Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 279, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1920 — To Search for “Missing Link” [ARTICLE]

To Search for “Missing Link”

Great Expedition Will Explore liemote Sections of Asia for Most Primitive Human Remains. GREATEST EVER ORGAMZED. China and Mongolia Expected to Yield Up Treasures In Anthropology and Archaeology—Chinese Superstition Big Drawback. New York —To search for the most primitive human remains, the “missing link” between man and the apes, will be the object of a great expedito be sent out by the American Museum of Natural History in co-op-eration with the American Asiatic as l sedation and Asia Magazine. The expedition win be the greatest of its kind which has ever been organized by any institution in the world and will work for five years with a large party of scientists in various remote regions of central Asia. It will be under the direction and leadership of Mr Roy Chapman Andrews, Associate Curator of Mammals In the American Museum of Natural History, who for the last ten years has been carrying on zoological explorations In various parts of the Far East The expedition will be financed by a fund of $250,000, which is being provided by the American Museum of Natural History, the American Asiatic association and Asia Magazine, and the private subscriptions of Mra. Willard Straight, Messrs. J. P. Morgan, George F. Baker, Childs Frick, W. A. Harriman and Mr. and Mra. Charles L. Bernheimer. When In the year 1891, a Dutch army surgeon, Eugene Dubois, while excavating for fossils in central Java, discovered near Trinil part of a skull, two molar teeth and a thigh bone, he had unearthed one of the most perplexing conundrums In the study of human ancestry. ' Were the remains those of an extremely early type of prehuman manlike animal? If so, this apeman must have lived approximately five hundred thousand years ago. This momentous discovery has been supplemented by that of other indisputably human remains of which the most ancient, found in southern Germany, Is the jaw of the so-called Heidelberg man who may be two hundred and fifty thousand years old. With the exception of the Java specimen, all fossil human fragments have been discovered In Europe or England. Nevertheless, the leading scientists of the day believe that Asia was the early home of the human race and that whatever light may be thrown upon the origin of man will come from the great central Aslan plateau. Appeals to Imagination. The subject is one that makes a universal appeal to the imagination. The causes that led to man’s evolution from the apes, how that evolution was first accomplished, what primitive man looked like ard how he lived—these are all subjects upon which there Is much theory, but as yet very little fact. ■" Leaving about the first of next February, headquarters for the expedition will be established In Peking. , The first year will be devoted to studies in paleontology and zoology in China; the second year the work will be carried Into Mongolia and a geologist will be added to the field staff; the third, fourth and fifth years archeologists and anthropologists will be sent out which with the zoologists and paleontologists will carry on work in various part of Asia. The importance of this region long has been recognized, but bo systematic study on a large scale ever has been attempted, and there is no similar area of the inhabited surface of the earth about which so little Is known Whether or not human remains are found it will yield rich collections tn all branches of science. The material win be exhibited In the proposed Hall of Asiatic Life in the American Museum of Natural History, which It is hoped the city will add to the Museum buildings In the near future. !At the present time If one

wishes seriously to study Asiatic zoology one must go to the. British Museum of London. It Is hoped that this expedition will bring to New York the greatest natural history collections which the world has ever seen and will make New York the center of Asiatic scientific activity. One of the reasons why so little Is known of the fossils of China and interior Asia is that material of this sort Is of considerable value to the Chinese. Fossils are supposed to have wonderful medicinal qualities. They are kpown as “dragon’s bones” and whenever a fossil yielding locality has been found, it is carefully concealed. Nevertheless during the last three years Dr. J. G. Andersson, Mining Adviser to the Chinese Republic, has been carrying on investigations on behalf of Swedish Institutions and has made some remarkable discoveries. Dr. Andersson Is practically the first scientist who has ever collected fossils personally In China. We know almost as little about some of the living natives of Asia as about the fossil history of the country. Long before the Chinese arrived, China was Inhabited by aboriginal tribes, which were pushed, south and west -just as the Indians were driven westward by the white men when they advanced across the American continent. The remnants of nearly thirty of these ancient tribes, such as the Lolos, Mosos, Llsos and others, are rapidly disappearing and yet almost nothing is known of their origin, life or customs. Keep Chinese Out. Although many of the aborigines were scattered among the mountains of Yunnan and Kweichow and along the Tibetan frontier, the Lolos still maintain an Independent territory In Szechuan, one of the richest and most populous provinces of China. No Chinese is permitted to cross the Invisible Unes of their “kingdom” without the probability of incurring a violent death. Continual raids are carried on back and forth along the border. Perhaps the Chinese will capture a score or more of Lolos who hava ventured to glimpse the world beyond their wild hills and valleys. In retaliation, a few nights later, the Lolos will burn a whole Chinese village, kill all the njpn and carry the' women Into slavery. Thus the Lolos have earned a reputation as barbaric savages. And yet a French explorer, who crossed their territory, properly “chaperoned.” reports them to be a charming people, of hospitable temper and high mentality. He Is one of the few scientists who have penetrated the land of the Lolos and live to tell the tale. Mr. Andrews, who has hunted with Lolos In Yunnan, found them independent, to be sure, but delightful In their native courtesy and simplicity. ,He says: “It is impossible not to be interested In this strange people. They are totally unlike the Chinese, for they are tall and slender, with long faces and patrician noses, and they show every Indication of Caucasian blood. If they have it, where did it come from?' This 18 one of the questions that should be answered before the Lolos disappear, as the other tribes as rapidly doing.” There are many reasons why Central Asia has remained scientifically unexplored for so tong a time. It Is so remote and difficult of accede that the cost of conducting work on a large scale is enormous. Moreover, the country and its Inhabitants present unusual obstacles to scientific research. Not only are there vast intersecting mountain chains, waterless deserts and treeless plains, but in many parts the, climate is too cold for effective work ,In winter. In some places the natives are exceedingly suspicious of foreigners; religious superstitions greatly handicap research and make It decidedly dangerous. Chinese Superstitious. * The Chinese have many superstitions regarding the ground. The feng shut. the spirits of the earth, wind and water, must always be favorable before a burial takes place, and It is exceedingly unlucky to disturb the ground tn the region of a cemetery. Though our paleontologists are cer-

tain to encounter difficulties in the more settled portions, they can probably overcome. them by tact and a proper understanding of the situation. Those In charge of railroads and other commercial projects that have involved digging In China have always been able to compromise with protesting villagers and they have found even within the past ten years a very great change in attitude. In Tibet conditions are even more difficult. All the gold In the country belongs to the Lama church and the natives can conceive of only two reasons why foreigners should come to their country—either as gold-seekers or as missionaries. Obtaining the animals for the groups in the Hall of Asiatic Life will furnish excitement enough for the most blase sportsmen. In a corner of the Gobi desert are a few herds of the only living wild horses. Moreover, there are. In the Gobi, wild camels and wild asses, as well as antelopes that can run sixty miles an hour. The horses, asses and antelopes An be run down in motor cars, lassoed by the Mongol cowboys, and some of the specimens brought back alive to the New York Zoological Park. Not far from this particular part of the desert, mountains tower to a height of fifteen thousand feet, where there are bighorn sheep and ibex that have never heard the crack of a high-power rifle. On the Tibetan steppes are enormous yak, snow leopards, giant pandas and beautiful golden monkeys with blue, upturned noses; some of these species are among the rarest and least known animals of the world. In China is the takin, a creature with a veritable “golden fleece,” a strange oxlike animal that roams the highest mountain valleys and that actually represents an Intermediate stage between the antelope and the goat In the forests of Manchuria is the long-haired tiger of the Amur River r a tiger larger and finer than the royal Bengal of Indian tame, which has furnished sport for kings and emperors; a tiger living in caves amid forests drifted deep with snow. The scientific results of the third Asiatic expedition will be embodied in a series of volumes that should be, for many years to come, the standard work on the natbral history of Central and Eastern Asia, and also to popular books written in non-technical language. Help China. There is a very real desire on the part of the sponsors for the expedition to make it a factor In the development of the educational life of the Chinese Republic. China has no institutions wherein natural history objects •can be studied and exhibited by modern methods and where the scientific work of her own people can be encouraged and directed. It was therefore decided to invite the Chinese government to co-operate with the expedition in carrying on its work to the Orient. China will be Invited to delegate to the expedition certain men who have had already preliminary instruction tn various branches of science; under the best specialists to the.world, these men, while in the field, will receive training to modern methods of scientific exploration and study. , / ; When the expedition has been completed, its sponsors, will agree to deposit bi Peking a duplicate set of th* collections, which will form the basis of the Chinese Museum of Natural History. The proposed institution will then have a valuable nucleus of spec-, linens for exhibition and study and a staff of expert Chinese to carry on the work. It will remain for the government to set aside a suitable building where the collections can bo housed. The third Asiatic expedition, with its rich possibilities for making important discoveries in the departments of paleontology, archeology, zoology, anthropology and geography, is destlned to increase the prestige of the United States to the world of science. The American scientists who will promote the advancement of Chinese science will co-operate with the Chinese In an entirely new field. Americans, with far-seeing idealism will welcome an alliance of this kind, tending to cement the friendly relations that already ,exist between the two great re publics of the East and the Wert. They will wish to Insure the possibility of making the third Asiatic expedition the greatest expedition ever seat out to Increase the wealth of Ins man knowledge.