THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO PRESIDENT HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN AS AN EXPRESSION
OF GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION


"Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling ... let us go."

--_Service_.




PREFACE


The object of this book is to present a popular narrative of the Asiatic
Zoölogical Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History to China in
1916-17. Details of a purely scientific nature have been condensed, or
eliminated, and emphasis has been placed upon our experiences with the
strange natives and animals of a remote and little known region in the hope
that the book will be interesting to the general reader.

The scientific reputation of the Expedition will rest upon the technical
reports of its work which will be published in due course by the American
Museum of Natural History. To these reports we would refer those readers
who desire more complete information concerning the results of our
researches. At the time the manuscript of this volume was sent to press the