Mongolia

A still older upper Palaeolithic culture was discovered in two localities on old erosion surfaces composed of Quaternary gravels. It consisted of stone implements of Mousterian and Aurignacian types which resemble those found by Teilhard and Licent in the Ordos.

The Eolithic, or "Dawn Stage,"

of man's handiwork appears to be well represented in a number of places in Mongolia. There, on old erosion surfaces, composed of Quaternary gravels, lie thousands of fractured rocks and pebbles more or less weathered but showing successive stages of flaking. Whether or not any of these apparent artifacts actually are the result of human handi work or whether they are all the work of natural agencies is difficult to determine; if any are of human origin they are of immense importance Nelson and Granger also spent two winters working along the Yangtze river in Szechuan, and in Yiinnan province, and extended the pre-Chinese culture originally dis covered by Andersson; but no remains of Palaeolithic man were found.

Zoology.

A small collection of birds was made; but investi gations in zoology were confined to mammalogy, herpetology and ichthyology. The Asiatic expeditions in China proper and Mon golia have brought to the American Museum of Natural History 9,90o mammals, 11,666 reptiles and batrachians and Io,000 fish.

Many new species have been discovered and important facts regarding the relationships and probable derivation of European and American living types demonstrated.

Photography occupied an important part in the expedition's activities. Every phase of the extensive work was recorded in still and motion pictures, as were also the life and customs of the natives. That the central Asian plateau was a great theatre of evolution for northern terrestrial life is now well established : that primitive men have existed in Mongolia since the close of the Pleistocene is certain : that this region was the home of early human types seems probable. The major geographical features of the Gobi have been determined, and a surveyed line of more than I,000 m. has been run north-west through the heart of the desert. In the future similar investigations will be made in inner Mon golia, south of the Altai mountains. Rich sedimentary fossil bear ing basins almost certainly lie in the western Gobi, and this region may yield important results in the study of human ancestry. See