all tests valiantly. She had been made fast to mooring masts, she who loved the liberty of the sky, and had courageously defied the storms in France, in Russia, and in Bering Sea; yet not one single part of her elastic frame had given way. She had defied wind, snow, cold, rain, and fog. Now she lay motionless and helpless on the white snow field.

Only one who had seen that airship come into existence and had lived for 176 hours in her cabin, from Rome to the North Pole, from the Pole to Alaska; only one who had accustomed oneself to consider her as a living thing, could realize how heartless it seemed that it was I who had struck her down, at the triumphant close of her wonderful trip. What bitterness in the cup of joy of our triumph! Thus ended our stupendous adventure.

THE POLE'S SURRENDER TO MAN

It is interesting to review the history of North Polar explorations in the last 30 years. In the first line of attack have been the Italians, the Americans, and the Norwegians.

In 1893-96 Nansen reached 86° 14' north; a few years later, in 1900, the Italians, led by the Duke of the Abruzzi, pushing farther, touched 86° 34'. The exploration contest by means of sledges was continued and brought to a victorious end by Peary, the American, who, in 1909, finally reached the Pole.

Later on, when man turned to aërial means to conquer the Arctic secret, we again find Norwegians, Americans, and Italians cordially competing in scientific effort.

Amundsen, in 1925, flies as far as 87° 44' for Norway; one year later, Byrd, the American, on daring wing, reaches the Pole, and only 48 hours later, our airship

retraces the path of the American and also attains the Pole.

And this time the ship designed, built, and prepared in Italy and commanded by an Italian officer was carrying on board all three together-the flags of America, Italy, and Norway. And after having dropped them down at the North Pole, on the threshold of the immense unexplored region, our airship was the first to cross the Polar Sea, reaching the Pacific.

If Italy to-day is proud that her ship and her men have accomplished the first transpolar flight; if we are proud to have. bound Italy and America together with an amazing aërial route, the plaudits of the civilized world should also go to Amundsen, the Norwegian, who gave his name and the benefit of his vast Arctic experience to the undertaking; to his modest and capable associate, Lincoln Ellsworth, the American, and to all those who coöperated in the technical and financial organization of the expedition. We of the Italian contingent are especially proud that it was Premier Benito Mussolini who fostered the undertaking and gave for it the ship and the men to command her.

After centuries, the dream of old Italian navigators to reach the Pacific across the north, starting from the Mediterranean, is at last realized. This is why we Italians are very grateful to Norway, that small but glorious country, which with her initiative gave us the opportunity to bind Italy and America together with a most amazing aërial route.

We are happy and proud that all along this aërial route of 8,500 miles across Europe, the Barents Sea, the Polar Sea, the Bering Sea, and Alaska, we carried on the front of our commander's cabin the "fascio littorio," symbol of the old, eternal Rome and of the new Italy.

T

HE following 21 21 photographs were taken on a scientific expedition of the American Museum of Natural History to the Lesser Sunda Islands in Malaysia. The primary object of this expedition was the quest of the dragon lizards of Komodo, the largest lizards in the world, which were first reported in 1912 by P. A. Ouwens, a Dutch scientist of Buitenzorg, Java.

As there are many interesting problems of a zoogeographic nature to be worked out in this region, general collecting of reptiles and amphibians was an important part of the program.

The Sunda Islands are volcanic, built up from the bottom of the sea by a successive series of flows. The eruptions of lava have arisen along the axis of the Sunda Fold, a great arc in the earth's crust extending for more than 3,000 miles, from Sumatra to the Philippines.

Although Bali, Komodo, and Wetar belong to a single group of islands, the extraordinary differences in the people who inhabit them and in the character of the islands themselves are striking.

In Bali, a luxuriant toyland of coconut groves and paddy fields, we found an erupting volcano, an advanced civilization, and a people remarkable for their beauty and form. From Bali we proceeded on the S. S. Dog, an official yacht given to us by the Dutch Colonial Government, to Komodo, the home of the dragon lizards. Komodo was relatively unexplored, only a few white men having landed there. With its fantastic sky line, its sentinel palms, its volcanic chimneys bared to the stars, it was a fitting abode for the great saurians we had come so far to seek. Deer, wild boar, water buffalo, and game birds. were abundant on the island.

THE LARGEST AND OLDEST LIVING LIZARDS

With the use of baits we attracted the giant lizards, which flocked around in considerable numbers, so that we were able to observe their habits, select those which we wanted for a museum group, and catch others alive.

The lizards, which attain a length of 10 feet and a weight of 250 pounds, are known to scientists as Varanus komodoensis. They are vicious, carnivorous reptiles, which attack their food much as the great flesh-eating dinosaurs must have done, ripping off great chunks of meat with their sharp, recurved saw-edged teeth and swallowing them whole, bones and all.

The Varanus lizards first appear as a genus in the early Eocene, some sixty million years ago; so that we have here not only the largest, but also the oldest, of living lizards. But Komodo is geologically recent. Thus, an old animal is found on a young island. How did it get there? Whence did it come?

A VISIT TO WETAR

After five weeks of collecting and observing, we proceeded from Komodo to Wetar, situated at the eastern limit of the Lesser Sunda chain. As it arose out of the sea, the island appeared a vast mass of torn and splintered mountains. The central portion is unexplored, and small wonder, for the tumble of jagged peaks presents insurmountable barriers opposing the traveler's way.

Bali was inhabited by Malays practicing the Hindu religion; Komodo by a few Malay convicts exported there by the Rajah of Sumbawa. Wetar, on the other hand, is inhabited by Papuans, who belong to a large group of peoples classified by anthropologists as Oceanic Negroids. The Malays, being a mixture of MongoloidPolynesian, have no negroid blood.

At Wetar we camped on the shore, enjoying the luxury of sleeping à la belle étoile. Collecting proceeded apace until finally one fine morning we sailed away into the Banda Sea, homeward bound.

We had secured a large collection of reptiles and amphibians. Of the dragon lizards we had 14 specimens, two being alive. The rest were to be used for study purposes and for a mounted group in the new Hall of Reptiles of the American Museum.