more or less defective skulls. Beneath the crust was white sand, which also contained many bones, with a few Indian ornaments and fragments of pottery. The consolidated crust differed in composition. For the larger part it was coquina, of just about such a composition as beach accumulations along the sea; but in other places the solidified part consisted almost entirely of white sand, while in still others it was a dark concretionary mass enclosing shells, sand, and vegetable matter, besides the bones. The human bones, though evidently more or less changed, were not yet petrified; and the mound as a whole appears to have no claim to antiquity greater than perhaps a few hundred years; but its surface offers a fine example of what favorable conditions can accomplish in no great space of time in the way of consolidation and inclusion into rock of human remains.

BIOLOGICAL WORK IN CUBA AND HAITI.

Mr. John B. Henderson, a Regent of the Institution, and Dr. Paul Bartsch, curator of marine invertebrates, spent the last half of March in the region about the Guantanamo Naval Station in eastern Cuba, collecting a large quantity of very interesting land shells, birds, plants, fossils, and marine invertebrates. The month of April was spent in Haiti, where they thoroughly explored the Cul-de-Sac region, the north coast of the western peninsula, and the coastal range from the Cul-de-Sac north as far as San Marcos. They secured many interesting specimens of land and fresh water mollusks, several new birds, some very interesting cacti and other plants, and a general invertebrate collection from this much neglected island. A large series of interesting photographs was also made, many of which will be used in a report on the expedition which the explorers hope to publish in the near future.

BOTANICAL EXPLORATIONS IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

During the summer of 1916, from June to November, Mr. A. S. Hitchcock, custodian of the section of grasses of the division of plants in the National Museum, traveled in the Hawaiian Islands studying and collecting the flora, especially the grasses. Concerning his explorations Mr. Hitchcock says:

The islands are all of volcanic origin and the rock is lava except a very little that is coral formation. Kauai, the geologically oldest island, shows the greatest effect of erosion, the deep canyons rivaling in beauty the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. On the island of Hawaii are the two highest peaks of the group, Mauna Kea, 13,825 feet, and Mauna Loa, 13,675 feet in height. Above 10,000 feet there is scarcely any vegetation upon these peaks, especially upon Mauna Loa, which is made up of comparatively recent lava.

The important agricultural industries are the raising of sugar, live stock, and pineapples. The cultivated trees and shrubs are of great variety and beauty, and are drawn from all tropical and subtropical lands. One of the introduced trees of great economic importance is the algaroba tree, or kiawe, as the Hawaiians call it. It is found in a belt on the lowlands along the shores of all the islands and occupies the soil almost to the exclusion of other plants.

The pods are very nutritious and are eagerly eaten by all kinds of stock. The flowers furnish an excellent quality of honey. The prickly pear cactus has become extensively naturalized in the dryer portions of all the islands. The ranchmen utilize this for feed when other kinds become scarce, the cattle eating the succulent joints in spite of the thorns. Two introduced shrubs now occupy extensive areas and have become great pests. These are guava, whose fruit furnishes the delicious guava jelly, and lantana, with clusters of handsome parti-colored flowers.

The indigenous flora is highly interesting though not abundant in species. Two of the commonest trees are the ohia and the koa. The former, also called ohia lehua and lehua, resembles, in the appearance of the trunk, our white oak, but bears beautiful clusters of scarlet flowers with long-protruding stamens. The koa produces a valuable wood much used in cabinetmaking, now becoming familiar through its use for making ukuleles. Among the peculiar plants of the islands is the silversword, a strikingly beautiful composite with glistening silvery leaves, which grows only on the slopes of cinder cones in the crater of Haleakala and in a few very limited localities on Hawaii. The family Lobeliaceae is represented by about 100 species belonging to 6 genera. The numerous arborescent species are very peculiar and characteristic. Many of them form slender trunks like small palms, crowned with a large cluster of long narrow leaves. The trunks of some species are as much as 30 or 40 feet high, and the large bright colored flowers are sometimes remarkably beautiful.

The indigenous grasses of the Hawaiian Islands are not numerous. Three peculiar species of Panicum inhabit the open bogs formed on the tops of many of the high mountains in the wet zone such as Mount Eeka and Mount Kukui in West Maui, some of the peaks of Molokai and Oahu, and Waialeale in Kauai, that upon the latter covering in all several square miles. These bogs are found near the summits of ridges in the regions of heavy rainfall, are devoid of trees and shrubs, and harbor a peculiar vegetation.

CINCHONA BOTANICAL STATION.

Recently the Institution has acquired a three years' lease of the Cinchona Botanical Station at Jamaica, comprising about 10 acres of land, with offices, laboratories, and other buildings, for the furtherance of our knowledge of West Indian botany. Assignment of botanists who desire to prosecute studies there are made on the recommendation of organizations which have cooperated with the Institution in securing the use of this important field for botanical investigations.

BIOLOGICAL WORK IN CHINA.

Mr. Arthur deC. Sowerby has continued his work in northeastern China though conditions have been so unsettled as to make collecting extremely difficult. A shipment of natural history specimens to the Museum from Mr. Sowerby received May 27, included 186 bird skins, 44 mammals, 1 reptile, 16 fishes, and other miscellaneous natural history objects.

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EXPLORATIONS IN SANTO DOMINGO.

Dr. W. L. Abbott, whose energies for nearly 30 years past have been devoted to explorations in the Old World, made a short visit to Santo Domingo (the scene of his earliest expedition, in 1883), where he spent a few weeks in late summer and fall, 1916, at the eastern end of the island, chiefly in the vicinity of the Bay of Samana, with trips to several localities in the highlands of the interior, notably at Constanza and El Rio. On this expedition he made a very interesting collection of mammals, birds, reptiles, mollusks, insects, and Indian relics.

In the coast region, Dr. Abbott investigated numerous caves in search of remains of an extinct mammalian fauna. One of the most interesting mammals whose remains were found in these caves is a large rodent, described from a freshly killed specimen in 1836, but not captured since then. Whether it is extinct or not is at present an uncertainty. At San Lorenzo Bay, on the south side of the Bay of Samaná, there are "many precipitous limestone hills," which. Dr. Abbott writes, are "literally honeycombed with caves. The cave (usually inhabited) near the pier of the abandoned railroad is full of shell heaps, and contains many Indian carvings, more or less obliterated by smoke and lime deposits." Here he uncovered two hundred or more archeological objects, including terra-cotta images, fragments of pottery, stone pestles, carved stone plates, and similar material.

After exhausting the caves in the vicinity of Samaná, Dr. Abbott visited the mountains of the interior, where, at El Rio, he made a most surprising discovery in the bird fauna. He writes "I had heard of a very small 'parrot' which lived in flocks in the pines on the pine cones. I suspected a crossbill-said to occur here at Jarabocoa, below 2,000 feet, but the pair I shot were at near 5,000 feet.” The bird proved to be a veritable crossbill and, what was most extraordinary, a form closely related to the white-winged crossbill, a species restricted in the breeding season to the Boreal zone of North America (from Alaska to the higher Adirondacks), migrating in winter at rare intervals as far south as North Carolina.

The series of birds totaled about 250 specimens, of 50 or more species, over 30 of which are peculiar to the island. The indigenous species of this island have long constituted the Museum's chief desiderata among the birds of the West Indies, hence Dr. Abbott's collection has proved of great interest, aside from the special discoveries mentioned above.

EXPEDITION TO CELEBES.

Through the generosity of Dr. W. L. Abbott, associate in zoology in the Museum, Mr. H. C. Raven has continued to make natural

history and ethnological collections in Celebes. In April the Museum received a shipment of ethnological objects from Mr. Raven, including native fish traps, baskets, cloth, rope, hats, dishes, blowguns used for hunting birds, and a curious native musical instrument.

COLLINS-GARNER CONGO EXPEDITION.

Early in 1917 an expedition with the title of the Collins-Garner Congo expedition in the interests of the Smithsonian Institution, left for the French Congo and neighboring parts of west Africa. Mr. C. R. W. Aschemeier, of the department of biology, National Museum, is representing the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum as natural history collector. All of the natural history specimens collected by the expedition will come to the National Museum. The other members of the expedition are Mr., Alfred M. Collins, of Philadelphia, chief; Prof. Richard L. Garner, of New York, who is making special studies concerning apes and monkeys, manager; and Prof. Charles W. Furlong, of Boston, scientist, artist, and explorer.

RESEARCH CORPORATION.

In my annual reports for several years past I have called attention to the Research Corporation organized in 1912 under the laws of New York State, and having as its officers and directors a group of men particularly interested in the development of the industrial arts. The present Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution is one of the directors and a member of the executive committee. The certificate of incorporation declares it to be the purposes of the corporation to

Provide means for the advancement and extension of technical and scientific investigation, research, and experimentation by contributing the net earnings of the corporation over and above such sum or sums as may be reserved or retained and held as an endowment fund or working capital, and also such other moneys and property belonging to the corporation as the board of directors shall from time to time deem proper, to the Smithsonian Institution, and such other scientific and educational institutions and societies as the board of directors may from time to time select, in order to enable such institutions and societies to conduct such investigation, research, and experimentation.

The principal income of the corporation is at present derived from royalties for the use of the Cottrell process for the electrical precipitation of suspended particles. Dr. F. G. Cottrell, the inventor of this process, offered his patents to the Smithsonian Institution, but since it was not practicable for the Institution to administer them commercially, the Research Corporation was organized for that purpose. The process is now in successful use by a score of smelting and refining companies and other industrial plants and the financial condition of the corporation is very gratifying.

EXPLORATIONS IN SANTO DOMINGO.

Dr. W. L. Abbott, whose energies for nearly 30 years past have been devoted to explorations in the Old World, made a short visit to Santo Domingo (the scene of his earliest expedition, in 1883), where he spent a few weeks in late summer and fall, 1916, at the eastern end of the island, chiefly in the vicinity of the Bay of Samana, with trips to several localities in the highlands of the interior, notably at Constanza and El Rio. On this expedition he made a very interesting collection of mammals, birds, reptiles, mollusks, insects, and Indian relics.

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In the coast region, Dr. Abbott investigated numerous caves in search of remains of an extinct mammalian fauna. One of the most interesting mammals whose remains were found in these caves is a large rodent, described from a freshly killed specimen in 1836, but not captured since then. Whether it is extinct or not is at present an uncertainty. At San Lorenzo Bay, on the south side of the Bay of Samaná, there are many precipitous limestone hills," which, Dr. Abbott writes, are "literally honeycombed with caves. The cave (usually inhabited) near the pier of the abandoned railroad is full of shell heaps, and contains many Indian carvings, more or less obliterated by smoke and lime deposits." Here he uncovered two hundred or more archeological objects, including terra-cotta images, fragments of pottery, stone pestles, carved stone plates, and similar material.

After exhausting the caves in the vicinity of Samaná, Dr. Abbott visited the mountains of the interior, where, at El Rio, he made a most surprising discovery in the bird fauna. He writes "I had heard of a very small 'parrot' which lived in flocks in the pines on the pine cones. I suspected a crossbill-said to occur here at Jarabocoa, below 2,000 feet, but the pair I shot were at near 5,000 feet." The bird proved to be a veritable crossbill and, what was most extraordinary, a form closely related to the white-winged crossbill, a species restricted in the breeding season to the Boreal zone of North America (from Alaska to the higher Adirondacks), migrating in winter at rare intervals as far south as North Carolina.

The series of birds totaled about 250 specimens, of 50 or more species, over 30 of which are peculiar to the island. The indigenous species of this island have long constituted the Museum's chief desiderata among the birds of the West Indies, hence Dr. Abbott's collection has proved of great interest, aside from the special discoveries mentioned above.

EXPEDITION TO CELEBES.

Through the generosity of Dr. W. L. Abbott, associate in zoology in the Museum, Mr. H. C. Raven has continued to make natural