EXPEDITION TO BURMA

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 236, 6 October 1938, Page 8

EXPEDITION TO BURMA

New Territory to be Explored

r £ , HE permission of the Government of Burma has been obtained to permit an expedition sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History to enter a section of North-eastern Burma that never before has been entered by a scientific expedition to obtain botanical and animal specimens, says the New York Times. Plans for the projected expedition have been held in abeyance during the last two years pending negotiations with the Burmese authorities. The State Department in Washington interceded on behalf of the museum and finally succeeded in obtaining the necessary permit. This has removed the last obstacle in the way of the proposed venture and preparations are now being pushed to send the expedi-

tion to the unexplored area thi: autumn, it was explained.

Dr. Harold E. Anthony, curator of the Department of Mammals of the museum, Arthur S. Vernay and C. Suydam Cutting, museum trustees, J. K. Stanford, former Deputy Commissioner of Mytikyina, Burma, and Kingdon Ward, botanist, will make up the personnel of the expedition. Mr. Stanford and Mr. Ward will leave London for Burma on September 29 and Dr. Anthony will join them in November. Mr. Cutting and Mr. Vernay will fly from London to Rangoon in four and one-half days to join the advance party in Upper Burma about the middle of December, according to present plans. One of the main objects of the expedition will be to capture the rare

takin, which resembles a goat-antelope. The' takin has been compared to the Rocky Mountain goat, the European chamois, and the Asiatic serow. Extremely shy and fond of the loneliest places, the takin is very difficult to capture. It is a mountain climber and frequently makes its home in precipitous, wooded hills 4000 to 12,000 feet high. The black barking deer is another animal the expedition will hunt. Only one white man is said to have even seen this animal. At the present time there is not a skin or a skeleton of the black barking deer in any museum in the world. The plants in this region of Burma also are little known to scientists. They Tiave never been collected by botanists. A main object of the expedition is to obtain specimens of mountain rhododendrons which flourish in the area. The botanical collections obtained by the expedition will be divided between the New York Botanical Gardens and Kew Gardens, London, while the animal collection will go entirely to the American Museum of Natural History.