identifying the handwriting of the
unknown collectors through compari-
sons with the known handwriting of
botanists who collected between 1775
and 1815. This information then also
provides a clue to the area from which
the plants were originally obtained.

John W. Thieret, Curator of Economic
Botany, and Dr. Robert Evers of the
Illinois State Natural History Survey,
Urbana, Illinois, recently made a re-
search trip through Nebraska and Kan-
sas for the two-fold purpose of studying
and collecting specimens of the grasses
that grow in those states, and observing
the prairie vegetation in its autumnal
aspect.

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