ETHNOLOGICAL EXPEDITION

The three years' ethnological expedition to South America, which is to be made by the Peabody Museum, will sail from New York today. The party consists of Dr. W. C. Farabee '00, instructor in Anthropology and the chief scientist of the expedition; his two assistants, J. W. Hastings '05 and L. J. de Milhau '06; Mrs. Farabee, and the accompanying physician, Dr. E. F. Horr, who has been an army surgeon in Cuba and the Philippines. They will leave on a government steamer for the Isthmus and from Panama will go by steamer to Mollendo, Peru, and thence by train to Arequipa, where the headquarters of the expedition will be established.

The expedition starts under the most favorable auspices and is provided with official and personal letters from President Roosevelt and Secretary Root, who have shown great interest in the expedition and its objects. The great Inca Mining Company has, through its president, offered all possible courtesies to the expedition, including its transportation facilities, and as this company employs several hundred men and has a thoroughly organized system of post-houses and roads over the Andes, the services of the company will be of great assistance.

It is the intention of the expedition to make from its headquarters at Arequipa, on the western slope of the Andes, where the Harvard Observatory is situated, trips of a few months' duration into the surrounding territory. The scientific objects of the work will be to gather all possible information on the origin, manners of life, physical characteristics, and civilization of these South American tribes of Indians about whom little is known. The only expedition of this sort made into this territory was conducted by Germans; but as their work was very incomplete, the region, from an ethnological point of view, is practically unexplored.

The financing of the expedition has been undertaken by a Harvard graduate who is very much interested in the work of the ethnological department of the University. The general oversight and planning of the enterprise has been in the charge of Professor F. W. Putnam '62.