CRADLE OF MANKIND.

Shannon News, 21 August 1925, Page 4

CRADLE OF MANKIND.

WILDS OF TURKESTAN. In further , pursuit of.. its quest for traces for primitive man in the stra-, turn of the ice age, the third Asiatic expedition of the New York Museum of Natural History, in co-operation with the American Asiatic Association, has started on the first leg of its renewed penetration of the wilds of Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan. Its first permanent camp will be 1000 j miles north-west of Ivalgan, on the I site of last year’s discovery of dino- ) saur eggs, which aroused such keen throughout the western world. ) Here the leader of the expedition, Roy Chapman Andrews, and his corps of scientists, expect to overtake the imposing transport train of 150 camels dispatched some two months ago. . Hunt Dinosaur. The work of exploration will start at the first camp where an effort will be made to rediscover a nest of dinosaur eggs found on the last expedition, but lost again because of a terrible sanstorm that changed the topography of the country. It is planned to drop off the first group of men there, where rich finds are anticipated also in fossil remains of prehistoric animals, while the main expedition continues west along the north slope of the Altai Mountains and then south in the direction of Chinese Turkestan. The objective this year is to work in a more recent stratum of rocks, which might result in fossilised traces cf human evolution. “On the zoological side,” Mr. Andrews exi laind, v\e hope to get into the zone of true Wild horses and wild camels. We hope to secure groups of both .for the museum. We have with us also a paleo-bctanist whose work will be to study fossilised plant life and to judge what the climate was like in the various periods. This will enable us to decide whether it was a suitable place for man, and thus , of our chances of finding traces of prehistoric man.” Take .Motor Trucks. Besides the camel transport the expedition’s equipment includes seven motor vehicles, car’s and trucks, equipped with special tyres for negotiating desert sands. The personnel totals forty men and of supplies there is being transported 3500 gallons of gasoline and 100 gallons of oil for the car; two tons of flour, a .ton of rice, half a ton of sugar and other things in prop ortion. The only food supply that can be counted upon in the country to be covered is meat. The expedition expects to reach Kalgan ! on its return about the middle | of September.