ANATOMY OF AN EXPEDITION: Dinosaurs, Central Asiatic Expeditions and Diaries of Walter Granger - or - WALTER GRANGER AND THE CENTRAL ASIATIC EXPEDITIONS: A Quiet Legend (Working MS.)

VLM-Anat/Ex., 2009, ‘Read C’ p.
Author’s Note:
Re: Walter Granger and the Central Asiatic Expeditions, 1921-1930
I am posting this working draft of “ANATOMY OF AN EXPEDITION: Dinosaurs,

Central Asiatic Expeditions and Diaries of Walter Granger” -or- “THE CENTRAL
ASIATIC EXPEDITIONS AND WALTER GRANGER: A Quiet Legend” because I do
not think I will ever get it finished. I will also try to post all the supplemental
information. This manuscript is still in rough shape, to be sure. Be patient…the story is
there and it is significantly different from what we are accustomed to reading about the
Central Asiatic Expeditions. My hope is that some one some day will weed and cultivate
and nurture it until it blossoms in full. If so, I give my deep thanks to that person, or those
persons. All I ask is to be included in the attribution, as well as granted a fair share of
whatever profits derive from this.
My manuscript (“ANATOMY OF AN EXPEDITION: Dinosaurs, Central Asiatic

Expeditions and Diaries of Walter Granger” -or- “THE CENTRAL ASIATIC
EXPEDITIONS AND WALTER GRANGER: A Quiet Legend”) is derived from the
diaries and letters of Walter Granger. I do not believe there is, or ever was, any other
firsthand narrative of the CAE. I think Granger was the appointed (or self-appointed)
documenter and this included routes and trails used, locations and landmarks, daily
mileage and campsites, let alone describing fossil discoveries and fieldwork along with
many other events.
“Conquest” is based on Granger: I can see many instances where Andrews ‘borrowed’
from Granger’s diary, in particular, just like Henry Osborn borrowed from Granger’s
diary of the 1907 Fayum expedition. Since I’d heard (pers. comm., T. Mylan Stout) and
always suspected anyway that the Mongolian field and scientific exploits in “Conquest”
(forget the hunting and other asides…those typically are Andrews’s) were largely written
not by Andrews, but by Granger, I decided to cross-check “Conquest” against my draft
based on Grangers’ material. I’ve stopped at p. 338, at the cancellation of 1926
expedition, and haven’t done the last two Mongolia expeditions. (If I inch forward, I’ll let
you know.) But, sure enough, as to the first three Mongolia expeditions, much of Walter
Granger’s diary and letter material can be found in the “Conquest” narrative. You’ll see
the relevant page references to “Conquest” in my draft.
VLM-Anat/Ex., 2009, ‘Read C’ p. 2
The other numbers reference footnotes and that truly is a mess since I revised so many
times in haste. All is documentable, but you’ll occasionally have to do some serious
spadework.
Some may find my effort appallingly amateurish, even deranged. Please know that this
work, which has been in progress generally since 1993 and more specifically after my
2002 publications, has been interrupted or suspended or constrained so many times that
I’ve lost count. (May I have some credit for hanging on this long.) Nevertheless, the story
thread I’ve developed is good.
For the moment, I am reachable via yanjingou@yahoo.com or morganvl60@gmail.com

An alternate contact is Pete Reser at pete@reser.us
Vin Morgan
Los Angeles, CA
July, 2010
ANATOMY OF AN EXPEDITION:
Dinosaurs, Central Asiatic Expeditions and Diaries of Walter Granger
-or-
THE CENTRAL ASIATIC EXPEDITIONS AND WALTER GRANGER:

A Quiet Legend
Vincent L. Morgan
PO Box 1079
Chautauqua, NY 14722
yanjingou@yahoo.com
-or-
morganvl60@gmail.com
Working Draft, 2010
Copyright © 2010 by Vincent L. Morgan
This working manuscript in draft form is distributed for purposes of discussion and
comment only. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without
permission of the copyright holder.
For Caroline Granger Morgan

My daughter. This blood runs through you.
- and -
For Joan Shelby Piper

(February 27, 1943-December 31, 2009)
My partner. Finally we shared peace and a wonderful love.
CONTENTS
List of illustrations [@xi]

List of abbreviations and acronyms
Preface
Introduction
Acknowledgments
1 PAVING THE WAY 1

[Dash across Mongolia (1907)]
[Working with camels (1907)]
[Seeds of an idea]
2 [Chapter]
[subheading]
[subheading]
[etc. 10-12 ea chapt]
3 [etc. = @ 12 chapters total]
Chronological synopsis of the Grangers’ CAE papers (a la p. 19 of Bulletin 22...chron

syn of Notes
Appendix [ ]
Appendix [ }
Glossary
Notes
Selected bibliography
Index
First and last, his real love was the field and he was unquestionably
one of the greatest collectors that vertebrate paleontology has ever
known. His collecting activities occupy an almost fabulously large
role in the history of science, ranging from the great brontosaur to
tiny Mesozoic mammals.... Dr. Granger was responsible for the most
remarkable fossil discoveries of his generation. Most members of
this Society have followed some trail that he has blazed and hardly
need to be told how extensive and how excellent was his field work.
--The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, News Bulletin, November
10, 1941.
“[Walter Granger] has earned the name: 'Daddy of the Gobi Desert.'"
New Pioneer, February, 1938.
"Not only was his work known to museum-goers in New York, but
he had also, through models, photographs, and his aid in preparing
exhibits for other museums, made the ordinary American possibly
more familiar with the skeleton of the great prehistoric lizard than
that of the cow, with resulting gain in popular interest in
paleontology." The New York Times, September 8, 1941.
"Granger was so modest regarding his intellectual achievements and

he so firmly acquired the habit of communicating knowledge orally
rather than in writing, that perhaps only those who worked with him
realized the full extent of his acquaintance with vertebrate
morphology and taxonomy." Science, October 10, 1941.
"He is underappreciated as one of the great fossil collectors and

scholars of the field." Discovering Dinosaurs, (Knopf, 1995).
ILLUSTRATIONS
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
AMNH American Museum of Natural History

CAE Central Asiatic Expeditions, formerly “Third
Asiatic Expeditions”)
DVP Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, AMNH
ONI Office of Naval Intelligence (USN)
TAE Third Asiatic Expeditions, renamed Central
Asiatic Expeditions
USN United States Navy
YangPat Yangtze Patrol (USN)
AMNH ASIATIC EXPEDITIONS
19[] First Asiatic Zoological Expedition
19[] Second Asiatic Zoological Expedition
1921-1930 Third Asiatic Expedition/Central Asiatic

Expeditions
PREFACE
In the pursuit of paleontological study during the late 1800s and early 1900s, Walter
Granger was a key enabler. From 1895 through 1930 in particular, his approach to this
burgeoning aspect of science reflected what he loved and did best––hunting and
collecting fossils. It was his way of dividing up the labor in order to accomplish what had
to be done. Granger provided the department of vertebrate paleontology with a
fascinating and almost endless stream of fossil data––mammals, dinosaurs and the ever-
important information superb fieldnotes––that constituted the backbone of the research
and writing done by the department scientists during this era.
It was Granger's meticulous approach to the collecting of fossils that made him so
critical to the department, and so highly regarded among his colleagues
worldwide. Granger was not among those who just blasted fossils out of the
ground with dynamite and shipped them home for study. Nor did he simply
remove them from the ground. Instead, Granger spent a great deal of time noting
and recording the situation the fossil lay in including its geological context, the
position of the bones, its relationship to other fossils, its condition and any other
information that helped to describe the precise circumstances in which it was
found. Grids were laid, photographs and measurements were taken, stratigraphy
was determined so that a complete systematic study of the fossil find was
accomplished before it was removed. To those back at the laboratory who were
later to prepare, study and analyze the fossil, this firsthand observation
information meant greatly added confidence in identifying the fossil and
determining where it fit in the evolutionary puzzle [order] with great precision.
[Fossil preparation: “[I]n preparation we generally recognize three functions:

Preparation--revealing data for researchers (matrix removal, etc.); Conservation--
treating the fossil or modifying its environment in order to preserve data
(stabilization, storage, etc.); and Restoration--recreating missing parts or elements.
The latter is (hopefully) done only in special circumstances (exhibition) and is
usually to improve aesthetic appearance only....[however,] replacing the "flesh" in
an artistic rendering would be equivalent to "replacing missing parts or elements",
so the definition of "restoration" would be consistent in both areas. Gregory
Brown, Chief Preparator Vertebrate Paleontology, University of Nebraska State

Museum” "Vert Paleo List Server" <vrtpaleo@usc.edu> commo April 6, 2010]
Granger's approach to his work was a thing of beauty. At his core was the master
craftsman; a man of great skill and accomplishment. He was also a uniquely
innovative and self-reliant man as is made clear from he left behind, whether by
collecting, writing, sketching, portraying, photographing, making friends, or just
living life.
This book is about how it came to be that Walter Granger played a key role in the
famed Central Asiatic Expeditions of 1921 to 1930 during which he served as
head of science, chief paleontologist and second-in-command. From beginning to
end, a complete, daily, firsthand narrative of this decade-long American exploit to
China and Inner and Outer Mongolia (CAE or Expedition) has never been
published. But such a record, of sorts, was kept in the unique and extensive diaries
and letters of Granger and his wife Anna who attended three of his Yangtze basin
treks. From this mix of noting Expedition finds, travails, and local color, one
gradually gains an impression of reading a documentary movie narrative. This is
all the more piquant because of the loss of most of Expedition
cinemaphotographer James B. Shackelford’s filming of the CAE to editing and
acid deterioration.
To some degree, the Grangers’ papers restore that lost footage. No other written record
like theirs exists. As with Shackelford’s film, the Grangers’ papers also presented
editorial and annotational considerations and challenges. Fortunately, however, nothing
has been thrown away, or lost. Although Anna’s diary-keeping was a little more fluid,
she wasn’t on the scene nearly as much as Walter. Walter, on the other hand, kept an
often cryptic record that was somewhat disorganized chronologically. An afterthought in
his fourth paragraph, for example, could relate to something he’d written in the first. Or,
the order of events that day was recorded out of order.
It is clear that neither of the Granger’s diaries was written for direct publication. The
struggle over how to handle this has been long and hard. Resolving it has been like
solving a puzzle, at times even a mystery. The quest has been how to interpret, organize
and edit them. “I wish I’d been there,” I often said to myself as I tried to understand what
was written. Of course I was not. And, those who were, at one point or another, neither
matched Walter Granger’s length of service and number of expeditions made or kept a
firsthand account known still to exist [a].
Nor did I ever have the chance to sit down with either Granger to talk with them about
their papers. Nor did anyone else, so far as I know, except perhaps his sister Daisy who
was working on his papers when she died. But she left no record of any interviews. So,
not only was there no bright guiding light for me to follow, there was, it turns out, also
thick layers of historical obfuscation and mythification to plow through. Vested interests
promoting one personality over others have led to past tellings of the CAE story in only
one way.
This then is my effort to help the Grangers tell their story. The original material is
lengthy and sometimes immaterial. So it has been abridged as well as interpreted. As I
did in 2002 with Walter Granger’s “Notes from Diary, Fayum Trip, 1907, I eventually
will publish an unabridged, annotated edition of their diaries and letters so that others
may study and interpret what they say [b].]
Initially termed the Third Asiatic Expedition (TAE) and co-sponsered with Asia
Magazine (and, later, Chicago Field Museum), the Central Asiatic Expeditions (CAE)
was a actually a seasonal series of scientific forays. There were two main CAE efforts, or
branches. One was within China (China branch) and began in 1921. The other was to
Inner and Outer Mongolia (Gobi-Mongolia) beginning in 1922. Fortunately, and
uniquely, these two branches were interconnected by the CAE’s chief scientist and
second-in-command, paleontologist Walter Granger, an avid diarist and letter-writer.
The CAE’s nominal leader, Roy Chapman Andrews, was not a diarist and attended only
the Gobi-Mongolia expeditions. Furthermore, he often was not with the main party.
Granger’s two most reliable and ever-present Chinese field assistants, Liu Ta Ling and
Kan Chuen Pao (“'Buckshot'”) also did not keep diaries, though it is known that Liu
could write in both Chinese and English. Granger, Liu and “'Buckshot'” made four
winter-long expeditions to the Yangtze basin in 1921-22, 1922-23, 1925-26 and 1926-
1927 (China branch) as well as all five summer-long expeditions to Inner and Outer
Mongolia in 1922, 1923, 1925, 1928 and 1930 (Gobi-Mongolia).
Shortly before departing for his first Yangtze basin expedition, Granger also made a short
field visit with Johan G. Andersson (1874-1960) and Otto Zdansky (1894-1988) that
resulted in finding and opening the eventual Peking Man site at Zhoukoudian in August,
1921. Granger kept no record of that visit. But Andersson did and provided an account of
it in Children of the Yellow Earth [c].
No other CAE member approached the number of CAE expeditions and time in the field
than Walter Granger and his two Chinese assistants 'Buckshot' and Liu [d]. On their
second, third and fourth China branch expeditions, Granger, et al., were accompanied by
his wife Anna, an amateur botanist who also kept a diary and wrote letters. On the third
and fourth China branch expeditions the Granger party was accompanied by CAE
archaeologist, Nels C. Nelson (1874-1964) and his wife Ethlyn. During the third, the
Nelsons split off to make their own two-month exploration of the Three Gorges section of
the Yangtze River. The Nelsons kept an account of their trip later published in Volume I
of Conquest [1]. Nels Nelson also made one Gobi-Mongolia expedition in 1925.
In addition, CAE herpetologist Clifford H. Pope (1899-1974) and a few Chinese

assistants made a series of short expeditions to south and west China during the first half
of the 1920s. Unlike Granger and Nelson, however, Pope made no Gobi-Mongolia
expeditions.
While the Gobi-Mongolia work yielded spectacular fossil finds, picturesque views, and
are much more heralded, the China work presented considerably greater risk, including
those posed by traveling the rapids of the Upper Yangtze; encounters with bandits,
pirates, rogue miltary deserters; and battling warlords. The China branch of men and
women also operated in much smaller groups compared to the Gobi-Mongolia
expeditions of much larger parties of men only. Yet, as Granger, the sole veteran (with
Liu, “'Buckshot'” and Nelson) of both branches, noted to a colleague, “...if we waited for
things to be perfectly peaceful on the Upper River, we would never be here ourselves.”
“The various expeditions that comprised the CAEs traveled across China, including the
Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, the Peking region, and the Gobi desert of Mongolia. The
most notable finds of the Mongolian expeditions were numerous complete skeletons of
the ceratopsian Protoceratops and the first dinosaur eggs ever found. The Protoceratops
material was so extensive that growth series and sexual dimorphism studies were
accomplished with ease. The fossil dinosaur eggs, originally thought to have belonged to
Protoceratops are now believed to be of theropod, specifically oviraptorid, affinity. The
eggs also provided concrete evidence that dinosaurs were oviparous, which until that
point was an unsubstantiated hypothesis [2].”
As for Anna Granger and Ethlyn Nelson, they unquestionably were full-fledged members
of CAE expeditions into China’s Yangtze Basin. But they have never been recognized as
such. Ironically this was the most dangerous work of the CAE, far more so than in
Mongolia. Despite accompanying his own wife-photographer into Mongolia during the
Second Asiatic Expedition in 1919 and south China in 1967-17, Andrews dismissed
including women on the CAE’s Mongolia exploits, citing distraction. The distinction
seems to have regarded the larger number of men, most scientists and most married,
involved in the CAE’s Mongolian trips. Whether Andrews was really concerned that a
female would distract these men, or whether he was threatened by their added presence is
not known. In any event, Amelia Earhart challenged Andrews on his stance, concluding
[ ].
Finally, the Central Asiatic Expeditions was more than simply a large-scale, prolonged,
multi-scientific endeavor by a major western museum of natural history. It also served
American military, economic, and political interests in that part of Asia. It was, in fact, a
territorial [geopolitical] exploit, as the AMNH’s own multi-volumed treatise titled The
New Conquest of Central Asia suggests.
INTRODUCTION
The situation about Roy Andrews and Walter Granger is a little

complicated... I knew both of them intimately and although I also
liked them both, I always felt somewhat annoyed that Walter's
modesty and Roy's conceit gave the wrong impression of their
accomplishments. During all the fossil collecting in China, proper,
and much of that in Mongolia[,] Granger was in complete charge
and Andrews was not even present. During much of the collecting in
Mongolia, however, including the early discoveries around Bayn
Dzak, Andrews was present and in nominal charge of the expedition
as a whole. Andrews' function, however, was that of obtaining funds
and publicity and acting as business manager. He did none of the
scientific work. All the fossil discoveries were made by Granger and
assistants under his sole command. Just once Andrews tried to
collect a fossil, and he destroyed it [3].
Simpson, one of America’s most prominent paleontologists and historians, was writing to
Kielan-Jaworowska, a Polish paleontologist and the first female to lead a fossil hunting
expedition to Mongolia. He had read her book Hunting for Dinosaurs in which she
acknolwedged Andrews but made no mention of Granger.
What Simpson did not know was that Andrews was not even present for the early finds at
Bayn Dzak, also known as the Flaming Cliffs. That information was locked away in
Granger’s field diaries which had been boxed in the attic of his youngest sister’s house in
New Hampshire. And what a treasure trove of information and history his papers turned
out to be. Granger’s diaries and letters are quoted and paraphrased here to set the record
straight.
Until 1920, the lives, careers and interests of Walter Granger, who died in 1941, and the
12-years younger Roy Andrews, who died in 1960, intersected little except that both
worked for the American Museum of Natural History, held membership in the Explorers
Club and were favorites of Henry Fairfield Osborn, then the eminent and illustrious head
of the American Museum. What brought them together starting in 1921 and thereafter is
the topic of this book––the Central Asiatic Expeditions.
Despite the CAE’s decade-long ventures in China and Mongolia which had brought
Andrews fame, he slipped into disfavor and outright disparagement by the American
Museum: his ill-fated directorship there ended abruptly following Granger’s death in
1941. From a book by Geoffrey Hellman written under the auspices of the American
Museum of Natural History, we read the following:
Dr. Walter Granger [was] in fact, the scientific backbone of the

expedition. (Andrews never had much idea of what he was looking
at, scientifically speaking [4].)
By late 1983, the American Museum of Natural History learned that Walter Granger’s
apparently missing personal Central Asiatic Expedition diaries, letters, photos and other
materials had remained with his family since his death. At the Museum’s request, an
inventory of the collection was supplied. While Roy Chapman Andrews’s image was
being resuscitated, it was also becoming clear that Walter Granger’s papers were the
actual core of the Central Asiatic Expedition’s historical material. Andrews had not kept
a firsthand account of the CAE. Though various discussions about Museum access to and
possible acquisition of the Granger Papers continued over the next decade, without
resolution, the museum did not acquire or access the information-laden Granger Papers.
The lore of Andrews continued to have some backers, however, and the manner of his
treatment vacillated until the 1990s when he was finally restored to favor at the Museum.
However, even then, the official whisper was “Andrews was a fraud.” Nevertheless, he
had again become useful to the Museum as it set about to increase its appeal.
By this time, Granger’s name had all but slipped into total obscurity. Although an AMNH
fossil hall had been named after him, a variety of fossil species were named in honor of
him and a small cadre of modern paleontologists continued to revere him, he was only
occasionally mentioned in a smattering of technical papers and dinosaur books. The
public in general knew nothing of Walter Granger. Then, this author’s research in the
pages of Granger Papers began in 1993. The Granger Papers Project, with a website
bearing that name, was opened online.
Sources
My first publication based on the Granger Papers was an essay “Badlands Mary”
contained in Science, Values, and the American West issued by the University of Nevada
Press in 1997 and was followed by a biographical sketch of Walter Granger published as
Bulletin 19 of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science in 2002. Just a few
months later, I published Granger’s previously unknown 1907 Fayum of Egypt
expedition diary and photographs which was issued as Bulletin 22 by the same
institution.
This book, based Granger’s unpublished CAE diaries, letters and photographs, is the first
complete and accurate account of the CAE. The phase ‘unpublished’ may seem odd since
existence of Granger’s 1907 Fayum diary was known to Osborn who used it freely for his
own purposes, as Bulletin 22 makes clear. Certainly, the existence of Granger’s personal
1921-1930 CAE papers was known to Andrews and the AMNH.
Despite Simpson’s clarification to Kielan-Jaworowska and much obvious information to

the contrary and even Andrews’s own acknowledgment that he was not a paleontologist
or a competent collector of fossils, Andrews remains touted as the CAE’s leader and top
fossil expert. The Andrews reputation, however, has never been about [his own]
substance [but rests mainly on fiction or the deeds of others].
[Borrowing liberally from historian Shaun McNiff, when we focus exclusively on the
linear histories of personalities, we overlook the deeper aspects in the processes and
subtleties of their time. By limiting the history of paleontology to the way in which one
select group of people influenced the field, we establish the aristocratic notion that
whatever one of these quasi-divinities said or did was transformed into gospel.
The history of paleontology has been plagued by the linear view. Many stories and
deeper truths have been left untold [note McNiff]. Walter Granger was minimized in
importance to the history of paleontology because he did not make it important to see
him. Furthermore, in recent years, many academics [led by Edwin Colbert (who had axes
to grind––quantity of pubs., WDM son-in-law, and being passed over by Granger)

followed by Ronald Rainger and others] have not felt comfortable with Granger as a non-
Ph.D. They have felt the need to distinguish him as mainly a field worker and sideline
him in that way––outside academia.
But, in 1941, one very distinguished academic and eminent paleontologist and colleague
of Granger, Andrews, Osborn, Matthew and Colbert, George Gaylord Simpson, now
considered (by academia anyway) the brightest paleontologist of [ ]––had already placed
his now-deceased mentor Granger squarely inside academia. Granger was, Simpson said,
a paleontologist wtih encyclopedic knowledge whose freely-given verbalized analyses
and theories became the bases for seminal works by others, as well as his own. If all that
Granger passed along verbally to his colleagues had been written down, Simpson said, it
would have summarized [established] the state of vertebrate paleontology then known.
Confirmation of this came more recently, in 1993, when AMNH paleontologist-historian
Malcolm C. McKenna termed Granger the mainspring that made the Department of
Vertebrate Paleontology of the American Museum of Natural History work, and whose
own work was consistently “subsumed” by Osborn, Matthew and Andrews.
Simpson’s words on Granger, along with those of others including Andrews, were
recorded at a memorial service held for Granger at the Roosevelt Memorial Auditorium
of the American Museum of Natuural History in 1942. Simpson also published on
Granger for Science. Not long after, Simpson left the AMNH. A transcription of the
recording was made and filed with the Museum and that is where I found it in the
summer of 1993. McKenna’s assessment was conveyed to this author during a telephone
call he initiated a few months later in that same year. For the most part, these views are
not publically known.] Having made their views known in print, it is Colbert, Rainger,
[Joseph Wallace, Charles Gallenkamp] et al., that have shaped the views of others. Yet,
as shown in my Bulletin 19 issued in 2002, their work is flawed [note to fn discussing
BCQ].
Walter Granger was an autodiadect learner comfortable in the field, in the laboratory,
chatting with his colleagues or working at his desk. He clearly preferred the field.
Conducting fieldwork and practicing taxidermy since his early teens, and likely before,
he joined the AMNH in 1890 when he was only seventeen. Granger knew how to keep a
record to scientifically narrate his field work. When he turned to fossil collecting in 1896
and began publishing in paleontology in 1901, his mammalogy field notes from
American West work had already been published twice, in 1895 and 1896.
As the Central Asiatic Expedition’s chief scientist, Granger reported directly to Osborn in
New York City. Naturally, he also kept Andrews, DVP curator W. D. Matthew and
others informed. But determination of the CAE’s scientific strategy and methodology
were between Granger and Osborn. The other needs of the CAE, such as publicity,
logistics, funding, were between Andrews and Osborn. This enterprise was, after all,
based on a contractual agreement between the AMNH and Andrews. Andrews was to
perform a service for the AMNH in return for which he gained certain publicity rights.
The CAE’s de facto [true, de facto] command structure, therefore, placed Osborn as the
overseer from New York City allowing his scientific representative, Granger, and his
independent contractor, Andrews, to run their respective departments in the field.
Andrews did not tell Granger how to conduct science, and Granger did not tell Andrews
how to publicize or raise money. If there was an issue, Osborn settled it.
Granger spent more time on CAE expedition than did any other member. He made all
five trips to Inner and Outer Mongolia with the main group, and another three to China’s
Sichuan Province, one to Yunnan Province and one to Zhoukoudian with just a handful
of Chinese assistants and his wife Anna (for three of them). The Grangers’ firsthand
narrations of these CAE expeditions will henceforth alter discussion and understanding of
those events.
Other primary source materials for this book include those of J. G. Andersson, Mac
Young, Henry Osborn, W. D. Matthew, Roy Andrews, materials at AMNH, Explorers
Club, National Archives and elsewhere, and personal communications with those who
knew Granger -- Mary Granger Morgan, Eleanor W. Morgan, T. Mylan Stout, Edwin
Colbert, Margaret Colbert, and Marie Skinner.
Geography and place names

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Professor Yang Xinxiao of Beijing, China, for donating seven letters written to his father,
Chung-chien Young (C. C. Young) and for also providing wonderful information and
support. John R. Lavas of Auckland, New Zealand, for providing tons of technical and
moral support, information, perspective and comfort. Dr. Richard A. Tedford for opening
the DVP, AMNH, file rooms up to our research and for guiding us through them that first
day. Dr. John Alexander for picking up the assist from there. Ms. Alejandra Lora for
making our visiting at the DVP work out so well. Joel Sweimler for making an
intolerable situation at Special Collections, AMNH (one not of his own doing), tolerable.
Dr. Malcolm C. McKenna for making that very interesting phone call one November
evening in 1993, and for subsequent communications. Ned and Margaret Colbert for
opening their doors, just long enough. Drs. Ken Rose, Tom Bown, Phil Gingerich and
Spencer Lucas for giving us an understanding of Granger’s collecting in the American
West and the Fayum. Dr. Paul Brinkman on Osborn and on Bone Cabin Quarry. Dr.
Allan Mazur and Roger Jinkinson on the CAE. T. Mylan Stout on the Grangers and their
post-CAE period. Anna Granger for knowing what to keep; Daisy Granger for starting
this work; and Mary Granger Morgan for passing it on.
PAVING THE WAY
In Mongolia, and in the desert of Gobi, we were to find ourselves able

to get up speed only in crossing virgin land. There are plains over
which the best road for the automobile is where no road is marked! A
few years ago we could not have risked ourselves without a guide
over the endless Mongolian prairies and over the desert. Now there is
an invaluable guide along the camel road: it is the telegraph. You
blindly follow the lines of the telegraph poles for about eight hundred
miles, and you reach Urga. In those distant regions, over the endless
solitude of Central Asia, the nearness of the telegraph, meant for us a
nearness to our own world, and this was a further reason for the
choice we made [5].
Dash Across Mongolia

(1907)
When the Italian Prince Scipione Borghese sped out of Peking in his Itala 35/45 on June
10, 1907, commencing a 10,000 mile motorcar race overland to Paris, he faced four other
competitors. Against crews of two in cars of various European make, Borghese’s car
carried three. The prince and his mechanic-driver Ettore Guizzardi sat side by side.
Behind them sat the Italian journalist Luigi Barzini. Squeezed into a tiny rear seat tucked
between two extra fuel tanks strapped to the rear fenders of the Itala, Barzini detailed an
epic journey cabling summaries of it to the world whenever he could.
Barzini’s readable book on the venture was quickly published in 12 countries just months
following the race’s completion. While the Itala had won, the prince introduced Barzini’s
account still wrestling with his own thoughts:
So after all our two months of labour . . . there are people who say that
our journey has proved one thing above all others, namely, that it is
impossible to go by motor-car from Pekin [Peking] to Paris!
. . . the paradox is literally accurate . . . it would not be financially sound

speculation, as things stand, and after our own experiences, to establish
a regular motor-car service destined to the transport of those most
charming and accomplished Chinese “artistes” from the capital of the
Celestial Empire to the footlights of the Moulin Rouge.
But above and beyond this net result has the Pekin-to-Paris race taught
us nothing worth learning [6]?
As Borghese and his fellow racers set out from Peking, a young American paleontologist
named Walter Granger was journeying home from Egypt with his field assistant George
Olsen. Granger and Olsen had just concluded America’s first overseas fossil hunt, a six-
month expedition in the Fayum region of the Sahara Desert 65 miles southwest of Cairo.
Fifteen years, later during another overseas fossil hunt, both men would coincidentally
follow in Borghese’s tire tracks across the Gobi from Kalgan to Urga.
Years before, during a trek along that very route while reconnoitering in Inner Mongolia
from 1892 to 1894, Russian geologist Vladimir Obruchev found a fossilized lower jaw
with fragments of teeth. Sent to Professor Eduard Suess for study, he identified it as a
rhinocerid (pre-modern rhinoceros). The Royal Geological Society in London published
Seuss’s analysis in 1897, and Obruchev followed in 1900 with a brief description of his
trip in a Russian publication entitled “Central Asia, Northern China and Nan-Shan [7].”
Suess’s identification of Obruchev’s discovery enabled Granger’s AMNH boss, Osborn,

to postulate as follows in the April 13, 1900, issue of Science magazine:
We now turn to the northern hemisphere, to the Arctogea or

homeland area of animal dispersal in the dawn period of the
mammalian life on the soil of the northern hemipshere. First, on
opposite sides of the globe we observe two great colonies, one in
Europe and one in the Rocky Mountain region of America, which
are full of different degrees of kindred in their mammalian life; yet
they are separated by ten thousand miles of intervening land in

which not a single similar form is found.
The fact that the same kinds of mammals and reptiles appear
simultaneously in Europe and in the Rocky Mountain region has
long been considered stong evidence for the hypothesis that ‘the
dispersal centre is halfway between.’ In this dispersal centre, during
the close of the Age of Reptiles and the beginning of the Age of
Mammals, there evolved the most remote ancestors of all higher
kinds of mammalian life which exist today, including, for example,
the five-toed horses, which have not as yet been discovered in either
Europe or America. That the very earliest horses known in either
Europe or America are four-toed indicates that their ancestors may
have lost their fifth toe while still resident in the Asiatic homeland.
The history of northern Asia remains unknown until the period of the
Ice Age, when man first appears; yet theoretically we are certain that
it was part of a broad migration and dispersal belt which at one time
linked together the colonies of France and Great Britain with those
of the Rocky Mountain region of Wyoming and Colorado. Though
the kinds of animals which we find in these two far-distant colonies
are essentially similar and every year’s discovery increases the
resemblance and diminishes the difference between the life of
Europe and the life of the Rocky Mountain region, connecting links
are entirely unknown. It follows that northern Asia must be the
unknown migration route between these two far-distant colonies [8].
Borghese had driven just yards away from where Obruchev picked up the rhinocerid jaw
15 years earlier at Irhen Dabasu. It was only minutes from the telegraph station at Ehrlien
along the Kalgan-Urga caravan route where in 1907 Luigi Barzini had filed one of his
race reports to the entire world. Camel caravans had established this ancient route of
commerce hundreds of years before. Hundreds, if not thousands, of travelers had passed
by, although Obruchev appears to have been the first to do so for scientific purposes.
*
Borghese need not have doubted his feat. Swedish missionary Franz Larson was living in
Urga when the Itala arrived for a two-day layover. One of Borghese’s first acts was to
give a ride to the Mongolian prince there. He was known as the “living Buddha.” Larson
quickly caught on to the implication of the auto. Three years later, the missionary cum
entrepreneur sold the Buddha an original 1908 Ford Model T. A photo of the conveyance
may be found in Larson’s autobiography “Duke of Mongolia.”
Not long after, when Larson became the Mongolian manager of Meyer & Andersson
trading house and an advisor to the Chinese government in Peking. He used Dodges for
the commute between Urga and Kalgan. He would drive the car back and forth across the
Gobi a couple of times and then sell it and buy a new one. While he regarded the Dodge
as sufficiently reliable, along with the Ford, he upgraded to a Chandler when he could
afford one and that became his trademark. In those days, there was no good road from
Kalgan on to Peking. In 1907, Borghese and his cohorts had made that trip by car and
found it tortuous. Larson, like most commuters, traveled between Kalgan and Peking by
train.
Any fossil hunter based in New York City and working seasonally in the American West
around this time would likely not have had knowledge of Larson’s use of the auto to
commute across Inner Mongolia’s Gobi Desert between Kalgan and Urga. One fellow,
however, did think he could make good use of a car in the plains and badlands of western
Nebraska and neighboring Wyoming. Albert “Bill” Thomson, a long-time Granger field
assistant at the AMNH, would eventually find himself working with Granger in the Gobi
during the 1928 and 1930 expeditions. “How do you think an automobile would be for
collecting fossils out there?,” he wrote early in the spring of 1912 to friend and amateur
paleontologist Harold J. Cook of Agate, Nebraska. “Don’t you think it would pay? [We]
have been talking some about it and if we get the necessary funds we may get one for
prospecting.”
‘Prospecting’ referred to scanning the terrain by eye for evidence of fossils, as well as
possibly locating them in outcrops, exposed beds and distinctive sedimentary layers.
Before the automobile, this was done by foot or horseback. The auto, Thomson thought,
would be more comfortable, could carry more than a horse or a horse-drawn wagon, and
perhaps would also be more reliable than and cover more ground than a horse. Or than
could a camel, as Granger and Osborn found out in the Fayum in 1907.
Working With Camels

(1907)
But for the known fossiliferous outcrop or two nearby, one might wonder how to explore
the rest of such a vast flat and sandy expanse. How would one cover huge distances for
reconnaissance and not only survive, but sustain the effort? And, what if fossils were
found? How would they be brought back? The answer for the 1907 team was camels.
This was something new to the Americans when exploring Egypt’s Fayum. Except by the
US Army in Arizona and Nevada, camels were not used in the American West where
horses, wagons and railroad tracks typically crossed the less vast and less inhospitable
basins and ranges.
Osborn, Granger and Olsen learned firsthand about the uses and benefits of camels to
establish and resupply their remote desert base camp and then to transport fossils from
the field to Cairo for eventual repacking and shipment to New York. Writing about the
expedition for Science, Osborn stated that the
party [would] only succeed through thorough, systematic and prolonged

search and excavation... A train of eight camels is constantly moving to
and fro, keeping the camp supplied, a three to four days' round journey
[9].
The party also became acquainted with transporting precious liquid, water in this case,
into the field in soldered and sealed rectangular metal tins called “fantasses.” Granger
apparently had seen something like this somewhere in the American West before because
he referred to it as a “fanita.”
The Fayum camp was a fixed site amidst excavation pits known as Quarries “A” and “B.”
Another quarry, Quarry “C,” was about three and a half kilometers east of this and within
walking distance of camp. To set his bearings while prospecting about by foot, Granger
triangulated three buttes within the region. That became his range of operation.
For greater investigative mobility, such as Osborn’s three-day reconnaissance trip to the
Zeuglodon Valley, camels were used. While this mode of travel somewhat expanded the
fossil hunter’s range over that by foot, the amount of supplies and equipment carried in
and fossils carried out was limited by the number of camels used, the pace of camel
travel, food supply and the length of time it took to locate fossils. Weight was another
factor: each box of fossils weighed up to 400 pounds.
In 1907, the vast Sahara was as relatively unexplored scientifically as were other
topographic expanses such as the Wyoming badlands, a Mongolian plateau and even a
polar icecap. Enter one Hartley T. Ferrar who was Osborn’s British-born guide and soon
a Granger colleague during the 1907 Fayum expedition.
Ferrar, a geologist had not only explored in the vast Saharan desert, he had also ventured
to the remote reaches of the Antarctic with Robert F. Scott’s 1901-1904 Discovery
expedition. “There, in the polar ice and snow, fellow expedition member Ernest
Shackelton [sic] experimented with a home-made, four-wheeled, sail-powered vehicle he
called a ‘go-cart.’ Shackleton’s vehicle, as fellow expeditioner Edward Wilson wrote,
was ‘rigged up by putting two rum barrels on axles and a frame work...and is certainly
the first wheeled vehicle the Antarctic has ever seen.’” While that would not have worked
in the Fayum’s soft sand, a modern version of that rig--the sail-powered three-wheeler
with puffy tires--works very well on windy, flat surfaces [10].
Shackleton’s recognition of a need for expanding the range of scientific exploration was
important. He realized that, to cover vast surfaces efficiently, perhaps at all, explorers
needed to move faster to get farther. Shortly after Shackleton’s windcatching go-cart ride,
Robert Scott employed, on his ill-fated Terra Nova 1910-1913 expedition to the
Antarctic, two motorized and tracked frames he called ‘motor sledges’.”
On Scott’s Discovery expedition, each sled carried one person, the driver who was
positioned at the rear on a seat framed over a fuel tank at the end of a cargo deck. Each
sled also was equipped to tow another fully loaded sled, since one aim of Scott’s
expedition was to collect fossils and other geological samples. The sleds could haul these
collections out in sufficient quantity. Although Scott’s announced hope for his motorized
sleds was “to show their possibilities, their ability to revoutionize Polar transport,” they
finally broke down after proving to be slow and fitful. However, a point was made.
In the meantime, Shackleton had already pioneered use of an Arrol-Johnston motorcar

during his 1907-1909 Nimrod expedition to the Antarctic from 1907-1909. By then, of
course, Ferrar and Granger had become acquainted with each other in the Fayum and
shared their expedition experiences and insights.
Seeds of an Idea
As Thomson wrote to Cook in 1912, using a motorcar to hunt for fossils was well under
discussion at the American Museum, and they might have been used that field season had
the funds been available. Instead, a year later Thomson finally got his ‘Auto Buggy for
Bone Diggers’ in time for his 1913 field season at Agate. He named it ‘Automobilly’ in
honor of his favorite workhorse ‘Billy’, recently deceased.
Although Thomson did not know Inner or Outer Mongolia firsthand in 1912 and 1913,
topographically they were similar to parts of the American West he had been scouring for
years with Granger and Olsen. Osborn and two other theorists thought Northern
hemispheric Asia was the origin of mammalian life and the point from which such life
dispersed east and west to form the two great colonies of fossil mammals then being
found both in the American Rocky Mountain region and in Europe. Moreover, Osborn
wrote, the opening and rise of the Age of Mammals in northern Asia came as the Age of
Reptiles closed. That meant that both mammal and reptile fossils could be found.
Osborn also was convinced “that the home of the more remote ancestors of man,
Primates, was placed in northern Asia.” This was where, eventually, he hoped to send an
expedition to find evidence of ancient man.
By late 1912, the stage was set for such a venture when the budding museum zoologist-
adventurer Roy Chapman Andrews of the AMNH’s Department of Birds and Mammals
returned from his nearly year-long Korean trip and bought two tickets to attend a dinner
for Sir Earnest Shackleton in New York City. Andrews was now preparing for six or
seven months in the Arctic with Vilhjalmur Stefansson that following spring of 1913.
Then he expected to return to the museum in New York City and “be stuck” there for
about a year before setting off for zoological pursuits in “New Zealand and New Guinea
by way of China [11].”
AMERICAN ADVENTURER
In 1907, after finishing Beloit College, Andrews arrived at the Museum as a clerk
apprentice in the Department of Birds and Mammals headed by Joel A. Allen. It was said
that he had begun by sweeping floors, but that actually was one of Granger’s early jobs.
Andrews, soon bored of clerking and office routine, began travels aboard including
accompanying a few whaling expeditions. He wrote about them, imaginatively, and his
tales of adventure soon caught the public’s eye. This success eventually led him to supply
additional derrings-do attended by glowing news accounts and inflated magazine articles.
The time was right––Americans coveted ‘American-style’ exploit. By 1911, Andrews’s

leap to celebrity was clear: “Dear Roy,” friend Walter L. Ferris from Connecticut wrote
on June 6, 1911. “You are such a gadder about the globe that like the farmer with two
pigs, you run about so fast it is difficult to count you. We have kept some track of you
through the efforts of the mammalogious reporter on the ‘Sun’ who occasionally knocks
you off the ‘gun’ale’ into the mouth of the waiting sea monster, whereupon your
blunderbuss goes off in his entrails and you walk out, and so into our ears on the wings of
fame.”
One whaling expert, however, was less impressed. On February 11, 1918, Edwin B.
Pettet of Funch, Edye & Co., Inc. Steamship Agents & Ship Brokers in New York City
finally caught up with Andrews, writing to say he had seen articles about Andrews' great
whaling deeds and had some questions:
Some months ago I clipped the enclosed article from "Every Week" and
as you are credited [by] them with being almost a superman in the
handling of the "Iron", my curiousity to learn where you gained your
experience (as your picture is of a young man) induced me to write...
[Then] yesterday while coming through Washington, the enclosed
article from the Times attracted my attention, and finding therein
mention of your name was at last able to locate you. Having sailed out
of New Bedford in the early 70's and having "put" alongside some few
sperm whales in the North Atlantic during my time, I trust you will not
consider my enquiry impertinent when I ask when and in what ships you
sailed, if from American waters, and when [12]?
Andrews replied on February 13, 1918, backing off and placing blame for excess
elsewhere:
My dear Sir:
Your letter of February 11 has been received. I am afraid that I shall
have to disclaim all of the interesting caption to the newspaper
photograph of myself which you enclosed. As a matter of fact, I have
never thrown a harpoon at a whale. I have "ironed" a few porpoises, but
that is the extent. My work on whales has been entirely with the
Norwegian shore whaling, and I have spent some eight years in various
parts of the world studying whales and collecting their skeletons for the
Museum of Natural History in New York.
I have been at sea, of course, a great deal of the time on the little
steamers, but I have had no personal experience in deep sea whaling
such as that with which you are familiar; unfortunately newspaper
reporters do not differentiate and rather let their imagination run riot
[13].
Andrews’s approach to playing off the press to channel and drive publicity was a pattern
that characterized his career. His association with imaginative adventure-telling was to
become his forté, and the public loved it. As one recent writer has put it,
Roy Chapman Andrews was a more controversial figure than his

hagiographers would have us believe, and many of his stories are clearly
exaggerations. During field work in Indonesia he was said to have been
attacked by a 20-foot python which he shot dead. At other times there
were bandits and tigers. While working on a Japanese whaler (and
supposedly studying the whaling industry) he claims to have ended up
in the sea attacked by sharks. The harpoonist on the whaler, a man
called Johnson whom Andrews thought was insane, harpooned a whale
but did not kill it. The order was given to pursue the animal in a small
boat and Andrews went along as an oarsman. Other members of the
crew included the first mate and a Japanese soldier. The mate took
another harpoon and thrust it into the whale which smashed the boat
with its tail. As the men clung to the wreckage, sharks attracted by the
whale's blood circled around. The men kicked and punched at the
predators and Andrews claimed he even shoved a wood beam down the
throats of open-mouthed sharks. The Japanese soldier had his leg bitten
off. Johnson, pausing briefly to pick up the men, continued to chase the
whale but it escaped. Andrews was supposedly furious about Johnson’s
behaviour and for years regretted he had never punched him in the
mouth. But none of this is true. Nevertheless these stories still circulated
[14].
Americans loved their heros such that few questions were asked about what was being
explored, why, and at what cost. Perhaps the image of the ‘American Frontier’ and its
myths were to blame. National self-promotion and early films combined with myths
disguised the truth that America had become a mercilessly pacified country, quite
thoroughly explored and with its native population and fauna slaughtered. Buffalo Bill
was still alive when Andrews ventured abroad. But ‘abroad’ was now where other
frontiers were yet to be conquered, other opportunities for new American heroes. [15].
Furthermore, it seemed, these foreign exploits signaled, and seeded, “a desire to bring an
American order to the global landscape [16].”
The ambitious 1907 Peking to Paris motorcar race was followed in less than a year by the
even more ambitious 20,000-mile New York City to Paris race of 1908. Won by the
American-made Thomas Flyer, the race was not truly overland. The hope to pass over
Alaskan dog sled trails and the ice of the Bering Straits did not pan out and the
competitors were taken across the Northern Pacific from the US to Russia in ships. Upon
the announcement of the winner, US President Teddy Roosevelt responded that he
“admired Americans who did things, whether it was up in an airship, down in a
submarine, or in an automobile.”
Discussion of hunting for fossils by motorcar were already well under way by Thomson
and his colleagues in the AMNH’s Department of Vertebrate Paleontology in 1912 and
included his old friend Granger whom he had first met during Wortman’s paleontology
expedition of 1894. George Olsen, Peter Kaisen, chair W. D. Matthew and curator
emeritus Osborn joined in as well. Osborn, now president of the Museum, remained very
involved in the affairs and operations of his beloved paleontology department. The
department was now in its 22nd year. Both he and Walter Granger had been at the
Museum precisely that long.
Leaving Vermont
When Henry Osborn and Walter Granger separately walked through the doors of the
American Museum of Natural History to take up their new posts in the fall of 1890,
neither was aware of the other. Actually, Granger preceeded Osborn by a month or so. He
left an unfinished senior year of high school in Vermont to take the lowliest of posts as a
parttime apprentice taxidermist in the Department of Taxidermy and parttime
maintenance man under the Museum’s building superintendent, William Wallace.
Osborn, on the other hand, came as a Ph.D. from Princeton University to establish and
head a Department of Vertebrate Paleontology. The thought that Granger would one day
be working for Osborn collecting fossil dinosaurs and mammals on the Mongolian
plateau could not have been on anyone's mind. Nor could it have been forseen that Walter
Granger, a modest lad, would become one of America’s most prodigious and significant
fossil collectors of all time.
A 17-year-old autodidactic naturalist, Walter Granger rode the train alone bound for New
York City in late September of 1890, leaving family and friends, classmates and teachers.
Parting, as well, from the beautiful mountains and valleys surrounding the city of Rutland
for the first time in his life was bringing him hope for a new and exciting opportunity in
the big city, the possibility of a dream realized. He dove into the professional study of
taxidermy and recent mammals and birds at the American Museum of Natural History
with near instant career advancement.
The Museum’s Department of Taxidermy was organized by Jenness Richardson in 1886.

A Granger family friend from Rutland, Vermont, he joined the museum from a post at the
Smithsonian. Dr. Joel A. Allen, who had assumed charge of the Museum’s Department of
Mammals and Birds in 1885, decided more collecting was needed. When Allen arrived,
his department had about 1,000 mammal skins and about 300 skeletons. Acquisition of
mammals and birds, had been rather unorganized prior to Allen’s arrival. That changed
with formal named expeditions begun in 1888. Richardson and D. G. Elliott went to
Montana on the ‘Montana Expedition For Buffalo’ to obtain specimens. They came back
with 91 skins, 134 skeletons and 75 skulls. Allen, in the meantime, went off on the
‘Arizona Expedition’ searching for a variety of mammals and came with back 72 skins
and 75 skulls.
Richardson returned to the American West the following season with his assistant John
Rowley, Jr., on the ‘Indian Territory and N. Texas Expedition.’ They collected 90 skins,
bringing five of them back in alcohol. Granger’s arrival in Richardson’s department in
the fall of the following year put him to work parttime with Richardson and Rowley.
Walter’s initial Museum job had been arranged earlier that summer when his father
Charles, a representative for New York Life Insurance, stopped by the museum to see his
old Rutland friend Richardson during a business trip to the city. Richardson was well
aware of Walter’s interest in taxidermy and natural history which had fascinated the lad
nearly from the very beginning. While still in Rutland, Richardson had mentored Walter.
Walter’s parents supported their son’s highly focussed interest and recognized the
importance of allowing, even enabling, its cultivation. A job at a significant natural
history museum would make them as proud of Walter as he would be pleased to have it.
Richardson made the offer, if only for parttime.
The telegraph clacked in Rutland as Charles sent the good news from New York City to
Walter in Vermont. Walter’s mother, Ada B. Haynes, took the cable and hurriedly set off
by horse-drawn buggy with her youngest child Mary bundled beside her to inform the 17-
year old Walter. He, her eldest, was off working at a farm for the day. Mary later recalled
that the journey was not without some danger, as well as some intrigue as they went to
find Walter. At one point, a bear edged out of the woods and spooked the horse. At
another, they passed by a party of Gypsies.
Into the Field

Granger settled into his daily routine at the museum working his two jobs under
Richardson and Wallace and became acquainted with the other staff members. He hit it
off immediately with John Rowley and favorably impressed Joel Allen as well. Another
relative newcomer to Birds and Mammals was Frank M. Chapman who had not pursued
formal studies beyond high school. Eight years older than Granger, Chapman was born
and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, not far from the museum. Like Granger, he was an
avid ornithologist. He had begun at the museum as a volunteer and that led to an
appointment in 1888 as associate curator under Joel Allen. Granger came to know
Chapman well and the two were soon making field trips to Englewood to study birds.
Granger was heartily devoting himself “to the art of preparing birds, mammals and
reptiles [17].” However, contrary to what his long fossil-collecting career produced, in
his later years, Granger modestly and incorrectly concluded “that he never had ‘the
touch’ to become a true professional [18].”
Working with specimens taught Granger much about zoological anatomy. His interest
grew, and it was a bonus that he roomed with a young medical student who helped
expand “his knowledge of the innards of the animal kingdom, not to mention their bones
[19].” Granger was realizing that he wanted to get out of the halls of cadavers and into
the field. That chance came in 1894, four years after his coming to AMNH, when Joel
Allen assigned him to a fossil-hunting party led by Jacob Wortman working under
Osborn.
Wortman was a dentist who left the practice to hunt for fossils. He had worked under
Edwin Drinker Cope of the famous Cope-Marsh ‘bone wars’ during the late 1880s. These
bone wars were sparked by transcontinental track-laying crews who were discovering
fossils in the American West as they ripped up the earth. It was a paleontological bonanza
in America’s own backyard and fueled a huge competition to collect and study these
prizes. The independently financed, Philadelphia-based Cope faced off with his Yale
University-based counterpart Othniel C. Marsh to emerge as the two leading contestants
in the battle. Back and forth it went as both men strove to outmaneuver and outdo each
other. At times the contest grew bitter. Eventually both men became somewhat sullied
and quite exhausted. But for paleontology and scientific advancement, as well as for
burgeoning the prestige of American paleontologists around the world, it was a

captivating episode.
The relatively junior Osborn observed closely from his post at Princeton University as
this raging battle produced vast riches in fossil specimens and published studies, and as it
began to wear both men down. Henry Fairfield Osborn was born in 1857 into America’s
most privileged class of politicans, businessmen and bankers, so-called “robber barons”
included. Among his relatives was J. P. Morgan, or “Uncle Pierpont.” Morgan and
Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., were co-founders of the American Museum in 1868. Apparently
it was Morgan who convinced Osborn to leave Princeton to start a department of
vertebrate paleontology at the Museum. When Osborn did so in 1890, Morgan began
contributing $16,000 annually. He later also set up a publication fund and, in 1908,
helped elevate Osborn to the presidency of the Museum. “In short, Henry Osborn’s
family and socio-economic ties were magnificent, at the highest levels of American
society and power, and would serve him well for most of his tenure at the American
Museum from 1890 to 1933 [20].”
Early Recognition
For Birds and Mammals Department purposes, Granger’s 1894 expedition was termed
the ‘Black Hills, South Dakota Expedition.’ It ran from May to November, and it
collected 600 mammals. The small fossil hunting party Granger was attached to consisted
of Jacob Wortman, his field assistant Olaf A. Peterson and a cook-photographer named
Albert ‘Bill’ Thomson. Thomson was born and raised in Rapid City, South Dakota. As a
teen, he learned to cook and run a team, so he hired out for field work. He and his rig met
up with the Wortman party in Rapid City before heading into the nearby Black Hills. The
group later ventured into parts of Nebraska and Kansas. Granger trapped and observed all
along the way.
Wearing a broad-rimmed hat and packing a six-shooter as did each of the group, Granger
camped and collected in territories and landscapes totally new to him. This now 21-year-
old Green Mountain lad eagerly absorbed it all. Huge, open vistas with great, rugged
beauty lay everywhere before him. Distant mountain ranges stretched for miles, as did the
plains leading up to them. Rugged cuts of badlands etched across miles of seemingly
passive landscape. The air was clear and the views long. Spanning the horizon and sky
was a 360-degree experience one could have simply by spinning on one’s heel. Different
weather systems could play out for miles around and from miles away. This was not
Vermont and although his primary love for Vermont would never leave his system, the
American West, particularly Wyoming, soon occupied a close second.
While the fossil hunters worked the basins and ranges scouring badlands and outcrops for
fossils, Granger was busy trapping mammals and making notes on their activities and
environs. The fauna and flora of that territory were as new to him as was the scenery.
Systematic fieldnote-keeping, mapping and sketching was an essential part of scientific
fieldwork, though it was yet to be widely practiced. Granger was among the first. Field
photography was another advancement in scientific fieldwork which Thomson and
Granger were among the first to practice.
Granger was instantly drawn by the work of the other scientific team, the fossil hunters.
Their study of ancient life also involved anatomy as they retrieved and puzzled together
mineralized evidence of the structure and nature of primitive beasts that had roamed the
prehistoric world. Expeditioning suited him very well. He had never even ventured
outside of Vermont, except for nearby Saratoga Springs just over the state border in New
York. New York City and Englewood, New Jersey, were now also known to him. But
now he was captivated by the lands of the American West and the natural history that lay
out there. This became an important part of his life and his story. He ventured out with
the fossil hunters yet again in 1895, still a member of Allen’s Department of Birds and
Mammals attached to Wortman’s fossil hunting party from Osborn’s Department of
Vertebrate Paleontology. This time, however, change was in the wind.
Within Birds and Mammals, Granger’s next two expeditions were the ‘New Mexico,
Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska Expedition.’ The reference covered his second and third
field seasons––that of 1895 to Utah and Wyoming and of 1896 to Nebraska, New Mexico
and Wyoming. The joining together of that fieldwork reflected Granger’s transition from
Birds and Mammals to Vertebrate Paleontology. Over the 1895 season, Granger had
already begun collecting more and more with the fossil hunters during his spare time. To
Wortman’s eye, he had a natural talent for the work and his field technique seemed well-
suited to Osborn’s requirements. It had become clear that Wortman’s assistant Olaf
Peterson and Henry Osborn were not getting along, due to Osborn’s persistent criticism
of Peterson’s fieldwork. Peterson ultimately resolved the matter by leaving the museum
in the spring of 1896, before that field season. Granger took his place. Although he would
always continue to collect mammals and birds when he could, by 1896, Granger had
become a fulltime fossil hunter.
In 1954, museum staffer A. E. Parr revised the history of the Department of Birds and
Mammals highlighting Granger’s 1894 and 1895 collections as among the greatest
contributions to the Department. Granger’s work for Allen, according to Parr, provided
the basic elements for modern classification “and established their describer, J. A. Allen,
as one of the key figures in taxonomy of the mammals of North America.” Allen had
earlier recognized Granger’s contributions to the field by publishing within one of his
volumes two papers prominently bearing his name: “Article VII. List of Mammals
Collected in the Black Hills Region of South Dakota and in Western Kansas by Mr.
Walter W. Granger, with Field Notes by the Collector” and “Article XV. List of
Mammals collected by Mr. Walter W. Granger, in New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and
Nebraska, 1895-1896, with Field Notes by the Collector.”
Keeping Account
Good field documentation was an early Granger trademark and a practice he helped
pioneer. His writing from the field went further, however, to include extensive letter
writing during all his expeditions and diaries kept during two overseas expeditions. These
expeditions were to the Fayum of Egypt in 1907 and the Central Asiatic Expeditions to
China and Mongolia from 1921 to 1930. In both cases, Granger kept the only firsthand
account. His account of the little-known but important 1907 Fayum expedition was
published in 2002 as Bulletin 22 by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. The
highly acclaimed decade-long Central Asiatic Expeditions from 1921 to 1930, of course,
capped Granger’s long career. Granger spent more time in Asia and in the field during
this decade than did any other western member of the CAE.
This book is the first account of the Central Asiatic Expeditions that incorporates
Granger’s papers. This includes all five CAE Mongolia-Gobi expeditions and Granger’s
four Yangtze Basin expeditions. Also included are the letters and diaries of Granger’s
wife Anna, who accompanied him to China and joined in three of his four Yangtze Basin
expeditions. All previous accounts of the CAE, which also are mentioned here, have been
by Andrews or have relied solely on articles and books by Andrews. Andrews held a
written contract with the AMNH giving him exclusive story rights to the CAE; all other
participants were consigned to silence. Typically, and unfortunately, Andrews-centric,
these versions are exaggerations and inevitably present an incomplete and at times quite
inaccurate story of the CAE.
The true story of the CAE is now being told. Andrews was a notoriously poor expedition
documenter. AMNH records show that Andrews’s pre-CAE expeditions were as follows:
1909 - Quebec - Tadousac - Expedition (3 whales, 1 Harbor seal); 1910 - Dutch East
Indies “Albatross” Expedition (70 mammals, 20 from Japan); 1912 - Korea Expedition
(175 mammals, 175 birds); 1916 - First and Second Asiatic Expeditions from 1916
through 1930 (9300 mammals). No diary by Andrews has been produced concerning the
First or Second Asiatic Expeditions or for the Third that followed, later known as the
Central Asiatic Expeditions when it was renamed by Osborn in 1926(?).
Referring to himself as “Associate Curator of Mammals, Eastern Hemisphere,” Andrews

did supply a short report on April 19, 1920 regarding the Second Asiatic Zoological
Expedition of June, 1918 to November, 1919 [20a]. The report makes several interesting
disclosures. From June, 1918 to April, 1919, Andrews’s time was “entirely occupied by
work of the Bureau of Naval Intelligence, and field operations on behalf of the Museum
did not begin until the first of April 1919.” While working for the Bureau, Andrews
“made one trip to Mongolia, several journeys to Japan and, with my wife, one
exceedingly interesting trip directly through the center of China in the Provinces of
Honan and Hupeh. Although these travels did not show any tangible natural history
results in the way of specimens, nevertheless they were of a great deal of value from the
Museum’s standpoint for I was able to see much country which I would not otherwise
have been able to visit.”
The report continues:
[On May 17, 1919,] I left with my wife and three Chinese assistants
to cross Mongolia by motor car to Urga, the capital. This was
selected as the base of operations for work in northern Urga, because
it is at the junction of the Siberian and Centrral Asian life zones. At
Urga, we obtained horses and carts and prepared for our work on the
plains.
From the first of June until the middle of July, we carried on

investigations on the plains’ fauna, and during this time covered over
1,600 miles on horseback. We then returned to Urga and spent until
the middle of September working in the forests to the north of the
city; here, of course, we obtained a totally different fauna from that
on the plains.
We dispatched our specimens to Peking by camel caravans we,

ourselves, following in motor cars and, on October 5, we were
joined by the Reverend Harry R. Caldwell. Mr. Caldwell and I
immediately started on a new trip to northern Shansi province, just
south of the Mongolian frontier, with the special objective of
obtaining big horn sheep and wapiti [20b].
Andrews and Caldwell returned to Peking on November 19th whereupon Caldwell

immediately departed for Foochow feeling “that it was necessary to return to his mission
work.”
The motor car the Andrews occupied was not just used for the trip back to Peking
{Kalgan] in 1919. It also enabled fieldwork.
[S]pecial observations [were] made upon the speed of the Mongolian

antelope. By means of the speedometers on our cars we were able to
determine that beyond a doubt, the Mongolian antelope can reach a
speed of sixty miles an hour [20c].
Although there was no mention of fossils in Andrews’s report to museum director Lucas,
the seeds laid by Obruchev’s find, Borghese’s motorcar race, Granger’s Fayum
expedition and Thomson’s ‘AutoBilly’ were already sprouting in museum president
Osborn’s prophesized Asiatic Garden of Eden. Andrews’s 1918-1919 venture had been a
test run for the Central Asiatic Expedition’s Mongolian exploits to follow.
As far back as January of 1919, Osborn and Andrews had already obtained some
fascinating information about fossils in China and Mongolia from J. G. Andersson.
Through publication and word of mouth, Osborn became aware of Andersson’s fossil
finds, first in China and now in Mongolia where he was finding mammal and possibly
dinosaur fossils. One site in Inner Mongolia was not far from the location of Obruchev’s
original find. Osborn wanted to know more. At his behest, Andrews arranged to meet
with Andersson in Peking.
Roy’s World
For much of the decade before 1919, Andrews roamed various parts of Asia hunting
whales and exotic land mammals for eventual display at the American Museum.
Although he was called a zoologist, it was a loose application; Andrews did very little
actual science. As a junior associate, Edwin Colbert, later put it:
[Roy Chapman Andrews] published two monographs and several short

papers on the Cetacea, and these were in essence the totality of his
research publications. It became apparent to him early in his career that
research was not his major interest; rather, he developed an
overwhelming desire to carry on field work and exploration [21].
Andrews’s popular accounts of whale hunting not only had made his a household name
early in his career, he by now was also very well-connected. At the Explorers Club as
well as the Museum, he could count on Roosevelts and Morgans, Vilhjalmur Stefansson
and other well-heeled members and/or famous explorers among his acquaintances.
By 1915, however, the American Museum found fostering Andrews' whaling adventures
too expensive. Hence he turned to big game for hunting, killing and display, a pursuit he
hoped would keep him roaming throughout Asia, but still attached to the Museum from
which he otherwise might have been let go. Henry Osborn’s museum wanted science, as
well as collections, and if Andrews could not provide much of the former, he thought he
surely could provide the latter.
On March 10, 1916, the Museum agreed to enter into a 12-month contract with Andrews
commissioning him to conduct a zoological survey of China south of the Yangtze, or
north of it should political problems occur in the south. Andrews was to collect
mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles and batrachians and photograph anything of zoological
and ethnological interest. Primarily he was to “secure a series of small mammals and
particularly those that are nocturnal, fossorial, cave dwelling, or aquatic,” as well as “a
good series of the larger mammals, such as Tiger, Leopard, Takin, Serow, Goral, Sheep,
etc. [22].” That suited his affinity for the high-powered hunting rifle with telescope and
eventually a silencer. But he also was to note any fossils, meteorites, extraordinary
minerals, pictographs, or other materials that might be of value to the Museum as well.
This expedition was termed the “Asiatic Zoological Expedition of the American Museum
of Natural History.” It later would become known as the “First Asiatic Zoological
Expedition” or, simply, the “First Asiatic Expedition [23].”
Andrews’s status with the Museum was that of freelancer or independent agent. The
arrangement perhaps saved his career with the Museum. He was to be accompanied by
his wife-photographer Yvette Borup, a French-born American who was educated in
Germany until age 19 whom he married on October 7, 1914 [24]. The Andrews sailed
aboard the SS Tenyo Maru departing April 1, 1916, for Peking via Japan and Korea and
were to be joined in China by a highly-regarded, then freelancing zoologist-expeditioner
Edmund Heller (1875-1939).
Heller had accompanied Theodore Roosevelt on expediton to Africa in 1909-1910 and

published a book with him in 1915 entitled Life-Histories of African Game Animals.
Heller later held a position at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and then
successive directorships at two major zoos. Heller and Andrews would not get along well
in China during the First Asiatic Expedition and parted company before returning to the
US. When Heller’s sister inquired as to her brother’s whereabouts, Andrews, the
expedition “leader,” had no idea [25].
Andrews was required to keep a journal of his daily movements and provide the Museum
director reports of the country traversed and materials collected. In return, Andrews was
paid $2,000, given the title “assistant curator of mammals,” and financed up to $11,000
by the Museum for expenses. Andrews also gained the sole right to prepare popular
accounts of the expedition illustrated with his wife’s photographs for book or periodical
publication and lecturing. As second-in-command Heller made $200 a month [26].
Despite her role as expedition photographer, no financial allotment was made to Yvette
[26a].
Doing the Sidestep
When Roy and Yvette Andrews left the US in April, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson’s
war preparedness campaign was gearing up. For the Andrews, it was a good time to leave
the country. While in Germany, Yvette had developed a close connection to and passion
for the German royalty. As the clouds of World War I formed over Europe, Andrews
himself became quite willing to help her express her views to the American public. Back
on December 15, 1914, he contacted Cosmopolitan and The Ladies Home Journal as
follows:
Dear Sir,
My wife, who was formerly Miss Yvette Borup, was educated in
Germany at the Kaiserin Augusta Institute, and while there became
an intimate friend of the Princess Victoria Louise, daughter of the
German Emperor. During Mrs. Andrews’s school life much of her
time was spent at the palace and she has many interesting things to
tell about German court life. Only a short time ago she received a
remarkable letter from the Kaiser’s daughter, who is now the
Dutchess of Brunswick, in which she is told of her view of the war.
It has occurred to me that your magazine might be interested in an
article dealing with Mrs. Andrews’s memories of German court life
and her school days with the Princess, whom she last visited at the
time of her marraige [sic] in May, 1913, in Berlin. If such an article
would interest you, I should be glad to take up the matter in regard to
her writing it [27].
A few weeks later, Andrews received the following letter from The Vital Issue:
Dear Sir:
By my work for the Vital Issue I have become acquainted with
Professor and Mrs. Sheperd. Mrs. Sheperd urged me to pay you a
visit and I would thank you very much if you would appoint a time
most convenient to you for my visit. The Vital Issue is fighting for
fair play and justice on the side of Germany [28].
The normally hard to access Andrews replied:
Gentlemen:
Your letter of January 8 is at hand. I am in my office almost every

day from 9:30 until 4:30 and will be glad to see you whenever you
wish to call [29].
(First) Asiatic Zoological Expedition
The First Asiatic Expedition party spent the first three months (March-May) in Fukien
Province during, in Andrews’s words, “the rebellion against Yuan Shi-Kai." Fukien was
well-removed from the trouble [30]. Another nine months were spent "conducting
zoological explorations with a large expedition along the border of Tibet and Burma."
Throughout, Andrews fed the publicity machine, further burnishing his image with exotic
expeditioning, firearm wielding and big-game hunting. Not made public, however, was
that he also nearly shot his wife an incident which then spooked Heller who began yelling
out whenever he thought Andrews was close by with a loaded weapon in hand.
As Andrews’s contract headed to a close on March 10, 1917, war-related events were not
going well. President Wilson’s peace initiatives floundered, a number of U.S. merchant
ships were being sunk by the Germans, and the Allied countries were not much friendlier
because of continued U.S. abstention. But two events during this period –– the sinking on
February 25, 1917, of the RMS Laconia returning to England from New York with
American passengers aboard and public disclosure March 1, 1917 of the “Zimmerman
Telegram” subterfuge regarding Mexico –- served to galvanize American resolve against
Germany. While outright war had not yet been declared by the U.S., and would not be for
another month, the prospect of entry into the war was clear.
The timing and import of these developments were significant to Andrews. At contact’s
end, Edmund Heller hastened off without disclosing his plans. He and Andrews had not
hit it off. In the meantime, Andrews and Yvette decided not to return to the U.S. Instead
they arranged to travel throughout Burma and across India for six months and then return
to Peking. Timing was fortuitous: Yvette became pregnant. While Andrews later claimed
[declared] he was anxious to join the war effort and fight in France, seven months passed
before he and Yvette stepped back on U.S. soil. By then, October, 1917, not only was
Yvette nearing full term, World War I was winding down.
It was safe to go home. On August 1, 1917, Pope Benedict XV issued his appeal for
worldwide peace. Wilson listened and began to assemble his fourteen points. The Allies
agreed to meet in Paris on November 21, 1917, to initiate a coalition diplomacy called the
Inter-Allied Conference. The U.S. became an associate military power in Europe with its
own army and separate command. General Pershing, fresh from successfully leading an
armed expeditionary force into Mexico, led the Allied Expeditionary Force into Europe.
The theater and tide of war shifted to the Allies’s favor as American soldiers fought and
died in Europe. American borders were secure. Danger to international shipping had
lessened. It was safe to return.
Andrews was never to be among the soldiers fighting in France. He settled comfortably
back into life at the American Museum of Natural History, writing to his college chum,
Harry Van Hovenberg, on December 17, 1917, that while:
I am much interested in the war, but at present I cannot enlist, much

as I should like to do for two reasons, one of them is my duty to
Yvette [31].
George Borup Andrews was born on December 26, 1917, a little more than nine months
after the March 10, 1917, expiration of Andrews’s contract with the American Museum.
It appears that Andrews’s interest in war had actually meant skirting it. Nearly a full six
months after his letter to van Hovenberg and the birth of George, Andrews wrote to
Henry Osborn, on June 7, 1918, that
I have felt for some time that it was my duty to offer my service to
the Government if they could be of use in war work. I find, however,
that I have not had the necessary military experience for a
commission, and that the men for officers' training camps are only
selected from those of the draft [32].
Why neither a noncommissioned position nor entering the draft was acceptable to
Andrews is not explained. Nor is it explained why it took him eight months after
returning to the United States in October of 1917 to discover that he could not obtain an
officer’s commission without requisite military experience. But by June of 1918, he

surely knew that the chance of draft had lessened –– the Allies were more confident of
winning the war.
Had Andrews truly wanted to fight in France, he easily could have. He was able.
Youngsters concealing their age or health were doing so. Andrews also was now
associated with having considerable experience with a weapon and derring do. Many an
American lad had signed up to fight with much less rifle time and far fewer claimed big
game kills and near misses than Andrews. But Andrews wasn’t going to step forward.
He had invoked a second obligation in his duty-to-Yvette, December 17, 1917, letter to
Van Hovenberg. This one was to the American Museum of Natural History and Henry
Osborn himself:
[In addition to Yvette,] the other [duty I have is] to the Museum.
They have spent a good deal of money upon my trip and the
President feels very strongly that I should get the material in shape
before going away [33].
To which he added:
I am trying to do my bit [for the war effort] by endeavoring to get

the Government to take up the use of whale meat for food for I
believe that it will have a very important bearing upon the food
supply [34].
In sum, not long after returning to the U.S. from China, Andrews furnished Van
Hovenberg with the two reasons already in hand for why he had not and would not be
pursuing combat. There was a third.
Andrews’s purported endeavor to put Americans on whale meat notwithstanding, the

need to put his Asia collection in order was real and not to Osborn’s liking. Osborn was
somewhat aghast that Andrews showed so little interest in producing any scientific
studies on his Asian collection. Yet, not only did Andrews fail to tackle that research, he
suggested passing it on to others to do it for him [35]. Following that tack, which he got
away with, he then made another by pitching an alternative to Osborn.
In thar June 18, 1918, letter to Osborn, Andrews made this proposition:
I have just returned from Washington where I have examined the

collections from China in the U.S. National Museum. I am greatly
disappointed for I had expected that they would supplement the
material which we obtained in the Province of Yun-nan; instead I
find that it is of little aid in elucidating the problems which have
arisen in my study of the specimens gathered by our [First] Asiatic
Zoological Expedition. I have felt for some time that it was my duty
to offer my service[s] to the Government if they could be of use in
war work. I find, however, that I have not had the necessary military
experience for a commission, and that the men for officers' training
camps are only selected from those of the draft. It seems, therefore,
that I cannot be of great service to the Government at this time.
Under these conditions, I feel that I ought to continue my scientific
work, but it will be practically impossible to do so without returning
to China in the near future. I shall have to make a survey of northern
China and continguous regions in order to properly interpret the
zoological results which we obtained in southern China. It would not
be necessary to carry on such an extensive expedition as the one
from which we returned in October, 1917, for this should be more in
the light of a reconnaissance than for the purpose of making a large
general collection. This work could, I believe, be carried on for a
year with an appropriation of $5,000, and I feel that it is of the
utmost importance to undertake it in the very near future [36].
Obviously, Andrews was angling for a respectable way to leave town as soon as possible,
but it was not to go to France and fight. Au contraire, back in that same December 17,
1917, letter to Harry Van Hovenberg written barely two months after returning from
Asia, Andrews had already tipped his hand, complaining that
New York gets on our nerves pretty badly after the life in the East
and were it not for the war we should go back to the Orient as soon
as possible. Both of us love it there and I often wonder whether the
rush and hurry of the city with its hundreds of things to do are really
worth while [37].
‘Reynolds’ and the ONI
Andrews’s purported quest for “war work” cum returning-to-the-Orient had taken him to
Washington, D.C., in the spring of 1918 where, blessed by Henry Osborn, Gilbert
Grovesnor and others, he engaged the old-boy network. Ultimately he met up with
Captain Roger Welles Jr., a field intelligence officer, amateur minerologist and zoologist
[?and friend of Osborn and Teddy Roosevelt / or just Andrews?] who had returned from
South America to take charge of the US Navy’s Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) in
April, 1917. The appointment was followed by a quick promotion to Rear Admiral.
The ONI was in the process of establishing a worldwide network of paid civilian
informants working under cover of their otherwise benign-appearing professions ––
nurses, businessmen, missionaries, news reporters, travellers and so on. These were not
professionally trained spies, nor did they join the military or hold rank. Despite later
claims, Andrews never served in the military or operated as a trained spy. He, along with
many other civilians, simply operated under cover of their given professions, passing
along to an ONI contact whatever information they thought might be of significance. It
was up to the ONI to decide whether it was.
As a museum curator on expedition for big game, Andrews offered logical access to
Inner and Outer Mongolia. That seemed promising to the ONI which was deeply
interested in Bolshevik-era Russia. Andrews filed an application with the ONI on June 5,
1918, to engage as a civilian informant for pay while operating in China and the
Mongolias as a field zoologist and curator for the American Museum of Natural History.
America’s scientific elite were listed as his references: Henry Fairfield Osborn for the
American Museum of Natural History, Gilbert H. Grosvenor for the National Geographic
Society and C. Hart Merriam for the US National Museum (now the Smithsonian’s
National Museum of Natural History).
Rear Admiral Welles and the ONI quickly approved Andrews’s application and
American Museum scientific fieldwork and U.S. military intelligence were thus
conjoined with the approval of those at the highest levels. Why? The answer is twofold:
science and politics. Osborn wasn’t just a scientist: he was an expansionist, and it was
time to expand. Some time in the fall of 1917, the Museum made inquiry of all
employees concerning their citizenship. On December 3, 1917, in response to one of his
curators, still a Canadian citizen, about whether to change citizenship, Osborn replied
I am disposed to think that American citizenship would help you...,

even more than your Canadian citizenship, owing partly to the
circumstance that America is destined to play such a very large part
in the world’s history during the next two or three years [HFO to
WDM, 12/3/17].
Geopolitics and Global Ambition
Osborn had found the way to play a part in pursuing America’s global destiny, as well as
the Museum’s. One great remaining unknown geographically, economically and
scientifically during this time was the region of Inner and Outer Mongolia where Admiral
Welles, along with Osborn and a few American financiers, was now turning his attention.
It was not coincidental that the ONI aspect of this exploit was backed by heads of the
American Museum of Natural History, the U.S. National Museum and the National
Geographic Society, or that Andrews later published in National Geographic Society
magazine (US) and Geographical Journal (London).
Soon after the United States entered the First World War, [one] Dr.
Isaiah Bowman placed the facilities of the American Geographical
Society at the Government's disposal, and, as a consequence, the
Society's building became the headquarters of the "Inquiry," a group
of some 150 geographers, historians, economists, statisticians, and
experts in government and international law which Colonel House
assembled at President Wilson's request to gather and organize
information for the coming peace conference. When Wilson and the
American delegation sailed for France in December, 1918, they took
with them the leading members of the "Inquiry" staff and many maps
and books from the Society's collections. Bowman played an

influential part in the work of the "Inquiry" and more especially in
Paris during the following two years, serving as adviser on
geographical matters to the American Commission and in an
executive capacity within the delegation. This experience brought
him a wide circle of acquaintances among scholars, statesmen, and
men of affairs.
In addition to the American Geographical Society, Bowman, like Osborn, was a member
of the National Academy of Sciences and Explorers Club. Under Wilson, Bowman’s
American geographical policy was now in effect. The Central Asiatic Expeditions was to
be a significant spearhead into that region. For all the hullabaloo about the origin of
ancient beasts and man, what held equal if not greater importance was mapping the place
(geography) and evaluating its resources (geology).
But, of course, neither of these could be done outright. They had to be given the context,
or cover, of science or questions might arise. Since the Chinese and Mongolians of those
days still cared little about the preservation and retention of their fossils and artifacts, that
became the avenue of approach for the CAE. The rest followed.
One cannot understand a fossil find without noting its geological setting. The particular
geological settings of each cannot be more fully comprehended without incorporating
them into a larger geographical overview. Geography, as one definition tells us, is “a
science that deals with the description, distribution, and interaction of the diverse
physical, biological, and cultural features of the earth's surface.” Or, as another states,
“the science dealing with the areal differentiation of the earth's surface, as shown in the
character, arrangement, and interrelations over the world of such elements as climate,
elevation, soil, vegetation, population, land use, industries, or states, and of the unit areas
formed by the complex of these individual elements; the topographical features of a
region....”
This is precisely how the thinkers of 1900 deduced their intercontinental mammalian
similarities, origin and dispersal theory, They were thinking geographically. The bones
had told them to do so. It is also why all the lands of the globe had to become theirs. They
needed to investigate on a world wide basis. There were marked similarities in bones
found on continents separated by huge expanses of water. Therefore these seemingly

separate continents were apparently somehow interrelated. How did that happen?
Ultimately, solving that answer came with the notion of ‘Pangea’ –– that the various
separate land masses we know today as the continents by their various names were once
joined into one big clump surrounded by one big ocean. As the earth spun on, the clump
slowly broke apart to configure the continental distribution we know today. For the
Americans, this unfortunate [unavoidable] global distribution of valuable land masses is
what aligned the goals of the earth scientists with those of the military and the financiers.
Already members of the same institutions, organizations and clubs, these men cooperated
and combined [orchestrated] to push [peddle, advance] their interests forward all over the
globe, or at least wherever it mattered anyway.
China and the Mongolias were among them. Coordinating their respective objectives like
the arms of a great octopus, the American men of great influence and power put their
various departments [spheres. sectors, operations] in motion. Osborn’s collaboration with
Admiral Welles placed Andrews at the tip of the spear they would hurl into Asia. A
natural history museum curator on expedition was an excellent cover for surreptitiously
gathering information for the Navy’s intelligence analyst to digest. Osborn would benefit
from it as well. Andrews,
The ONI had approved Andrews' application on June 10, 1918, just five days after he’d
submitted it. That meant that from the moment Andrews returned to the US in October,
1917, when the tide of war was already turned in favor of the Allies, he had spent eight
months "organizing" his Asian collection at the American Museum. When he finally did
apply for "war work," it was to the ONI for an assignment in Asia where the interest
clearly had a post-World War I focus. World War I had come to a close. Armistice Day
was about to be set, a new world order was about to emerge, and Andrews was lining up
another adventure at one of its frontiers.
But this was not just about the ONI spying in the shaping of a new world order with its
consequent geopolitical strategizing, economic opportunizing and military assessing.
Henry Osborn also needed secret eyes in Asia and had made a deal with Andrews.
Serving as Instruments
When Andrews returned to China on June 29, 1918, aboard the S.S. Ecuador out of San
Francisco, Yvette following a few months later, he carried two contracts. One was a year-
long agreement with the ONI to scour about China and the Mongolias at $8.00 per day
(instead of the usual $4.00 plus costs and expenses) under the guise of Museum work. He
was given the codename ‘Reynolds.’ He was to provide written reports in dissovable ink
to US Naval Attaché Commander Irwin Van Gorder Gillis (1875-1948) in Peking on
whatever he thought was of interest. Gillis was to decide whether it had value [38].
Andrews’s ONI pay came to double the going rate because the remainder of his costs and
expenses to operate in Asia were going to be picked up by the American Museum.
Andrews' second contract was an overlapping eighteen-month agreement with the
American Museum of Natural History which provided the cover for Andrews’s ONI
work. Andrews was to conduct fieldwork for the Museum as the "Second Zoological
Asiatic Expedition." Since the two contracts ran concurrently, there would be six months
left to go on the AMNH contract once the ONI contract expired.
Andrews' deal with the ONI had resolved his somewhat stalled relationship with the
Museum. As with the whales ventures earlier, Osborn not only had found he no further
need for more big-game, but was still waiting for Andrews to write up his First Asiatic
Expedition report. Nevertheless Osborn was also quick to recognize the opportunity
presented as World War I wound down and reports of new scientific work by a Swedish
geologist in China were emerging. Reminiscent of the Fayum in 1907 when the
Museum’s pioneering exploit helped serve US foreign policy and US President Theodore
Roosevelt supplied it with a letter of introduction, US foreign policy needs could now
serve the Museum.
As with Rear Admiral Welles, Osborn wanted someone snooping around in China and
Mongolia. By 1918, there were significant developments in geologic and paleontologic
fieldwork in China, particularly by Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson, and
inferences of the same for Inner Mongolia. Osborn needed eyes on the situation. The
ONI’s needs provided Osborn with route and rationale. The Museum’s largess on behalf
of American interests provided ‘Mr. Reynolds’ with cover and funding. Andrews’s had
the fame, and the Museum the prestige, to carry all this out in a plausible way. Funding
the entirety of Andrews’s costs and expenses simply furthered Osborn’s primary interest
–– reconnaissance and inquiry, especially as to Andersson.
Andrews’s First Asiatic expedition contract served as a prototype for the second though
restyled somewhat to accommodate his ONI work. Andrews was to conduct a zoological
survey of whatever regions he thought important, while collecting, photographing and
recording data. This was an unfettered geographical expansion of his earlier work. Again
he was to keep an eye out for fossils, extraordinary minerals, meteorites, pictographs and
items of ethnological interest. But there was no provision this time for “free entry of
goods” through customs. Apparently, Andrews wasn’t really expected to collect
specimens for shipment back to the Museum.
Financial terms were deleted entirely from this second contract. Andrews’s salary was to
be paid by the ONI for the first twelve months. Because the Museum agreed to fund all
personal and expedition expenses for the entire contract period, the ONI doubled
Andrews’s per diem pay. The museum was in essence enabling both missions –– the
ONI’s and its own –– while Andrews’s pockets were filled handsomely. No provision
was made for an assistant thus time, although Yvette did travel with Andrews into
Mongolia. As he later wrote concerning this Second Asiatic Expedition “My wife, who is
ever my best assistant in the field, was responsible for all the photographic work of the
expedition and I have drawn much upon her daily "Journals" in the preparation of this
book [38a].”
NEW WORLD ORDER
1918
The United States entered the Great War in April of 1917 to protect the welfare of the
entire globe by ending European combat. The unique, broader opportunity amidst the
madness was the opportunity to globalize American values –– “to establish a new world
order, to establish principles of democracy [39].” By June, 1918, as war events turned
favorably for the Allies, some in America looking beyond the upcoming peace talks were
nervous about what they saw. The U.S. Navy, for example, had become anxious over a
worst-case postwar scenario involving the more powerful navies of Britain and Japan.
The British now virtually ruled the seas. The Japanese were not far behind and,
strategically, it was better positioned than the British. If Asia was the next prize, Japan
was at its doorstep. The British and, for that matter, the Americans, were an ocean’s span
away. Naval power was not just ships, but geography. In the winter of 1921, journalist
Guy Morrison Walker reminded that
Twenty one years ago [in 1900] in a public address I called the
attention of our American people to the position which they had
attained in the Far East by the acquisition of the Phillipines, and
invited them from that point of vantage to look over into the
Promised Land of China [40].
But, as the first world war drew to a close, the strength of the U.S. Navy paled by
comparison to those of Britain and Japan. And if these two island empires were to join
forces, their combined naval power would be devastating. A foothold in the Phillipines or
Hawaii for that matter would mean nothing.
Yet many Americans were tired of war and geopolitics, They had all they needed right at
home: an American could walk for thousands of miles across the land and never need a
watercraft for anything more than a river crossing. The war-weary American domestic
political climate was not in the Navy’s favor. [Perhaps commerce would be.]
Second Asiatic Zoological Expedition, 1918-1919
For the Second Asiatic Zoological Expedition, the Museum added the request that, in
addition to mammals and birds, Andrews collect “obtain data of ethnological,
anthropological interest whenever it is possible and to this end should engage competent
interpreters through whom you can converse with the natives with whom you come into
contact [41][42].”
Andrews was scheduled to set sail for China aboard the S.S. Ecuador on June 19, 1918,
but actually left several days later on another ship with Yvette. Once in China, he met up
with Harry R. Caldwell, a missionary and big-game hunter with whom Andrews had been
corresponding since 1915 after learning of his hunting ventures in China through a
Captain Holcomb [43].
Caldwell was a Methodist missionary in Foochow and representative of the Centenary

Commission, Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New
York City. A tiger hunter, naturalist, and author of books such as The Blue Tiger, and
South China Birds, he once held the world record for shooting bighorn sheep and was
endorsed by Savage Arms Company because he prominently used their ”.22 High Power”
Savage 99 lever action rifle [44]. Caldwell later collected some of the mammals
attributed to Second Asiatic Zoological Expedition and wrote up a description of life in
China for Andrews to use in his own book, unattributed [45].
But first, Caldwell accompanied Andrews on his ONI probe into Mongolia. Part of their
assignment, apparently, was to try to check on the status of the ‘Czech Legion’ affair in
Siberia [fn]. At some point, most likely during this phase with Caldwell on ONI work,
Andrews recorded eleven different campsites at locations in various directions from
Urga. In his otherwise scant 1918-1919 fieldbook, Andrews noted as follows:
1.) Pang-kiang
2.) Iren Dabasu (Mongol name); Erhlien (Chinese)
3.) Tuerin
4.) 20 mi. S. W. of Urga, Tola River Valley
5.) 80 mi. W. of Urga, Tola River Valley
6.) 30 mi. N. E. of Tze Tzen Wang
7.) Tze Tzen Wang

8.) 40 mi. S. W. of Tze Tzen Wang
9.) Ongin River
10.) Sain Noin Khan, alt. 7,000 ft.
11.) Sain Noin Khan, alt. 8,000 ft. (forest) [47].
These were the very locations visited by the CAE in 1922. The references to ‘Sain Noin
Khan’ (or Sain Noin) at 10 and 11 placed Andrews roughly three hundred miles west
southwest of Urga by 1918-1919 and well into Outer Mongolia. It was a popular hunting
site reached overland by motorcar. Urga friend Oscar Mamen, a Norwegian hunter-
photographer experienced with Mongolia, confirmed this when he wrote to Andrews in
March of 1920 that “[if political conditions improve], I hope I shall be able to take my car
and run over to Sain Noin [to hunt] in the very near future...” [Bull 19, p. 46., fn 101]
In 1922, Sain Noin became the western-most terminus of the CAE’s first Mongolia
venture. After reaching it, the expedition essentially turned around and headed back to
Kalgan mostly along a main east-west caravan and postal route. Clearly then, Andrews
and the CAE were not the first to access the Sain Noin region by motorcar. His friends
had done it before, as had he.
Mamen’s letter raises an interesting question: how did he intend to handle the logistics
for driving across the Mongolian plains from Urga to Sain Noin and back? That’s roughly
600 miles roundtrip of off-road driving at around seven miles per gallon. That would
require 85.7 gallons of fuel, assuming a flat road. There certainly were no gas stations, or
restaurants, or stores along the way. Yet such a venture required not only having
sufficient fuel, but oil, grease, essential spares, food, water, clothing and hunting and
camping gear.
In any event, for part of the time from mid-1918 to early-1919, Andrews cavorted in
Mongolia with his new-found friends including Caldwell, Mamen, American
entrepreneur Charles Coltman, Swedish missionary Joel Eriksson and missionary-cum-
entrepreneur Franz Larson [45a]. All the while, he apprised Osborn in New York and, by
letter written in invisible ink, Commander Gillis in Peking [46]. Yvette, largely stood by
in Peking with young George, and occasionally writing letters of her own.
“Highly indiscreet...”
"Highly indiscreet letter has been written by Reynold's wife, requesting that his family be
informed as to the nature of his mission. Order Reynolds home to report to this Office,"
growled a NAVINTEL telegram on January 24, 1919. Following that, on February 6,
1919, the Acting Secretary of State cabled the American Minister in Peking about
"reports" he'd received "through censorship" that "information is being circulated by Mrs.
Roy Chapman Andrews to effect that her husband is on a secret Government mission.
Whether founded on fact or not, such publicity is unfortunate."
Perhaps Yvette wanted to offset any feeling back home that her husband had dodged the
war. In any event, the Acting Secretary then instructed the American Minister in Peking
to report on the nature of Andrews' mission and connections "after discreet
investigation." By now, Rear Admiral Welles had departed the ONI (in January) but had
yet to be replaced by Rear Admiral Albert P. Niblack (in May). The American Minister
complied and on March 4, 1919, reported that Andrews, "the well-known naturalist and
explorer," was retained by the Navy Department "to make investigations for the Naval
Attaché [Commander Irwin Van Gorder Gillis] in Peking."
The matter was forwarded to Captain George W. Williams, U.S.N., Acting Director of
Naval Intelligence, on March 7, 1919. Of course, by then, the Navy already knew it had a
problem. Andrews was fired although precisley when Andrews is not clear. His contract
specified termination "at any time upon thirty days written notice." In his final report on
the Second Asiatic Expedition a year later (April 19, 1920), Andrews indicated that his
ONI work terminated sometime in March of 1919.
In any event, Andrews planned to head back to Urga by motorcar with Yvette under the
auspices of his remaining contract with AMNH. He was now somewhat familiar with
locations within Inner Mongolia as well the Urga region of Outer Mongolia. He had
made contacts with westerners who lived and worked in this region and knew the area
very well, Larson and Eriksson in particular.
What Andrews knew by then, Osborn also knew. Much of the forthcoming ‘historic’
1922 CAE Mongolian route, all but the hypotenuse, an easily drivable major east-west
camel caravan route, had been traveled by Andrews three years before, and it wasn’t by
horseback. Motorcars would work on the Mongolian plains and funding such exploration
would pay off. For there was more –– there were fossils to be had.
The Andersson-Andrews Meetings
Although supposedly still working for the ONI in January of 1919, Andrews made
arrangements to meet with the Swedish geologist Johan G. Andersson working out of
Peking. The meeting extended over two days, the 18th and 19th. Andersson, who was
stationed in Peking as a mining advisor to the Chinese government, had been making
several successful artefact and fossil hunting expeditions within China and was now
making plans for a large-scale expedition to Inner Mongolia.
Andersson had begun by amassing a considerable collection of early plant fossils he

discovered in southern China. But, in shipping the collection back to Peking, all was lost
when the S.S. Peking sank en route. In the meantime, Russian paleontologist, A. N.
Krystofovich, had discovered a dinosaur deposit near the Amur River in Heilungkiang
Province in extreme northern Manchuria. The Russians collected there successfully until
1917 finding "three or four species representing widely different groups of dinosaurs."
[Andersson].
By 1916, Andersson was wandering through parts of southern China collecting whatever
he could. He and an assistant spent long periods conducting their fieldwork and "live
alternately in country farms and small village temples." [Andersson.] In southern Shansi
Province Andersson discovered mollusk fossils. At Yuan Chu Hsien in Honan Province
he found fossils of of freshwater shells which indicated, for the first time, the occurrence
of Eocene deposits in China.
In 1917, the Chinese Geological Survey resolved to determine where to locate the so-
called dragon's bones, fossils ground up for use as powdered medicine. Presumably it
would be in China's Tertiary deposits. [Andersson.] The Survey directed an inquiry to
mission stations and foreigners throughout China asking for information and assistance in
this quest and received immediate responses from missionaries in southern China and
eastern Inner Mongolia. Andersson decided to begin his search for dragon bones in
[central] Honan Province. Almost immediately, he was able to examine a rhinocerous
skull and as well as the loess deposits south-east of Honan-fu where the skull was said to
have been found.
In 1918, he discovered prehistoric coral-like animals and recognized their connection to

similar fossils found in the pre-Cambrian area of North America. [Andersson)]. Also in
1918, Andersson also located the first Hipparion field known to exist in China. By now
Andersson had heard that there were fossils to be found in Inner Mongolia as well. He
began making plans
Andrews’s two day meeting with Andersson over January 18 and 19, 1919, was at
Osborn’s request. As this exchange was being digested on both sides, Andersson
followed up by contacting W. D. Matthew at the Museum’s paleontology department
about fossil eggs. For the moment, it appeared, Andersson seemed comfortable with
disclosing information to the Museum. On April 24, he wrote to Matthew
I desire to call your attention to the big bird's egg of which now quite
a number of specimens are known to me from different provinces
and widely different altitudes above sea level. The eggs are about 18
centimeters long, of somewhat variable, short ovoid or elliptical
shape. They are found in the soil, in one case as deep as 30 feet, but I
have so far never seen an egg in situ or been able to state definitely
in what kind of sediment these eggs occurred. As far as I know these
eggs are always complete, never broken or crushed in their natural
site. They may be broken, of course, by careless digging when they
are found. But natural agencies seem always to have left them
untouched, an empty shell with a little yellowish powder inside. That
they have been able to resist the pressure of overlying earth layers is
a matter I am not able to understand, and I sometimes think that the
whole thing may be a mystification, but as the eggs have been found
from time to time in widely different places by the local population,
I think it can hardly be denied that we here have to do with a
prehistoric extinct bird of remarkable dimensions.
Andersson wrote more:

I have recently procured a complete specimen and two others have

passed through my hands for measurements and examination. The
shell is whitish gray or brown, a little more than 2 millimeters thick
and showing two distinct layers of different structure. In my
Shantung trip one of my collectors came to a place where some
years ago a farmer had digged [sic] out four eggs lying close
together and indicating as I imagine a nest of the mysterious bird.
Two eggs were taken out unbroken, but considered valueless. They
were used as stoppers for some pottery vessels containing oil to
protect the content against the dust. The children played with these
remarkable stoppers and so they were broken, consequently I could
procure only a fragment of a shell.
Andersson wrote Matthew again on May 6, 1919, with additional information and
photographs about "the supposed subfossil big bird's egg" and to repeat his desire "to get
you or your colleagues' expert opinion on the true nature of these somewhat doubtful
eggs." Matthew replied on September 8, 1919:
Your letters of April 24th and May 6th with accompanying

photographs have been of the greatest interest to my colleagues and
myself. Director Lucas has already written to you regarding the
fossil eggs, and we will follow the matter up further with the help of
the information you have given us. The extraordinary resistence of
the eggs to pressure is a point of interest to me as I have noted a
similar resistence in a small way in the delicate tympanic bullae of
many fossil mammal skulls when preserved in windblown or
volcanic dust. In such deposits they are usually empty, where as if
buried in mud or river deposits they would be filled with matrix, and
are much more often crushed and broken.
But, by now Andersson had started to wonder whether he’d been had. Indeed, just six
months after meeting with Andersson in January, and by the time of Matthew’s reply,
Andrews was boasting to his friend Henry Van Hoevenberg:
We have planned a big expedition; one which will be more

important than any other scientific expedition which has been sent
out from America so far. It will cost close on to a quarter of a
million dollars and will continue for five years... We are going on a
hunt for primitive man as well as zoology [48].
More Background
One morning, riding in a rickshaw

Down Nanking Road in Shanghai
I watched six coolies
struggling, single-file,
A rope stretched tight
Across their backs and shoulders,
Their faces grim and twisted,
Slowly pulling
A great load of heavy broken rocks
On a protesting two-wheeled cart.
And hanging on the rope
Between two of the straining men
There was a bird-cage.
And the bird was singing [49].
No more treacherous place existed for the CAE workers than the politically unstable,
warlord-torn, bandit-ridden Yangtze Basin of China. In addition, Yangtze River travel
itself always posed a threat. The dangers they encountered on these ventures were wide-
ranging and often formidable. The Grangers spent four winter seasons there in between
the five summer seasons Granger spent in Inner and Outer Mongolia. CAE herpetologist
Clifford H. Pope made shorter trips between 1921 and 1926 and he did not go into the
Gobi. CAE archaeologist Nels C. Nelson and his wife Ethlyn spent two winter seasons in
the Yangzte in between his ?two summer seasons in the Mongolias.
Granger’s scientific results from the Yangtze area would be less significant in
comparison to that from the Mongolias. His Mongolia work would attract attention
worldwide for decades and commence fieldwork that continues to this day. It would also
be his pioneering presence as the first trained scientist to investigate and produce results
in both regions that constituted a major achievement. The American scientific venture
grabbed the spotlight practically overnight. Others were left only to follow it all in press
accounts.
Traveling about in China and Mongolia in 1921 offered a potpourri. The Peking scene
was quite refined. The foreigners had their walled compounds, special privileges and
endless pleasures. Travel outside of Peking generally wasn't bad because it was usually
done in luxury. Even the Mongolias, rugged and wild, were, except for rogue Russian
killing squads, peaceful, even gentle. Women travelled the auto route between Urga and
Kalgan with considerable normality. In the spring of 1922, the wife of a Buriat dignitary
felt free to divert her car off the auto route and over to Granger's field camp at Iren
Dabasu in Inner Mongolia to drop off the Urgan passports required for travel into Outer
Mongolia!
The ‘wild west,’ if anywhere, was in the Yangtze River area. The region was hostile from
a variety of quarters and for a number of reasons. While westerners earlier had been held
to be immune from much of it, that changes considerably during the 1920s [50]. It was
still understood in 1921 that foreigners had immunity during riots and revolutions. But
recent ‘small outrages’ against them were beginning to occur. Moreover, Sichuan
Province was in a state of rebellion against Peking. The embryonic and prosperous South
China Republic was also fighting for independence. Granger’s undertaking to venture
into this arena for the sake of science was impressive: J. G. Andersson and the Chinese
had declined to go.
For the most part, Andrews could only read or hear about adventure and near-calamity
because, other than photographs and scant motion picture film left from the Central
Asiatic Expeditions (much of the Expedition’s film was destroyed as edited segments
were thrown away and much of what was left was then lost to acidic deterioration),
Walter and Anna Grangers’ diaries and letters constituted the only written firsthand and
near-complete narrative of the CAE’s experiences in China and the Mongolias from 1921
to 1930. As to Mongolia, Granger’s diaries and letters supplied whatever factual,
chronological, descriptive and scientific data Andrews later needed for his popular
accounts of the CAE, always limited to Mongolia, as well as his first multi-authored
volume of a not completed multi-volume set published by the AMNH under the title
“Conquest of Central Asia.” There, again, Andrews only wrote about Mongolia. The
trademark embellishments of adventure and near-calamity overlain, interposed and
interwoven by Andrews were, for the most part, not really his experiences, but those of
others, including Granger (eg., being shot at).
Walter Granger: a Quiet Legend
Andrews was 12 when 23-year old Walter Granger officially turned fossil hunter and
transferred into Henry Osborn’s paleontology department in the spring of 1896. Now as
pivotal to the CAE as he had been on earlier Department expeditions, Granger was
considered ‘the mainspring’ of the Museum’s Department of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Not only could he get along with Osborn, he’d become his lead collector and ‘right hand
man.’ “He was a first-class, behind-the-scenes guy who did what was necessary to make
things work [51].” Physically fit, nearly six feet tall, rail trim, blue-eyed, good-looking
Vermonter with a slender face, high cheekbones and a moustache, Walter Willis Granger
was born in Middletown Springs on November 11, 1872, not far from Rutland where his
parents lived. Walter’s grandfather, Ada’s father Dr. Sylvanus Haynes assisted with the
delivery. Haynes had lived with his family and practiced medicine in the small, but
prosperous mountain hamlet of Middletown Springs. His daughter Ada Haynes met
Charles Granger there while Charles’ father, the Reverend Calvin Granger, presided over
the Congregational Church from 1858 to 1864 on the village square just steps from Ada's
home. Charles was 15 in 1858; Ada was 12. They were married in Middletown Springs in
1870.
Walter inherited the “Haynes ears,” those which protruded slightly more than usual. They
were less noticeable, however, once he aged and lost the slenderness in his face. Also, in
his adolescence, his narrow eyes appeared to squint which, placed high on his long, thin,
teenager face, gave him a sleepy look. That earned him the nickname “Sleepy.” The
name never left Vermont, though he was often reminded of it by old chums whenever he
returned. For the rest of his life, he was simply known “Walter.” Except to Andrews who
called him “Walt.”
Patient, methodical and careful, he had one of the most skilled sets of hands and minds of
any fossil-hunter in history, Granger was unruffable. Always civil and gentle, speaking
quietly and thoughtfully in a low, hearty voice, he often pausing to take a draw on his
pipe (he occasionally also smoked a cigar or cigarette) while he collected his thoughts.
(To one young namesake, Walter Granger Beckwith, Granger always seemed to smell
like pipe tobacco smoke.) Always fun, easy-going, easy to be around, he didn’t ignore,
but didn’t dote. He was a centered and balanced man comfortable in almost any setting at
almost any level in almost any company and country. Nearly universally, he was well-
respected and well-liked.
Artist of the Outcrop
By the spring of 1896, Granger had become Wortman’s first assistant. They took to the
field and, with two other men in their small party, headed for Chaco Canyon, New
Mexico. This was on their way into the San Juan Basin to explore for fossils. Chaco
Canyon was a newly-discovered Anazasi ruin that had just been opened by amateur
archaeologist Richard A. Wetherill, as the Museum was aware. When not running cattle,
rancher Wetherill studied the archeology of Indian sites in his area. His Chaco Canyon
project coincided with the establishment of a trading post there by his brother Al in the
fall of 1895.
Wortman and Wetherill had known each other since 1893 when Wetherill served as a
guide out of Mancos, Colorado. Osborn had sent Wortman to investigate a report of
fossils in the McElmo Canyon area. Wetherill took him in. The fossils appeared to be
saurian, but were so badly weathered that Wortman felt it was not worth collecting them.
Nonetheless, this became the Museum’s first “foray into dinosaur paleontology [52].”
Wetherill had experience with archaeological digs and had already worked at Mesa Verde
under the auspices of the Hyde Exploring Expedition, sponsored by money heirs Talbot
and Frederick Hyde of New York City. With their continued backing and nominal
guidance from the American Museum’s F. W. Putnam, also of Harvard University,
Wetherill tackled Pueblo Bonito with the assistance his brother Clayton, friend Orion
Buck, and one of Putnam’s unseasoned students, George H. Pepper.
Wetherill’s work in Chaco Canyon was termed the Hyde Exploring Expedition, and the
Wortman group wished to have a look for themselves. They rode in by horseback and
wagon to greet Wetherill camped behind the rear wall of the largest of the ruins, Pueblo
Bonito. Other Anasazi dwellings and kivas lay in shambles all about the pretty valley.
More sat atop a sheer cliff only yards away from Wetherill’s kitchen and wood cook
stove which he had set up against Pueblo Bonito’s rear wall. The two parties visited for
several days. Granger took photographs of the area, including one of Wortman posed at a
ruin. Granger later pasted these into his American West expedition photograph album.
Bracketed by Durango, Colorado, to the north and Cuba, New Mexico, to the south, the
San Juan Basin sits 850 feet below the surrounding surface of a plateau ringed by
dramatic mountain ranges such as the San Juan, the Nacimiento, the Zuni and the
Chuska. The Animas and San Juan rivers are the main water courses flowing through the
Nacimiento Formation section of the Basin. Angel Peak overlooks them from the south.
Wortman had been in this part the country before in 1892 after he had begun working for
Osborn. Earlier, Cope had explored the area by horseback, as had another of his
assistants, David Baldwin.
This was the age of fossil mammal discoveries in the San Juan Basin. The Paleocene
Nacimiento Formation, rich and now “famous for its early Paleocene vertebrate fossils”
held geological layers of emerging and evolving mammals [53]. The field studies that
began with Cope in 1875 led to a classification technique known as biostatigraphic
zonation. This enabled correlation among and comparison between the San Juan Basin
fauna and “other early Paleocene mammal faunas of North America [54].” Two of the
eight biostratigraphic zones now established for the Nacimiento Formation include
namings in honor of Granger: the P. opisthacus - Ellipsodon grangeri Zone and the E.
grangeri - Arctocyon ferox Zone [55].
Henry Snyder was that season’s cook and field assistant. A young Barnum Brown, later
of Tyannosaurus Rex fame, also went as a college intern. Thomson rejoined the team in
1897 when he and Granger headed off to a mammal quarry in Hay Springs, Nebraska,
while Wortman, Brown and Harold W. Menke made their way to Como Bluff, Wyoming,
to reopen a site Othniel Marsh had excavated earlier. After finishing in the San Juan
Basin and joining up with another college student Elmer Riggs for more work in
Wyoming, the party returned east by way of Como Bluff. Como Bluff was Marsh’s old
fossil mammal site situated near Medicine Bow. Wortman wanted to make a brief
inspection and report to Osborn on whether it appeared to hold sufficient material worthy
of further exploration.
All agreed that Como Bluff held promise and Osborn consequently sent Brown and
Harold W. Menke back out that following spring of 1897 to work under to supervision of
two local university professors, Wilbur C. Knight and William H. Reed, until Wortman
could take over in June. Mammals were found, to be sure. And soon so were dinosaurs.
Osborn himself was visiting the site in June when he and Brown, so the story goes, found
a dinosaur skeleton right near the mammal quarry. Not long after, Wortman and Knight
found another. Work now was progressing such that word was sent to Granger and
Thomson at Hays Springs to drop what they were doing and make their way to Como
Bluff. It was not going to be that simple, however.
On Monday, June 14, Granger wrote to professor Osborn:
I would have written before but I have been looking for my horses since
Monday night [the week before] and have hardly spent time to sleep. On
Monday evening the gray mares pulled their picket pins and ran off
followed by the saddle horses. I determined the direction they took, but
a four day search had failed to reveal anything of their whereabouts
[55a].
Ten days later, on Wednesday the 23rd, however, he was able to report to the professor
that
I found my horses Sunday at a ranch 25 miles south of camp. The ranch

man told me that they came there at 10:00 the next morning after they
strayed away from camp. If they get away again it will be entirely my
own fault [55b].
It is not known how many miles Granger and Thomson covered in the almost two weeks
it took to find their horses, or how they sustained such a search. Nevertheless, soon they
were on their way to Como Bluff with plenty of time left to help work the mammal
quarry, as well as pull a few dinosaur skeletons.
The field season was winding down when Granger rode from Como Bluff north to
reconnoiter the surrounding area. He crossed the Rock Creek fault line for the climb up
onto the Laramie Plains. Once there, he spotted Mexican sheepherders and stopped to
chat. As they conversed, mention was made of an interesting outcrop with curious-
looking material lying about in a crest on a ridge about ten miles north. Granger thanked
them and made his way up there.
Upon nearing the spot mentioned by the sheepherders, Granger made out what appeared
to be a scattered rubble of rocks. Moving in closer, he realized this was a pile of bone––
dinosaur bone. At one time, a sheepherder’s cabin had been constructed of it, the
Mexicans ten miles back had told him. Some of the largest of the exposed fossil vertebrae
had been used for the foundation. Other fossil material lay weathered out in considerable
quantity, Granger realized as he looked about the outcrop that the size and amount of the
exposed material suggested that more would be found beneath the surface.
Granger rode back to Como Bluff to report his find to Wortman and they returned to
scout it together. Wortman was less certain that the site looked promising, but both
agreed that since it was so late in the season it was better not to start excavation [56].
That might attract attention, particularly if more bones were found. If a site were opened
now, poachers might try to claim it or plunder it during the dormancy of winter. Instead,
they decided to pack up for the season and leave a guard, Harold Menke, behind for the
winter at quarters in nearby Aurora, a small train station on the Union Pacific near Lake
Como. The new site would be kept secret until the following season, although it was
already quietly being referred to as Bone Cabin.
Bone Cabin Quarry [A Quarry at Bone Cabin]
Early in April of the next year, 1898, Granger was back in Wyoming shaking the dust off
Menke at Aurora and ready to tackle that season’s work. Wortman and Thomson, after a
few days stop at Hays Springs, Nebraska, to check out a report of a fossil hominid there,
which proved false, joined them shortly. The party first worked some of the
miscellaneous sites left over from the previous season at Como Bluff. They then turned to
Granger’s bone cabin find, despite lingering doubts by Wortman over its potential.
Wortman was concerned that a fault had sheared away most of the bone layer leaving just
the surface material which Granger had discovered. Supporting his concern, the party had
also found a couple of small pits and a few rusty buckets containing some fossils.
Whether someone had begun digging and then given up is not known. On the other hand,
it was known that the cabin once there had made use of the fossil bones. The pits and
buckets may have had something to do with the cabin’s construction. No one knew for
sure, except that the site had never previously been reported as a fossil locality. Granger
urged Wortman to give it a try. So, they began to dig.
On June 12th, they struck a rich find of dinosaur skeletons that nearly overwhelmed
Wortman with excitement. Bone Cabin Quarry appeared to hold tremendous potential
wealth for the museum’s dinosaur displays. And it was obvious front-page material.
However it needed to be kept secret for the moment. Wortman was so protective of the
site that he had hired local Union Pacific railroad construction worker Peter Kaisen
instead of bringing in available Museum field hands such as Barnum Brown or Handel T.
Martin, both of whom were working an unproductive site under W. D. Matthew.
Wortman simply did not trust Brown or Martin to keep the site secret [57].
Trust was a major issue for Osborn as well, and the concerns about Brown may have
lingered well after Wortman was gone. In any event, Kaisen was hired at the end of June
and assisted the party to the end of the season on October 1. Kaisen was to learn a new
trade well under Wortman, Granger and Thomson.
Granger, in the meantime, took photographs of the original rubble pile at bone cabin, of
the sheepherders who led him to it tending their flock on the plateau and of the quarry
and campsite as work progressed. Many of these shots were later pasted into his album.
He added more as the work and activity progressed there over the next few years. Group
photographs included an Osborn visit, men quarrying, and an early morning shot of
Granger himself arising from his sleeping bag after a night out on the ground near
Osborn’s tent, as if a sentinel.
A fundamental transition was in play during this time that not only brought Osborn and
his men in as successors to the Cope-Marsh bone wars of the 1870s and 1880s, but
brought to public view a number of fossils that were the subject of these wars. Both Cope
and Marsh had kept their collections from the public view––Cope’s in his home in
Philadelphia, Marsh’s at Yale [58]. The post Cope-Marsh period, however, would have
a distinctive feature: Paleontologists at rival museums in the late

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries competed especially to acquire
gigantic, exhibit-quality dinosaur specimens for mounting in life-like
poses...by mid-twentieth century, this style of prehistoric animal

exhibition became a museum status symbol, and a standard by which
the American public [judged] the quality of its major natural history
museums [59].
Not only had Osborn retained Cope’s man Wortman in 1891, by 1895 Cope, now ill and
depleted financially, had agreed to sell his huge and private fossil collection in two
installments to Osborn and the museum. This transaction not only ceded Cope’s half of
the bone war to the AMNH, it gave the museum hundreds of fossils for study and near-
instant fossil material for public display purposes. All seemed set for the museum, but
alas, Wortman and Osborn had now fallen into not getting along. One factor seemed to be
that Wortman was prone to depression in the late summer as the field season wound
down [60]. It may well also have been that he chafed under Osborn’s style. In any event,
before the 1899 season, Wortman left the museum. Granger took his place as Osborn’s
lead collector and field foreman.
The American Museum now held Cope’s collection open to view. Marsh was no longer a
factor. He remained at Yale surrounded by his fossils, but they were not available for
public viewing and institutional funding to continue working with them was now cut off.
Like Cope, Marsh’s energy was spent, as well. Only the American Museum stood poised
and ready to move forward with new riches, vibrant energy and ample resources.
Discovery of Bone Cabin Quarry had heralded a new age of fossil finding in the
American West. The museum was at the fore, flush with success. Wortman’s sudden
departure, however, was not without some concern to Osborn. Wortman was tough and
crafty. Granger was still young and somewhat untested politically.
Osborn’s concern, as the 1899 field season approached and Granger and his men
prepared to return to Bone Cabin Quarry, was that Wortman had announced he would be
returning to the Medicine Bow area under the auspices of the Carnegie Museum of
Natural History where he now worked. Osborn feared Wortman would make a play for
Thomson and Kaisen, and so warned Granger. Granger was not worried, as he replied to
Osborn from Bone Cabin Quarry on June 1:
Dr. Wortman to arrive yesterday. I think there will be no trouble

keeping Thomson and Kaisen. They will not leave me unless the Dr.
offers them some exorbitant salary. I have talked with both of them and
they are contented with their positions here [61].
And they were. Bone Cabin Quarry proved to be one of the greatest dinosaur fossil
localities discovered up to then. Worked each season annually through 1902, it produced
a number of well known dinosaurs including Allosaurus, Apatosaurus (formerly
Brontosaurus), Camasaurus, Camptosaurus, Diplodocus, Ornitholestes and Stegosaurus,
along with a few turtles and crocodiles. It also led to Granger’s first publication in the
field of vertebrate paleontology. With Henry Osborn as lead author, he wrote “Fore and
hind limbs of Sauropoda from the Bone Cabin quarry.”
With dinosaurs now in the “American public consciousness,” Osborn, primarily a

paleomammalogist, made ready to shift his focus back from saurians to fossil mammals
[62]. By 1902, Thomson and Kaisen were largely running the day-to-day excavation of
Bone Cabin while Granger followed the Jurassic into Colorado, made visits to the Black
Hills of South Dakota, and began checking out possible fossil mammal localities. Osborn
was a master at obtaining information from every available source concerning potential
fossil localities, and then sending his men out to check them. It almost truly was a
practice of leaving no stone unturned. However, by 1905, Osborn’s interest “in the
Jurassic dinosaur rush” was over [63].
To the Study of Fossil Mammals and Evolution
Though dinosaurs held great museum display value and captured public attention and
imagination, they were not seen to hold value in the study of evolution during the Ages of
Mammals and Humans. By 1905, Osborn’s 1900 theorizing on mammalian origination
and emanation was well known. His premise focussed on ancient events in North Africa
and Central Asia. Fossil discoveries on both continents had already demonstrable
repercussions in Europe and North America. Coupled to his mammalian theory, of
course, was the study of evolution as evidenced through mammal fossils.
In 1902, Granger initiated an annual expedition series over the next four years to the
Bridger Basin (or, Formation) of Wyoming that began with a two-week visit to the area
with his colleague William Diller Matthew. W. D. Matthew, a Canadian, was a
petrographer by training. Hired by Osborn in 1895, like Osborn, he was not especially
suited to fieldwork, preferring his office and laboratory at the DVP. Granger and
Matthew departed Bone Cabin Quarry at the end of July to conduct some stratigraphic
analysis under contract work arranged by Osborn with the US Geological Survey.
Despite later garnering great credit for the work there, Matthew in fact never returned to
the Bridger after 1902, and it was Granger who actually performed the now-classic field
studies there through 1906.
The Bridger was first explored by Ferdinand V. Hayden as part of the US Geological and
Geographical Survey of the Territories. A sampling of fossils from the area was sent back
to Philadelphia for study by Joseph Leidy [64]. Leidy’s first published scientific account
of a Bridger fossil was a description of the small tarisoid primate Omomys carteri in
1869. This work became known to Cope and Marsh both of whom led expeditions to the
Bridger in the 1870s in a rather hastily-executed competition to out-collect and out-
publish each other there, as they had everywhere else [65].
It was Walter Granger who, in 1902 with W. D. Matthew’s initial assistance, commenced
the first scientifically systematic fossil collecting program in the Bridger Formation. He
mapped and named widespread layers of light-colored resistant rocks called “white
layers” which were actually limestone beds formed in ancient lakes and ponds. By tracing
these beds across the badlands and figuring out the relative positions of fossil localities,
Granger could tell whether fossils found in them were older or younger than one another.
By mapping and naming some of these layers as ‘marker beds,’ Granger could extend the
stratigraphic framework across the basin and demonstrate the relationships of these fossil
localities within the expanded framework set by the marker beds [66].
Marriage and Promotion, 1903
In 1903, Osborn formally placed Granger in charge of Paleocene and Eocene fossil
collecting. This move signalled an intradepartmental distinction between mammal and
saurian collecting. In those days, collecting the smaller, more delicate fossil mammals
was considered to require greater proficiency, skill and knowledge than collecting the
larger, simpler dinosaurs then known. Barnum Brown, for example, stayed with
collecting dinosaurs and never became known for his field techniques or scientific
publications. Granger’s field assistants George Olsen and Bill Thomson collected both
with considerable skill, but published nothing. Peter Kaisen collected mainly dinosaurs
but also published nothing. W. D. Matthew published, but did not collect. Similarly so
with Osborn and another DVP intellect, William King Gregory. Granger, a rare
combination of all the skills and facets needed to be a complete paleontologist, had
become Osborn’s most skilled and trusted field collector.
On April 7, 1904, Ganger married his first cousin, Anna Deane Granger. She was still
living with her parents in Brooklyn, NY, where she had been born and raised, when
Walter arrived at the AMNH in 1890. She and Walter were two years apart in age––when
they married, he was thirty-one and she was twenty-nine. Her father John was Walter’s
uncle, of course, as Walter’s father was Anna’s. Whether the two had met before 1890 is
not known, though it is not unlikely given that the fathers were brothers and lived not too
distant by train. Rutland was a busy terminus for the north-south railroad line, as well as
quite a sophisticated small city. On the other hand, we know from Walter that he had
never been outside the state of Vermont before going to New York City in 1890 except
for a visit to Saratoga Springs.
As the budding relationship became more serious, it caused consternation for Anna’s
parents. They seemed to think that Walter’s annual six months of rugged, primitive
outdoor life in the American West was not suitable for the bookish, formally educated
Anna. As a result, they sent her off to Europe, hoping that time in Old World culture and
an ocean’s span away would quell her enthusiasm for Walter. It did not. Anna’s great
interests were languages, art, botany and anthropology. All of these she did as an
amateur.
But direct connection with the AMNH would bring her, now a scientist’s wife, even
closer to the realm of studies she loved. Blue-eyed, tall and thin, handsomely studious,
simple and direct in manner and strong of character, Anna was a match for Walter. The
marriage lasted until Walter’s death in 1941; there were no children.
The Fayum, 1907
By 1903, Osborn became aware that the British were finding interesting fossils in a
geological depresssion located in the Sahara Desert 65 miles southwest of Cairo. Egypt
was now under British military rule in the personage of Lord Cromer. Their work started
in 1898, and in 1901 British paleontologist Charles W. Andrews began publishing on
their finds. Fieldwork was continued by the British through 1906 while Osborn patiently
awaited his turn to follow. He apparently was unaware that the German paleontologist
Eberhard Fraas had ventured in for a look in 1906 and had made a valuable acquaintance
with an seasoned amateur collector there named Richard Markgraf.
The Fayum depression once held an ancient freshwater lake that supported an abundance
of ancient plant and mammalian life in an oasis surrounded by barren desert. The lake
was the creation and beneficiary of a naescent Nile miles away to the east that, before
cutting its way down to its present level, regularly overflowed its shallow banks and
spilled into the desert. Seasonal flooding and other significant climatic events caused
floodwaters to follow a natural channel across the Sahara and spill into the Fayum
depresssion. The basin filled to create a prehistoric lake now known as Moeris. Life
forms of all sorts burgeoned within and around its sustaining waters.
The Fayum is now considered to be one of the most important Cenozoic fossil sites ever
discovered. The Cenozoic, the most recent era of geologic time from about 65 million
years ago to the present, includes the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene epochs. Not only
was the fauna of the region highly unusual, it was without immediate comparison. The
Fayum held the most complete faunal assemblages of Cenozoic mammals found
anywhere to date. It housed a remarkable variety of vertebrate life sustained by an
environmental condition very different from present-day. From the late Eocene into the
early Oligocene, the Fayum oasis was a tropical lowland. Nourishing seasonal rainfalls
helped sustain slow-moving rivers that meandered idly through swamps heavily
overgrown with papyrus, reeds and floating plants such as Salvinia and water lily. The
terrestial vegetation bounding the wetlands included liana vines, tall trees and perhaps
mangroves. The oasis was saturated with insects, snakes, birds and strange, ancestral
animals such as the bi-horned, rhinoceros-like Arsinoitherium; the whale-like
Zeuglodontia; sea cows (Sirenia) and pre-modern elephant proboscideans such as the
Palaeomastodon, Phiomia and Moeritherium [67].
While Osborn’s desire to get into the Fayum was partly a result of his renewed interest in
fossil mammals, especially exotic ones and particularly proboscidea, it also coincided
with a sense that it was time to step beyond America’s rich backyard fossil field and
explore the world. This tied in nicely with a similar feeling being expressed in American
foreign policy, outspokenly demonstrated at the time by US president Teddy Roosevelt
with his ‘big stick’ policy, and soon, his Great White Fleet. Roosevelt also ardently
supported the American Museum and was a member of the Explorers Club and a personal
friend of Osborn’s. The Rough Rider image was solidly cast in the aura of the American
West hero in a time when Buffalo Bill was still alive, but there was no longer an
American frontier to conquer. One now had to look abroad for that kind of adventure, and
Roosevelt did.
American paleontology at this point could be summed up in much the same way. The
Cope-Marsh bone wars were over and many discoveries had been made since. The
American public flocked to the halls of major natural history museums to view the
massive mineralized skeletons of ancient dinosaurs that finally had been ‘hunted’ down
by paleontologists millions of years later. However, while there still was much work yet
to be done in the West (and still is), paleontology was a global science (and still is).
Similar mammalian fossil finds were being made in Europe and North America, but
Africa and Asia were said to hold the key. There once was a time when all the continents
we know today were massed together as one. We now refer to that mass as Pangea. The
separation of Pangea into continents was like spreading out pieces of a puzzle that in
some cases had simlilar characteristics. This globalized paleontology. Why were some
fossils found on one continent also found on another? Despite nation-states and borders,
the continental pieces begged scientific understanding. This unified paleontology; the
continents needed to be explored and an overview developed. This was the call to Osborn
that beckoned American participation.
Roosevelt joined with Osborn to pave the way for the American Museum’s expedition to
the Fayum in 1907. Osborn provided escort and company for the two American workers,
Granger and his assistant George Olsen, during the first two weeks in Egypt––Granger
and Olsen stayed six months––and Roosevelt provided a letter of introduction to Lord
Cromer (Sir Evelyn Baring), Britain’s militarily installed ruler of Egypt. Osborn carried
Roosevelt’s letter when he boarded the SS Cedric leaving New York on January 5th with
his family, Granger and Olsen. With Granger, he presented it to Cromer a few days later.
This pioneering expedition is described in great detail in “Notes From Diary––Fayum

Trip, 1907” published in 2002 by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. Granger
was the only member to keep a firsthand account of this expedition, but his diary was not
discovered until 1977. Except for some contemporary press accounts, the expedition was
little known to history despite its high profile, precedence-setting nature and valuable
fossil discoveries.
It was during the Fayum expedition that Granger, Olsen and Osborn first met and
befriended Hartly T. Ferrar of Robert Scott’s famed Discovery expedition during which
Ernest Shackleton tested his windpowered go-cart. As days and weeks went by hunting
for fossils amid the vast Saharan expanse, they shared and compared their expedition
experiences and knowledge. It was the first time that an American fossil-hunting crew
had worked with camels. Caravaning the party into and out of their campsite, resupplying
them for a six-month stay at a fixed camp and quarry site and returning from the desert
box loads of fossils, camels were the mainstay of this effort.
The lesson learned was that camel caravanning could sustain a fossil-hunting expedition
for as long as needed, assuming the weather cooperated. All they had to do was what
camel caravans had been doing for hundreds of years––walk from point A to point B and
then back to point A. In this case, point B, the museum party, never moved because they
were excavating three quarries all within walking distance of one another. Prospecting
that area was accomplished on foot. Granger kept his bearings by triangulating three
prominent buttes.
When Osborn wished to travel farther out to check on a location called Zeuglodon
Valley, he travelled by camel. With his son and Ferrer, he trekked out and back in three
days. They were accompanied by a few native assistants and a camel drover with camels
sufficient to carry provisions and camp equipment. Osborn did not return with boxes of
fossils––this was merely a reconnaissance. But he could have if he had taken a spare
camel or two. This was the first instance of Americans hunting for fossils by camel, just
as Germany’s Eberhard Fraas had done in the Fayum the year before and as Markgraf
was doing there regularly. It was clear that a camel drover only had to know where and
when to meet and he would be there. If a fossil-hunting party wished to move to another
location, all they had to do was tell the drover where to rendezvous and when. For
example, had he wished, Osborn might have said, “We will be moving camp to the
Zeuglodon Valley tomorrow. When you return with supplies in three days time, meet us
there. Our tents will be visible to the north once you enter the valley.”
Another item new to the Americans in the Fayum was the ‘fantass,’ a solder-seamed
metal container used to carry water. These rather large, rectangular metal boxes stood
half the height of a person and were strapped two at a time over a camel’s back. Years
later, somewhat smaller versions of this fantass would be used to carry auto fuel supplies
into Mongolia by the Central Asiatic Expeditions beginning in 1922. Prince Borghese
had them cached in advance along with other supplies and spare parts at various locations
up the route from Kalgan to Urga. These were transported by camel caravan. There was
no other way to refuel as one drove over that stretch of Mongolia. Borgehese’s solution to
getting his Itala 35/45 over the long, dry distances of Mongolia is the first known instance
of employing a camel caravan to sustain a motorcar exploit.
While Granger and his men dug away in the Fayum, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, was
designated a national monument on March 11, 1907, thanks to the work of amateur
archaeologist Richard Wetherill. In 1910, Wetherill was shot dead by Chis-chilling-
begay, a Navajo with whom he had argued about a stolen horse [McNitt, p. 269-70]. In
2000, this author, a Granger grandnephew, visited Chaco Canyon to locate scenes
depicted in photographs taken during Granger’s visit in 1896. Pausing to pay respects
from Granger at the small graveyard near the ruins of Pueblo Bonito where Wetherill was
buried, I spoke greetings.
Without warning, storm clouds blew in followed by bursts of lightning, rolling thunder
and driving rain. I raced back to my car while catching glimpses of a handful of other
visitors racing for shelter.
I returned to the welcome center and related the indcident to two park rangers I had met
with earlier. As we conversed, a group of Navajo park employees filed in for a meeting
scheduled to begin a few minutes later. Upon hearing my discussion, one of them walked
up to me without a smile and introduced himself somewhat forcefully as a grandson of
“Chis-chilling-begay who killed Wetherill.” After a tense moment and then a grin, we
shook hands.
Back to the American West

While Granger and George Olsen returned to the US aboard the SS Princess Irene in
June, the Italian Prince Scipione Luigi Marcantanio Francesco Rodolfo Borghese was in
final preparations for racing his Itala 35/45 motorcar from Peking to Paris. His Itala was
an open-topped car handbuilt over a truck chassis packed with a huge 7.4 liter four-
cylinder 45-horsepower racing engine that peaked at 1250 revolutions per minute (rpm).
It was capable of reaching a speed of 60 miles per hour. The car sported a gear shift with
four on the floor and two brake handles equidistant to the driver’s reach. One was to
apply the brakes to the rear wheel drums. The other was to apply them to the transmission
itself.
Borghese’s mechanic and co-driver was Ettore Guizzardi. The renowned Italian journalist
Luigi Barzini rode in the back, crammed in a makeshift seat between two extra gas tanks
mounted on the rear fenders. Four other competitors from France and the Netherlands
were entered in the race. A 15-horsepower Spyker driven by Charles Goddard with Jean
du Tullis as crew, a ten-horsepower, two-cylinder de Dion-Bouton driven by Georges
Cormier with Edgardo Longono as crew, another de Dion-Bouton driven by Victor
Collignon with Jean Bizac as crew and a six-horsepower, one cylinder, two stroke Contal
tri-car driven by August Pons with Octave Foucault as crew. Borghese led most of the
way and won by 21 days.
The auto racers’ purpose was to establish the viability of motor vehicle travel and
commerce between East and West. It was a 10,000 mile test. A segment of the race took
these men and their cars across the Gobi over an ancient camel caravan road. Along it ran
a modern telegraph line that originated in Peking. Telegraph stations across Mongolia
were crude mud huts found every 70 to 80 miles along the way. Other than Mongol
villages, nothing else existed--no gas pumps, no car repair stations, no tire stores. The
question was how to resupply along this barren, 550-mile stretch. A series of caches was
the answer. The amount of fuel, oil, spare parts and tires needed to cross the Gobi could
not be carried aboard the cars. Just as Granger and Osborn had in the Fayum, the racers
had the necessary supplies camel dropped along the route ahead of them to complete the
Gobi transit.
The 1907 Peking to Paris race was closely followed in the press. People throughout the
world were captivated by the stirring accounts of the racers’ progress filed by Barzini
from each telegraph station along the way. Through Mongolia, on into Russia and all the
way to Paris, Barzini’s vivid race reports held the world’s attention.
Cut #15
The year 1907 is also when the 23-year old college graduate Roy Andrews joined Birds
and Mammals the AMNH. Granger was now 34. Continuing to develop his Eocene fossil
mammal work after returning from the Fayum, Granger went back to the American West
in 1909 with an expedition to the Wind River Basin of Wyoming. From July to October,
he collected with George Olsen, William D. ‘Billy’ Stein and British paleontologist Clive
Forster-Cooper. Forster-Cooper was spending a year in America studying under Osborn.
He would later be the first to discover the largest land mammal ever known, the
Baluchitherium, in Baluchistan. He would finish his career as the head of the British
Museum. Back at the American Museum in New York for the winter, Granger took up a
revision of perissodactyls and published on his finds during his 1906 expedition into the
Washakie basin of Wyoming. He also assisted Osborn in attending to his Fayum finds
which included the first anthropoid primate to be found in that region.
Not only had Granger’s career been steadily advancing since joining the DVP, it was now
on the international stage of vertebrate paleontology. He was also firmly planted as a key
Osborn adjunct. In 1908, Granger acquired the title of assistant in paleontology. He also
published his first papers since 1901: a short preliminary notice on the Fayum collection;
a revision of Eocene horses; and a study on hyracotherium. Osborn in the meantime, had
assumed presidency of the AMNH that year. While that advancement increased his duties
considerably, he did not immediately let go of his curatorship of DVP. Since he could not
handle all departmental tasks, however, he assigned Granger and Matthew to share
administration of the department. It worked well enough that Osborn put off replacing
himself in the DVP position for another year or so [68].
From June to September of 1910, Granger explored the Eocene of the Wasatch and
Bighorn basins in Wyoming. While in the Bighorn, he received a letter from Matthew
thanking him for putting in a favorable word with Osborn to appoint Matthew as curator
of the DVP. For Matthew, it was a promotion at a desk job he loved. For Granger, it was
freedom. Granger did not like the duties and politics of office life any better than he liked
being desk-bound for the winter in New York City writing papers. His summer field
seasons in the American West were a reprieve from winters of museum duties, and he
would not give up lengthy expeditions for any promotion in administration. Regardless of
his seasonal adjustment to and accommodation of city and office life, he was still at his
core the natural outdoorsman and collector. He had been all his life [69].
Osborn, furthermore, needed Granger in the field when not in the lab with the preparators
working on fossils or in the museum’s display halls overseeing the setting up of displays
and exhibits. Collecting, preparing and interpreting fossils was the dominant mission:
Granger happily settled for assistant curator. Since Bone Cabin Quarry, he had secured a
prolific and magnificent collection of Paleocene and Eocene fossils from various badland
basins in Wyoming. He was publishing on the Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene under
his own name. Nevertheless, he allowed Osborn to use his Fayum field diary to write a
popular account as if it were his own. Granger also was providing a significant amount of
material without attribution to Matthew for his publications. Occasionally Granger would
write a section under his own name in another’s work.
Cut #16
Writing and publishing his first formal scientific paper with the highly esteemed, highly
prolific, and highly powerful Henry Fairfield Osborn, Ph.D., was a significant milestone
for Granger so early in his career. Only eleven years earlier, had he come down from the
Green Mountain State of Vermont to this prominent museum in bustling New York City
without a high school degree. Publication with Osborn, as with earlier publications under
Joel Allen, made clear that field observation, laboratory analysis, reasoned writing and
journal publication were essential to the process of science––and constituted a career in
it.
This would seed a lifelong conflict within Granger: he loved fieldwork more than
anything else. For him, the resolution was in the purpose. He came to view his life and
work as a chance to contribute to ‘Earth’s Book of Rocks & Other Wonders’ page by
page. It did not matter who got credit, as long as the book eventually got written. As for
publishing popular works, like Osborn’s vainglorious account of the 1907 Fayum
expedition in the British newpaper The Illustrated London News, Granger was less
impressed [69a]. He simply was too unpretentious and unenamored with publicity to
care.
Granger had mastered hunting for fossils and the mode of expedition. He was now
proficient in field documentation, notes, and correspondence. If not as prolific as others
more deskbound, he was nevertheless publishing prominently. Collecting fossils was his
forté and doing so brought him into his third decade at the museum. Roy Andrews was
still in his first. His clerking days now over, he was venturing off on exotic-sounding
expeditions such the 1909 Quebec Tadousac Expedition which produced three whales
and one Harbor seal followed the next year by the Dutch East Indies “Albatross”
Expedition. That yielded 70 mammals, 20 of them from Japan.
PERFECTING AN IMAGE
Andrews was now singularly associated with whales and whale hunts, achieving popular
recognition quite quickly. He understood the press and self-promotion very well. By
1911, he had already published adventure articles in World’s Work, National Geographic
and Metropolitan. He was lecturing, as well, drawing crowds and acclaim and attracting
invitations to the social circuit. He sent complimentary tickets to whomever he could and
wrote his first book. A member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity in college, he used the New
York Alumni Chapter for social smokers and dances. He was frequently on the guest list
of teas and dinners [70].
A sense that Andrews bounced around the world became de rigeur, if often it really
produced little more than a whirl of wind. “I suppose that you will not be getting over
into the Orient again, so that I cannot be able to run across you there,” Andrews wrote to
a Lieutenant Waller on March 31, 1911.
I expect to go to Korea in November next, and shall probably have a

six or seven month’s trip. Wish you were to be in China again, for I
am probably to spend some time there. I hope that you will not
forget to look me up if you come to New York any time during the
spring or summer, for I shall stick pretty close to my office until I
leave for my next Oriental trip [70a].
Not only was Andrews’s account of being snatched from death while pursuing a whale in
a longboat at the insistance of a crazy man whose jaw he later wanted to punch pure
fiction, most, if not all, of his other highly charged claims were too. Nevetheless, his
popular image as a brave and amazing explorer-adventurer was by now well-sealed. A
generally fawning, unexamining press, a largely naive, hero-worshipping public and the
ever-supportive and grateful institutional machines, such as the American Museum,
National Geographic, Explorers Club and other organizations who supported or
benefitted from Andrews and his American image of exploration. Andrews’s knack for
self-promotion served both them and him very well.
But as to Andrews and his time, British author Roger Jinkinson has noted that
[a]t 5' 10” and 180 lbs, slender with slightly sloped shouldered
Andrews was not an impressive-looking man, though contemporary
photographs...show him in heroic and impressive poses. Americans
love their explorers. In Europe, as we come to terms with our
Colonial past and face a multicultural future, we have reevaluated
our explorers and adventurers. The casual violence, the slaughter,
slavery and banditry have been recognized and there has even been
an attempt to recognize the casual racism of the day. Perhaps it is
easier to be self-critical when you have had an Empire. In America,
it is more difficult to establish the truth. Explorers are accepted as
heroes and that is that. Very few questions are asked as to what was
being explored and why and at what cost to the local population.
Perhaps it is because the United States has never recognized its
attempts at Empire. I have yet to meet an American who has heard
of the Phillipine-American War (1899-1902) yet alone the horrific
slaughter of the Phillipino population. Perhaps the American
Frontier and its myths are to blame. The Western myth, combined
history with Penny Dreadfuls, self promotion and the early days of
the film industry. We must remember that Buffalo Bill was still alive
when Roy Chapman Andrews began to venture abroad. The West
had been mercilessly pacified, its native populations decimated and
its fauna slaughtered. There were other frontiers to conquer, other
American heroes to create. In truth, Andrews was a far more of a
controversial figure than his hagiographers would have us believe.
His stories always held the aura of exaggeration [71].”
Despite his image, however, Andrews remained a virtual unknown in the field of fossil
hunting and vertebrate paleontology where Osborn and Granger had now mustered their
own considerable international reputations. Andrews had had no association with

paleontology up to this point and would not for another decade. On the other hand,
Osborn and Granger had garnered great status, if only among the much smaller audience
of paleontologists, geologists, natural historians and the like.
Fossils and dinosaurs may have fascinated the general public, but few knew or cared who
actually collected them or what was involved. Fossil hunting expeditions often were
unexciting, tedious, back-breaking work stretched over long days in open, barren lands
wholly exposed to the whims of nature and weather. Despite the wonderful ‘eureka’
moments of discovery, it was hard to assign adventure or danger to the daily process of
searching for and retrieving the scattered or buried, and usually incomplete, fossilized
remains of animals who had died millions of years ago. When a spectacular discovery
was made, the lucky finder was put before the public’s eye for a few moments of fame.
That is not to say, however, that there were not public personalities in paleontology.
Barnum Brown was becoming one, even though his academic contribution to the field
would always be minimal. He was, nevertheless, regarded as a ‘dinosaur hunter’ ––
whatever that means as to beasts that had died many millions of years before––off
searching in the remotes of Montana and Alberta. Like Andrews and Osborn, Brown had
learned how to appeal to the press. But Walter Granger had little interest in publicity, and
little time for it. He was not hunting in the sense of adventure; he was accumulating for
study, and to provide his chapter in the profession’s ever-unfolding book of rocks and
fossils.
To Granger’s way of thinking, the press was outside the scientific process. Making
fieldwork exciting meant ‘hunting for dinosaurs’ or for the ‘largest, most ferocious sea
beast,’ the ‘earliest primate,’ or the ‘oldest hominid.’ It entailed reminding the audience
of the remote lands ventured to and the daily physical rigors and dangers involved. In
1907, some of Granger’s native assistants in the Fayum carried rifles to protect against
thieves, snakes and other culprits. From his first day forward in the American West,
Granger holstered a revolver and kept a rifle within reach for much the same reason. He
also used his rifle to shoot game to supply fresh meat while on expedition. Andrews may
have occasionally used the rifle to shoot game for food, as well. He mostly used it,
however, to kill exotic big game for stuffing and displaying in the museum’s expanding
exhibit halls.
1911
In a 1910 publication The Age of Mammals in Europe, Asia and North America
(MacMillan) which Granger helped write, Osborn expounded on his 1900 theory. W. D.
Matthew followed in 1915, attempting to expand on Osborn’s theory in “Climate and
Evolution [72].” Matthew ultimately proved to be wrong. But, along with Osborn’s 1900
thesis in Science, both books served to further the Museum’s academic premise for
hunting fossils in Central Asia. The Department seemed to be making ready to do just
that.
Early in 1911, Granger was made associate director of the DVP in a move that gave him
heightened curatorial status without adding administrative duties. The field season
brought another long and successful Eocene expedition into the Wasatch and Bighorn
basin with George Olsen and fieldhand Darrell Blakesley. It included lengthy field visits
from European paleontologists Friederich Von Huene and Franz X. Shaffer, as well as
the department’s own William K. Gregory. When Granger finally returned to New York,
he and Anna made ready for yet another overseas trip arranged by Osborn.
[DVP Staff Meeting

November 8, 1911
Mr. Granger has recently sailed for Europe to make a study tour of the
principal museums and to arrange for exchanges with this museum [72a].
The reference to ‘exchanges’ meant instituting the sharing of fossils and casts of fossils
between museums as a way to assist in the study of specimens regardless of where the
original was located. This was Osborn’s idea. The intent was to make vertebrate
paleontology a more collegial, comprehensive and interactive international study.
Walter and Anna set sail from New York harbor on November 4th aboard the HMS
Oceanic. Southampton was reached six days later [73]. As Granger began his three-
month tour of the paleontology museums and universities in England, France, Germany
and Switzerland, he also planned to visit with a number of Europe’s prominent
paleontologists including the elderly Richard Lydekker, Clive Forster-Cooper, Eberhard

Fraas, Max Schlosser, Friederich von Heune, Charles Déperet and Marcellin Boule.
Throughout, he kept a memo book which he filled with notes and sketches. On meeting
the famed Lydekker, he wrote “a well-to-do country gentleman.” On exchanges of
fossils, he recorded “Left at the British Museum on exchange - 3 items... Left at the Paris
Museum - 2 items... Left with Prof. Déperet - 8 items... ,” and so on.
As to museum displays, he was harsh. For example, at the Muséum national d’Histoire
naturelle in Paris, he found that there were
Absolutely no general labels and no attempt at synoptic or teaching

arrangement of specimens... The Museum is a storehouse... Excellent
silk exhibit... Large mammals of main floor uncovered and grouped for
artistic effect rather than for teaching value or natural system...
Mounting of mammals medium to bad [73a].
The Grangers returned to New York in early February aboard the SS Vaderland, sailing
through the same part of the sea where, not long after, the SS Titanic had its fatal
encounter with an iceberg. Granger’s European tour not only broadened his exposure, it
furthered his standing in international paleontology, and as a deputy to Osborn. Granger’s
trip had been to advance Osborn’s own more ceremonious and extended visit scheduled
for later that year.
Granger was also accepted into the prestigious Geological Society of America and its
newly formed section in paleontology, now recognized as a scientific field worthy of
distinction. That summer of 1912, he returned to the San Juan Basin of New Mexico from
June to October before heading up to Clark’s Fork Basin and the Wasatch in Wyoming.
In those days, train travel connected New York City to fieldwork in the American West.
Once out west, the collectors secured horses and wagon. Fossil localities typically were
found in the rugged badlands--meaning land unsuitable for most human use--of large
erosional basins. Hundreds of draining rivers, streams and creeks had cut into once fertile
and usable land, leaving it deeply scarred and largely barren. The now dry water courses
left empty washes, gullies, gulches, canyons, wadies along with bald buttes, mesas,
peaks, ridges and often endless flats as their final testimony. Revealed by the erosion and
left among the rough erosion and sparse vegetation, were an abundance of outcrops and
sedimentary deposits often containing fossilized proof of ancient life that existed millions
of years before the badlands came about [74].
Badlands could be treacherous for reasons ranging from little to no sustainable life or
water, to no shelter. The soil could become a dangerous ooze when wet. It got so slippery
and also gluey, that it was hard to walk. Shoes, hooves and wheels gummed up while
slipping and sliding. By 1912, working in the badlands had become only slightly easier
than when Granger started with Wortman in 1894. Mobility and carrying capacity were
major issues; having sufficient food and water also were. Load and speed governed
range. Energy governed survival. Thomson would begin making adjustments to that
longstanding formula with his deployment of ‘Automobilly’ into the fossil fields of
western Nebraska in 1913 [75].
In 1912, Andrews made his Korea Expedition and returned with 175 mammals and 175
birds. His fame was now reset from whale hunter to explorer-adventurer out for big game
in exotic places. Granger’s bearings also were set. Of all his colleagues at the museum, as
well as many of those elsewhere in the US and abroad, only Granger was keeping a
steady pace of averaging six months in the field producing prodigious fossl collections,
field notes and analyses and then returning to New York for the other six months to write
up comprehensive expedition reports, prepare fossils for display and produce two or three
high-quality papers a year. Of his immediate colleagues, Osborn, Matthew, Gregory and
Brown, the first three rarely went into the field and the fourth rarely wrote or published
anything of substance. Further to his credit, Granger maintained a steady stream of
correspondence throughout the year with colleagues around the world, as well as his own
family. In light of all this, Granger would later be described as the mainspring of the
DVP’s well-functioning clockwork [76].
The 1913 field season found Granger back in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico
collecting in the Wasatch, Torrejon and Puerco formations with Olsen, Princeton
geologist William J. Sinclair and a local fieldhand William John “Jack” Martin. By mail,
Granger also monitored the fieldwork of Billy Stein and his assistant at Clark’s Fork
Basin in Wyoming. In 1914, Granger continued with his collecting and publishing
program when world war broke out that August. Former President Theodore Roosevelt
advocated intervention. President Woodrow Wilson opposed it. The country remained on
edge about what to do as Europe flared with violence and fear.
In the meantime in a very different part of the world a new dawn was in the making for
paleontology. There were reports of new fossil finds in Asia. Among them were the
discovery [date?] of “a rich deposit of Cenozoic mammalian fossils” by the Russian
paleontologist A. A. Borissiak in Turkestan (now Kazakhstan) [77]. “Correlation of the
geology of Kazakhstan with that of the Gobi indicated that the desert could well yield
some interesting Cenozoic and possibly Cretaceous fossils as well [78].” And in
Baluchistan (now Pakistan), the British paleontologist Clive Forster-Cooper had
discovered [date?] the largest land mammal ever to exist, the Baluchitherium.
As for the current state of knowledge about fossils collected in China, the American-
educated Japanese paleontologist Hikoshichiró Matsumoto summed it up in a 1915 paper
entitled “On some fossil mammals from Sze-chuan, China”:
Fossil mammals from China are recorded by Waterhouse (1853), Busk

(1868), Owen (1870), Gaudry (1871), Koken (1885), Lydekker (1885,
1886 & 1891), V. Lóczy (1898), Suess (1899), Schlosser (1903), &c.
Among these authors’ works, Owen’s, Gaudry’s, Koken’s Lydekker’s
and, especially, Schlosser’s are most important [79].
Lost in the history-telling is that it was Matsumoto who first disclosed fossil evidence of
ancient man in China. The Pleistocene speciman was found in Honan province [79a].
As to Schlosser’s contribution, Granger later observed:
It is interesting to note that the first real information paleontologists had

of the fossil mammalian faunas of China was from a large collection of
fossils purchased by a German doctor [who had no information] about
the source of these fossils themselves, but from bits of matrix still
adhering to some of the fossils themselves, [Schlosser] was able to
classify the specimens in a fairly satisfactory way and to draw the first
adequate picture of the mammalian life of the region during the late
Cenozoic time [80].
China: Western Science as Salvation/Post-Qing Period
One latent source of trouble during the Qing dynasty had been the balance
between central and local power. The hope of China’s more progressive
politicians, as they struggled to establish a viable republic in place of the
discredited imperial system, was to create a new governmental synthesis
that would transform China into a modern nation-state....
The dream collapsed within a few months of China’s first national elections
in 1912. The leader of the majority political party was assassinated and his
organization then outlawed by the provisional president, Yuan Shikai.
Though Yuan had ambitious plan to revitalize China, he lacked the military
power or the organizational skills to hold the center together. Political
power, accordingly, flowed out either to the elites in the provinces––both
rural and urban––or to the hundreds of military leaders who began to
emerge as the dominant power brokers in China’s localities. China’s
political weakness were underscored by international developments: Japan
placed ever harsher [territorial?] demands on China, and even China’s bold
initiative of sending 100,000 laborers to work with the Allied powers in
Western Europe during World War I failed to obtain the backing of those
powers for China’s territorial claims.
The result was a period of poltical insecurity and unparalleled intellectual

self-scrutiny and exploration. Many educated Chinese were convinced that
their country was about to be destroyed, and they began to study every kind
of political and organizational theory, examine the nature of their own
social fabric, debate the values of new forms of education and language,
and explore the possibilities for progress that seemed to lie at the heart of
Western science. Known generally as the May Fourth movement, such a
concentrated outpouring of intellectual exuberance and doubt had not been
seen in China for over two thousand years [81].
Pursuit of Western-style earth science took a dramatic new turn in post-Qing China. Until
then, there had been no interest in science of that nature. Only Western businessmen,
missionaries and foreign diplomats there and in Mongolia had been collecting and
studying fossils on an amateur, quasi-scientific level for years and passing along their
discoveries and knowledge along to anyone interested [82]. Now some Chinese
themselves began to take note.
Until the early 1900s and China’s ultimate shift from dynastic rule in 1911, western
vertebrate paleontology and the methodology of Darwinism were little known in China or
the Mongolias [83]. Fossils had been collected and valued in these regions, but generally
not for scientific reasons. It began centuries ago “when [fossils] became of great
importance to the development of mythology, the discoveries of fossilized remains were
used to ‘prove’ the existence of the various stranger creatures mentioned in myth and to
locate or associate particular events at sites where fossils were found [84].”
Pre-Christian nomads, merchants, and storytellers regularly encountered fossil bones in

Central Asia. It is now believed, for example, that the ancient griffin, a winged lion with
a birdlike beak, was inspired by nomad repliction of the fossil skull of the dinosaur now
known as Protoceratops. While western science only first discovered and named this
fossil specimen in Mongolia in 1922, early humans were making note of it long before
[85].
Early humans also used fossil bird and dinosaur eggshell fragments for decorative
purposes, such as for necklaces, earrings and pendants [86]. These early human uses of
fossils predated their medicinal use as ‘dragon bones’ by the Chinese.
Granger later wrote:
[F]or generations vertebrate fossils, known to the Chinese as Dragon

Bones and Dragon Teeth (Lung Ku and Lung Ya), have been articles of
the Chinese pharmacopia. They are prescribed by Chinese physicians of
the old school for all sorts of complaints, ranging from headache to
Bright’s disease, and are usually taken in powdered form, although
sometimes the fossils are soaked in alcohol and then the alcohol is
drunk, or fired in grease and the grease is eaten, it presumably having

absorbed the virtue of the dragon’s bone [87].
The Chinese believed that some of these dragons of which the bones were being found
were so large that they left “their tails in the eastern part of the desert of Gobi while their
heads rest on the slopes of the Altai mountains, four hundred miles distant! [88]”.
Ultimately, this is what sparked western scientific inquiry.
Swedish geologist J. G. Andersson elaborated this to Granger, also suggesting why the
native medicinal practices in this part of the world hindered scientific study:
The dragon teeth and dragon bones which are sold in the Chinese
medicine shops are held in high repute as substances of considerable
medicinal value. [Since the] teeth are considered to have a much higher
healing power than the bones and are correspondingly higher in
price....the [fossil] skulls which were certainly in many cases nearly
perfect when they were dug out of the ground, had been crushed to
small pieces in order to extract the teeth which as mentioned above are
considered to have a specially strong healing effect and consequently
command a higher price [89].
Vertebrate paleontology in China and the Mongolias was virtually non-existent from
about 527 A.D., when Daoyuan initiated some inquiry, until the late 1800s and early
1900s when early specialists such as R. Owen, Lydekker, Koken, Obruchev, H.
Matsumoto and others began to take interest [90]. Lydekker, in particular, tantalized the
community with his study of mammalian fossils said to be from Mongolia stating “I have
no reason to question [that claim].”
In 1898, Charles R. Eastman (1868-1918), an American biologist best known for his
detailed studies of fossil fishes, described a large fossil bird egg found in 1896 in
northern China by Reverend James H. Roberts [91]. Between 1899 and 1901, K.A.
Haberer, a German traveling in China, acquired a large collection of "dragons' bones and
teeth" from various apothecary shops located in Shanghai, Ningpo, Ichang, and Peking
[92].
However, the actual localities from which the bones were collected remained unknown to
Haberer, since it was kept secret by drug wholesalers. Upon returning to Germany,
Haberer took his collection of "dragon bones" to Professor Max Schlosser in Munich.
Schlosser thereafter published a monograph on Habrer's "dragons' bones and teeth"
concluding that the collection evidenced nearly 90 different animal forms and mammals
from the Tertiary and Pleistocene Ages in China, including bear, hyena, ape, elephant,
rhinoceros, horse, camel, hippopotamus, giraffe and antelope [93].
Inconclusive
But Schlosser’s study in [date] was not definitive, since the isolated fossil fragments he
studied lacked any geographic and geologic provenance. As Ernest Ingersoll, an
Explorers Club member familiar with Granger’s work with the CAE, later put it :
Well aware that thousands of fossil skeletons of the utmost importance

to science were being ground to powder and swallowed by millions of
people daily, it was plain that the discovery of the sources of supply
would lead to paleontological knowledge so much desired; but between
general ignorance and the jealousy of wholesale collectors and
merchants of the bones it was difficult to learn where these fossils were
found [94].
The western scientific world waited, anxious to find a way to resolve the dilemma.
V. K. Ting and Company
V. K. Ting (Ting Wen-chiang, now Ding Wenjiang) (1887-1936) was one of the first
Chinese students of the western scientific approach. Ting provides a fascinating link
between the ‘May Fourth movement’ the writer Spence refers to above and Western
scientists, Granger among them, who ventured there to study the geology and
paleontology of China and the Mongolias.
In 1902, as a Chinese student activist from the Shanghai area, Ting left China for two
years of study in Japan, where he also began writing political essays against the Manchus
in China [95]. Born to local gentry in a remote village about twenty miles north of the
Yangtze River with a childhood “steeped in literature designed to inculcate Confucian

high-mindedness in aspiring literati” and then educated abroad, he returned with
university degrees in earth sciences. Subsequently, Ting left home at the urging and
under the patronage of a local magistrate (Lung Yen-hsien) who believed in the “new
learning” (hsin hsüeh) from the West [96].
In 1904, when war broke out between Russia and Japan, Ting opted to move to Scotland
to pursue general studies at Edinburgh. He stayed for seven years and graduated from the
University of Glasgow with degrees in zoology, geology and geography [97]. He then
returned to China, settling in Kiangsu to teach middle school, write a book on zoology,
and study the geology of the Yangtze Valley from Wu-hu to the sea. His last endeavor
evidenced a change in Chinese perceptions about the relationship between intellectual
activity and manual labor. As this sort of fieldwork progressed and more people became
involved in it, there was an interesting sociability created as hierarchies were dampened;
everyone pulled together in mutual effort, mutual hardship, joy of discovery, and the like
[98]. In the meantime, in 1911, a Provisional Government was formed in Nanking to
replace the Manchus in Peking. “H. T. Chang, a graduate of Tokyo University, was
appointed chief of the Section of Geology in the Department of Mines under the Board of
Commerce and Industries [99].”
The Provisional Government was transferred to Peking in 1912 and became the Central
Government. Sympathetic to this government was a group of four intellectuals who were
to become the foundational figures of the study of geology in China––H. C. Chang
(Zhang Hongzhao), W. H. Wong (Weng Wenhao), J. S. Lee (Jonquei S. Lee) and Ting
[100]. They were seeking ways, grounded in the scientific study [analysis] of China’s
earth, to energize China and bring it into world play, especially in the larger areas of
education, science and commerce [101]. Importing Western scientific technique and
thought was one way to accomplish this: indeed, to these four men, science was seen as
the national salvation of China [102]. Under the new Provisional Government, Chang
(Tokyo University) was appointed chief of the section of geology in the Department of
Mines, now operating under the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce.
Chang was also asked to serve as an expert in geology to the ministry itself, and Ting was
called to Peking to head the geology section. Chang and Ting then decided to initiate
training in geology, and Chang soon proposed to form a society devoted to that purpose
[103]. Both Chang and Ting reported to Chang yi-ou (Zhang Yiou) who was the official
directly above them as they got their geological study program China underway. Zhang
yiou, a bit of a mystery, seems to have been instrumental in getting Chang’s and Ting’s
ideas realized. He had apparently studied geology in Belgium (where W. H. Wong
studied) but made little more than an administrative contribution and was not heard from
after 1918 [104].
In 1913, Chang became the director of a newly-formed geological study program. Shortly
thereafter, The Geological ?Survey/Society of China was formed with Ting as its head
[105]. Another person given credit (by the Swedish National Encyclopedia) for the
formation of this society is Erik T. Nystrom (1897-1963), a Swedish geologist who spent
1902 to 1954 in China as a professor of chemistry and geology at the University of
Taiyuan. During the 1920s and 1930s, Nystrom studied the ores and minerals of Shanxi
and Hunan provinces in China under the auspices of the Sino-Swedish Scientific
Research Association. He later formed the Nystrom Institute for Scientific Research in
China [106].
The introduction of the study of geology to China carried multiple implications,

especially for science and commerce. It also meant a fundamental shift in the Chinese
way of thinking about their land. Ting’s biographer synopsizes Ting’s, and that of his
cadre’s, thinking at this stage as follows:
In sum, in his personal as in his political inclinations this most

Westernized of Chinese intellectuals was neither an individualist nor a
democrat. The scientism and social Darwinism inculcated by his
Western education left him in the mainstream of Chinese political
thought, which has placed a specially selected bureaucratic elite at the
center of the political process. He believed that biological principles and
social utility confirmed much in the Confucian social ethic and so
justified its broadening rather than its overthrow. Finally, he stood for
paternalistic reform, under the leadership of the educated class, which in
modern guise was expected to carry out the function of the ideal literati:
administrator and moral guide. Social Darwinism at each step reinforced
rather than undermined these attitudes, while his scientism gave him the
coinfidence that his lines of reasoning were both modern and correct
[107].
Summarizing the Advances
Occasional reports of fossil discoveries in China had been surfacing. An apparent

dinosaur fossil was discovered in 1913 Meng Yin (Ning Chia Kou?) by German
missionary R. Mertens. In 1914, Chang Ch'ien of the new Ministry of Agricultural and
Commerce established the Chinese Geological Survey and named Ting to head it. That
same year, Swedish geologist Johann Gunnar Andersson (1874-1960) was asked by the
Chinese government to conduct a survey of its coal fields and ore resources and report to
the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. One of Andersson’s first acts was to send out
a circular encouraging all missionaries, diplomats and others who collected and studied
fossils, or were aware of their location, to contact him [108].
Not long after, German mining engineer W. Behagel retrieved a block of sandstone from
a construction site in the Men Ying district of Shantung Province containing three large
fossil vertebrae and turned it over to the Chinese Geological Survey. An Austrian
paleontologist visiting Peking, Otto Zdansky, examined the vertebrae and concluded that
they were dinosaur. Walter Granger confirmed Zdansky's analysis in 1921 [109].
In the meantime, Andersson began to amassing a considerable collection of early plant

fossils he had discovered in southern China . He shipped the collection back to Peking
aboard the SS Peking; however, it was lost when the ship sank en route. To the north,
meanwhile, reports came forth that the Russian paleontologist A. N. Krystofovich had
discovered a dinosaur deposit along the Amur River in Heilungkiang Province in extreme
northern Manchuria. The Russians collected there successfully up to 1917, finding "three
or four species representing widely different groups of dinosaurs [110].”
Throughout 1916, Andersson travelled around southern China collecting whatever he

could. He and an assistant spent long periods conducting their fieldwork while living
“alternately in country farms and small village temples [111].” In southern Shansi
Province he discovered mollusk fossils. At Yuan Chu Hsien in Honan [Henan] Province
he found fossils of freshwater shells which indicated the occurrence of Eocene deposits in
China.
In 1917, the Chinese Geological Survey resolved to determine the source of dragon bones
used by the apothecaries. That is, where they could be found in their original location, or
in situ. Presumably, Andersson surmised, it would be in the any of the Tertiary deposits
found in China [112]. The Survey directed its inquiry formally to mission stations and
foreigners throughout China asking for information and assistance in this quest. The
response from missionaries of several faiths and denominations, including Catholic in
southern China and eastern Inner Mongolia was instant. As a result, Andersson decided
to initiate his search for dragon bones in central Honan [Henan] Province. Almost
immediately, a local handed him a rhinoceros skull to examine and directed him to the
loess deposits in which it was found.
Continuing in 1918, Andersson discovered prehistoric coral-like animals and recognized

that they were similar to fossils found in the pre-Cambrian area of North America. He
also located the first Hipparion fossil (an extinct genus of horse) known to exist in China.
As he searched for the source of the dragon bones, Andersson had occasion to visit a
small town 30 miles to the south west of Peking [113]. This little peasant town of Chou
Kou Tien had held geological curiosity for Andersson, but in early 1918, he was
summoned there for something else. J. McGregor Gibb, a chemistry professor at Peking
University, reported finding fossils at a site called "Chicken Bone Hill." Andersson
arrived on March 22 and stayed for two days. He determined that "Chicken Bone Hill," a
"red clay pillar rising out of the base of an old limestone quarry," was a remnant fill that
had existed in a crevice in the limestone before the limestone was quarried away [114].
The column was left standing because the Chinese workers thought evil spirits lurked
within it.
Found inside the column instead were hundreds of delicate, fossilized bird bones. This
led Andersson to speculate that in fact they had found a wealth of fossil material. But he
felt already too extended and too inexpert to proceed. He needed the assistance of
someone with paleontological expertise and time to examine it thoroughly. Until then he
put off further excavation of Chicken Bone Hill.
Making Progress
During this time, Franz Larson began working for Chinese president Yüan Shih-kai as an
advisor on Mongolian affairs. He was now spending more time in Peking and there he
met Andersson. The word, of course, had spread that Andersson was making interesting
fossils discoveries and openly seeking information on other possible fossil finds and
locations. Larson knew of such and invited Andersson to visit his home near Tabool in
Inner Mongolia. Andersson finally made his way there in 1919 and, among other
discoveries, recognized the fossil remains of beaver fauna at Ertemte.
In 1920 another western-trained Chinese geologist, Li Ssu-kuang, began teaching at

Peking University. This freed Ting to offer a course in vertebrate paleontology. Interest
in the earth sciences of China was growing; but for Andersson and a small band of
amateur collectors, Chinese fieldwork in geology was still in its infant stage and in
paleontology it was still a blank.
When Ting invited him to relocate to China, Amadeus William Grabau should have been
comfortably established in the US as the esteemed author of many works in geology,
paleontology and stratigraphy. He also was a professor at Columbia University. The
German-descended midwest-America born Grabau, educated at MIT and Harvard, had
been at Columbia for twenty years. He was an acknowledged expert of North American
and European geology. Grabau lived fashionably in the upscale village of Scarsdale in
Westchester County just north of New York City and an easy commute by train.
However, the first world war began with German aggression. Anti-German feelings and
fears were strong among many. But when the US contemplated entry into the contest to
oppose Germany, Grabau openly and vigorously spoke against it. While it is not clear
whether he was anything more than opposed to war as a matter of principle, his
opposition was largely misunderstood, embarrassing to Columbia and costly to him.
Grabau lost his professorship and his career was threatened.
Ting made the offer to Grabau while visiting with him in New York. The situation clearly
presented a good opportunity for. While Grabau now had a chance to salvage his career
and expand his expertise, Ting was able to take advantage of Grabau’s prominence and
contacts. Ting wanted Grabau to teach at the Peking University. To sweeten the deal, he
also offered Grabau the position as chief paleontologist of the Chinese Geological
Survey. Grabau accepted both.
Grabau's move to China in 1920 would be a boon to North America's earth scientists; he
became the first direct link between them and China. Grabau's continued rapport with
many of his former colleagues at Columbia University and its sister institution, the
American Museum of Natural History, held the promise of a smoothly paved way into
Asia. The door was opened wider to serious scientific study of Central Asia.
[Cut #2]
The January, 1919, Andersson-Andrews Encounter Revisited
On February 1, 1919, Johan Gunnar Andersson signed off on his 29-page typewritten
action plan. Written in Swedish and entitled “Allmän plan för Naturvetenskapliga
Insamlingar i Kina,” it was his proposal to the Swedish government for a large-scale,
systematic Sino-Swedish scientific exploration of China’s and Inner Mongolia primarily
in archaeology, geology and paleontology. Crown Prince H. M. Gustaf VI Adolf had
taken direct interest in Anderssons’ work and corresponded with him directly.
[Lagrelius?]
Just two weeks before, he had met with Andrews over the course of two days. This was at
Andrews’s request. At that point, Andrews was still in the employ of the ONI and the
censor hadn’t yet discovered Yvette’s letter. Andersson and Andrews conversed at length
on January 18th and 19th, about Andersson’s accomplshments to date and the need for a
multi-scientific discipline approach to fieldwork in China and Mongolia [115].
Andersson gained solid experience with precisely that kind of scientific expedition when
he served in the 1901-1903 Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Otto Nordenskjöld as the
expedition’s geologist. It was that same approach that Andersson had discussed with
Andrews in considerable detail his work to date China and formed the basis for his
proposal to the Swedish government. He also made known to Andrews his intention to go
to Tabool later in the year to inspect Larson’s Inner Mongolia locality. He also indicated
that other possibly rich localities in Mongolia had been reported.
Andrews was not a fossil-hunter, collector or paleontologist. Nor was he an

archaeologist, anthropologist, geologist, stratigrapher, topographer, or scientific theorist.
Nevertheless, if cautiously, Andersson seemed to regard the famous and flamboyant
Andrews’s personal interest in his work as a sign of Osborn’s own. It all seemed quite
collegial and professional. Osborn, Andersson knew, was a powerful man with abundant
resources and an excellent stable of paleontologists.
Henry Osborn was well aware of Andersson’s presence and work in China. Andersson
himself was in correspondence with Osborn’s DVP, mainly with W. D. Matthew, as
Osborn knew. Now, through Andrews, Osborn was placing a closer eye on developments.
Andrews, back in town after his stint in the States, was Osborn’s fly on the wall. By this
time, Andrews has already been in Mongolia with Harry Caldwell. He planned to go
again later that year, 1919, with Yvette and meet up with Larson at his home in Urga
[does FAL say 1918?].
Franz Larson Redux
Franz August Larson immigrated to Mongolia in one of the first waves of missionaries to
Central Asia. However, he was best known as an entrepreneur and for a dude ranch he
established. He eventually anointed himself “Duke of Mongolia” and came to play a key
role in introducing the Central Asiatic Expeditions to Mongolia. He would later serve in
Sven Hedin’s famed Mongolia expeditions, as well.
Acquainting affluent foreigners with ‘his’ Mongolia apparently was what Larson saw as
ultimate missionary work. It certainly was a more lucrative endeavor. As one observer
noted:
I was of two minds about [the] view of Larson as a missionary

introducing foreigners to the Mongolian way of life. There was some
merit to that view, but considering what was omitted, Larson was
actually operating a Mongolian Potemkin village, where the problems
besetting the people were swept under the gaily colored mats set out for
visitors. There was a mawkish quality to his whole approach. There is
no doubt, though, that Larson, through his own colorful life and popular
writing about Mongolia, helped arouse interest in the area among
Swedes and other foreigners. He appears to be only second to Hedin in
his contribution along this line [116].
Larson, later nicknamed “Wolf” by the Swedish Mongolian explorer Sven Hedin, was a
tall, somewhat stooped, sociable man with an open, jovial face and hearty laugh. His
expertise was in guiding, hunting and supplying field parties [117]. He loved the out-of-
doors, horses, guns, cars and money. His knowledge of the Mongolias was said to be
formidable. He had covered much of it by horseback and knew it well.
It appears that Andrews first met Larson in Urga in 1919 and soon presented him with a
choice [117a]. Larson had been helping with Andersson’s Mongolian fossil hunting. He
also had connected Andersson to at least two Mongolians who, in addition to Larson,
knew where some fossil localities existed. They also had some experience collecting
fossils. Although Larson was a Swede by birth, he was a Mongolian by sentiment.
Andrews was famous and funded.
Andersson’s Plan-January, 1919
J. G. Andersson’s proposed expedition game plan, he wrote Andrews in a follow-up

communication, was as follows:
My present aim, that I intend to pursue during a sufficient number of

years, is to study the geographical [geological] development during the
pliocene and pleistocene times of northern China and possibly some
adjacent districts such as parts of Mongolia and the Yangtse valley.
...
[But, first] I want to lay emphasis upon the fact that I am in the service
of the Chinese government (indeed only my position as Chinese official
has opened to me a chance in this field of research where all kind of
superstitions regarding “dragon bones” and “dragon teeth’ are severely
hampering the progress of the collector). Consequently I am most
anxious to work out this thing as far as possible as a national Chinese
undertaking, even for the reason that I have always had the full support
of my superiors and the mostly pleasant cooperation with my able
Chinese colleagues, before all Mr. V. K. Ting and Dr. Wong Wen-hao,
the Director and vice Director of the Geological Survey.
...
As to the working out of the material from a paleontological point of
view, it must be understood that I am only a geologist, and that I intend
here to carry out only such preparations and preliminary determinations
which I deem necessary to guide me in the field work [118].
Andersson then raised the ante, making clear that he had already taken steps regarding
examination of fossils he’d already collected, apparently including dinosaur.
Since my early university years I have been in close friendship with one
of our ablest paleontologists, Professor [Carl] Wiman of the University
of Uppsala, who has repeatedly worked out fossil material collected by
me in different parts of the world, amongst other things the miocene
penguins collected by professor Nordenskjöld and me in the Antartic.
Of late professor Wiman has done extensive work with the saurians
from Spitzbergen so he is certainly quite familiar with vertebrate work,
and I am most anxious to get his assistance as he is a skilled and patient
worker. I have written to him asking him to take charge of the
paleontological examination of my material. Because of the present
slow and difficult mail communication with Europe I have so far had no
reply from him, but I sincerely hope that he will be able to associate
with me (emphasis added) [119].
During the second day of their talks, Andrews had outlined his own plan to expand
zoological research in China and hunt big game in Mongolia. Andersson seemed
tentative, if gracious, about the news:
I have listened today with much interest to the admirable scheme that
you have outlined for your extensive natural history researches and I
think there are many points of connection between your plans and mine,
in spite of the one attacking the problems from the zoologist’s
[viewpoint], the other from the geologist’s point of view. I thank you
very much for your kind suggestions that some kind of co-operation
could be established between us, and as you have very frankly made
your plans known to me I am glad to put my status before you with the
same frankness [120].
Obviously, Andersson regarded Andrews’s plan as ancillary to his own and simply was a
geographical expansion of his first two Asiatic zoological expeditions. But there also had
been a proposal by Andrews to join ventures, particularly in paleontology. Osborn’s
touch was obvious. But, Andersson declined, closing his letter to Andrews with this:
As you will see from the above exposé my plan of work has[,] only as
far as the collecting is concerned, taken a definite shape. May be, I will
get from home much less cooperation that I hope to get, and then I will
be very happy to reconsider your kind suggestion of direct cooperation
with American colleagues. At present I think it of secondary importance
whether such cooperation be established or not. With the broad views
your people take of scientific intercourse, I feel sure that we always will
be able to maintain and develop the exchange of views and experience
that I have found so stimulating during our conversations of yesterday
and today. You will always find me happy to show you what things I
have got, and on the other side you will find me and certainly also my
colleagues most willing to render you any assistance we are able to do
[121].
Concern
But, to others, Andersson signaled some concern, now wondering what Andrews and his
American institution might really be up to. Within his “Allmän plan för
Naturvetenskapliga Insamlingar i Kina” Andersson advised:
In addition to the Japanese carrying out one important scientific work

after the other on Chinese soil, the Americans have also lately
demonstrated the most versatile power of initiative out here in the east.
Therefore, it was not a total surprise when I met some time ago with Mr.
Roy Chapman Andrews and learnt that the American Museum of
Natural History, the powerful American institution, is preparing for a
major scientific expedition to the inner China, in which different
research branches, in addition to zoology, also geology, paleontology,
archaeology, and anthropology will surely be represented through
specialists. Mr. Andrews is a collector for the above-mentioned
organization and well-known here in the east, through his earlier
zoological collection trips in Manchuria and Yunnan that have been
very rich with results.
The plan that is the basis for Mr. Andrews’s new expedition project is
very grand and appealing in its design, and is brave and logical at the
same time. The American researchers use the assumption that Central
Asia probably was the place for the most primitive human races. They
believe that these primitive people followed the wanderings of the larger
animals, during their own wanderings in the New World, and more
remote parts of the Old World. The present expedition of Mr. Andrews,
that intends to study the “big game” of Mongolia, is therefore one of the
preparations for the future, larger expedition that, with the help of a
versatile staff, will be able to attack the big, anthropological problem
that is outlined above [122].
Andersson went on to note that there was no doubt “that Mr. Andrews’s and my own
work program have many points of contact [123].” So much so, that “[a]s soon as he
heard a little about my plans, he did in fact make me a direct offer, i.e., that his wealthy
museum would make means available for my disposal––as long as they would receive
my [fossil] collections [124].”
Referring to the letter he had written to Andrews on January 19 declining Andrews’s

offer of assistance in paleontology, Andersson mused, “I hope that Mr. Andrews and I
will not need to become competitors in any way. On the contrary, it is my intent to
propose to him a systematic distribution of work by dividing the field of work at our next
meeting [125].” But in the very next sentence he wrote “But on the other hand, his plan is
a reminder to us to act quickly and with determination [126].”
Andersson’s inability to more decisively assess the situation was because he had been
sandbagged by the Americans. In the course of his discussion with Andrews, the notion
of the ‘Fayum Protocol’ was interjected. This referred to Osborn’s patient wait in the
early 1900s while the British completed their work in the Fayum of Egypt before he went
in with Granger in 1907.
Osborn’s eagerness to go to Egypt was tempered, as he saw it, by a

professional obligation to delay his effort until others already there
were finished [127].
The suggestion to Andersson was that Osborn would do the same for him––the Museum
wait until Andersson’s work was finished.
But whereas Osborn really had no choice concerning the Fayum--the British ruled Egypt
in those days––entering China and Inner Mongolia, on the other hand, was a very
different story. These were still frontiers without unified rule. Neither the Chinese or the
Swedes could stop the Americans from freely running about the countryside on their
quasi-diplomatic passports and hunting permits while contingents of their navy and
marines stood incountry (China) and at the ready to protect them, their businessmen rang
up profits on imported goods and services, and their missionaries proselytized Western
religion. While as to Outer Mongolia, where the Bolsheviks (or Buriats) now ruled, the
Americans would have to tread more carefully, suitable arrangements could be made.
[Cut #3]
Spring, 1919
Andersson pressed on. Early in the spring of 1919, he contacted Larson asking
the well-known expert on Mongolian affairs to engage for me a Mongol,

who would be able and willing to undertake a reconnaissance trip with
the purpose of discovering what knowledge there might be of fossil
bones amongst the local [Mongol] population. A young Mongol named
Haldjinko, was consequently engaged for the purpose, through the
mediation of Mr. Larson, and this Mongol soon became a very good
fossil hunter.... On my arrival in the Hallong-Ossu region (115 km
NNW of Kalgan), in July 1919, Haldjinko took me to a number of
localities, where bones had been found by him... After a period of small
progress, another Mongol collector named Jensen [Lob-tsen Yen-tsen]
brought in a lot of fossil bones, among which I discovered the molar of
a big beaver-like rodent. This find gave a powerful impetus to our
search. It was soon learned, that this interesting tooth had been found
during the digging of a well at a place called Ertemte, about 35 li north
of Hallong-Ossu. Furthermore it was learned that the best deerhorns
collected by Haldjinko in the early spring had come from that locality.
New excavations were at once started at Ertemte, and it soon became
clear that a micro-fauna mostly of rodents occurs in a sandy deposit
within a certain layer at a depth of three meters.
The excavations at Ertemte were continued in the autumn, long after I

had returned to Peking, under the able and energetic supervision of Rev.
Joel Eriksson, and quite an extensive collection of the Ertemte micro-
fauna was brought together... Rev. Eriksson, a member of the Swedish
Mongol Mission at Hallong-Ossu, has in most able and enthusiastic
manner participated in my collecting campaign in the Hallong-Ossu
region [128].
Mongolians Jensen [Lob-tsen Yen-tsen] and Haldjinko, and the Swede Eriksson were
now joined with Obruchev and Andersson, as among the first to collect vertebrate fossils
in Inner Mongolia for scientific purposes. Late that fall, Andersson wrote his first
fieldwork report, dated November 30, 1919 [?Elaborate here, especially as to continued
mention of Andrews who by then had been into Outer Mongolia at least twice including
with Yvette and had met with Larson. Where is that drafting?].
1920
Andersson placed a map in his report of March 22, 1920, marking nine fossil vertebrate
localities he had found in Inner Mongolia in 1919. These included Ertemte, Olan Chorea,
Tabool and Debato. Ertemte and Olan Chorea, were on the north side of the auto/caravan
route which Borghese, Obruchev and now Andrews had traveled. Tabool and Debato
were on the south side of that same road, the latter practically in Swedish missionary Joel
Eriksson’s backyard at Hallong Ossu.
Andersson had surveyed Ertemte and Olan Chorea at 1:30,000 meters, and showed the
locations of an ancient earth wall, an ancient walled city, stone effigies and the apparent
boundaries of an ancient lake. He was back that following summer:
I eagerly returned to Mongolia, principally for the purpose of continuing

the search for fossil mammals.... In July 1920, I started northwards from
Hallong-Ossu into the Gobi region, to a point some distance north of
P’ang Chiang. The hopes for new harvests of fossil mammals in these
more northern regions were not realized, although we obtained some big
leg bones, probably of an elephant, which had been found in a sand-
deposit about half way between Hallong-Ossu and P’ang Chiang [129].
Later that summer, on August 10, 1920, Roy Andrews wrote the following to Henry
Osborn:
Anderson [sic] is especially interested in making reconnaissance over

large areas, and this summer is in Mongolia where he expects to
continue work next year. His great hope is to find human remains and
he is testing various localities with that end in view... Since Dr.
Anderson has barely touched the fields which he has already discovered,
and is not a palaeontologist who is familiar with the fauna which he has
unearthed, I am quite sure that Mr. [Walter] Granger would be able to
carry out further investigations with a great deal of profit [130].
Weeks later, Andersson himself confirmed not only that further and widened exploration
of Inner Mongolia was indeed his aim, he also intended to investigate Outer Mongolia. In
a letter to W. D. Matthew dated October 4, 1920, he wrote:
[A]n immense field of research waits for the explorer in the arid regions
of central Asia. During the two summers in Inner Mongolia I have just
had the chance to pick up some samples at the very edge of the desert
area. I am now busy to prepare a geological description of these
vertebrate deposits in Inner Mongolia and I sincerely hope to have a
ready manuscript at the time of Dr. Granger's arrival in Peking... I
certainly hope that I will see Dr. Granger here before my trip to Outer
Mongolia (emphasis added) [131].
*
The die seemed cast and ill-will soon developed. On December 6, 1920, Andersson wrote
to Andrews to say he had just read Andrews' piece in Asia and "[felt] sorry" about the
American’s assessment that "China has no national institution where natural history
objects can be studied." Andersson pressed on, writing:
I think it had been desirable to mention that the Geological Survey of

China exists as an active scientific institution... It is true that we have
not so far made any public announcement on the existence of the
Survey... But I brought you together with the Director and vice-Director
of the Survey in order to make you acquainted with this institution.
When you spoke of your scheme to create a natural history museum in
China, I pointed out the existence of a geological museum in connection
with the Geological Survey and invited you to come to see this museum
[132].
Andersson further stated that he had prepared an article on the Chinese Geological
Survey to make it better known, and he wanted Andrews to have it published in Asia "at
the earliest possible occasion.” He also intended to have it published by the Geological
Society of Stockholm. But that was not all Andersson had to say:
I felt not a little surprised to read in your article that you had changed
your plan so far that extensive palaeontological work will be done in
China proper, that is the region where I, in closest cooperation with the
Geological Survey and with your full knowledge of all the facts, have
been active collecting fossil mammals for monographic research during
the last four years.
I very well recollect how you told me once about the perfectly charming
manner in which President Osborn approached Ch. W. Andrews before
starting his expedition to the Fayûm desert. I have not been able to see
the difference between our case and that of Andrews, except that the
latter had already left the field, whereas we are at the height of our
collecting activity [133].
Now adding more fuel to the Central Asia fossil quest was that the Russian paleontologist
A. A. Borissiak had hypothesized in 1920 that Cenozoic and possibly Cretaceous fossils
would be found in the Gobi [134]. That meant, of course, both mammals (Cenozoic) and
dinosaurs (Cretaceous).
With primitive human being looked for and paleontological finds already being made, no
more time could not be lost. With smug assurance, Andrews had activated the American
publicity mills nearly two years before the AMNH exploration was to commence,
seemingly already writing off the chance of finding primitive human, but surely not that
of finding dinosaurs and mammals. Indeed, on October 19, 1920, he wrote to Osborn
“The primitive human story is the one which has the best news value, and the
papers will always write up that side of it, still our expedition cannot fail to obtain
paleontological material of great value, even though it does not happen to find
human remains . . . It seems to me that our publicity campaign has begun
auspiciously.”
Osborn, always thinking globally, followed developments closely. Andersson and related
events had presented Osborn with an opportunity: he could prove his theory and he
moved to do so. When Andersson finally realized what the Museum was up to, it was too
late. Osborn had another advantage in China that he had not had in Egypt and that
Andersson and the Swedes did not have––sovereign nation treaty rights. He had plenty
more maneuvering room here [in this part of Asia] than in Egypt. His promise to
Andersson was a smokescreen. By the close of 1920, the AMNH announced their
intention to conduct a large-scale, multi-disciplinary scientific exploration both of China
and Mongolia in the very same way that Andersson had outlined and disclosed to
Andrews from January 18-19, 1919.
Western Foothold in China
In his introduction to The Alluring Target, author Kenneth Wimmel states
The march of Tsarist Russia across the steppes into the deserts and
mountains of Central Asia is a major theme of 19th-century Asian
history. It aroused increasing apprehension in British Inda and
prompted the “Great Game,” a complicated chess game of
espionage, exploration, diplomacy, and, on occasion, sabre-rattling

by Britain and Russia, as the British sought to forestall the Russian
advance, and the Russians sought to avoid or overcome British
resistance. The great plateaus, mountain ranges, and deserts of the
heartland were their chessboard [p. 10].
“The Great Game,” continues Wimmel, “prompted both sides to send agents into Central
Asia to spy out the land and find out what the other side was up to [p. 10].” In time,
Russia and Britain were not the only ones at play in this game. By 1919, the U.S. also
was snooping around in China and Mongolia with civilian informants under quise of their
civilian occupations. Andrews was among them. “Museum curator” was his cover. “Mr.
Reynolds” was his code name.
Andrews did not operate as a trained military spy, but as a civilian informant. The
distinction made is that Andrews did not discern and process information he passed
along. He simply reported whatever he learned for others to evaluate. The U.S. employed
many such civilian informants to supplement its intelligence-gathering operations. It was
interested in all things Chinese and Mongolian for a [number of] reason[s].
Since [ ], the United States, along with Britain, France, Italy and Japan, had owned
concession rights to conduct commerce and maintain a military presence in China,
particularly in the Yangtze basin and at Shanghai. [ ]
China, with whom Andersson was employed, was not only vulnerable economically and
militarily to Western presence, it was naescent in the face of Western-style approach to
earth science. The West was far ahead of China in scientific exploration, techniques,
discoveries, analysis and publication. China was not ready to undertake the sort of
exploration Andersson proposed.
Moreover, the Swedish government, despite Andersson’s connection to the monarchy,

was dragging its feet. Andersson’s proposals, abundant artefactual and fossil discoveries
and a growing list of publications were unable to garner Swedish sponsorship. The
situation was frustrating. Andersson regarded scientific exploration as a matter of
national pride. While Andersson believed that a nation’s status was enhanced by the
achievements of its scientists, he did not view it as a competition between nations or men.
But “[t]his sort of competition was [now] very much in evidence [135].” The Americans
were in play. As one Andersson biographer noted recently, the affair between national
scientists “amounted to a version of an Olympic race [136].”
For a time, Ting, Davidson Black, a Canadian professor of anatomy teaching at the
Peking Union Medical College and others working in promoting the study of geology in
China became caught up as well. They were especially offended by a publicized
statement by Andrews that science in China was so undeveloped that a western effort was
needed to “jump start” the study of earth science and natural history in the region and
bring it into the 20th century [137]. A protest was lodged, Osborn intervened to smooth
matters over and arranged for Granger to arrive in China a year ahead of schedule.
Andrews began making amends.
Now finding himself out-maneuvered, Andersson realized that he and his out-gunned
nations stood no chance against the American machine. Institutional backing by the
AMNH and Asia Magazine, as well as American moguls and corporations funding,
equipment and supplies gave the museum every advantage. The Americans not only had
gained the knowledge of where to go, how to get there and whom to beat, they had
obtained the means. When they finally took to the field in 1922, one could only imagine
Andersson’s envy of American motorcars racing across the Mongolian

Steppe, to reach fossil dinosaurs that he knew would be there, and
getting there before him because of stronger funding for the purchase of
cars, instead of horses, donkeys and camels and river rafts used by
Andersson (emphasis added) [138].
Andersson was to be heavily disheartened by this turn of events. He would quietly leave
geology, paleontology and his dreams of exploration in Mongolia to the Americans and
concentrate on his archaeology projects and Zhoukoudian.
[Cut #4]
Granger in China, 1921

[?Insert E]
Despite a central government in Peking, there was no nation-wide

authority over the whole of China, especially the south. China at the
dawn of the 1920s was a once highly unique and mighty culture and
history of successively great, accomplished, vast and aged dynasties that
finally began to convulse and rend, loosing various pieces soon to
fracture and splinter and swirl off only to be jammed back together
again after the Boxer rebellion and funneled into a raging vortex of an
uncontrollable passage at high speed and endless spinning, now
discordant parts clamoring without any apparent outcome in sight. This
unequaled, hugely chaotic period in China’s history was a condensing
tube of tumult and unpredictability that eventually would take China
from the old, an eminent nation of splendid complexity and intricacy, to
the completely new and seemingly very simple. As one student put it,
from these years of great flailing and turmoil there was to be really only
one heir left intact from the old order, yet filled with the promise of the
new. The imperial mandate had once been heaven’s to give, but--in the
words of the Book of Documents--“heaven sees with the eyes of the
people; heaven hears with the ears of the people.” Vague and
amorphous, a new tide was rolling toward Peking. As yet, no one could
name it: a proletariat, an armed peasantry perhaps. To define the people
and determine how to mobilize its strength was a task for future
revolutionaries. Until their time came, China would have no true unity
and the revolution no enduring mandate to carry on [139].
As relations simmered between Andersson and Andrews, Osborn elected to assuage

Andersson and the Chinese Geological Survey by sending Granger over a year ahead of
the American Mongolia exploit scheduled for 1922. First Granger first would help
Andersson investigate and assess Chicken Bone Hill at Zhoukoudian. Then he would take
a small expedition party into the Yangtze Basin to try to locate the source of the revered
dragon bone. His longtime field assistant, George Olsen, was to go with him.
Osborn had brushed aside Andrews’s proposal that Barnum Brown handle the CAE’s
paleontology [140]. At this point, Granger was now better known for his fossil mammal
work and that was essential to proving Osborn’s 1900 theory. Granger also had a good
background in geology. Brown was known strictly for his dinosaur work, which was not
useful to Osborn’s theory. Besides, he was about to leave the museum to work in the
private sector. But, in addition, Osborn’s estimate likely was that the temperamentally
low-key Granger was more suited to dealing with the Chinese and the international cadre
of scientists located in China than was the high-strung Brown.
Andrews’s tilt to Brown suggests that, along with essential skills in collecting fossil
mammals, he did not appreciate these distinctions, or did not see them as important. It
thus also appears to confirm his expectation that fossil dinosaurs were to be found in
Mongolia, as Andersson and Borissiak had been suggesting. But Granger, Osborn knew,
could collect those too. But what also made Andrews’s suggestion of Brown peculiar was
that it followed a discussion about the selection with the DVP’s W. D. Matthew, a
mammalian theorist. Nevertheless, Osborn overruled them both and Granger was on his
way to China in the spring of 1921.
Granger in Asia From 1921 to 1930

[Summarize WG’s extraordinary decade-long expedition/Peking/US sequence with dates
and years and then follow with “Granger’s Asia work began with Andersson at
Zhoukoudian in August, 1921.]
Zhoukoudian
When Granger stepped onto the platform and turned to assist Anna, J. G. Andersson and
a few other welcomers pressed forward to greet them. Andrews was not among the group,
but the Central Asiatic Expedition had officially begun. And, despite events having
turned sour with Andrews, Andersson was pleased to see Granger. Granger embodied the
scientific acumen and technique Andersson regarded as so essential to understanding
China’s fossil riches. Granger “very kindly offered to acquaint us with the extraordinarily
developed technique of excavations which had been one of the factors in the phenomenal
progress of the American vertebrate paleontologists,” Andersson later noted.
While needing to investigate at Zhoukoudian because of the find at Chicken Bone Hill,
Andersson and the Geological Survey also had a reliable tip about a source supplying
Chinese wholesale druggists with fossils in the Yangtze region. It was located somewhere
on the Upper River just above the Three Gorges near the city of Wanhsien (Wanxian).
This was such a politically and militarily unstable region that Andersson and the Chinese
Geological Survey had delayed exploration there. Anti-Peking sentiment, changing
political affiliations, warlord battles and banditry. Osborn thought Granger should have a
firsthand look at both of these localities
Crossing the Pacific from San Francisco west to Shanghai aboard the [name] and then
travelling north by train to Peking, the Grangers had finally arrived in Peking on June
[date], 1921. But George Olsen was not with them, having had to cancel because all his
teeth “vas more or les afected” and it was thought best to pull them out all at once. “[A]t
present Iem living on Oatmeal and mush,” Olsen wrote to his friend Harold J. Cook.
Olsen still hoped to get reach China by the Fall [141].
Andersson’s assistant Otto Zdansky and his Chinese assistants were already stationed at
Zhoukoudian located 45 kilometers southwest of Peking. Granger and Andersson joined
them in [date] August to take up study of the remnant of limestone called “Chicken Bone
Hill.” Soon after arriving at the site, they were approached by a local man who advised
that "Not far from here there is a place where you can collect much larger and better
dragons' bones.” Andersson inquired further, "knowing well that in the matter of search
for dragons' bones in China we must never neglect any clue." Upon additional
information from the man, they collected their gear and followed him to a greatly fissured
face of a limestone cliff in an abandoned quarry just to the north. After searching only a
few minutes search they found a jaw of a pig “which showed,” wrote Andersson, “that
we were in the presence of a discovery with much greater possibilities than Chicken Bone
Hill [142].”
The next day's yield was even better. It "exceeded all expectations" as fossil remains of
stag, rhinoceros, hyena and bear were found along with apparent humanly-shaped [quartz
chips]. That evening Andersson, Granger and Zdansky celebrated, confident that the site
held enormous significance to finding ancient man. “When we raised our glasses at the
beginning of dinner, our happy trio was able to drink to a certain discovery,” Andersson
wrote. After some quick training by Granger in field techniques over the next two days,
Andersson continued, “we now decided to leave the completion of our discovery to Dr.
Zdansky who probably had weeks of work [to do].”
It was very clear that Andersson and Granger were convinced that evidence soon would
be found. And it was. Shortly after Andersson and Granger returned to Peking, Zdansky
discovered [?two] hominid teeth. But he did not disclose this to anyone, let alone
Andersson or Granger. In fact, for years, he kept it secret apparently because he feared
Andersson would publish on the find as his own.
Venturing the Yangtze
Granger was the first paleontologist to succeed in reaching the source of

supply for [lung ku and lung ya] and to supervise personally their collection
[143].
The [Sichuan Province] collection is important not only as giving a picture

of the life of this particular region but, being midway between fossiliferous
deposits of the same age in north China and northern India, it helps greatly
in working out the general distribution and migrations of mammals in
eastern Asia during the Pleistocene period [144].
Leaving Zdansky and the Chinese assistants behind to work the site now known as
Locality 1, Andersson went back to his duties and Granger made ready for a lengthy
expedition to the Upper Yangtze. His aim was to find dragon bones in situ, or as
originally physically situated before collection. He and his small band of Chinese
assistants traveled by rail from Peking to Hankow. There they caught a steamer for
Ichang and then another for the rest of the trip up the Yangtze through the Three Gorges
to a city called Wanxian. Ten miles beyond and another ten miles inland and more than
1,000 feet up a limestone ridge paralling the river to the south lay a remote village called
Yenchingkou (or Yanjinggou), or “salt spring valley.” Granger would become the first
paleontologist to pay a visit.
First, however, Granger and his men had to clear Ichang where a battle for control of the
city was about to commence. While Granger had no direct experience in Chinese or
Mongolian political affairs when he prepared for expedition to Asia in 1921, he had been
well-briefed. The Gobi and Yangtze basins promised to be new and potentially
prodigious places to be working. Of the two, however, the Yangtze promised to be the
most challenging and hold the greatest dangers any member of the CAE would face.
The Yangtze River has, for two thousand years, been simultaneously
the spine and the central nervous system of the Chinese society
[145].
Also known as Ch’ang-chiang (or Long River), the Yangtze stretches more than 4,000
miles west from the Himalayan Plateau east to the sea at Shanghai. This fourth largest
river in the world is a tale of trade and adventure, danger and romance, war and
opportunism, myth and tragedy. During Granger’s time, the river still served as a “great
trade artery, carrying an enormous amount of traffic both up and down.” Including
tributaries, Yangtze navigation networked six Chinese provinces totalling 5,500
navigable miles.
Not surprisingly, the river’s utility garnered western attention. By 1921, several world
powers plied the river for commercial and military purpose. A foreign consortium
essentially ran the river, along with the Chinese. The British, French, American, Russian,
Italian and Japanese were enabled through “concessions” years before to operate in the
nature of privileged foreign settlements. Foreign leaseholds and shipping on the Yangtze
dated back to the Opium Wars of 1840-1842 and 1856-1860.
At the end of each of these conflicts, China was compelled to sign a

battery of agreements known collectively as the Unequal Treaties, not
only with the British and French, but also with the United States, Russia,
and (later) Germany and Japan. As periodically extended and amended,
the Unequal Treaties remained in force for almost exactly one hundred
years [146].
The treaties not only opened the Yangtze River valley to foreign influx and exploitation,
it exposed the rest of China as well, and now Mongolia. Foreigners were free to trade,
travel, reside, patrol and proselytize throughout these countries as never before. It was a
circumstance fueled by unusual territorial access ratified by the post-World War I
maneuvering of the great powers after Versailles. China was, in effect, consigned to
being kept helpless. By 1921,
[c]oncessions and foreign settlements had been established which were

in practically every sense of the word a piece of sovereign territory of
the country concerned, and in which the controlling foreign powers
retained the rights of policing and governing, delegated to a council of
resident merchants [147].
Railroad lines sporting Baldwin locomotives from the US, foreign consuls residences and
contacts, foreign banks, foreign commercial enterprises, foreign enclaves, foreign postal
and customs systems, foreign missionary stations, foreign gunboats, and a foreign
passport status of a diplomatic agent having full authority along with attendant Chinese-
issued huchaos (or vouchsafes) all helped to pave Granger’s way as he set out for
Sichuan.
Nevertheless, times were changing. Internal upheaval was on the rise, along with anti-
foreign sentiment. As a result, danger to foreigners was on the increase. Yangtze travel
itself posed danger. The rapids were treacherous and became nearly impassable during
certain stages which were always changing the river’s level. Winds channeled up the
river could become strong enough to stall sailing craft headed down river. Constantly
shifting channels meant there were no suitable charts, and the river continually had to be
learned and relearned. The changing water level also affected the well-known and
difficult rapids in the famous Three Gorges, as well as lesser-known rapids farther
upriver.
Spectacular as it was, the Yangtze River brewed a universe of possible perils. But
Granger’s potential fossil localities were located along the Yangtze and the Yangtze was
the only practical way to get into them. Granger’s river route would take him up from
Hankow to Ichang and then through the Three Gorges to Wanxian. There he would
regroup and then continue on up the river 10 more miles in smaller craft to a loading
dock on the opposite shore below Yenchingkou, a tiny mountain village perched more
than 1,000 feet up in a limestone ridge paralleling the Yangtze to the south and now
thought to hold the fossils coveted by Chinese medicine for so many years, and now
sought by science as well.
The foreign nations plying the Yangtze variously termed their gunboat presence: the
American Yangtze Patrol (YangPat), the British South China Patrol, the French Tottille
du Yang Tse, and the Italian, Japanese and Chinese patrols. Western travelers on and
dwellers and workers along the Yangtze regularly observed and relied on American
gunboats such as the (USS) Elcano, Monocacy, Palos, Quiros and Villalobos or the
British gunboats (HMS) Cockchafer, Scarab, Teal, Widgeon and Woodcock. Among the
French were the (RFS) Balny and Doudart de la Gree. The Italians fielded (HIMS)
Ermanno Carlotto and Libia. The Japanese (HIJMS) and the Chinese (RCS) also had a
very strong presence on the River, but were less directly involved with western residents
and interests. Gunboat presence on the Upper River from Ichang to Chungking where
Granger was headed was much more limited than down river between Ichang to
Shanghai. Not all gunboats were sufficiently powered or agile enough to navigate the
rapids of the Three Gorges above Ichang and those beyond them. This was a serious
problem for any foreigner upriver "where the shooting was prevalent...robbers
proliferated...[and] merchants and missionaries complained bitterly [148]."
It may have mattered little anyway. Later, in 1927, after the Battle of Wanxian, “where
three British river gunboats bloodily slugged it out with a Chinese field army, the China
Weekly Review read the tea leaves with awesome accuracy: 'A little tin gunboat on a
narrow river is no match in a fight with a Chinese army equipped with modern heavy
artillery [149].’"
A river gunboat was a small, relatively agile, armed vessel. Of the western powers, the
British had the best capability for River patrol, especially Upper River patrol, with better-
designed and better-powered gunboats. The Americans were next, but still struggling to
catch up in design and capability. For the most part, their craft were converted private
yachts such as the USS Elcano, or old Spanish gunboats claimed as prizes from the
Spanish-American War, such as the USS Quiros and Villalobos, suitably renamed and put
to duty for YangPat. But they were not specifically designed for Yangtze River duty as
were some of the British, Japanese and Chinese boats. As matters heated up in China, the
Americans hurriedly put in orders for two new gunboats specifically modeled after
Britain’s HMS Widgeon. They were the sister ships USS Monocacy and Palos, both
shallow-drafted and single-screwed. Each was 165.6 feet x 24.6 feet x 2.5 feet and
capable of 13.25 knots maximum. American Admiral and gunboat historian Kemp Tolley
once noted that the coal burning Monocacy and Palos “could burn wood in an
emergency, and thus to a certain extent were able to ‘steam off the country’” [Tolley, p.
192].
Built at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, they were then
disassembled and shipped overseas (aboard the American steamer Mongolia, no less!) to
Shanghai. In Shanghai they were reassembled at the Kiangnan Shipyard, and put into
service. That year both vessels demonstrated their ability to handle the rapids of the upper
river when they reached Chungking and went to Kiating on the Min River. Nevertheless,
they still were somewhat underpowered and also slow to turn.
The British Navy had recognized the need for improved power and steerage. Just a year
later it came out with the HMS Cockchafer driven by powerful twin screws positioned in
tunnels within the aft hull to concentrate their force. The twin screws also greatly
improved steering of the ship which on the Yangtze often required facile turns and good
timing while negotiating the rapids, up and down. The boat also was comparatively larger
at 237.5 feet x 36 feet x 4 feet. While it topped no more than 14 knots and weighed 625
tons, it was quite agile.
The various patrol boats ran from 150 to 250 feet depending on where on the River they
served and weighed anywhere from 200 to 600 tons. The hulls generally were of iron and
the enitre ship was done in white and buff.
Most Upper River boats drafted no more than two to four feet. They were lightly armed,
generally with two 6-pounders, six .30-caliber machine-guns, and an assortment of hand
weapons such as non-automatic rifles, shotguns sometimes sawed off for use as ‘riot
guns’, Colt .45s, Browning automatic rifles, Thompson submachine guns, Lewis
submachine guns, and even tear gas. A gunboat was powered by steam produced from
coal or wood boilers. The crews ranged from 50-100 men and typically included several
Chinese to work the boilers and handle other mundane tasks. Showers and bathrooms
were placed aft in a cabana-like structure, all waste being disposed of directly off the
stern [aft deck] into the water.
Obstacles and accidents in the River were commonplace. A wrecked craft here and there
could almost always be observed. Collision with rocks, especially in the rapids, was a
serious danger and the method for dealing with a punctured hull was simple: the hole was
stuffed from the inside with bags of cement which were then left to harden after contact
with the River water. The hardening was hastened by adding soda [Tolley, p. 181].
The American Yangtze River Patrol (YangPat) was the US Navy’s longest running
operation. From 1854 to 1941, it existed under various names, the last as the ‘Yangtze
River Patrol of the United States Navy.’ It was a squadron-sized unit of the Navy’s
Asiatic Fleet and patrolled the waters of the Yangtze River as far inland as Chungking,
1,300 miles up the river, and occasionally beyond. While the officially stated purpose of
the Patrol was to protect US citizens and property, it also served as an intelligence
gathering arm of the US Navy. Reports were communicated daily back to YangPat’s
flagship the USS Isabel stationed at Shanghai.
Underway
[J. G.] Andersson was kept out of this locality for several years, after
he learned about it, by the political conditions and if we waited for
things to be perfectly peaceful on the Upper Yangtze, we would
never be here ourselves [150].
Granger was acknowledging the political and military instability of the area, as well as
the ever-present robbers, bandits and pirates that now included rogue deserters,
stragglers, and spin-off factions. Granger explained that
[i]n considering the Wanhsien locality for exploration, we had

before my departure from Peking talked over very carefully the
chances of my running into active inter-provincial warfare along the
Yangtze which might seriously interfere with our progress up the
river. After consultation with Doctor Coltman, of the Standard Oil
Company, and one or two other men who knew their China well, it
was decided to take a chance, trusting that either the trouble would
not assume dangerous proportions or that we might slip through
before things broke. The mere movement of soldiers and the
occasional firing on river steamers were not sufficient to stop us.
That sort of thing had been going on for ten years--ever since the
establishment of the Republic--and was one of the hazards which

any up-river traveler expected to take [151].
On August 24, 1921, Granger boarded his expedition party and equipment at the Chien
Min Railroad Station in Peking in preparation for an 11 p.m. departure. They were due to
arrive in Hankow on the 26th in mid-afternoon. Andersson, Zdansky, Pope and Ruth
Wood, an American chemist at Peking’s Rockefeller Medical School, were at the train to
see Granger off. Anna, who would remain in Peking for the winter, was there as well.
Granger’s expedition members were all Chinese. James V. Wong was Granger’s
interpreter and assistant who had attended Highland Military Academy in Worcester,
Massachusetts. Wong had excavated with J. G. Andersson at Sha Kuo T’un in China in
June of that year [152]. Andrews then hired him as Granger’s ‘business manager’.
Chow (Chao Hui Lu) served as the ‘No. 1 Boy’. He had been to Sichuan and Yunnan
provinces with Andrews on the earlier Asiatic zoological expeditions. Yang, the cook,
had served with the Andrews family in Peking. Liu Ta Ling was Granger’s assistant in
general field work, along with his assistant Kan Chuen Pao, nicknamed ‘'Buckshot'’.
Chih Hang was the taxidermist and had served with Andrews on a trip to the Eastern
Tombs.
There were thirty-one pieces of luggage, ‘servant’s bundles’ and wooden boxes to be
checked in. The expedition’s field gear included
a 7 x 9 green silk tent, two Biddle tents...Two McClellan saddles.

Complete paraphernalia for collecting both fossils and living fauna
of all sorts. Two shot-guns with aux. barrels, two Savage .250 rifles,
two Savage .38 automatic pistols. My own Colt revolver and a .32
pistol of Wong's. Also have sheet iron stove (local make) and
cooking outfit... Boxes are of local make with hinges and padlock
and of size adapted either for carrying-coolies or mules. Six boxes,
those to be used for groceries, are of somewhat smaller size and are
made after a pattern furnished by Dr. Andersson. These are designed
for heavy fossils. Two boxes of the larger type are fitted with with
wooden trays for bird and mammal skins [153].
On board, Granger and Wong shared a compartment with “a Chinese gentleman who had
a soldier as servant.” This man was not further identified. But, Granger soon realized, as
the train headed south and began filling with soldiers, that it was heading to military
action at the Hupei front. Granger soon learned that the soldiers were under the command
of warlord general Wu P'ei Fu.
As the train rumbled through stops on the way to Hankow, more soldiers boarded at
nearly every important station. Finally, at Cheng-te, in northern Honan Province, they
commandeered the 3rd-class coach in which Granger’s men were riding forcing them into
the observation compartment of Granger’s first-class coach. The soldiers then tried to
take over the first-class coach itself. That obliged Wong, Granger noted,
to talk much and long to the station agent and present my official
card while I sat back as complacently as possible, got out my
passport and letters and waited. Finally the station agent was able
to compromise with the soldiery by furnishing another third-class
coach, and our train was allowed to proceed after a delay of
nearly an hour. Mr. Wong says that my presence in the car (being
the only foreigner) is what saved it from confiscation [154].
Granger’s US passport, plenipotentiary in nature, gave him the status of a diplomatic

agent and having full authority as such.
Aug. 26.
During the night Chow aroused us with information that troops had
rebelled at a town on the line in Northern Hupei and had destroyed the
track for a distance. Early morning gave no verification of this report
but we found out later that there had been a disturbance at [WG left
blank] and some of the track destroyed but later repaired. Our train
gradually losing time since leaving Peking owing to troop train ahead
and crowded condition of our train and we finally arrived in Hankow at
9 p.m. instead of schedule time of 3:40 p.m. [155].
On the River
China, November 16, 1921

Dear Father:-
We have crickets over here too,--they are singing now as I write.

And they give about the only familiar touch to an otherwise strange
land. I always think of Middletown when I hear crickets because, I
suppose, there was where I first heard them [156].
Granger and his men provisioned up in Hankow and on the evening of August 29th,
boarded the SS Tung Wo skippered by Captain Pellew. As they steamed toward Ichang,
Granger learned that on an earlier trip to Ichang, the boat had been fired upon by soldiers.
As a consequence, some boats now had their railings lined with large sheets of iron.
Upon reaching Ichang in the early evening of September 1st, Granger heard reports that
Southern Army soldiers had advanced to thirty miles away and were planning to attack
the city. He took note of the gunboats in port––two American, one British and one
Japanese. Then he set about recording the various fishing techniques he had observed
since leaving Hankow. Hand seines and nets were used by men standing in the water.
Large circular dip nets and sweeping gill nets were employed off sampans. Some boats
employed cormorants––twenty or so birds to each boat. No method, he noted, involved
using a baited hook.
The next morning, Granger went ashore to call on contacts he was provided with at
Butterfield & Swire and the Standard Oil Company. He also met with John ‘Fossil’
Smith, the British Consul in Ichang and amateur fossil collector who had tipped off
Andersson to the apparent fossil locality up the river. Rumors flew that southern troops
were now advancing on Ichang by the hour and that combat was imminent. Fighting
broke out in mid-afternoon on Saturday when the defending Northern Army fired directly
across the river at southern force defenses.
Granger watched the action through his field glasses. Now aboard the Loong Mow, but
unable to depart, Granger followed the fighting for the rest of that day, the next and into
the following evening. At daybreak, he watched the southerners make “a grand assault
and [overwhelm] all the Northern Army’s defensive positions across the river including
the “Pyramid” (500’) and other peaks directly opposite the town and only a mile away.”
The northern soldiers fled by boat, suffering heavy casualties. By 9 p.m., the fighting was
over and an armistice declared. More fighting was to be heard over the next two nights,
however, between opposing armies to the north and east of the city.
While ashore at Ichang, Granger had viewed British Consul Smith’s small collection of
vertebrate and invertebrate fossils of Pleistocene and Paleozoic age some of which were
said to come from up the Rive near Wanhsien at a place called Yenchingkou. The fossils
held promise he noted later in his diary. But his mind, stuck on the battle he had just
witnessed. It weighed: while he thought the fighting was of extreme interest, he sensed a
“certain element of danger and anxiety.” During the battle, a native crew member of the
USS Monocacy was shot as was a boy on a sampan. Both were the result of stray bullets
and that underscored how dangerous the area was for everyone.
Then a coolie was beheaded on the Bund by soldiers and other executions were being
reported throughout the city. This was not the tamed American West or the colonially
ruled Fayum of Egypt. There was no semblance of order as Granger watched small
squads of Chinese soldiers parade relentlessly up and down the Bund recruiting coolies
by force, grabbing them, tying them together and driving them off with sticks. They
would be used for carrying ammunition, luggage and food, or even just handling lines on
a ferry, before being killed when no longer able or needed.
Thankfully, it seemed, the Loong Mow finally pulled out of Ichang harbor at dawn on the
7th and headed for Wanxian. As it reached Ichang Gorge at breakfast, they were met by
junks filled with soldiers heading down river to Ichang. Some of the soldiers fired at the
Loong Mow as they passed by forcing all aboard to leave the decks and find refuge in the
ship. It became smart not to come back on deck too early. One shot was fired back from a
junk that had gone a half a mile beyond the Loong Mow. “[S]itting on the after deck[, the]
bullet passed close and entered the dining salon just forward of us and stopped in the
linoleum of the floor.”
*
The Loong Mow was larger than the Tung Wo which its skipper Captain Hall lived aboard
with his wife during his eight months of duty. Its engines were more powerful than the
Tung Wo’s. Almost too much so, as Granger noted, when “[we] pass almost too quickly
through the really wonderful gorges.” A huge wash was created by the powerful engines
as the steamer ascended the gorges and met the rapids and faster current. To maintain
steering headway, sufficient power had to be applied. But as the propeller churned
against the oncoming rush of water, a wash was created sufficient to swamp or roll over a
smaller craft if it were too close. It had done just that to a junk full of soldiers not too
long before. That apparently was why the downriver junks bearing soldiers had fired at
them––in warning, if not also for revenge.
Assessing the Fossil Field
Unique on the Yangtze, Wanhsien had ever been at a trouble spot.

Rival generals fought in and around it. Bandits threatened, floods
took their toll of the lower-lying parts, and foreigners clung
precariously to their business in the face of all hazards and
provocations. ‘The river narrowed to an insignificant gorger, then
came a broad expanse of still water resembling a mountain lake, and
then Wan appeared. The burst of its beauty...a stately city piled on
ciffs and heights...a wall of rock on one side crowded with temples,
with the broad river disappearing among the mountains which were
dissolving away in blue mist. It was quite overpowering.’[Tolley, p.
232]
After reaching Wanhsien without further incident, Granger’s men set up temporary
headquarters at the British-run Customs Office while he made calls to present the letters
of introduction he carried from Peking and the States. The ancient Paleozoic ridge he
hoped to inspect another ten miles beyond had been exposed and eroded over thousands
of years by the main channel-cutting waters of the Yangtze. As the water cut through,
rocks and other debris swirled about and occasionally drilled into soft areas in the
limestone. Gradually, holes or pits were formed and deepened as the process continued.
During the Pleistocene that followed, unwary animals, or their already dead carcasses,
were caught or swept into these pits to be trapped and left to fossilize.
Chinese farmers later discovered the pits spread along the ridge for twenty miles or so.
One could count several hundred in a day's trip. They began to mine them and sell them
to the druggists, as an off-season enterprise over the winter months when farming duties
came to a near standstill. Most pits needed to be excavated and some were 150 feet deep.
The shafts were vertical and filled with debris. The peasants lowered themselves by rope
and a seat from a crude windlass overhead. They carried a trowel to excavate and a
basket to fill. Mud, loose rock and fossils were hauled up in baskets. The fossils were
then dried, sorted for quality and held for inspection and sale to the druggists. Those that
sold were taken down to the river’s edge by coolie and on downstream by junk.
It was pure business and the delicacy of Granger’s task was clear. On the one hand, he
wished to make a firsthand inspection of all these fossils to determine their value for
science. On the other hand, he had to make sure he did not interfere with commerce in
one of China’s most revered practices. The excavation of these fossils had been going on
for generations. Many hundreds of tons of good fossils had been broken up and sold to
the druggists.
Granger decided to purchase the material he wanted, electing not to try to excavate a pit
himself. Not only were these family-owned, the work required little technical skill and
was somewhat risky even if mainly a matter of hauling jumbled material out of a pit
bucket by bucket. Excavation apparatus, such as ladder and windlass, was primitive and
the walls of the pits were rarely well shored. Granger would offer to pay about 13 cents
for 27 ounces of fossil material. The standard druggist price was somewhat lower, but the
druggists were not culling the fossils for preservation -- theirs were to be ground into
powder.
Base Camp, Yenchingkou
Yen-ching-kuo, Wanhsien, Szc, China, November 16, 1921
Dear Father:-
I have been in this place now since Oct. 17th. It's only a small
hamlet of some twenty families –– just a double row of houses on
the stone paved path which leads from the river to Hupeh province.
The family of Tan is the dominant one in this neighborhood and they
have their ancestral hall here and it is in this that we're camped.
These halls are similar to the temples except that instead of idols
there are stone tablets inscribed to the glory of the Tan ancestry. Joss
is performed night and morning just as in the temples and family
gatherings are held here. One was a memorial meeting––held always
at the harvest moon, and the other was a trial of a member of the
family, accused of adopting a son outside of the clan. The joss which
is done twice daily consists of beating a drum––like the drum of a
partridge repeated three times––and the ringing of a bell and the
burning of joss sticks [157].
Granger had taken his men and equipment by sampan ten miles up the river from
Wanxian to the opposite shore at the Pai Shui Chi (Paishuchi) landing. With coolies
carrying expedition gear, they then climbed the main trail to the village of Yanjinggou,
more than 1,000 feet up and 12 miles inland. The countryside was rugged, as was much
of Sichuan. Yanjinggou was situated in a narrow valley surrounded by hills that rose
steeply at 45 degree angles. A small creek flowed by the village wending its way down to
the Yangtze. It was fed along the way by small streams that flowed off other mountains.
Agriculture existed wherever possible. Steep hillsides were terraced with rice paddies
wherever a moving stream of water was available. The farmers regulated the water flow
to avoid drowning the rice, as often happened in the lowland. Where water was not at
hand, summer crops of corn, sweet potatoes, beans and some buckwheat were planted.
Peas, wheat and turnips were the winter crops. Water buffalo were used to plow and
harrow, but everything else in the way of farming was done by hand.
The people of Yanjinggou were poorer that year because an army of religious fanatics
had come down through the valley during the previous year and taken nearly all the
livestock. Then, when soldiers came up from Wanhsien and chased away the fanatics,
they took just about everything else of value left behind. The natives had begun in the
spring without much. They were just now acquiring a few pigs and a water buffalo or
two. But with hardly any hens, Granger and his men had to go ten miles away to obtain
eggs in quantity.
While the village was “inexpressibly filthy,” the Tan family temple Granger and his party
occupied was clean and pleasant. The locals came in continually during the day to watch
the foreigners work and eat. They would simply stand in the courtyard and stare, which
annoyed Granger somewhat. Twenty or so of the villagers would gaze at him in silence.
Then they would leave and another lot would come in. His spirits lifted whenever the
children came in and played about the court. Sometimes Granger would give them
crackers or candy, or empty shotgun shells which they seemed to covet highly. “Like
people of all races,” Granger noted, “I suppose the very young or the very old are the
most interesting and we pay special attention to them.”
Yen-ching-kuo, Wanhsien, Szc, China, November 16, 1921
Dear Father:
Mr. Wong went into Wanhsien today, back on the 18th. I did not
hear from you when I was in on the seventh; hope I have a letter or
two this mail. Am expecting a Lieutenant from the British Gunboat
"Widgeon" [HMS Widgeon] to come back with Mr. Wong for a
visit. The Captain of the "Widgeon" is interested in birds and when I
was in town [h]e went over my collection and identified most of
them. They were all new to me and as I had no bird book with me I
did not know any of the names. The gunboat took me up to my
landing when I came back the other day. Beat going up in a sampan
all hollow. Two miles per hour by sampan and ten by gunboat [158].
Granger continued taking stock of his surroundings as he settled in for the winter. There
were no wheels in use in that part of Sichuan, he observed, and he had seen only a half
dozen or so ponies. These were in the possession of the military in Wanxian. Everything
was carried by coolies. Single loads, double loads, and sometimes several coolies to a
package. Most people walked unless they could afford a sedan chair. He had one in his
outfit, but he preferred walking when it was not too far. While it took only two coolies to
carry Wong, four were needed for Granger who weighed 185 pounds.
The main pathways in that region were paved with sandstone. It seemed as if there must
be thousands of miles of them in the province. They wound up over the hills without
much regard to grade and in places were simply stairways of stone. All day long, coolies
passed by Granger’s headquarters carrying rice, goat skins and cabbage down to the river
and bringing back salt and other commodities. The coolies carried 100 pounds in a single
load and 150 pounds in a double load.
The expedition’s staples were supplemented with locally grown potatoes, cabbage and
turnips. Fruit at that time of year was of two kinds––”large luscious persimmons and fine
tangerines.” Granger described the persimmons as being as large as a teacup and eaten by
slicing off the tip end and scooping out the salmon-colored pulp with a spoon, with
tangerines large and tasty as well. To Granger, a whole orchard laden with such fruit was
a lovely sight.
Yet, to his eye, there was little fall coloring. The few remaining oak trees had taken on a
tint now, and the wood oil trees were yellowish brown. Timber was pretty scattered and
thin. Most of the trees were not much more than saplings, overcutting having taked its
toll. Sichuan would have fine forests, he believed, if only the trees were allowed to
mature. He thought that it was the custom of wooden coffin-making which needed
reform. A half a dozen or so empty coffins were stored under his gallery in the Ancestral
Hall and he guessed that each weighed 400 pounds, if not 500. No wonder, he noted, that
timber had become scarce and expensive if every Chinese required burial in one.
The natives burned everything--grass, cornstalks, weeds and brush of all kinds, even
leaves and sometimes furniture. They kept open fires on the floor of a room, the smoke
finding its way out as best it could through the thatched roof. From the outside, it looked
as if the house was on fire. A recent notice posted on a wall decreed that trees below a
certain size were not to be cut. The Chinese were realizing the necessity of maintaining
their forests.
October 11th. ("Yen-Ching-Kuo." 62˚ at 6 p.m. Rainy.):

Wong had located a bat cave at the lower edge of the village and
Chih already had six large bats made up. Wong had also visited the
bone pits--10 li from here and had secured a small collection
therefrom, including a rodent jaw, jaw of a large artiodactyl and an
enormous Tapir molar.
Our headquarters is a roomy place with plenty of space to spread out

in. The men sleep on one of the galleries. We have the stage and the
other gallery is used for alcoholic specimens, etc.--a place to admit
the natives with their offerings of snakes, lizards, fish, crabs etc. The
cook has a kitchen and an anteroom and No. 1 has a large room on
the opposite side of the shrine [159].
The cost of firewood was Granger’s largest expense, nearly five dollars a month.
Sichuan’s winter weather was chilly, damp and sometimes gloomy. While Granger and
his men were getting used to it, every evening they gathered in the kitchen for an hour or
so to warm up before bed. This actually was the only time they were really indoors. The
layout of Granger’s Hall was similar to any temple. Their sleeping and working quarters
had only a roof and one wall. Only the kitchen was a four walled room.
Stone tablets inscribed with the names and history of the various Tan ancestry were
placed about. On occasion there was a gathering of the Tan family at the shrine, with a
food offering, the burning of paper money and the firing of crackers. There would be an
extra lighting of candles the night before and the night after a ceremony.
A caretaker came early each morning and again in the evening and beat a drum and an
iron kettle. Joss sticks were burned before the shrine––just as in a temple––but over with
quickly and done at more seemly hours than at a regular temple.
Settling in
Granger’s days were spent trapping, collecting and preparing. Animal traps were put out
each night and checked in the morning. New mammal, bat and bird species were added to
the collection weekly. To collect bats, Granger and his men used a rickshaw lamp and a
special carbide head lamp for illumination inside the cave. A new mouse was brought in
by a boy. A live badger-like animal with a long tail was brought in by a man. Granger
bought it for $1.00. The skin and skeleton were saved and the meat, said to be a delicacy
because the animal lived on fruit at that time of the year, was given to the inn keeper next
door. All the collections were growing, but weather conditions hampered the taxidermy
work. Days of rain, fog and extreme dampness meant that the specimens would not dry
out, that matches would hardly scratch, that leather began to mold and that everything
else seemed saturated with water. Furthermore, fossil collecting was on hold because
Granger was still negotiating access to the pits with the Tans, who controlled the digs in
that region.
Life at the Hall provided some relief. A large Tan family conclave gathered there one
morning for the purpose of trying two members on the reputed adoption of a boy not
from the family. The accused were a man of 40 or so -- the principal in the case––and his
uncle, an old man of 60 or 70. After an hour and more of discussion and presentation of
evidence, the assembly adjourned. They reconvened that afternoon. After more
discussion, it was decided to tie up the accused until they confessed to the adoption. The
two were tied in an uncomfortable manner, hands behind the back and high up, to pillars
directly below Granger’s work stage. After a half hour or so, the old man was released.
Wong then induced the elders to release the younger man as well --he was groaning
noticeably from the pain by this time.
Wong then asked the elders to reconvene in one of the nearby houses. There he
encouraged the elders to make an investigation before proceeding further with the
punishment. That was finally agreed upon. But, as a messenger was about to be
dispatched for further information, the accused confessed. It was then decided to punish
him by a fine of money or land, instead of the bamboo which he preferred, being miserly.
Wong had insisted that a money fine would hurt the more, and in this the elders
concurred.
On the day before this occurred, one of the Tan family had called upon Granger to
discuss access to the pits. They agreed to go up to take a look on the first pleasant day.
But, while nearly every night was moonlit, the early mornings were cloudy and by
daylight it was raining. Not all was lost, however. A man brought in 50 pounds of fossil
scrap from which Granger was able to pick out some good rodent jaws and a few
artiodactyl teeth. And by mid-November, the weather changed sufficiently so that
Granger was able to begin visiting the fossil pits.
Visitors
Lieutenant. R. Cursham of HMS Widgeon came up to Granger’s headquarters on

November 23rd for a one-week visit. He bought along his “boy” and two pet dogs. The
plan was to hunt and feast over the American Thanksgiving holiday. Chow prepared a
noonday dinner with roast duck and pumpkin pie. On the 28th, Granger took Cursham up
to tour the fossil pits. Four in working order––one had just been opened. In another, a few
scattered bone fragments lay exposed on a dump pile, indicating that the workmen
evidently were nearing a deposit of fossils in the mine shaft. That pit was 60 feet deep,
Granger noted, and, at the bottom, a side branch ran off on a nearby horizontal plane.
The expedition pace quickened. Liu was sent down with "Lung Goo" Tan, as Granger
nicknamed him, to the river landing to examine four piculs of fossils. One picul equaled
133.33 pounds. The load was already made ready for shipment to Wanxien, but Liu
selected about 8 catties––one catty equaling 1.33 pounds––of teeth and jaw fragments
anyway. Of most interest was a lower-jaw fragment of a large cat, the first of that species
Granger had seen.
Lt. Cursham, in the meantime, returned to the Widgeon on the 30th. The last day of his
visit was spent in the bat caves where the party secured about 25 specimens. Mostly they
hung low and could be poked off with a stick into a butterfly net. So far, the cave had
yielded 75 samples of eight or so species.
Nov. 30. (Clear -- fine. 52˚-8 p.m.):

Mr. Asker [Customs] has sent up a note to the effect that he and
Commander Corlett [of the HMS Widgeon] may come out on the 7th
or 8th [160].
And so it was for Granger’s winter at Yanjinggou in Sichuan of 1921-22. Hunting,

trapping, collecting, stuffing, visiting the fossil pits, receiving the occasion visiting
western military man or official, observing everyday life in remote rural China, and
noting the weather. On December 1, the weather was 51˚ at 8 p.m., clear and fine,
Granger recorded. He went with Wong and Liu to the Shih-Pa-Tse fossil field leaving
camp at about 9:30 a.m. They returned on a steep and difficult path long after dark at
7:30 p.m. with ten catties of fossils, including rodent skulls and one monkey jaw with
teeth. The next day, several hundred pounds of lung ku were brought in from pits a few
miles south of Shih-Pa-Tse. Again the shipment belonged to "Lung Goo" Tan. Granger
selected 13 catties from the lot, including several rodent skulls, a portion of a large bovid
skull and a fragment of a goat-like skull, showing straight, backward-turned horn cases.
Kan (‘'Buckshot'’) had come down with something resembling mumps that included a
swollen arm and fever. A native doctor administered some sort of plaster. Liu also had an
abscess on his right hand on which Granger applied bread poultice. He was also
doctoring a young woman of the village who had nasty looking eruptions on throat and
chest.
Despite isolated instances of stealing from Granger’s party, such as of a pair of shoes or
some traps, the villagers treated their foreign guests courteously. The villagers seemed to
enjoy having them there, even inviting them to feasts and weddings. Of course, the
foreigners brought in new money. But they also provided new entertainment. There was
not a half hour during the day but which some audience was on the stone steps of the
shrine watching Granger and his men at work or a meal or playing with one of the
expedition pets.
Mail and English-language newspapers were delivered to Granger in packets at irregular

intervals. Osborn kept him apprised from New York, as did Matthew. Father Charles
corresponded faithfully from Vermont, as did sisters Daisy Parker and Mary Morgan and
brothers Arthur and Martin. Anna and Andrews kept in touch from Peking. He, of course,
corresponded back. The letters usually were numbered so that one could tell which had
been received and was being responded to, or whether one was out of sequence, or had
become lost. Not all the letters made it through, though most did.
A letter from Andrews informed
Needless to say I have been tremendously interested in your letters.

The last one, October 20th, sound as tho' you were at last on the
verge of a real find. If you can get a fossil "mine" such as Dr.
Andersson's find in Honan, it will put us on the map from the
paleontological standpoint. I can hardly wait to get your next letter,
because, of course, your side of the work is the most popular and
will be of the greatest importance in keeping up the interest of our
contributors [161].
British and American gunboats also kept in touch. Information was provided to Granger
that kept him apprised of local affairs, as well as those in the rest of China and the world.
The gunboats keeping in constant radio contact and receiving daily intelligence reports
were a key link for Granger. Urgently, Ran, who had been suffering from a swollen jaw
and arm for a week or more, finally had to be taken in to Wanxian for examination. He
could hardly talk or eat. He was carried aboard the Widgeon for examination by the
gunboat’s physician, Dr. Pace. Pace found a deep abscess that needed draining. But the
best place for that procedure, in Pace’s view, was at a western-run hospital upriver in
Chung Chow. Widgeon’s commander Captain Corlett immediately contacted the captain
of the commercial steamer SS Anlai which was in port at Wanxian and making ready to
weigh anchor within the hour and sail up river. Anlai’s captain agreed to take Kan to
Chung Chow with a letter of instruction from Pace.
Mongolia Pending
Yen-ching-kuo
Wanhsien, Szc.
November 29, 1921
Dear Father:-
I enclose Mr. Andrews' recent letter to me and it gives some

information about plans, etc. If we waited for everything to be
peaceful and safe here in China we would never do anything but
wait. It's the most haphazard government in the world I suppose--
worse than Russia in a way--with no real center and no commanding
personality. The Canton people are absolutely independent except
for the Customs and Post Office--both of which are run by
foreigners and Peking has no power over the two big military
generals at Mukden and Hankow who between them control about
all of the Northern China army [162].
Andrews’s letter was bringing Granger up to date on planning the Gobi expedition to take
place that next spring after Granger’s return to Peking. It was largely on the issue of
having a sufficient supply of gasoline cached in Urga to support this first CAE Mongolia
venture, or “campaign” as Andrews called it. Andrews was concerned that if a fuel
supply was sent up for cache in Outer Mongolia early and without guard, it would be
appropriated by the Russian Buriats who now controlled Urga. He was asking Larson,
therefore, to aid in sorting it all out with “the Red Government.”
It had been Larson, of course, who, upon learning that Andersson was looking for fossil
localities invited him to one of the sites he knew about in Tabool in Inner Mongolia and
provided him the Mongolian collectors Jensen [Lob-tsen Yen-tsen] and Haldjinko.
Haldjinko took Andersson to a number of localities in the Hallong-Ossu region of Inner
Mongolia 155 kilometers north northwest of Kalgan Not long after, the Ertemte locality
was established 36 li north of Hallong-Ossu. It was Andersson’s Inner Mongolia finds,
aided by Larson and his Mongolian guides, that had helped form his urgent appeal to the
Swedish government for a wide-ranging, multidisciplined scientific expedition and
attracted Osborn’s attention. Ironically, it was from the telegraph station at Ehrlien near
Ertemte that the CAE first reported to the world on the amazing fossil discoveries they
were making in Mongolia.
Yen-ching-kuo
Wanhsien, Szc.
December 31, 1921
Dear Sister [Daisy]:-
I've just written to Cousin Norman referring to myself as his "most

distant" relative. I suppose I'm the same to you also--on that basis.
I had a glorious time in Wanhsien Christmas, and we were grateful

to the good people who entertained me. It was like an old fashioned
home Christmas with a tree, turkey, mince pie and all eleven men
and one lady sat down to dinner. It may shock you living in a
prohibition country, but the order of "booze" was: cocktail, sherry,
white wine, red wine, champagne, port, liquer. Nobody drank too
much according to local standards, but it was no Quaker party. I got

to bed at 4 a.m. and felt fine at 10:20 [the] next morning. Then I had
tea [the] next day at the Postmaster's and dinner the next night at the
Mission, and the next day reluctantly returned to camp. It was my
first Christmas out of the U.S. [163].
The grind of expedition life in gloomy winter occasionally wore on Granger. He was
annoyed when he heard that several piculs of fossils belonging to "Lung Goo" Tan
slipped by him several days before. This was in spite of the old man's promise to let
Granger have a look at all material that passed through his hands.
Chow also irritated him. Chow apparently felt the need to use a chair wherever he went
and Granger began making him pay for it. Other men's No. 1 boys, Granger noted,
walked, as did Granger, usually. Therefore Chow should. Chow was being a bit of a
dandy, Granger thought, by wanting the entitlement “face” produced whenever he rode in
a chair. The only time Granger used one was to go out to dinner in Wanxian because he
did not like walking on the city’s dirty streets at night. He also liked the open chair––
one's vision was too much cut off in a canopied chair though the open chairs were not as
comfortable.
While Granger enjoyed his fur sleeping bag, which was “delightfully warm,” he did not
like the Angora wool in his face or the odor of it in his nose. And, Wong was not feeling
any too well these days with his past dysentery still bothering him at intervals. Worse of
all, however, was that just before Christmas, Granger was interrupted at night by a report,
brought by Tan's son from Sin Kai Tien, that there were 30 or more bandits camped in a
temple down at the river landing.
We got the guns all out and ready and Wong sat up until four a.m.
watching. Today there are many rumors about this band of men, but
as usual, no definite precise information. This an awful country for
misinformation and for garbled reports. There are persistent rumors
of a band of ten men with one or two rifles doing business up around
the nearest fossil pits, holding up carrying coolies, robbing farm
houses, etc. Shall be glad to get where I do not have to sleep with an
automatic pistol under my pillow and a shot gun loaded with BB's
under the cot every night [164].
Nevertheless, each day brought interesting scenes for him to note. Tangerines were still
to be had, and the best of them were delicacies now--fully ripe and of high flavor. There
were touches of autumnal coloring here and there on the hillsides which felt like home.
The daytime temperature hung around 45˚ with 38˚ as the lowest. Wheat and peas were a
foot or more high and the turnip crop was under harvest. Villagers were busy gathering
fuel from the hillsides––brush was cut and the branches of the small evergreens are
trimmed to near the top. Leaves, pine needles and other trash were raked up and carried
home to burn. Long tough grass native to the area was cut for thatching. By spring,
hillsides would look like a sheared sheep.
Occasionally, a few flakes of snow hung in the air up on top of one of the nearby hills
another few hundred feet higher, although roses and other flowers in the village were still
in bloom, as was a patch of Chinese lilies behind Granger’s headquarters. Yet, he
grumped, no matter where one went, one could not get out of the sight or hearing of a
native.
The Chinese New Year would come soon, the only real holiday many of the Chinese
celebrated. It was the first day of the first moon. Every native in the village had been
making preparation for weeks. All accounts were squared up, all money owed was
collected. New clothes were made, houses cleaned up, idols in the temples dusted off.
Joss candles and incense were stocked in quantity. Colored puffed rice, paper balloons,
streamers of colored paper and hand made mottoes on bright red paper were for sale
everywhere. Firecrackers would be much in evidence on the eve of the new year. In the
morning every shop would be closed, every house shut up. Nobody would be on the
streets.
Then, after a day or two the natives would begin to come out, greet each other and
commence festivities. There would be much gambling––even small girls engaged in
tossing dice. Larger boys and men used a dice game with 50 cash pieces for stakes.
Next came calling on relatives and friends, exchanging small presents, principally sweets
done up in a pyramid of paper packages and placing a good deal of extra joss in temple
shrines and at graves. This continued for a week or two when, finally, everybody settled
back to their normal routine for the rest of the year.
Granger took an interest in the bustling waterfront at Wanhsien while he was there for
Christmas. All available space was occupied by temporary structures of thatched roofs
and sides where all sorts of business were carried on. There were also a number of
restaurants and one or two theaters. During the winter months boat traffic on the Yangtze
actually increased. The river was fairly alive with junks and sampans and altogether
different from the scene Granger encountered in September when the water was too high
for junk traffic and there were too many steamers for junks to navigate safely. Now the
steamer traffic had slowed for the winter. A lower water level and changing water flow
made navigation by steamer and gunboat more difficult. Rocks were everywhere, as one
Captain Bell-Sayr learned when his upriver steamer was caught in a rapid, turned around
broadside and sent onto the rocks because his ship’s engines had not been powerful
enough to hold her against the current.
Wholesale markets in coal, potatoes, tangerines and other commodities existed along the
bank at Wanxian. The town was laid out in more or less regular streets parallel to the
river and, at places, the structures went right down to the water’s edge. A rise of three
feet would make trouble for many of these squatters. Robberies were common. While on
an errand there, one of Granger’s men saw two robbers beheaded on the beach. Post boats
to and from Wanxian were obliged to carry escort of soldiers to prevent looting on the
way up or down river. The worst place for that was said to be between Wanxian and
K'wei Fu.
As Granger continued to adjust to the raw, damp weather in camp at Yanjinggou, he

observed that the natives stood it “wonderfully well.” Men and boys nearly all remained
barefooted although they did wear rice straw sandals. Some had slightly padded clothes
but many still had only the plain cotton trousers and cotton blouse with perhaps an extra
vest. Some wrapped their calves with a bandage of blue cotton. It was for warmth he
supposed, like a sort of puttee (a legging).
"Fire baskets" were in common use now, as well. This was a woven bamboo basket with
an open top and an earthen bowl set in the bottom. The bowl was filled with warm coals.
The whole thing was carried around by men women and children and used as a hand or
foot warmer. Frequently the women curled their knees up on it. Granger’s cook had
provided one to sit beside while working. Granger thought it was more efficient than the
Japanese-style warmer which he had tried on several occasions [164a].
A Respite
Just before Christmas, Captain Corlett invited Granger for a duck hunt. Corlett, who was
heading upriver anyway, offered to take Granger to visit Kan in Chung Chow. Corlett
figured Granger could find his way back to his landing via another boat. Along their way,
they would take some time to hunt. The Captain planned to weigh anchor and come up
from Wanxian to meet Granger at the Pai Shui Chi (Paishuchi) landing early in the
morning. Granger walked down the night before to stay at an inn there in order to be
ready for the pick up. Instead, he waited for hours. The Widgeon had been unable to raise
one its anchors, a frequent problem for boats on the Yangtze. Anchors often became
deeply embedded after a few days on the bottom. A costly solution was to cut the wire
and leave the anchor on the bottom.
To reach Granger at the landing, the Widgeon had to come in unusually close to shore. As
it did, it got caught in a backwater. Before it could regain headway, the backwater forced
it to shore where it scraped along rocks before colliding with a large sampan moored at
the bank. The impact crushed the sampan’s roof matting, but did no other damage. This
was fortunate, Granger noted, since gunboats were not commissioned to pick up
passengers for duck-hunting excursions or personal errands.
Later that afternoon, they spar-moored near a big bend in the river some seven or eight
miles below Chung Chow. Spar-mooring meant bringing the Widgeon close to shore in
quiet water where the bank dropped off fairly abruptly to give sufficient depth for the
hull. Wires were then taken ashore from both the bow and stern and anchored. The
gunboat was held out in the water against this anchoring by two spars, one forward and
one aft run out from the deck. A small sampan turned at right angles made a bridge
between the gunboat and the shore.
The next morning brought a beautiful warm, bright day. Corlett and Granger went ashore
at 9 o'clock and hunted ducks until dark. Corlett killed one mallard and Granger two.
While they saw several hundred ducks, they were very wild, difficult to approach and
always flying high. Most interesting to Granger were the ruddy sheldrake which looked
and acted much like geese. They gave a decided “honk” instead of a duck-like “quack,”
he thought.
The point where they hunted was, at this low-water time of year, a great stretch of
horizontal lying sandstone irregularly surfaced and covered in places with pot holes of
various sizes. In some places, when the river covered this area during the high- and
medium-water stages, deep holes were eroded and were now lagoons. Some of them a
mile in length. It was possible, thought Granger, that the main channel of the Yangtze
once passed that way.
But, more important, a deposit of sand and gravel covered the rock in some places and
this material was being washed for gold by the natives. Simple bamboo shelters were set
up on the rocks near crude sifters. The coarser gravel was sifted out by putting the
sediment in a basket which was rocked over a broad sloping table while water was
poured in to wash out the finer sand. The fine sand was then put through another
separating process which yielded black sand. The black sand was then sent away for
further separation as the native apparatus on the spot was not sufficient for that delicate
job.
The next morning at 7 a.m. the gunboat left the spar mooring and steamed to Chung
Chow. Granger was put ashore and the Widgeon proceeded up river. Dr. William's
hospital, which was at the extreme upper end of this small walled city, was a part of the
Canadian Methodist Mission. The mission compound held a school, reading room and
public library. Granger found Kan weak but well enough to return to camp. Nothing but
the cutting and draining the abscesses would have relieved the boy. Over tea, it was
arranged that he’d stay overnight, and Granger gave Dr. and Mrs. Williams one of the
mallards he had shot.
Departure the next day was aboard the little Shu Tung which had come down from Chung
King the night before. This interesting boat was the first two-hulled craft on the Upper
Yangtze. Built along lines suggested by the legendary Captain Cornell Plant, who also
was her first captain, both hulls were of the same length and beam, but the engine was in
one and the other was simply a barge lashed alongside. The idea was to give her good
carrying capacity with a slight draught of only 4 1/2 feet. She had five or six first-class
cabins for the rich Chinese and westerners and a few lower-class cabins for poor Chinese.
But these days, it was used mostly for freight on runs between Chung King and Suei Fu
during the summer and Wanhsien and Chung King during the winter when the river level
was lower. As he settled in, Granger noticed one bullet hole through her saloon and
another through his cabin. Evidently she had experienced some of the excitement of the
upper Yangtze.
Kan did not recover sufficiently to stay the winter. Once back at camp, he developed a
bad stomach and could hardly eat. He was also extremely lonesome--this was the first
time he had been away from home.
[S]o to keep him from dying on my hands I shipped him back,

instructing him to stop over at the hospital at Ichang if he did not
feel well enough to continue his journey. Haven't heard from him
yet; he started down on a Post boat from Wanxian. Steamers below
Wanxian are stopped now [165].
Season Coming to a Close
Wanhsien, Szc., China

January 27, 1922
Dear Father:-
Fossils have been coming in in good quantity recently and I shall

have a very decent collection when I leave here in late February.
Enclosed is a flower I just picked back of the temple. Had 33˚ one
morning at camp but mostly it's around 40˚ now. No sun and very
raw and damp [166].
Granger was now writing reports in anticipation of the season’s end. His fascinating
intricacies of daily work continued. He accompanied Liu and coolie one day to a pit from
which the bison skull had come. It was incomplete even though the pit seemed to hold
mostly the bison’s bones and nothing else. The pit, some 40 feet deep and widened out
greatly at the bottom, was now fully investigated. After pressing for information, because
Granger suspected information was being held back, they visited an old lady in her house
nearby. There they found material spread out in her bedroom partly under the bed, and
spent an hour or more rooting through it and found the missing fragments of the skull,
some other limb and foot bones and vertebrae. The skeleton was now nearly complete
and it would probably make a mount.
That morning, a man had brought a large live civit to camp just after Granger and Liu had
departed. No. 1 told the man to leave it until they returned in the afternoon; however, the
man, anxious to make a sale, started off after Granger and Liu with the 25-pound civit on
his back, climbing the 1,700 feet to the top of the hill and then overtaking them about a
mile down from the main trail intersection at the summit. Granger agreed to buy the civit
for $1.15 and the man then carried the civit all the way back down to camp again.
Back in camp the next day, Granger continued to balance fossil collecting with
taxidermy. As he completed a couple of birds and nursed a cold, he also tended to a small
child with a badly burned hand, a man with a swollen foot from a dog bite, a girl with a
sore finger and another girl with skin disease on her head. He loaned both his eye cups
out to men with sore eyes and the natives frequently come to him for dog bites. There, he
thought, should be one good physician to about every 100 Chinese. They reeked with
blood and eye troubles and hardly a child had clean skin on its face and head.
Granger soon had a regular run of medical patients. For people with swollen and festered
feet and legs, he used bread and milk poultice followed with iodine and a salve. He
realized he had made some fairly good cures and was now getting as many as ten patients
a day. His “clinic” had assumed such proportions that he had to tell Chow––to whom he
had delegated most of the dressing––that they could take no new patients. But they came
in day after day. Chow was very busy applying bread and milk poultices and salves and
iodine. Several with poisoned feet and legs had been carried in chairs. A woman came in
before dusk one day bleeding profusely from a cut on top of her head after having an
argument with her husband. Two babies with burned hands were treated. Before this, the
natives either did nothing or applied an unknown black substance.
More and more time was spent in camp now. Ammunition for game-getting was running
out. Preparation of taxidermy specimens had to be finished and packed up with the
fossils. Reports were being written and correspondence caught up. In the meantime,
village customs new to Granger continued to fascinate him. “Inn-Keeper Tan killed a pig
this morning,” he wrote. “The Chinese have a novel way of dressing pigs. The pig was
laid out on its side on a long low stool. Then its jugular vein was cut and the pig held in
place until dead. The blood was caught in a receptacle. Then an incision was made just
above and in front of the hoof of a hind foot. An iron rod of five feet length and one half-
inch diameter was inserted in this opening and thrust forward clear to the shoulders,
between the skin and the flesh. Repeated thrusts of the rod in different directions
loosened up the skin from one side and on the belly. The rod was then withdrawn.
Placing his mouth to the opening, the butcher of this pig began to blow into it. The skin
soon showed signs of bloating and in the meantime another man with a short, stout stick
beat the body of the pig from hind legs to ears. After a couple of minutes the pig had
assumed fully twice its normal girth. A cord was then tied about the leg just above the
incision to prevent the escape of air and the pig was ready for the scalding and scraping.
The object of this bloating was, of course, to make it easier to scrape & clean the skin.
After finishing the blowing-up process the butcher wiped his mouth off on the belly of
the pig.
Thieves
Jan. 16, 1922––38˚-8 a.m. Cloudy, raw:

A representative of the general of militia at Lo-Pu-Tien over the
Hupei border called on us this evening with a lieutenant in uniform
and another man in "civilian" dress. A former concubine of a former
magistrate of Wanhsien, who lives near here is to be married to the

general tomorrow and an escort of soldiers is to come for her.
The lieutenant told us that he had recently executed three robbers at

Tso-Ma-Lin, 30 li southeast of here; part of a band that has been
doing petty work around this vicinity this fall.
Had planned to go to Shih-Pa-Tse tomorrow but do not like to leave

camp with soldiers about in numbers. Many of them are ex-robbers
and many have not dropped the "ex [167]."
A dozen or fifteen soldiers showed up the next morning. A few were to go on to Sin-K'ai-
T'ien to escort the concubine. The rest hung about the village all day and then quartered
there that night. Granger took some snaps of the soldiers and showed them his
collections. He thought they were the toughest-looking bunch of men he’d yet seen in
China. He noted that two of them had modern rifles. The rest were homemade affairs that
looked like rifles, but weren’t capable of shooting. The soldiers left the village at dawn
the next morning to escort the wedding procession up the hill.
Soon after, Granger heard that a drug merchant was robbed at the bridge at lower Yen-
Ching-Kuo at daybreak. Later, a carrying coolie was stabbed and robbed on a hill east of
the village at about noon. Later that afternoon, the lieutenant and a man in civilian clothes
returned to the camp and reported that the men with the two modern rifles were missing.
They asked Granger to keep an eye out and hold them if he saw them. Inn-keeper Tan's
family thought the lieutenant himself was implicated in the hill robbery. Wong prepared
for eventualities by fitting many clips with rifle cartridges and putting all guns handy.
Granger moved his cot into a room from the porch balcony because, if kept there, it was
“quite possible for anyone to fire directly on it.”
The next two days were spent worrying about the soldiers. Finally Wong, Chih and Liu,
all armed, went up the ridge and then to the south to inquire. The lieutenant and his
companions reportedly spent the night at a farm there, but they did not see the men or get
any definite information. Wong now also thought that the lieutenant and his companions
were implicated in robberies at the village. Wong, Chih and Liu then made a night trip to
a cave a mile south of the village to investigate a suspicious-looking man seen there the
evening before. They found two beggars camped there.
The community was now aroused. The leader of the gentry called for volunteers and at
about noon an assortment of some 50 men gathered in the Tan Hall armed with cheek
guns, swords, knives on long handles and ordinary sickles. They were told to report at
once any soldiers who had not provided proper identification. Wong and Granger took
photos of this extraordinary gathering. There was supposed to be one man representing
each family in the vicinity. They were dismissed after remarks by the head of the gentry.
By then, though, the danger had passed.
In the middle of February, Granger departed camp for a four-day reconnaissance trip to
the north. The trail down along the ridges was not paved and very rough and stony in
places. In the rain it was slippery, as well. People were wary as he encountered them.
Seemingly only a few had seen a foreigner before and “all are most curious about all my
belongings.” His electric pocket light was the chief attraction. He traveled along a
western contact trail between the "lung ku" ridge and “Red Beds Contact” he’d
encountered after he left the main trail. He was considerably higher in elevation now,
with a ridge rising up to even greater height above him. He was walking north to east and
passed many fine slopes of fairly good-sized trees -- pines and other conifers. They were,
he thought, the best forests he’d yet seen, although cutting was already occurring. The
logs were being worked up into boards and house timbers.
Since the slopes of the fossil ridge were very steep, he concluded that the mantle of
vegetation together with the steepness made this particular region improbable for fossil
collecting. It didn’t matter; he was very well pleased with his collection to date, having
picked up even more material on this trip. All of it came from one well down in the
valley not far from the “Red Beds Contact.” He crossed over the limestone ridge and saw
that the red beds broke off to the east into open country that stretched to the Hupei
border. The limestone ridge continued to parallel the Yangtze as the dominant
topographic feature. He viewed it running southward for at least 15 miles and it appeared
to increase in height above the Yangtze valley as it went south. From the summit of the
fossil ridge he saw a village directly west that he knew to be about ten miles away. He
then climbed the “red beds” ridge and from there looked down on extremely rough
country stretching off to the Hupei border where there arose a range with snow on the
higher levels.
Yvette tells me that she sent you a letter from a missionary who had
discovered a Stegodon tooth. Dr. Andersson was interested in it and
told her that the locality was not far from where you are. I hope you
will have a "look see" if you think it advisable. I believe she sent you
all the correspondence regarding it [168].
By mid-February, Granger had found a stegodon locality, as well as significant skulls of

monkey and rodent and numerous other fossils. He also had acquired a variety of
ornithological and zoological specimens. It was now time to make ready to leave
Yanjinggou. The next morning he spent packing fossils to take into Wanxian the
following day. That afternoon he strolled about to take some 5 x 7 photographs in the
vicinity of camp as well as along the "lung ku" trail up the hill. It was warming and a
cloudless day, the first since the previous fall that he felt comfortable working in shirt
sleeves. The air was fragrant with odor from the purple flowers of the straight stemmed
pea or bean planted everywhere. Many bees and other insects were about.
The next morning, he walked down to the river with Chow and 12 coolie loads of fossils.
As they headed down river, he noted that junks were now traveling in groups of eight or
more and under military escort. Trouble apparently was brewing. He returned to camp for
two or three days of repacking before bringing the remainder of his outfit into Wanxian
on the 23rd.
The final days at Yanjinggou were upon him. At a hilltop farm he passed by a puppet
show in progress. A high screen with an awning was rigged. Behind the front screen men
operated the large figures by a long stick and strings moving the hands and arms. Each
man spoke for his own puppet accompanied by brass instruments. Curtains were draped
across the center of the screen and the figures retired through these curtains to get "off
stage." When not in use, the dozen puppets were set in a row in the back. Some were
gowned in elegantly embroidered silk robes and stood about half the height of a normal-
sized human.
That evening at camp, a shadow show was given for his benefit on his headquarters
balcony. Flat figures cut out of cardboard were manipulated on a table in front of an oil
lamp and against a white cotton screen. A sort of comedy was acted out, though he
wasn’t sure of its meaning; he found it to be somewhat too long and monotonous, as had
been the puppet show. He went off to bed during intermission.
One of his pets, "Scroggus," a civit passed on to the other world that day and was now a
"specimen." The hair had worn off its tail and Granger found the skin was not worth
keeping. Earlier, he’d considered turning him loose, but doubted “if he could have made
a living at this time of year.”
On the final day, Granger and his men gave a feast for the people who had invited them
to feasts earlier. He hired Inn-Keeper Tan to arrange the details and hold it in the
ancestral hall. Then he began a final packing and settling of accounts. Rent for the Hall
was five months at $3.00 a month. Five members of the Tan family committee came to
collect the rent and were then entertained by Wong at tea. They seemed quite content and
asked whether a notice could be pasted on the outside of the Hall to the effect that
Granger had engaged the place for a term of years. This would make it easier, so they
said, to keep soldiers out of the place. Granger said he would think it over since it was
likely now that he or someone would be back for the next winter.
Granger also paid Inn-Keeper Tan $20.00 for the rent of four beds, seven tables, several
chairs, stools and cooking utensils borrowed by the cook. “Yen-Ching-Kuo is going to
miss us tomorrow!” he wrote. They departed for Wanxian the next morning in two large
sampans with the villagers sending them off in a celebration of fire crackers. Another 21
coolie loads were shipped later. Most were put directly aboard a junk already reserved in
Wanxian harbor. Wong and his men slept aboard the junk that night to guard it.
Granger and his men spent the next few days in Wanxian reorganizing collections and
equipment. There were 30 boxes of fossils, nine of skins, skeletons and alcohol
specimens, seven boxes of equipment and an assortment of duffel bags and bundles. The
boxes were placed in the junk's hold.
On the night of the 25th, the crew came aboard to sleep on the foredeck. Granger and
Wong slept in mid-section cabin. The rest of the expedition men sleep in the aft cabin
except the expedition’s cook who both slept and cooked in a small cockpit at the
foredeck.
The junk had a crew of 16 including the skipper, a cook, and the coolie "boss" who
directed the rowing. It was equipped with two large side sweep oars operated by five to
six men each and a small bow sweep operated by one man.
The Junk
The word ‘junk’ as to waterborne craft dates back to the thirteenth century and referred to
‘the common type of sailing vessel in the China seas.’ Development of the flat-bottomed
river junk by early river settlers likely preceded that of the seagoing junk. The design of a
Yangtze River junk depended both on its use and on which section of the river it plied.
This was also true of sampans, which Granger often used as well. River junks and river
sampans were similar in design and function. The dividing line between them was width
and whether the craft could carry a water-buffalo crosswise thwart to thwart. If it could, it
was a junk.
The junk used by the Grangers to depart Wanhsien was known as an Upper Yangtze junk.
These varied greatly in design and size, but shared one common criterion: the capacity to
navigate and survive nearly impassable rapids, whirlpools, and shoals. Based on
photographs, Grangers’ junk appears to have been 60-70 feet long and of the ma-yang-tzu
design. It was propelled and controlled by rowers with sweeping oars and a steersman.
The bow sweep was at the bow. The port and starboard sweeps were midship. The
steersman (or men, depending on difficulty of navigation and handling) stood aft at a
long tiller in open deck space between cabins. This location was between the junk’s main
deck house and aft deck house.
Spare bamboo rope was coiled at the base of the flag pole positioned at the aft end of the
main deck house roof. Sheets of thatched roofing were slid from the middle to the ends of
the deck house roof to create an opening for air and light. The junk’s mast was unstepped
for downriver travel and raised to sail back upriver wherever and whenever it could.
Otherwise, the junk was hauled by trackers using long lines to pull the boat upstream
[169].
Tracking
Trackers lived by and battled daily with the river, providing the muscle to drag 40-100
ton vessels along sctions of the 1,500 mile stretch from Shanghai to ChungKing that
included a series of treacherous gorges and a current of six to twelve knots or more.
Mostly men, they worked twelve hours a day, nine days at a time. There were two types
of trackers, permanent and seasonal. The permanent trackers were based in local villages
along the river usually formed the basic crews of many junks. The seasonal trackers hired
themselves out at temporary shantytowns, set up where their need was greatest along the
difficult gorge-strewn reaches of the Upper Yangtze above Ichang. The risk of storm, the
potential for sudden changes in the river's water level, the avarice of ship owners and the
charged, violent atmosphere to which this brutal lifestyle tended, introduced many
additional, unseen risks into what was already dangerous work.
Commonly, trackers used long ropes to drag craft upriver. Four-inch wide braided,
bamboo hawsers were attached to the boat's prow. As many as 400 trackers would hitch
themselves in a long series to these and, shoed in straw slippers, would listen for drum
signals to direct the progress of their haul. Along some stretches one-foot-wide “tracker
paths” had been carved into the cliff, thanks to a donation of a wealthy merchant. Since
these had to take into account the frequent change in water level, these tracks could be as
high as 300 feet above the river. Often however, trackers while heaving their load, had to
dexterously pick their way across various-sized boulders lying along the shoreline. If a
cliff stood in their way, the trackers boarded the craft and, by inserting hooked poles into
nooks in the rock face, inched the boat laboriously along the cliff. Many trackers
drowned in the raging torrents of the Yangtze. Many more suffered from work-induced
strains, hernias and other illnesses.
Descent of the river, though less onerous, was equally dangerous. Trackers then worked
mainly in the boat. The bow-sweep, used to direct the boat, demanded 15men, while each
of the oars ten. In descent, far less important than propelling the boat forward was
maintaining a safe position in the fast-flowing current. For this, at particularly dangerous
rapids, skilled captains were hired who specialized in negotiating particular sets of rapids
[170].
Leaving Wanxian
The British Customs officer at Wanxian gave Granger a small farewell dinner that night.
Granger said his goodbyes at midnight and boarded the junk. They left at daybreak,
joining with two other boats for company. One was a houseboat belonging to a captain of
a Standard Oil boat and two other river men. The other was a small junk carrying three
missionary ladies.
The American gunboat USS Monocacy escorted the fleet out of Wanxian harbor and
downriver 25 miles beyond Wanhsien. This stretch of the river was considered to be the
most dangerous. A number of junks loaded with soldiers also were going down river.
Granger was convinced they were not fired on or molested in any way due to the
company of soldiers and the presence of the American gunboat Monocacy. He noted his
great relief to be departing the area with his collection intact. It was approaching spring
and his first Yangtze Basin trip was nearly over. He hoped any other would be as
successful and relatively free of trouble.
Progress was slow because of heavy head winds. Upriver junks sailed against the current
with great ease under their own canvas. But rowing down river with the current was
difficult because of the headwinds. Granger found it ironic that this was the first windy
day he had experienced since coming to Sichuan Province. The group made only seven
miles before they all put in to shore for mooring. The junk masters did not wish to go on
in headwinds that were now making navigation dangerous. They moored beside the
Monocacy for protection and, at dark, two more large junks came in to moor next to
them. Wong pulled his gun on the last one ordering them move away a bit so as to not
block free exit back into the stream the next morning.
They left mooring at daybreak. The Monocacy came up from behind and passed by an
hour later. It went on down the river a bit and then turned up to hold in the current until
Granger and the others arrived. It then swung around downriver and steamed ahead,
passing out of sight around a bend about a mile beyond. This stretch of the river was the
headquarters of the worst band of robbers on the river. It was estimated to consist of more
than 100 robbers. Granger was glad to have the gunboat escort––there were no robbers in
sight that day.
They arrived at the Hsin Lung Tan (rapids) at 9:30 a.m. Granger and Wong disembarked,
as did the westerners from the houseboat, before his junk attempted negotiation. Chow,
Liu and the others chose to remain on board. With the river at its seasonally low level
now, the rapid was at its nastiest. Granger did not feel up to the challenge. The junk
edged back out and over into the main channel. As it shot the rapid, the junk’s bow sweep
snapped. Now nearly out of control, the junk still managed to make it over to shore. It
would have struck the rocks had it not caught on a rope stretched across a backwash at an
advantageous point. The houseboat also broke a sweep, its rudder, as it went through and
had a very narrow escape from disaster, milled around for a couple of minutes before it
finally came to rest against the rocks at the backwash. As a result, the missionary boat
chose not to take the center of the rapids but, instead, crossed the river and then shot
down alongside the south bank.
While he waited for repairs, Granger heard that a large junk had holes put in her a few
days ago while shooting these same rapids. Her cargo of grain had gotten wet. The grain,
corn and gaulian were now laid out on the rocks beside him to dry. A number of women
and children were stealing small quantities of it, even under the watchful eyes of the
guards. Granger watched as other boats shot the rapids. Four post boats went over
beautifully. A large junk, however, got caught in a midstream backwash, hanging there
about ten minutes before she caught the downstream current again. She got thorough
safely.
The group continued down river against the headwinds to moor at K’wei Fu for the night.
With late afternoon light still abundant, Granger decided to visit a salt works near the
river two miles below town.
This was a wintertime occupation. The whole plant would go underwater once the river
rose. A well sat on the bank. The surface of the water in it was only a few feet above river
level. Water was dipped from the well by a dozen or so men standing naked to their hips
in the water. The buckets were passed up to carriers who took them to the top of an
apparatus. There it was dumped into wooden troughs that ran to various evaporating vats
covering many acres of ground. The mix was collected in great tanks built into the
ground and then dipped out at intervals into filters of cinder and sand after which it came
out clear. It was then put into the evaporating pans which were large iron affairs like the
ordinary Chinese cooking vessels with heat from a coal furnace under each pan. The salt
ran white as it came from the pans. Come spring, the well was then cemented over.
Mar. 1. A beautiful bright calm warm day:

K'wei Fu to Juan Tug Kou in Hupeh. Stopped by soldiers before
crossing the Hupeh-Szechuan border. Two came aboard and asked if
we were carrying rifles. Shotguns were lying out, but rifles had been
laid under blankets of cots. Wong offered our gun permit but the
leader said he did not care to see it and that he was not interested in
the shotguns. So they went off -- were courteous enough [171].
Granger’s downriver trip continued with a mix of pushing against headwinds, negotiating
difficult rapids and noting matters of interest. He had a “splendid chance to see the Wind
Box and Wushan Gorges and was inclined to consider the latter the more significant
because of the wonderful pale blue limestone cliffs --not sheer like the rocks in Wind
Box but rising up in beautiful pinnacles. In the meantime, Sichuan soldiers to the number
of several thousand were seen marching up river along the north bank as they passed by.
Throughout it seemed they had
added an extra coolie as our crew is now seventeen. This gives us an

extra man at the sweep. We are able to beat the houseboat now. They
started a race in one of the quiet stretches of the cañon but we rather
easily won out. My crew look a bit like a lot of ruffians but they can
row [172].
The crew cook was an extremely dirty old man, to Granger’s eyes, who cooked over a
little baked mud stove situated in a cockpit directly in front of the junk’s midsection
which Granger and Wong occupied. The cook used brick coal and did all the cooking in
one of the large steel bowls used by the Chinese everywhere. As with various fishing
apparatus, the spar-mooring and the fire basket, Granger sketched the device into his
diary. In windy weather, the cook used a piece of matting to shield the stove. Granger
concluded that it all seemed a rather effective set-up for the purpose.
The expedition cook had his sheet iron camp stove in another cockpit forward of the
oarsman with one length of stove pipe just reaching deck level. There was room in the
space for his two boxes of utensils and he slept under the deck just aft his "kitchen."
Difficulty was never far away. March 2nd began as “a fine [sailing] day until late in the
afternoon when a strong wind sprang up and stopped us short.” And shortly after starting
up that morning they were stopped by a couple of rifle shots. A “very ugly and irate
soldier” then came aboard and started to beat Granger’s skipper. Granger had to intercede
while an officer stood silent on the beach just above him. The officer then said he was
stopping all boats to keep a surveillance of the traffic and that they would be officially
inspected at Pa Tung a short distance below. They were allowed to continue. But, just
before entering the next gorge, a gale suddenly broke out obliging them to moor hastily
on the north bank in a backwash. Both the gale and the backwash current forced them to
put out extra ropes to hold the boat fast during the night.
Getting through the next rapid, Hsin Tan, took three hours the next morning. To get the
junk through safely, it was decided to lighten its weight by unloading all cargo,
equipment -- 40 coolie loads worth -- and passengers. The coolies cost Granger an extra
10 coppers each. He actually paid more than that because he thought some of the loads of
fossils would be unusually heavy. One coolie hoisted a Stegodon skull which had
required three coolies to bring down from Yanjinggou to the river landing.
Coolies carried all loads in a deep basket slung on the back by means of two braided
straps passing over each shoulder. The coolie also carried a short, T-shaped stick on
which he could occasionally rest his load.
Many troop junks began gathering at Hsin Tan giving Granger a chance to watch them
navigate through. The boats entered close to the south bank--prow first, and then, 300
yards in, turned sharply toward the north bank to avoid rocks. Then he watched his own
junk go through. The skipper had taken on a Tan pilot, who then accidentally let the junk
spin around near the bottom of the rapids leaving little clearance as it passed by the last
set of rocks.
Heavy head winds continued to retard their progress as they continued to Ichang. Twice
they had to put into shore and once had to use ‘trackers.’
On to Peking
Fellow CAE member, herpetologist Clifford Pope met up with Granger at Ching Ling on
March 10 to make the rest of the trip into Hankow. They arrived the next day and then
boarded a train for a three-day trip to Peking. Anna was at the station when they arrived
late in the afternoon of the 13th. The fossils and taxidermy specimens had been shipped
in a sealed railroad car, they arrived in Peking on March 17 and were taken to CAE
headquarters the following day. Granger’s 40 boxes of fossils proved interesting enough,
he concluded, to warrant spending another winter there. He and his men had also
collected 400 mammals, 300 birds, and an assortment of reptiles, fish, batrachians and
insects. Pope had collected 60 species of fish from Tung Ting Lake, as well as a porpoise
and a rare dolphin, plus 19 alligators from Wuhu. These latter were still alive in the
CAE’s laboratory and were of considerable importance because they were only species of
alligator found outside of North America.
As for returning to Yanjinggou, “Have written the Museum people,” Granger wrote his
father on April 16, “that I would like Olsen next winter... I shall probably go back to
Wanhsien next winter and would like Olsen to be along but can do without him if
necessary. Mr. Morris will probably be with me anyhow.”
READYING FOR MONGOLIA

1922
Late March-early April was a bleak time of year in northern China. The ground was bare
and the wind blew every day filling the air with dust––Gobi dust. The rains would not
arrive until late in June. Crops had to be started by irrigation, water drawn off wells in the
fields. Flowers were out on some trees such as peach and plum, but generally there were
few trees leafing and no grass growing yet.
When in Peking, Granger and Anna mantained a suite at the Wagons-Lits Hotel located
near the old Mongol-Ming wall that encircled the city and by one of the many gates that
had a watch tower above. The towers were all more or less out of repair. One could see
that grasses and weeds had taken hold in the broken tiles of the tower roof. Nevertheless,
it was a sight to behold, the structures having enough color always to be interesting in the
bright sunlight.
The city wall was a favorite place for promenading, especially towards evening when the
sky was invariably lovely. The section near the Wagons-Lits hotel was under the control
of the various western legations in Peking and was kept in repair and constantly patrolled.
Chinese were not allowed in this section. However beyond, the wall was in a state of
decay, overgrown with brush with the Chinese government taking no pains to keep it up.
According to Anna, the Peking Hotel was the Wagon-Lit’s direct competitor. Run by a
Frenchman and patronized by a more fashionable crowd than the Wagons-Lits, part of the
building was very new and modern. There was a roof garden on the top, and a breakfast
room for summer use. Both buildings faced the south, she noted, providing more breeze
to the rooms in summer. She’d heard, however, that the meals were no better at the
Peking Hotel than those served at the Wagons-Lits.
*
April 1, 1922
Peking, China
Dear Father:-
I expect to keep with Berkey and Morris most of the time because
my work is closely tied up with theirs. Our headquarters will be
Turyn, 100 miles south of Urga, and 75 camel loads of equipment
and supplies have started from Kalgan already. We leave Kalgan in
two trucks, two Dodge "delivery wagons" and one touring car.
Goodness knows what we will return with––perhaps the camels!
Colgate knows the cars though and is taking a supply of extra parts
and tires so that we can break most anything and still go on. Plans
are to work westward as far as the eastern spur of the Altai
Mountains. I may get fossils and may not––but I'm sure shooting to
get some experiences and will also get some good shooting. Larson
knows Mongolia better than any other white man and his help will
be invaluable.
Shackelford has just arrived and will take a series of films the
coming week. You may see them in the Fox pictures before the
summer is over. He uses the Akeley camera and took the pictures of
the race between "Man-of-War" and "Sir Barton" last year, also the
best pictures of the Dempsey-Carpentier fight,––so he says. Pope
will not go with us but will collect along the Yellow River in
southern Mongolia this summer and go to the southern provinces
again next winter. The Third Asiatic Expedition is now on the map
[173].
With preparations for the Mongolian trip under way, the party expected to leave around
April 17th. It would include: Andrews - zoology and leader; Granger - paleontology,
head of field science and second-in-command; Charles P. Berkey – geology; Frederick K.
Morris - assistant in geology; James B. Shackelford - motion pictures; Bayard S. Colgate
- motor transport. George Olsen had not yet arrived as hoped. Franz A. Larson would be
taken on as guide once the party reached Urga.
Apple trees and lilacs were in blossom now, but Granger expected snow up on the
Mongolian plateau. It was almost hot in Peking: spring seemed to have set in early. It was
different from a Vermont spring. No rain, no grass, no mud––nothing but hard, bare
ground as the wind blew.
Granger mailed his father a newspaper account of the forthcoming Mongolia expedition
along with a couple of photographs. Earlier mail sent to him in Sichuan, he noted, was
just now catching up with him in Peking. Letters he’d sent to Charles from Sichuan took
two months to reach the US once boat traffic slowed on the Yangtze. The movie man,
Shackelford, had been taking movie pictures at the expedition’s headquarters in Peking
for a week. These would be sent to the US and sold to the Fox people. Charles would
have a chance to see the Mongolian party on the screen that summer.
What was the Gambit?
As life on earth proceeded into the 1920s, the Gobi-Mongolias remained littered with
fossil remains of dinosaurs and mammals and of fossilized dinosaur eggs and nests yet to
be ‘discovered’ by science. Evidence of the origin of humans, it was believed, also lay
somewhere in this vast, scientifically unexamined expanse. To find it would be precious.
For thousands of years, legions of ordinary men, women and children had lived and
travelled in this region. Nomads, herders, warriors, traders, travellers, explorers
throughout the ages resided and crisscrossed the Mongolias and the Gobi Desert. Early
humans and their successors were really the first to ‘discover’ and utilize in their own
ways the ancient beasts and the eggs of the dinosaurs.
Scientific scrutiny followed, along with amateur native and missionary collectors. The
geologist Obruchev, followed by the geologist Andersson were now being followed by
two more geologists and Granger; he was well-versed in geology and now the first
vertebrate palentologist to enter the Gobi-Mongolias.
Advancing through bright, early morning sunlight, American-made motor vehicles filed
through the shadows of the north gate in the Great Wall at Kalgan and proceeded along
the well-established track that lay ahead. The ancient and busy road was a postal and
commercial caravan route west northwest to Urga in Inner Mongolia shared both by
camel and motorvehicle. Telegraph wires strung on posts stood sentinel along the route
also marked with water wells 50 or so miles apart helped guide and sustain the party the
entire way, as they had Prince Borghese.
Granger obviously knew more about the fossil potential in Mongolia than he was letting
on to his father. He hadn’t arranged to travel there for an entire summer just to have some
interesting experiences, hunt big game and otherwise come back empty-handed. The
fossils were there as the early scientific literature, Obruchev, Mongolian and other
amateur collectors, and Andersson had already shown. Osborn’s theory was safe. The
only question for this westerner was to what extent and variety did the fossils exist, and
in what condition. And, would they find evidence of ‘ancient man.’ Charles, proud with a
tendency to make known all that he could about his son’s work, didn’t need a tip-off.
However, as to the public, the issue was different. This was to be a spectacle yet
unfolded. Publicity was critical––good publicity meant funding -- and there already had
been plenty of that.
The press had been primed since 1920, and the CAE had yet to set foot upon the
Mongolian plateau. Magazine and newspaper articles were now increasing the heralding.
Brand new motor vehicles had been shipped to Peking. Tons of supplies and new
equipment were being assembled to be sent out by camel caravan. An assortment of
weapons––sidearms, rifles, shotguns––was chosen. Scopes were tested [173a]. A
professional cinematographer was hired to replace Yvette to record this purported
gamble. He would take movies and stills which would be sold and shown to the world.
But, of course, they wouldn’t have value if there wasn’t much to show.
Andrews had confided as much to Osborn. On October 19, 1920, he wrote
“The primitive human story is the one which has the best news value, and the
papers will always write up that side of it, still our expedition cannot fail to obtain
paleontological material of great value, even though it does not happen to find
human remains . . . It seems to me that our publicity campaign has begun
auspiciously.”
The world had already seen photographs of the Mongolias and the Gobi with motor
vehicles flying across them. Even the future US president and Explorers Club member,
Herbet Hoover, had been out and about in Inner Mongolia for several months in 1899.
While in Urga, he was a guest of Franz A. Larson [174]. The TAE would need to more
than simpy replicate all that. Heightened publicity was now driving things and Granger
wouldn’t have wanted his father to “spill the beans.”
Now Charles was elderly––Ada was gone. Walter was a great source of pride and interest
to this proud man. There was no reason to complicate, compromise or diminish this
man’s pleasures and impressions. The CAE story was in the public domain and it would
be handled for maximum value. For public consumption, it was to be a tremendous first-
time scientific and exploratory feat of great magnitude and importance which Osborn and
his crew had been savoring for years.
On the other hand, when Granger named for his father the westerners who would make
the first Mongolia trip––he, Andrews, Berkey, Morris, Shackelford, Colgate and
Larson––it was quite clear that the party represented only three scientific discliplines:
geology, paleontology and zoology. Odd as well was Granger’s note regarding Larson;
that he was “Guide until July 1st.”
Cut #7
Why would Larson only guide them only until July 1st, just midway through their
projected season? Where would they be at that point? How would they come back? Or,
would they have another guide? Who? Why not hire a guide for the entire season? Was
Larson guiding them somewhere that, when once reached, he would no longer be
needed?
The 1922 CAE departed Peking for Kalgan on April 18 at 11 a.m. aboard a special
railroad car provided by an administrator of the Chinese railroad system, a Mr. Liu.
Aboard were Granger and Anna, Shackelford and his wife, Black and his wife, Berkey
and Morris. Andrews and Colgate, along with a Frenchman named Persender, had gone
up the day before aboard railroad cars carrying the expedition’s motor vehicles and
equipment. The vehicles were two Dodge cars and two “dogwagons” supplied by Dodge
Brothers Motor Corporation of Detroit, Michigan, and a Fulton truck supplied by the
Fulton Motor Corporation of Farmingdale, Long Island, New York.
Yvette, who was to go with the expedition as far as Urga and then return, remained in
Peking until she could accomplish an errand; Andrews’s and Granger’s passports had not
been returned to the American Consulate by the Chinese foreign office. She hoped to
bring them with her the next day. Yvette planned to take color photographs of the locals
in Urga and then return in the company of Dr. Black. Son George would remain in the
care of his nanny in Peking. The rest of the wives rented a vehicle in Kalgan, went out
through the Great Wall in company with the motorcade as it set off for Mongolia and
travelled about 40 miles to see their men off at the top of the pass that led to the
Mongolian plateau.
But matters were not going well between Yvette and Andrews, though he apparently
hoped her trip to Urga with the expedition would mitigate her obvious demotion.
Andrews would later write that wives were a distraction to expedition work and should
not be included. This was despite the fact that Yvette had accompanied him on the First
and Second Asiatic expeditions which led to their mutual fame and joint publications.
Her photography had been an integral part of and significant contribution to those
expeditions. Whatever buffoonery had occurred, such as Andrews nearly shooting Yvette
and Edmund Heller, was attributable solely to Andrews. Even though these were luxury
expeditions, she had proved herself in the field as a fit companion and equal professional
partner.
That Yvette was no small player in the first two Asiatic Zoological expeditions was
acknowledged by Andrews himself. In his 1920 report to F. A. Lucas, Andrews wrote:
Photographs:
As on the first Asiatic Expedition to Yunnan, my wife, Yvette
Borup Andrews, volunteered as the photographer. The photographic
results comprise about five hundred negatives and three thousand
feet of motion picture film, giving a very complete record of the
customs of the Mongolians and their life and costumes. A series of
photographs showing selected types of Mongols is especially
interesting [174a].
But now not only had Andrews eliminated her from the upcoming Third Asiatic
Expedition, taking the spotlight entirely for himself, he unilaterally funneled his former
expedition partner and future expedition planner into fulltime domesticity and child-
raising [174b]. Even the much more timid, reserved, and childless, Anna remained free to
join Walter on his next three Yangtze basin expeditions. And Ethlyn Nelson was
available to accompany her husband, CAE archaeologist Nels C. Nelson, into the
Yangtze basin as well. None of this sat well with Yvette. The glory was in the field, not
at home in Peking. Her husband had cut her out. Perhaps knowing all too well what he
was all about, she would take revenge.
On the Road
Time noted on this trip is that of the 120th Meridian.
MONGOLIA-1922. Reached Kalgan after pleasant trip at 7:30. Shack &

wife and Anna and I quartered at "Pioneer Inn." Andrews with Coltman
and others at B.A.T. (British American Tobacco). Mrs. Andrews came
up on evening train with our passports. Expected to start but Andrews
telephoned about 9 o'clock that the Chinese pass to let us out of town
had not been delivered and we would be delayed [175].
In a letter to his father that night, Walter wrote that it would be his last from China until
that October if all went well. The party was ready at 5:30 a.m. on April 21st and hoped to
be up on the Mongolian plateau by nightfall. Once there, Granger assured his father, he
would have an opportunity to send mail out for the next month or so because they would
be camped for a time on the auto road near Tuerin, south of Urga. They could send letters
along with travelers heading east. There might also be occasions, as the summer
progressed, to send mail by passing caravan, visitors to camp, or an expedition member
returning to Urga. On the other hand, he saw no chance of receiving mail on any regular
basis that summer. So, he wrote his father, “you need not write more than say once a
month unless you wish to. Things will accumulate in Peking and be sent on if there is
opportunity to do so.”
Granger assured Charles that matters seemed quiet in Urga now. After the Russian
Revolution in 1917, Mongolian Bolshevik sympathizers, called Buriats, began infiltrating
northern Mongolia and Urga hoping to disrupt and lessen the governing powers of the
Mongolian princes in and around the Urgan district. Part of their political destabilization
campaign was to spread general terror among the Mongolian people. Only the year
before, there had been a massacre by mercenaries working for the Buriats.
But Granger did not anticipate trouble that summer though Mongolia was a wild place,
and the expedition needed to be ready for any emergency. Granger confided that he
“would be thinking of the home place and the fine garden a good many times this
summer. I always have a vision of the hills back of Rutland with me constantly.” His
father, he suggested, should be thinking of him as living in a Mongol tent on the
boundless prairie, hunting antelope and fossils, “if there are any,” and generally having a
novel experience. The country was wonderfully healthy he thought and he expected to
come back in fine shape. He had not had a sick day since the previous July when he had
first arrived in China and had a little stomach upset.
With the party idled all day on April 20th, Andrews resolved to start the next day with or
without a pass. The Chinese pass for the CAE motorcade, if granted, would give it tax-
free exit from Kalgan. A tax of $50.00 would otherwise be levied on each car entering or
leaving Kalgan. The Chinese had soldiers stationed at both gates of the walled town to
enforce collection. The money was to be used to improve the two main roads from
Kalgan to the gap [pass]. [Expand per ‘Conquest’.] But both roads were said now to be in
the worst condition ever. It seems that the tax money now lined the pockets of tax
officials.
They planned to travel as lightly as possible in the vehicles until the plateau was reached
and the road improved. Much of the CAE’s equipment, tires, gasoline and food was
already up on the plateau, sent by ox cart in advance. The contingent was off at 6:30 a.m.
on the 21st, although their pass had not been delivered. Men and cars were held at the
barrier until, finally, the pass arrived by Chinese special messenger.
The expedition was not traveling alone. Andrews’s 1919 big-game hunting colleague
Charles Coltman, a businessman based in Kalgan and Urga, joined the motorcade with
his own car. Coltman ran the Mongolian Trading Company, a general import and export
firm, and served as agent for several other business interests. He was a bit of a swaggerer
and also playful. He had assigned the nicknames “Gobi” and “Gobina” to his old friends
Roy and Yvette Andrews during their visit in 1919. Coltman’s parents lived and worked
in Peking. His father, Dr. Coltman, had been of assistance to Granger’s first Sichuan trip
in 1921 by providing contacts and letters of introduction. Later that year, Charles
Coltman was killed by a Chinese guard when asked to submit his car to inspection at the
same Kalgan gate. He refused leading to a confrontation in which he was shot dead.
A ramshackle Ford automobile was engaged to take Anna, Mrs. Black and Mrs.
Shackelford to the top of the pass and back. The round trip cost $60.00 in a rickety
machine without a dashboard. Electrical wiring and gauges were left exposed. However,
Granger decided to ride in that Ford with Anna, while Mrs. Shackelford and Mrs. Black
rode in an Expedition vehicle with their husbands. The column took the west route to the
plateau. It was an extremely dusty and stormy journey, but the cars arrived safely at the
top of the pass at about noon, having stopped for a light lunch on the way. The Ford
continued for another ten miles, good-byes were said, and in it the wives started back.
The motorcade proceeded not much further to a point where tires, gas, tents and other
necessities had been cached. They were loaded on along with the native men who had
been posted there to keep guard. The party then advanced to an iron bridge 50 miles north
of Kalgan.
Though it had been sprinkling for an hour or more, Andrews decided to push on to Joel
Eriksson’s Swedish mission at Hallong Ossu after consulting with Coltman. With a little
night driving, they could reach their destination. However, it began to rain harder shortly
after nightfall and conditions deteriorated quickly. Soon enough Coltman’s car was
caught mired in a boggy place in the road. Hoping to avoid the same fate, the drivers of
the dog-wagons swung wide around his car, but they became mired as well. Two long,
arduous hours were spent trying to free Coltman’s car. Digging and pushing and then
trying to pull it with three small steers hired from a Mongol village nearby accomplished
nothing.
Finally success came with the use of a block and tackle fastened to a long iron bar driven
deep into the middle of the road in hard ground some 50 feet ahead of the car. By the
time all vehicles were winched out of the mud and camp made just off to the side of the
road, it was 1:00 a.m. The effort was so exhausting that all hands turned in without
supper. But, concerned that Mongols from the village nearby might attempt to steal some
of the equipment hastily strewn about the camp that night, Black, Shackelford, Morris
and Granger kept watch from 1:30 a.m. on. Granger took the 5:00 to 7:00 a.m. shift.
Of the ten westerners constituting the 1922 CAE-Mongolia party, only one, Walter
Granger, was a full-time, salaried staff member of the American Museum of Natural
History. Charles P. Berkey was a professor at Columbia University, the American
Museum’s sister institution. He was a geologist with a Ph.D. from the University of
Minnesota where he taught before transferring to Columbia in 1903. His skill and passion
lay in fieldwork, mainly surveying geological formations and advising engineering firms
for commercial purposes. He is credited with transforming the field of geology from pure
science to applied science.
Assistant geologist Frederick K. Morris was a visiting professor at Pei Yang University in
Tientsin, China. He became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Morris was a rather whimsical and brainy fellow with excellent drawing skills, noted
Granger.
James B. Shackelford was a movie man from Hollywood. Bayard S. Colgate was an auto
mechanic. Davidson Black, a Canadian anatomist and professor at Peking, was not
officially a member of the CAE. He planned to return to Peking with Yvette after only a
few days in Urga.
Andrews’s choice of Persender (first name unknown) was a curious, last-minute addition
to the Mongolia party. Persender was apparently an entrepreneur seeking his fortune in
China. One of his schemes was to sell nitroglycerine to Chinese farmers for blasting apart
the hard packed soil in Mongolia where they’d been extending their farms.
Finally, Roy Andrews was in his third Asian expedition contract with the American
Museum. It granted him the title of curator at the museum, as well as exclusive rights to
the CAE story.
Cut #AA [Persender]
Cut #A [Larson]
April 22nd, the second day out from Kalgan, was fine, clear and warm and quite a
contrast to the freezing wet night before. The morning was spent drying out and
rearranging loads. The cars then set off. Tabool was reached by lunchtime. Granger
hoped to visit Andersson’s old Pliocene locality at Ertemte nearby. But Andrews thought
time was of the essence and they should move on to Urga. Granger did not press the point
since the Ertemte site could be visited another time [and because its discovery had
already been made]. That afternoon, Coltman shot a buck antelope and a bustard (large
terrestrial bird) for supper. Soup was made from some of the antelope at a camp site set
well away from any Mongol settlements. That day’s run was 63 miles.
The third day also dawned clear and warm. The party travelled another 41 miles to Pang-
kiang and then camped near the telegraph station. The Pang-kiang station was little more
than a mud-made structure housing a telegraph and operator. A few yurts stood nearby.
Granger, Berkey, Morris and Black went off to the southeast to look over some promising
red exposures that looked Tertiary. But they found nothing. Granger later sent off a
telegram to Anna and then wrote her a letter. Andrews set out animal traps for the night.
On the 4th Day, a Fossiliferous Scene!
[Begin interplay with ‘Conquest?’]
The men drove 98 miles to Iren Dabasu the next morning. It was a telegraph station just
south of Erhlien. After arriving with an hour of daylight to spare, Granger went off to
prospect. Almost immediately, he found fragmentary mammal fossils in a yellowish
gravel bank five miles to the south of camp. He identified them as rhinoceros. Early the
next morning, Berkey found a distal end of a femur in Cretaceous beds near the tents. To
Granger it looked “much like dinosaur.” Not long after, Granger “found a portion of a
humerus and other members of the party found other frag't'y bones––all apparently
reptilian and probably dinosaurian.”
The collecting continued and Shackelford began filming. A trove of fossils––mammals

and dinosaurs, some apparently new to science––had just been found (only three days out
of Kalgan!) as had been found by Andersson and others in the years before.
Granger, Berkey, and Morris decided to remain at that locality for a few days while
Andrews, Yvette, Black and Colgate proceeded to Urga to obtain passes for exploring
Outer Mongolia. Persender, 'Buckshot', the No. 2 car chauffeur, a cook, Kang, and
Mushka, the expedition’s pet dog, remained with Granger’s group along with ten day’s
worth of provisions.
Granger spent the entire next day in the Cretaceous beds with Berkey and Morris. More
bones were found and Granger was now certain the dinosaurs were of Cretaceous Age.
He sent another telegram to Anna from Iren Dabasu, another place with the usual small
group of mud houses for the telegraph office and quarters for the operator. In addition
there were seven yurts owned by Chinese who did a “hotel business” with the Chinese
travelers along the road. They furnished tea and sleeping quarters.
The following day, apparently on a tip, Granger ventured with Berkey and Morris 23
miles south on a north-south connector road to an imposing red bluff. To Granger, it
looked to be either Eocene or Oligocene. Mammal teeth were found in some abundance
in stratem near the top. They were mostly of a small lophiodont and a large perissodactyl,
like a titanotherium. The party also found an upper jaw of a lophiodont. A Chinese
traveler, a fur trader returning from the north, then joined the hunt and found an apparent
lower lophiodont jaw. At the end of the day, the CAE men bade farwell to the fur trader
and returned north to their camp at Iren Dabasu.
The fossil hunt continued on April 28th. Berkey, now ill with a cold, found an enormous
calcaneum (heel bone) in yellow gravels south of camp. Granger realized it was not
proboscidean and could only place it as a Baluchitherium, the largest land mammal ever
to exist. It apparently stood fourteen feet high at the shoulder and its skull measured five
feet long. Other fragments brought in by Berkey seemed to fit the beast and no other
known creature. For a time thereafter, this Mongolian species was called Baluchitherium
grangeri, the name Osborn gave it in honor of Walter Granger. Taxonomically,
Baluchitherium was later subsumed into Indricotherium until 1989 when it was
demonstrated that both names were junior synonyms of Paraceratherium transourlicum,
now the proper name.
*
Morris commenced a plane table contour map of the basin. Names were assigned to the
three stratigraphic beds or horizons observed there They were the Irdin Manha Beds
(Eocene or Oligocene), the Houldjin Gravels (“Miocene?”, Granger wondered) and the
Iren Dabasu Beds (Cretaceous). The team also prepared a note for the international
journal Science announcing their discoveries.
Even if the rest of the world had yet to learn of it, the CAE had made its mark. Not even
Andrews knew. The titanothere fossils substantiated Osborn’s migration theory.
Significantly, the gigantic Baluchitherim was now in their collection. There were
dinosaurs as well. What they hoped for now was an hominid skull––and dinosaur eggs. A
fossilized dinosaur egg was not an idle dream. It was long suspected that some dinosaurs
reproduced by egg. Granger had speculated on this with paleontologist William Harlow
Reed at Sheep’s Creek, Wyoming, in 1899.
But finding them would be tricky. The delicate eggs and smaller bones were not as
preservable as larger bones. Nor had nesting sites been found. Some years before, in
1877, the French announced their belief that an eggshell fragment found in the Alps in
1859 was dinosaur. But it was an isolated find, unassociated with anything else that could
confirm it as dinosaur, so it was not accepted by science as conclusive. When Andersson
began reporting on fossilized eggs found in China and Mongolia, they were assumed to
be ostrich or other non-dinosaurian, though tantalizing nevertheless. Granger hoped to
make a find that would settle the matter.
While Berkey remained sick in bed on the morning of the 29th, Granger, Morris and
Persender drove over to a temple they had spotted three miles away. It was a small, now-
deserted lamasary which Chinese soldiers had attacked a year earlier killing some of the
lamas and driving out the rest. All that remained were a few small statues, placed as if
standing guard. Nearly everything of value had been taken away.
Of interest to Granger, however, was a box of cloths painted with religious images
[symbols]. These, he decided, would be of value to science. They had collected so many
fossils in the first days of the expedition that he was “desperately short of wrapping
material.” He took a bundle of the painted cloths along a quantity of Tibetan paper prayer
slips he found in an abandoned prayer wheel.
The CAE’s expedition camp and close by fossil localities were plainly visible to passers-
by, the caravanners and auto travelers plying between Kalgan and Urga. An auto traveller
named Brandhauer, bound north from Kalgan and friend of Coltman’s, according to
Granger, arrived at camp late in the day knowing he could spend the night, such was the
CAE hospitality.
On April 30, Granger returned with Berkey and Morris to the yellow gravels. More
Baluchitherium fragments were found, but the fossils were quite broken up. Even the
massive end of one femur was cracked in two. Fragments of a large rhinoceros-like tooth
were found that might also have been Baluchitherium, but the site’s yield in general was
fairly useless.
The scientists then moved back to the Cretaceous beds where they discovered several
varieties of dinosaurs: a smallish carnivorous, a small trachiodont-like beast and
numerous small bipedals with compressed front claws, like Ornithomimus, noted
Granger. The next day they returned to the red bluff and worked mostly to the west of the
caravan trail where they were finding many teeth and jaw fragments. Just before leaving,
Berkey found a jaw of a large titanothere-like beast. There was not enough time left to
collect it, but Granger sensed that this bluff of red clay that extended for many miles
offered splendid possibilities for future work.
In the meantime, all agreed that the drinking water at a well between camp and the
telegraph station at Iren Dabasu was decidedly bad. Granger joked that the well was ”dug
evidently in the Cretaceous.” The party decided to test another well they had heard about
that was located half a mile southeast of camp and somewhat off the trail. It was located
in a sand wash that acted as a filter and the water was deemed excellent.
As for water, future CAE field crew member Bill Thomson later noted to a friend that
“Mongolia had no drainage to the sea. All seems to drain to the center and disappears.
Consequently, plenty of water may be had by digging from 5 to 20 feet in depth where
there is a good supply of very good water. The Mongols do not dig new wells -- they still
use wells that have been used for at least a thousand years. There is very little running
water... I saw 2 or 3 small running streams where sheep and other stock could help
themselves, yet they were watered by hand from a well at the stream’s edge [176].”
The stream of visitors continued. A Dr. Essen of the Swedish Legation passed through
bringing a letter to Walter from Anna. American consul [?Jacob] Sokobin and a Mr. Ross
passed through as well. Meanwhile, Kang was having great success with his trapping,
averaging ten specimens a day. The sand dunes between the camp and a lake nearby
offered the best locations. Every morning, at about an hour after sunrise, Granger noted,
sand grouse flew over camp toward that lake. An hour or so later they all flew back again
into the upland. Had he had his shotgun with him, he mused, by simply positioning
himself at his tent flap, he could have bagged all the dinners they wished.
Whenever he visited the telegraph station at Iren Dabasu, Granger noted, the telegraph
operator and his two or three companions were busy smoking opium. He had wished to
get news about matters in China from them, but any discussion always seemed hopeless.
He surmised that it must be an awful place for them to live year around. Fresh food
seemed to be scarce. Very few antelope were to be seen. (Persender had shot at some but
missed.) A fox or two had been seen, along with a wolf or two. A dead Mongol lay on the
ground a little off the trail just ten miles down the road on the way to the red bluffs.
Things seemed lifeless in general. It was time to pack specimens and move on.
They were to start across the Gobi for Tuerin on May 7th. Whatever discoveries
remained uncollected at this present location, Granger recorded, would be covered with
sediment, marked with an “obo” and retrieved later. (Since an “obo” is a shrine, Granger
probably meant “cairn.”)
It was a task to squeeze eight men and all equipment and fossils into the two dog-wagons
along with Mushka the next day. But with plenty of rope to bundle and hang items from
the vehicles, the party managed to leave with everything. They arrived at Ude just across
the border in Outer Mongolia early in the afternoon. A Russian-backed Buriat was now in
charge of the checkpoint in Ude. His office (“yamen”) was in a yurt shared by an aged
and ill Mongolian prince suffering from consumption.
Until the arrival of the Siberian-based, Russian-backed Buriats, it was this Mongolian
prince who had ruled the region. But the influx of Russian revolutionist influence in that
region had reduced him to a politcally ineffective figurehead.
An auto tax of $3.00 was paid for each expedition car and another $1.00 paid for each
foreigner. Since the final tally came to $9.00, $6.00 on the two trucks and another $3.00
on personnel, the tax apparently applied only to the three scientists, but not to the natives
or Persender, a local from Kalgan who apparently traveled regularly.
At sunset, the party made camp by a well and settled in for the night. Snow fell at
daybreak and continued until noon. Two or three inches accumulated and the men found
time for a snowball fight before heading off that afternoon. The travelling was fair going
despite passing through a heavy snow squall just before reaching their next stopover.
They camped that night by a Jurassic outcrop on the west side of the trail that proved to
be extremely interesting to the geologists. They did not return to camp until after dark.
Every few miles along the drive to Tuerin the next day, the men encountered grim
evidences of the retreat by Chinese soldiers from an onslaught by pro-Russian
mercenariea the year before. Bundles of clothing with human bones sticking out of them
sat along the road. Most of the skulls were missing. Granger, finding only one, surmised
that the Canadian anatomist Dr. Black had stopped to collect many of then while on the
way up to Urga with the Andrews party.
While on the way to Andrews’s Tuerin base camp, Granger and his group were stopped
by a Chinese-driven auto heading south from Urga to Kalgan and handed a bundle of
letters addressed to Colgate. Andrews, who was still quartered in Urga with Shackelford,
had received the mail there and apparently decided that the items for Colgate, who was at
the Tuerin base camp, would get to him faster via Granger.
Granger and his group reached the base camp at Tuerin on the 10th. Colgate was there to
greet him along with the Chinese and Mongol assistants. The campsite was located up a
draw a half mile west of the telegraph station in a beautiful setting with a granite
mountain as a backdrop. A lamasary sat on the west side of the mountain. Merin’s camel
caravan had already departed that morning and headed for a new rendezvous point south
of Urga. Colgate confirmed that Andrews and Shackelford were still in Urga.
Not long after Granger’s arrival, Brandhauer drove in to the Tuerin camp with Black,
Yvette, a Mrs. Hansen, Dr. Essen, the Swedish consul at Urga, and Oscar Mamen of
Tientsin, a friend of Andrews. Not far behind Brandhauer was Larson in his Chandler
automobile. Both confirmed that a car driven by a German had had a serious accident 20
miles west of Tuerin. Injured were a Mongol guide headed for base camp and a Chinese
passenger on his way to Kalgan. The other occupants of the car, along with the injured,
were now recuperating in a tent that had been pitched near the wreck.
May 11, 1922. 30˚ - 8 a.m. Cool north wind––clear:

Colgate, Dr. Essen and Brandaur [Brandhauer] with touring Chandler
and dog-wagon up early and out to the wreck. Found Chinese, whose
leg had been broken, nearly dead. Brought him back in dog-wagon and
he died just before reaching the station here. Mongol, who was coming
here to guide us to the rendezvous, has a broken clavicle. Chinese at
station would not allow body to be left there and so Brandaur
[Brandhauer] & Dr. Black took the body out on the prairie some 10
miles or so and buried it. Other Chinese passengers left at station to be
picked up later. Wrecked car, which had broken wheel, was repaired by
the loan of a wheel from our equipment and returned to Urga for
permanent repairs before starting out again for Kalgan. Mongol has
been bandaged up with one of my shirts and seems to be all right. He
will go on with us tomorrow to the appointed place.
Brandaur's [Brandhauer’s] party much bewildered last night upon

arrival. Wrecked car was behind and traveling fast when wheel
collapsed and car turned over on side. Dead man already had one leg
broken and was going to China to have it fixed up!
Spent day writing, climbing granite mountain and in showing Dr. Black
my Iren Dabasu material. Black says he got two or three Chinese
soldiers’ skulls on way up. Told him of the one I saw which was off the
track slightly [179].
Waiting
On May 12th, Granger and his party broke base camp at Tuerin and drove west all day
covering 118 miles over mostly fine, grass-covered plain. They were traveling in four
vehicles now. Andrews was still in Urga with his touring car. Camp was made that night
in rough hilly country which Granger and his group reached at sunset. It was about 35 or
40 miles south of Urga. The Arctic divide was a mile or two to the north. Marmots and
timber were seen for the first time since the party had entered Mongolia. Larch trees grew
on the north slopes they had passed just off the main trail to their new campsite.
On the 13th, the men drove another 45 miles and camped on the Bokuk Gol, a tributary
of the Tola River. Urga was about 18 miles to the north and a little east. Granger noted
that there were several yurts nearby, along with a few log structures, a diminutive temple
and an arch of stone called a "journey shrine."
The Bokuk Gol was a small stream fed principally by ice sheets melting in the side
valleys. Granger observed that an ice field lay beneath the surface soil near camp. The
stream ran along beside it, eroding into it at some places which undermined the surface
soil. The ice was several feet thick and appeared to have been there for several years,
according to Granger. Apparently it melted only slightly each summer.
The next day brought a west gale and snow. The taxidermists set traps, but this locality
proved not good for trapping. So Granger eventually shot “a ruddy sheldrake and some
other birds to keep the taxidermists busy.”
Colgate had taked the injured Mongol guide back to the edge of Urga on the 15th and let
him walk the rest of the way in. Colgate had dared drive no further into since a messenge
from Andrews reported that he “was having all sorts of trouble getting permission for the
outfit to proceed.” The Bolshevik government apparently was putting as many obstacles
in his way as possible. The Soviet-backed Urgan government was suspicious of the
American purpose, wary that they were there for political or commercial purposes as well
as scientific.
Andrews reported that Larson and a Mr. Badmajapoff, an adviser to the Urgan Minister
of Justice, were now trying to provide assistance. Ultimately it was agreed that
Badmajapoff would join the party as a guest. Badmajapoff was Tsokto Badmajapoff, also
spelled Jzokto Badmazhapov, or Badmajhapov, an archaeologist who, in 1907, found the
lost city of Khara-Khoto, The Black City, for which famed Central Asian explorer Pyotr
Kozlov had been searching for so many years. Therefore, not only did Badmajapoff, like
Larson, have off-road exploration experience in the Gobi-Mongolia, he also had a history
of scientific discovery. His colleague Kozlov did too. He was back driving around the
Gobi-Mongolia in a Buick automobile in 1923.
But until formal permission to proceed was received from the Urgan government,
Andrews urged that under no circumstance should any expedition member go into Urga.
Unbeknownst to the remainder of the party, Andrews also was having an expedition
personnel issue of his own making which would come to light soon enough. So the men
waited. Granger sent letters back by messenger for Andrews to forward on to Peking and
the State for Anna, Charles and Osborn.
In camp the next day, the temperature ranged from 33˚ in the morning to 38˚ in the early
afternoon. It was May 16th. A light snow that had developed in the forenoon worked up
to a gale that blew out of the west all day long. It was the most bitter day Granger had yet
experienced. All hands remained in camp until the afternoon “when we got tired of
freezing and geologists and I went into the hills. Difficult to stand up against the wind on
a ridge.”
Granger had never driven an automobile and to help ease his boredom that day he began
learning with Colgate as the instructor. There was “plenty of fine smooth going
hereabouts for the purpose.”
In the meantime, the party did their best to try to keep warm by an argul fire in a metal
firebox set out in the front of the mess tent. Argul was dried camel dung and commonly
used in that region to fuel fires. The smoke was bad “and the fire was not effective,”
Granger observed. The strong wind continued into the night, as did the cold.
The next morning Granger awoke at 6 a.m. to record 17˚, the coldest registered
temperature on the trip so far. He decided to take one of the dog-wagons with Colgate
and the geologists to some promising outcrops they had seen near the Tola River south of
Urga. After examining the rocks, they decided to drive on in toward Urga on the main
river road. Why they decided this is not known, but one may surmise that Granger felt the
wait had gone on long enough.
Still four miles short of town, they encountered a Ford motorcar. It was driven by K. P.
Albertson of Urga who was in charge of the Chinese portion of the Kalgan to Urga
telegraph line and with him were Larson and Badmajapoff. They reported that Andrews
and Shackelford were stuck at the edge of town after having trouble with the touring car.
Granger and Colgate found them and Colgate repaired the car. All returned to camp
where Andrews related his trouble in getting passports in Urga. The Bolshevik
government, he charged, had put all sorts of obstacles in his way. Only with the help of
Larson and Badmajapoff was he finally able to obtain permission for the CAE to press on
into Mongolia.
The Persender Affair
But Andrews also had a new chauffeur, as Granger had noticed when he and Colgate
found him stuck in Urga. ‘Löh,’ Granger recorded, was a Chinese man who had been
employed by Albertson. He replaced Persender who was being discharged from the
expedition as a personna non grata to the Urgan government. But not only was this the
case, the Urgans want the Frenchman turned over to them. Furthermore, it was
discovered that Persender had brought bottles of nitroglycerine with him after all. He had
them wrapped in a blanket. Andrews later claimed he had allowed Persender to join the
expedition because he thought could be of good use as a driver and guide, but had told
Persender not to bring any nitroglycerine along.
Why Andrews thought he needed another guide is not clear. The expedition had room for
Persender, of course, because Granger’s field assistant George Olsen was unable to make
the trip as originally planned. But with Larson awaiting in Urga and no guide needed for
the Kalgan to Urga leg since Coltman was along and the Andrews had traveled that route
at least twice in 1919, the decision makes no sense.
As for the nitroglycerine, the Bolsheviks were already suspicious that the CAE was
surreptitiously in search of gold or other valuable metals. Blasting material would aid in
finding those resources. While there is no proof that Andrews and Persender were
contemplating doing this, any other explanation is hard to find. Blasting ground for
agricultural purposes makes no sense since they were well beyond any farming areas
when the illicit bottles nitroglycerin were discovered.
Regardless, the Bolsheviks insisted not only that Persender go no further, they also forced
Andrews to agree to attaching a "student geologist" as their representative. The “said
geologist," as Granger put it, was still in Siberia just north of Urga. But as soon as he
returned, he would mount up and catch up with the motorcade by horseback.
Andrews concluded that Persender’s general lack of qualifications for whatever work he
had in mind made it desirable that he leave the party, since the matter obviously had
threatened the future of the expedition. Persender departed with Albertson the next
morning, taking his nitroglycerine bottles wrapped in a blanket. He was afraid the
Bolsheviks would kill him, Granger wrote, adding that “Andrews much surprised that
Persender had the poison as he promised him in Peking that he would take none along.”
Onward
The entire CAE contingent departed the next morning for Tsetsenwan to the southwest
where they would stay until the camel caravan met up with them. Several hours were
spent loading provisions and supplies that were to last until this next rendezvous.
Granger, Berkey and Morris repacked their collections into empty metal gasoline
containers and left them for reloading on camels.
A Mongol soldier was to escort the camel caravan when it set off. Even without the threat
of robbery and gunfire, conditions were not easy for the camels even at this early stage.
Three were already played out because of overloading and a short supply of feed. They
were sent back to rejoin a herd in Urga belonging to the Anderson and Meyer Company
where they would feed up for the summer. That left the expedition with seventy-one
camels.
The CAE motorcade covered 64 miles to camp by the Tola River, a fine clear stream with
a gravely bottom. The party was heading south-southwest away from Urga into open
country without camel caravan routes. As a result, the driving became more difficult as
the party encontered numerous hills, occasional soft sections of sand, river cut banks and
swamplands.
May 20, 1922, was much warmer than the previous mornings. By 8 a.m., it was 43˚. The
motorcade covered another 37 miles after getting back on the main trail to Tsetsenwan
with rough going much of the way before camping near a spring. There was a particularly
snarly field of tussocks, Granger noted, along the Tola River bank just before they turned
south into the hills where the road then became rock-filled.
The men relaxed as the weather stayed warm, clear and calm. Larson and Badmajapoff
went off to the north in the No. 1 car with Colgate and shot five antelope. The
taxidermists laid out traps. Marmots were abundant. Shackelford shot two with a .22
caliber rifle while Granger caught one in a trap [179a]. Several sorts of eagles were
breeding in the rocks nearby. Granger saw three nests with eggs and several others were
reported by other members of the party. Nearly every prominent rock point seemed to
contain an eagle nest.
The party arrived at Tsetsenwan on the 21st after a 46-mile drive over fair going much of
the way. [There they met the Prince of Tsetsenwan, still a figure of influence that region.]
Camp was made at the mouth of a granite canyon about three miles west of a lamasary. A
spring with good water still laced with ice was found another mile or so west. Marmots
seemed unusually abundant in the region, Granger noted. Ruddy sheldrake perched in the
cliffs above the camp along with a great colony of red-billed choyhs.
Shackelford and Larson decided to go to the lamasary to make motion pictures while
Granger and the geologists, or “geologs” as he termed them, went over to hills located
about ten miles to the northwest beyond a large lake. There were reports of fossils there,
as Granger put it, although Granger didn’t record from whom the report(s) came. As we
now know, however, such information could have come from a variety of sources
including a local Mongolian, an amateur Mongolian collector (eg., Haldjinko or Jensen
(Lob-tsen Yen-tsen)), a Chinese or western collector, a passer-by, Eriksson,
Badmajapoff, Larson or Andersson. Andersson and Larson had long before spread the
word that reports of fossils were being sought.
In any event, Granger found nothing but sediment and rock strewn about by volcanic
eruption. Returning to camp, Granger and the geologs passed around the lower end of the
large lake. Across it was built an enormous earth dam of great age. On it sat the ruins of
an ancient temple once built of massive stone. Many graves were sited around it. Morris
sketched the scene.
Daytime temperature now ranged in the 50s to 80s. The daylight hours were usually calm
and bright with an occasional sprinkle and sometimes a light breeze. and then again,
every so often, a strong northerly or westerly wind arose.
A messenger rode in from where the caravan was now camped, near one of the group’s
previous stops on the way to Tsetsenwan. He reported that the camels were in bad shape
and could not proceed to the rendezvous under their present loads. It was decided to send
Colgate back with the Fulton to relieve the camels of one truck load. Larson would go
along as interpreter. They left at daybreak, returning to camp early that afternoon with a
load of mostly gasoline tins. The camels now could move on to catch up to the party
within a day.
While they waited, several of the men motored three miles west to a gravesite marked by
granite slabs set upright in a rectangle. Monuments like these apparently were fairly
common in that region and Badmajapoff thought they were graves of an ancient people,
perhaps Tartars who had invaded this region before Genghis Khan's time. Berkey
estimated the weathering of the granite indicated an age of possibly 1,000 years. They
decided to excavate one to a depth of five feet, but found nothing.
While the geologists went off with Colgate and a Mongolian assistant 45 miles to the
south the next day, Granger stayed in camp to record and pack the mammal and bird
specimens collected to date. The mammal skins were transferred into large camel boxes
and placed with the caravan. Prince Tsetsenwan's brother brought over some camels to
replace the eight or ten that Merin said were too tired or hungry to continue. Only three
were selected as suitable. An even exchange was made and Shackelford took movies of
the camels while they were loaded and unloaded. The party bought a sheep as well. In the
meantime, Granger had caught a polecat in one of his marmot traps that morning––it was
“a savage beast who bit Mushka and tried to bite every one else”––
The Prince's brother planned to go into Urga the next day. Letters were sent along with
him to send on to Peking. Provisions and gasoline enough for two weeks were taken off
the caravan for loading onto the truck and dog-wagons. Because the condition of the
camels continued to deteriorate, it was expected to take it those two weeks to reach the
next rendezvous at Sain Noin Khan 150 miles away.
The men broke camp and drove 37 miles south and then two and a half miles north off
the trail to the mouth of a granite canyon with a stream of fine clear water. The route that
day had been little more than a single camel trail that was barely discernible in places.
The Fulton had become stuck over its hubs in soft, wet ground and had to be dug out.
Granger, on the other hand, had driven one of the cars for several miles that day. He
stalled the engine a couple of times, “but otherwise things went fairly well.”
Camp was on a grassy bottomland and several of the men took advantage of the
proximity of good water to do their laundry. Shackelford used it to develop film. Many
traps were put out that evening. Larson, in the meantime, climbed a high rocky hill just
east of camp where he found a female great owl resting on its nest in a cleft in the rock
with three downy gray offspring. He shot the owl and brought her back to camp. He and
Andrews later returned to retrieve the young, but found that an eagle had already taken
two of them away. In fact, it was flying off with the second one as they approached.
Trapping the next day yielded a coney, hamsters, kangaroo rats, gophers, microtus and a
new type of mouse. Found in the crevices of rocks, the mouse probably related to
microtus, Granger thought, but was gray and had large round ears. That afternoon, he
went with Andrews, Shackelford, Colgate and Badmajapoff several miles south down the
valley to a lamasary they’d sighted from camp. The lamasary looked small with perhaps
only 200 or so lamas. But the men got caught on the wrong side of a marsh and could not
cross, so had to abandon a closer look.
Along the way, they had stopped at a group of yurts. The occupants said they had never
seen an auto before.
On June 1, the Expedition proceeded to the Ongin River. Driving conditions that day
were equally divided between the best and the worst imaginable, according to Granger.
All forenoon they traveled through jutting granites and rock eruptions over and through
hills that required the cars to veer off the trail frequently. But during the afternoon, the
road became perfectly smooth. The final approach to the Ongin River took them over a
gently sloping, gravel-covered plain free of marmot-holes. A car could be driven safely at
forty miles an hour, Granger noted.
At about 4 thar afternoon, they reached the river which was divided into three branches,
none wide and all less than knee deep. They scouted before deciding that the established
trail crossed in the best place. The touring car and dog-wagons crossed safely. But the
heavier Fulton truck became stuck in the slippery mud bank as it exited the water. The
men pushed it free and then set up camp on the grassy bottom along the bank of the last
branch of the river.
The geologists came along in their car at about 5:00 p.m. to promptly stall in the middle
of the widest branch of the river. As the wheels settled to the hubs, the Urga chauffeur
tried too hard to get out under engine power causing the left rear axle to twist until it
broke. Colgate went to the rescue in the Fulton truck to free the car with block and tackle.
Once brought ashore and everything was unloaded from the car into the truck, all hands
returned to camp except a Mongolian assistant left to stand watch over the immobilized
car. Darkness had fallen and the broken axle could not be replaced with one of the two
spares brought along until the next morning.
Granger grumped in his diary that night that “[t]his is the second serious accident to any
car and was entirely avoidable. Only one tire has been punctured so far and that ran over
a big Chinese-made shoe nail [that had dropped] in the road near Urga (No. 1).”
Snow covered the high hills north of camp. Microtus burrows and runways riddled the
bottom land. Every tent had one or more burrows beneath it. Granger noted that the
Microtus seemed to be the only rodent there, as he had also observed at Tsetsenwan.
Apparently the animal had driven out other small mammals.
Half a dozen little eel-like fish were caught in a pool near camp. They were the only fish
seen. Since the Ongin River ran into the Gobi basin and then disappeared, the occurrence
of fish at all was of interest to Granger. As he noted the life in the river, he recalled that
seventeen Russian women and children were killed by Red Russian mercenaries near its
banks just the year before. The victims were fleeing east from Uliassutai when they were
caught, plundered and killed. Now, not a trace of the massacre remained that he could
see.
Sain Noin Khan

June 2, 1922
On June 2nd, the group broke camp and headed for Sain Noin Khan, a caravan and postal
route hub. They left the river by following a caravan trail. At about noon they left the trail
that had now become quite distinct and turned north across the prairie. Eight or ten miles
farther to the north, they struck a good road running from a hot springs into Sain Noin
Khan and were able to reach Sain Noin Khan at 5:00 p.m. At about 4:00 p.m., a heavy
thundershower struck and the vehicles were driven to the top of a hill until the worst was
over. Rain could turn the bottom lands into a slippery, sticky mess and flash flooding was
an ever-present danger. They waited a bit before proceeding a mile further to a creek
bottom where they turned up into a side gulch to make camp.
Andrews had shot two buck antelope in the forenoon of that day, out of a herd of about
ten. The party had seen very few antelope since leaving camp north of Tsetsenwan. Part
of the plan was to supplement their diet with antelope meat.
The next day dawned bright and the party noticed seven yurts grouped just across the
valley a half a mile away. The lamasary of Sain Noin Khan sat about five miles to the
north of camp and that afternoon, Granger drove over to it with Andrews, Badmajapoff
and Shackelford who wanted to take movies.
The lamasary was occupied by about 1,000 lamas and was one of the largest in Outer
Mongolia. Granger noticed that the architecture of the temples was in three styles: pure
Tibetan, pure Chinese and a combination of the two –– a Tibetan base upon which sat a
Chinese cupola. Extra large yurts were used for worship in one part of the lamasary.
Ironically, the upper part of a large prayer shrine out in front was sheathed with flattened
out Standard Oil Company tins which glistened like silver and presented a dazzling sight.
The temples were closed. Services and classes of instruction evidently were held in the
morning. The lamas ranging from old men to boys of eight or nine appeared to Granger
to be very dirty and degraded-looking. The motorcar was of great interest to them.
Granger wondered whether a motor vehicle had ever been to this lamasary before. He
may also have wondered where the Standard Oil Company tins came from.
The lamas’ quarters extended off the sides of two temples which occupied the center of
the compound. Gilded top ornaments and highly colored roofs of temples and some of the
lower structures made a brilliant spectacle when viewed from the top of the hill. The
usual piles of argul were missing from this lamasary because orests of larch a few miles
to the north on the slopes of the high hills supplied wood for fuel as well as for
construction of buildings and surrounding stockade.
There was a settlement of eight or ten Chinese trading outfits about a mile from the
lamasary. A Russian settlement there had been raided the year before and there were no
survivors [180]. Fossil hunting in this region yielded nothing. Granger prospected briefly
along the east side of the valley to the south in Jurassic exposures, but the rocks were all
conglomerates containing nothing in the way of organic remains.
It was camp life, driving and trapping that dominated the daily routine now. Traveling
and sightseeing prioritized the days. The initial exciting fossil discoveries made upon
entering Mongolia just days before were history and the paleontologist and geologists
now had little to do scientifically. Work now was mainly zoological -- mammalogy,
ornithology and taxidermy. While Granger followed up on a fossil report or two, no fossil
field had been discovered for some time. The topographical studies, mapping,
archaeology and other scientific studies yet to come awaited other CAE expeditions in
the upcoming years.
Having zoomed deep into Outer Mongolia after days of travel with no apparent purpose,
this expedition was in fact taking a break. Fossils no longer dominated the agenda: their
success in that regard had been quick and clear, perhaps to no one’s surprise. The
geology that continued was multi-purpose: commercial, as well as scientific. Even the
quest for ‘ancient man’ was already underway following Granger’s initial work at
Zhoukoudian and the Yangtze basin.
Indeed, the men were heading to Andrews’s old 1919 big-game hunting grounds at Sain
Noin, the very place he’d driven to by motorcar from Urga with Oscar Mamen and other
hunting buddies three years before. Now hundreds of miles past their last fossil
discovery, this team of scientists was on vacation.
In the meantime, the Buriat student geologist had not yet shown up, or could not catch
up, and there was a mission to accomplish for Badmajapoff by way of Arishan Springs.
Arishan Springs
June 6, 1922
June 6, 1922 – Went with Berkey and Morris to a group of hot springs
about ten miles to the southeast. Mr. Badmajapoff went with us and is to
remain there until we return that way on the way south (a week or ten
days hence) [181].
The springs of Arishan burbled up along a fault-line running between a Jurassic exposure
and a granite formation. There were several emerging along a shallow ravine. The water
temperature ranged from 60˚ to too hot for the hand. Small excavations had been made at
each usuable spring around which were set crude walls made from slabs of sandstone set
on edge. Tents or small yurts were erected over each to form private basins ample for one
to sit in and take a bath. At the head of the string of pools was a crude stone shrine or
obo. The whole affair, including a high hill a mile to the west, was considered sacred.
Hunting and trapping were forbidden.
Eight or ten yurts were clustered [grouped] just below the springs to house bather. The
place had the appearance of a health resort. One yurt was occupied by an uncle of the
present prince of Sain Noin Khan, a lad who was only ten years old. The uncle, a Da
Lama, was 30 and quite “white as to color of skin,” Granger observed. He was an
agreeable and intelligent man who received the expedition party graciously by bringing
out fermented milk, tea, cakes, cheese and Chinese dates. Upon leaving, Granger and his
party were also presented with blue silk sashes.
A tent for Badmajapoff had been erected near the Da Lama's yurt. Badmajapoff
established himself there with one servant to try the waters for his rheumatism. The CAE
men left him with a supply of food and cigarettes.
Granger explored for fossils in the Jurassic exposures near the springs, but found nothing.
So he, Berkey and Morris returned to camp where they found a little Mongol girl visiting
her father, a local who was assisting at the camp. She
was most interested in examining all of the "queer" things. Her father
urged her to go home––to the settlement nearby––but she begged to
remain saying, "These people are going away in the morning and I shall
never have another chance to see all of these interesting things." And
very likely she won't. The Mongols we meet in this region are
unspeakably dirty and ignorant but they are intelligent, good-natured
and helpful to us in many ways [182].
Shackelford took movies as locals engaged in their daily occupations in and about the
yurts. A section of one yurt was removed so that he could film interior views. Meanwhile,
Andrews was off in the touring car to scouting for a new camp near the woods. Camp
was made a site about 16 miles north and nearly 900 feet higher with a fine larch forest as
a backdrop. To reach it, the men drove past the lamasary, crossed the Ongin River hub-
deep and traveled up a valley to a divide in the river. They had good water, shade and
plenty of firewood. A fine big bonfire was made that first night.
A few small pines stood among the larches, but there were no deciduous trees. Some tree
trunks measured over two feet in diameter, Granger noted, although he didn’t note which.
Microtus burrows were found in the woods, in the moss and soil that lay atop permanent
ice. Ice could be seen in some of the burrows.
Mongols living nearby began straggling into the camp to look over the westerners.
They’d been frightened for a day or so, not knowing for certain who they were. Raids and
killings by the Red Russian Army and Baron Roman Nicolaus von Ungern-Sternberg of
the opposing White Guard had terrorized them over the past two years. So, to them, all
foreigners were to be feared. But relations warmed and the westerners began buying
cow's milk from the Mongols using their own pails, to ensure reasonable cleanliness.
They obtained about ten quarts a day from two milkings for which they paid about a
$1.00.
The men began to hunt roebuck in the isolated patches of forest where the animals rested
during the day. The shooters posted themselves at one end of the growth, toward the
upper edge of the woods. Then four to six native assistants at the opposite end began
beating on oil tins and shouting while advancing in a line to push the roebuck toward the
shooters. They first drummed in the woods behind the camp, a section one and a half
miles long and a half mile wide. Two bucks emerged from the far end and Andrews shot
and wounded one. It dashed back into the woods and on through the line of beaters. The
other bolted from the lower edge of the wood near Larson whose back was turned and so
he didn’t notice it until it was already past him. Both he and Shackelford swung and fired
as the animal fled.
Granger then took a few shots at it from 400-500 yards away. The animal successfully
ran that gauntlet and made it onto a ridge of high grass to the north. As he began to enter
small forest on that north slope, the beating started up again. Granger shot the buck as it
paused to look back at the beaters. The bullet killed him instantly.
Five other roebuck were spotted on a ridge nearby, but all eluded pursuit. Nevertheless,
Granger seemed to enjoy this classic Andrews big-game hunting event, even if it had
little to do with the expedition’s mission. It was “delightful being in the woods after
nearly two months of treeless plains,” he wrote, an interesting assessment by a man who
had spent much longer periods of time in the barrens of the American West and Saharan
Desert.
That was June 7th. The next seven days were devoted to trapping, relaxing and small-
and big-hunting, although Granger did less and less of it. After killing an old doe who, he
then discovered it “had two nearly full grown fetuses in her.” He “[b]rought the old doe
back to camp but I shall not eat of her.” Savoring camp life seemed to better fill
Granger’s days while he watched the others. Three bucks nearly ran over Colgate while
his back was turned one day. They got away without being shot at, Granger noted.
On June 13th, Merin came up the hunting camp to report that the caravan had made it to
the hot springs where Badmajapoff still sat soaking. The camels, he reported, were in
very poor condition because of a shortage of feed and the locality of the springs offered
little grazing. It would remain there until the hunting respite was over, and he would
remain at the hunting camp until the others came down. Perhaps he hoped his presence
would hurry matters along.
He also reported that the caravan twice had been intercepted by robbers. Both times, the
bandits were frightened off when the Mongolian soldier escort shot at them. Merin was
not sure whether any were hit.
There was a light, almost continuous snow from daybreak until noon the next day when
the temperature rose to 47˚ that afternoon. All hands remained in camp that morning until
after tiffin when Granger put out traps for microtus in the grassy valley below. He caught
eight while he was putting out the traps. The remainder of the party went over to the
woods east to again hunt for roebuck. In the meantime, it was decided they would move
back down to the hot springs the following day.
The hunting party returned to Arishan Springs in the forenoon of June 15th and went into
camp near the caravan on the east side of the creek about a mile from the springs.
Badmajapoff and his luggage were brought over in the afternoon. A camel died the night
before leaving 70 in the caravan and three in Urga recuperating.
After settling in, the geologists drove off with Colgate at the wheel of the No. 2 car north
several miles away to a divide created by a series of cirques. They were to return that
evening, but did not. When Andrews took the touring car out at dusk to look for some
sign of them, he saw nothing. Shackelford then rigged up [devised] a search light off the
No. 3 car by attaching [securing] a lamp to a long pole to serve as a beacon in case the
geologs tried to return that night.
At dawn the next morning when the geologs still hadn’t returned, Andrews again took off
in the No. 1 car to look for them. This time he was successful, finding them camped by
the river near the Sain Noin Khan lamasary where they had stopped at about 9:30 p.m.
the night before. They described their ordeal. After crossing the cirque that day, the car
became mired in a field of mud. To free it, the car was completely unloaded and then
jacked up [raised up] with logs driven into the mud beneath it. Miraculously, a lama and
several followers materialized to assist them when they were most needed.
After getting the car out of the mud and reloaded, the men then had difficulty retracing
their route back over the cirque. Unpacking the car once again to carry the greater part of
the load on their backs up the steepest pitches while the driver zig-zagged the lightened
car up in short spurts, they finally reached the top at 9:00 p.m. and then proceeded down
to the river to make camp.
Both cars returned to the main party at noon and the geologists immediately set about
working up a map of the region [section map?]. Andrews and Granger, in the meantime,
went over to the springs to bathe in the same spring used by Badmajapoff. They found
the water delightfully warm and that it gave a slippery feeling to the skin.
The Da Lama came to dinner that evening. He seemed, they thought, awkward with a
knife and fork and did not appear to relish the dishes prepared for him. But he appeared
to enjoy the experience of visiting with the Americans and especially liked riding in a car,
happily taking over the wheel when offered. He handed it back quickly, however,
whenever the car approached a rough stretch. Before departing that evening, he was
presented with a pocketknife and cigarettes.
While the geologists continued with their [?section] mapping of this region, the caravan
departed for better feeding and resting grounds. The main party would catch up with it
the next day. In the meantime, Andrews hunted antelope while Granger helped with
trapping. Morris interrupted his mapping chores long enough to sketch the hills as studies
for background paintings in a planned "plains group" diorama.
After breaking camp the next day, the expedition drove 50 miles southwest to a new
campsite beside the Ongin Gol. Along the way, they encountered Mongol families
traveling northward to the summer feeding ranges in the hills. The route took the men
down along the east side of a creek which they crossed as they headed southwest toward
the Uliassutai Trail. The men kept to the trail most of the way until they left it to make
camp near in a region of small lakes two miles to the south.
Camp was on a marshy stretch with a small stream running through the center [‘Camp
Gorida’/p. 94-95 Conq.]. The main trail from Sair Usu to Uliassutai lay 300 yards to the
south and the Tsetsenwan-Uliassutai Trail passed a mile or so to the north. A large
Mohammedan Chinese caravan en route to Uliassutai was camped on the opposite side of
the marsh. With over 200 camels, it presented an impressive sight. A few miserable-
looking yurts sat farther out on the marsh. These were the poorest yurts Granger had yet
seen.
One of the small lakes was filled with ducks of several sorts and bar-headed geese.
Lopwings and red-legged sand pipers were also found along the stream which flowed
into a depression in the great basin north of the Altai mountains. In wet weather, the
depression became a lake. It was decided that the expedition’s camel caravan would
remain at this location for a month, if circumstances permitted, to feed on the abundant
green grass along the stream.
Granger spent the next day working on mammal and bird collections. He also caught a
new kangaroo rat and a new gerbil that morning. Other members of the group went into
action, as well. Larson shot two adult bar-head geese and seven young on the small lake
south of camp. Shackelford shot an eared grebe with the .22 caliber rifle. Native
taxidermists were catching coneys and larger hamsters. The geologists climbed into
jagged-looking hills located two miles northwest of camp that afternoon and reported that
they could see over mountains to the south.
In the meantime, Colgate and Badmajapoff went off in a car to hunt up a local guide to
accompany the expedition into the Baga Bogdo (‘Lesser Buddha’) range of the eastern
Altai mountains [narr. p. 96, Conq.]. They came back with an old man who seemed very
poor but appeared to know the country well enough, so he was hired. The party planned
to spend one more day trapping before packing up all the mammals and birds they had
collected to leave with the caravan. Three large camel boxes were filled and then covered
with canvas.
That evening after sunset, the Mohammedan Chinese caravan of 200 camels got under
way and filed past toward the Uliassutai Trail and into the western twilight. It was an
almost silent event except for the deep-toned camel bells on every twentieth camel and an
occasional small tinkling bell in between. The caravan was loaded with tea and tobacco
and attended to by sixteen Chinese. It was a most impressive spectacle in the dim evening
light. Later, Granger noted strange music coming from their own expedition caravan
mens’ tent at about 11:20 p.m.
The main party started off in the morning with the local Mongol guide and a three-week
supply of food and gasoline. The camels remained behind as planned to continue their
recovery until heading out for the next rendezvous. Eight or so of them had sores on their
backs which were treating with pomegranate wash. Saddles were being taken off them for
the first time since leaving Kalgan.
*
The plan was to go Ondai Sair [p. 99, Conq] a pass at the foot of Mount Ussuk [p. 97,
Conq] in the range 40 miles to the south and slightly west. It was a bright and warm
travelling day with a moderate breeze. Temperatures in the morning began at 46˚ and
rose another ten degrees by noon. After first heading west on the Uliassutai Trail, they
left the established route to strike south cross country. Lunch was at noon by a salt lake.
Shackelford filmed the entire expedition as their five vehicles passed around the shore of
the lake.
The water was almost entirely evaporated leaving a layer of salt, white and apparently
nearly pure, in a crystallized sheet a few inches thick and 300 yards across. Beneath this
was thick dark brown mud. Two small groups of Mongols collected the salt, wading out
barefooted and scooping the salt by hand into small buckets which were then brought up
onto the hard, smooth surface of the shore. There the salt was dumped out in little piles
which quickly dried in the sun. After drying, the salt was put in small sacks and carried
away by camel. Still photos and movies were taken of the salt gatherers.
That afternoon the expedition made a steady climb about 500 feet from the salt lake to a
divide [pass] between two peaks, each rising another 1,000 feet. This divide [pass], called
"Ussuk,” was filled with many treacherous gullies. They planned to camp only two or
three miles beyond, but that was not reached until late in the afternoon. The site was on a
large dry wash extending southward into the great basin that lay along the northern face
of Baga Bogdo. Another mountain range loomed across the valley, perhaps 50 miles
distant.
There was a well nearby camp which held sufficiently fair water. A small group of
Mongols were staying there for the night while on their way to the northern grass lands
for the summer. They reported poor feed down in the great basin. Even the wild asses
there were starving.
June 22nd dawned with a light breeze that grew into a strong east wind by late afternoon.
As a result, a “Gobi haze” developed that nearly obscured the majestic Baga Bogdo.
Granger set out that morning in the No. 2 car with Colgate, Berkey, Morris, Larson and
the local Mongol guide. They were in search of a well and spring said to be six miles
down in the valley. It was reported by mative Mongols to be one of several fossil
localities in that area, again indicating existing familiarity with fossil locations deep in
Outer Mongolia.
The men crossed a number of rocky, sandy gullies as they drove down from the hills
along the west side of the valley. It was rough going for most of the way. About half way
down, they paused to look over a small set of exposures of red and gray beds. These
yielded a few fragments of turtle and a bit of flat bone that Granger thought might have
been a piece of scapula of either mammal or reptile. They then continued on to the well
and spring location near the mouth of the valley at the very edge of the great plain [narr,
p.100, Conq].
Once there, they spent several hours examining the badlands around the spring. A few
scraps of bone and teeth from the upper level of these exposures were identified as
rhinocerid and perhaps mastodon and indicated late Tertiary. However, a small collection
Granger made later that afternoon from the red beds at the very base of the section was of
mostly rodent fossils. Though poorly preserved, he managed to get complete sets of
upper- and lower-cheek teeth. But the fossils were not familiar to him, and this made him
question the age of the beds.
Much of the lower red stratum was exposed along the northern edge of the basin. One
narrow outcrop extended well out into the center of the basin from the spring. Granger
decided to move down to this location in two or three days time to work the basin to the
south for fossils, as well as trap for recent mammals. Then he planned to go east through
the basin to join the caravan somewhere on the Uliassutai-Sair Usu Trail.
The local Mongol guide would remain with him until the car was sent back to the caravan
for provisions. The caravan could not be taken through the basin because there would be
very little for the camels to feed on. So Granger’s stock-up on fuel and provisions would
have to be carefully conserved until he met up with it again. He considered hiring horses
to hunt game in the basin, instead of using the car, but doubted whether he could keep
them fit since there was so little to graze on. [Conq. doesn’t seem to show the sequence
this way...see pp 100-102].
*
The great Baga Bogdo was an impressive sight both from camp and from the mouth of
the valley. Long streaks of snow extended down from the summit. Wonderful glacier-like
talus streams reached down into the valley. The entire mountain gave off a beautiful hazy
blue color. None of the forests could be seen.
A cold, driving rain came in from the north the next day at about 9:00 a.m. and lasted
until 4:00 p.m. [p. 100, Conq.] Granger wore his sheep-skin lined coat all day but was
cold nevertheless. All hands remained in camp until late afternoon when some went out
for hunting. By then Baga Bogdo was showing its head with a fresh cap of snow.
Mammal trapping flourished and they continued to find species new to them. The
taxidermists were really the only ones busy for the moment.
The Ondai Sair campsite had turned out to be excellent for trapping small mammals,
though perhaps a little thin on finding fossils [p. 101, Conq.]. Small mammals were
abundant as burrows everywhere showed. There was other wildlife, as well. Many sand
grouse were at the spring and Granger also saw tracks of wild ass and gazelles. With his
field glasses, he saw one lone wild ass standing, apparently asleep, out on the flats of the
basin [“Tsagan Nor Basin,” p. 107, Comq.] about three fourths of a mile distant. Later it
moved farther out in the basin. Then it vanished in the heat waves. Granger also saw one
almost hairless wolf. Larson and Berkey saw another below the spring and found a den.
For dinner that night, they tried the desiccated vegetables they had brought along. This
was the first time and Granger thought the onions and beets both were “very palatable.”
As he took stock of their food supplies, he noted that the fresh potatoes were still holding
out and “the eggs remained good enough to make pancakes with.” Sheep and antelope,
ducks and geese also provided plenty of meat. Keeping time by the 120th Meridian meant
they were eating at hours quite odd to Granger. Breakfast was at 8:00 or even 9:00 a.m.
Lunch, or tiffin, was at about 2:00 p.m. Dinner could come as late as 10:00 p.m.
Their watches were nearly an hour and a half ahead of the true local time now. They had
hoped to make time checks using a wireless apparatus they had brought along
unbeknownst to the Buriats. But it was found to be inadequate and was now stored with
the caravan. It was exasperating, quipped Granger, that a receiver with an advertised
radius of 1,000 miles and a cost of $15.00 gold did not work properly when one costing
$50.00 gold would have brought as fine an apparatus as one desired.
Fossil hunting resumed on the June 25th and finally began to pay off. Granger prospected
the gray beds immediately behind camp, and the reddish beds beyond them, while the
geologists went off to the west to map. Almost immediately, the geologs found fossil
insects, crustacea and fish in some paper shale, a weathered shale that easily separated
into thin layers or laminae. They also discovered dinosaur bones including foot bones and
vertebrae of a small dinosaur plus a rib of a large beast the size of an Allosaurus. Granger
concluded that this was a Cretaceous deposit overlain by Tertiary. He decided to leave
Berkey, Morris, Loh, Wang and Bato at the Ussuk camp to make a detailed map of the
region and continue collecting in the Cretaceous beds [p. 102, Conq].
The rest of the party moved down to the spring and well ten miles below near the red and
gray beds Granger had prospected earlier and which were now called the "Loh Beds"
after Loh. Granger chose to walk down the entire distance in order to prospect all along
the Cretaceous on east side of the wash. But he found nothing and, as the sun set, arrived
very weary at the new camp set up on the edge of the penaplane a half mile west of the
well. Shackelford and Andrews, who had traveled down by car, had already discovered
more fossils at the Loh Beds [p. 103, Conq].
June 27, 1922 75˚ - 10 a.m. - 5850; 88˚ - 2:30 p.m. - 5950; 70˚ - 10
p.m. - 5830:
Roy killed first wild ass. Run down with motorcar and shot about
five miles from camp [183].
The next morning, Granger examined the localities found by Shackelford and Andrews
the day before. Andrews had found a portion of a rhinoceros skull weathering from a
bank near the camp. Nearby, Shackelford had found a hind foot of a rhinoceros with
tarsals and metatarsus in good condition. Granger decided to work the area himself.
While Granger settled into a daily routine of prospecting and collecting, Andrews found
another activity. He and Larson began using a car each day to chase and shoot wild asses.
Andrews was shooting at least one a day when Granger came to term this spree “an ass a
day.” Larson rarely fired, hinting that perhaps he wished not to be a part of the daily
killing even though he went along.
Granger continued working in the Loh Beds to excavate the rhinoceros skull which
proved to be a fairly well-preserved anterior half. It had long curved nasal, but no
evidence of horns. Small fauna were abundant in the Loh Beds as well and he was
finding insectivores as well as rodents. [He then moved into work at formations later
named “Hung Kureh” and “Hsanda Gol,” the latter producing in great abundance. PP.
106-107, Conq.]
However, Granger’s diary entries during this time reflected less and less of the day-to-
day scientific activity to become quite clipped about only one. “Another wild ass shot by
Roy;” “The third ass shot by Roy;” “The usual ‘ass a day’––again shot by Roy;”
“Another ass shot by Roy;” and “Another wild ass today.” Andrews’s killing spree ran
from June 27th through July 3rd when the party was splitting up. Granger wound up in
Andrews’s car:
Just before leaving [the others] we sighted a lone wild ass and after
saying goodbye started off after him. The ass took to good ground
and after a mile run we brought the car to a stop a hundred and fifty
yards away. Roy wanted me to take first shot which I did and I think
I missed. My second shot though and Roy's first both struck, one
through the lungs and one in the abdomen, but the ass did not
slacken. Finally Roy got a bullet in the hind leg which broke the
femur and after a hundred yards more running the beast dropped,
but even then had to be killed with a pistol. A fine stallion of seven
or eight years. Photos of the ass with Roy and me and with me and
the old Mongol guide we had brought along to show us the road.
Skinned the ass and started for some Tertiary badlands 12 miles east
of here and on the way I killed with first shot a doe Gazella
gutturosa. Not yet thoroughly shed off [184]!
It was not over. About four miles east of camp, now called “Wild Ass Camp” on the great
flat [‘plain’ per Conq, p. 105], they saw a second ass and gave chase. Here again the
animal took to the best ground for running. But that also gave the car practically perfect
going for the next two miles or more. The ass was clocked at about 36 miles per hour
once the chase started and was able to keep abreast of the car for the first mile. Then, as it
tired, Andrews let the car fall back to maintain a distance of 35 yards behind while
Shackelford took a Kodak snap of the ass.
Finally, when the ass reached the edge of a main wash which flowed from Ussuk down
past camp, Andrews shot him, breaking the hind leg. Still, the ass was able to run over to
the other side of the wash––nearly a mile in distance––before coming to a stop. Andrews
finished it off with his revolver. The carcass was taken back to camp in a truck.
Finally, on July 4th, Granger was able to write “No wild ass today!”
Earlier, on July 2nd, Granger recorded, with apparent surprise despite telling his father
three months beforehand that Larson would serve only up to early July, that:
Roy has suddenly decided to send car with Badmajapoff & Larson
in tomorrow. Busy letter writing. No. 1 with Chinese chauffeur went
up to Ussuk camp this p.m. to get letters from geologs to take in for
posting. Car will return early tomorrow morning [185].
“Send car with Badmajapoff & Larson in” meant the two men were being returned to
Urga [p. 119, Conq]. With Colgate driving, the pair got off shortly after 7 a.m. on July
3rd. That’s when Andrews and Granger, as Granger related above, were saying goodbye
to them before driving off to chase down and kill another ass.
The No. 1 touring car that had gone up to the geologs’ camp for mail on the 2nd, was
back at about sunrise on the 3rd with letters from Berkey and Morris for posting in Urga
along with the rest. After leaving camp, Colgate and his passengers stopped at the
caravan to provision up. Then they were to proceed toward the Ongin River as far as
daylight permitted and essentially follow the same route back that the expedition had
taken out from Urga. Serin, a Mongol boy, went along as guide just in case Colgate
needed help getting back to camp.
The decision to send Badmajapoff and Larson back to Urga may have seemed sudden,
but it was not unexpected. Granger himself had written his father on April 1 that Larson
would remain with the expedition only until July 1. If there is any surprise, it is how
Granger knew that then and why that was the plan. An expedition setting out into
supposedly unknown territory in search of the supposedly unknown for 4-5 months and
many, many miles surely would want its guide to remain at hand past July.
The answer appears to lie in the combination of reports of fossils occasionally referred to
by Granger, Andrews’s desire to return to Sain Noin to hunt and Badmajapoff’s wish to
take the baths. While the expedition seems to have been following a trail of fossil reports
they had received in advance, the end game clearly was hunting in Sain Noin. Perhaps the
nearby Arishan Springs for Badmajapoff also served as justification, though it isn’t clear
when it was decided he would be going along with the expedition. A reading of Granger
suggests that it came about as a consequence of Andrews’s difficult [contentious]
negotiations in Urga.
Larson, already a significant force in enabling this expedition well before it set foot in
Mongolia, seems to have gone along more for pleasure than for any need to guide. From
the beginning, the expedition knew where it was going, how to get there and how long it
would take. When it needed a local guide, it hired one. But Sain Noin was the ultimate
destination from the beginning. Larson knew it well and Andrews had been there before,
in 1919. Once there, they all knew how to get back.
In addition, any cross-country driving undertaken by the CAE was always in the context
of main and secondary camel caravan routes [trails] that framed [bounded, bordered,
skirted, enclosed, hedged], intersected and networked the entire region they were
travelling through. Cross-country driving was to shortcut a camel caravan route system
that was based on commerce, not on science. But whenver they were off-trail, the CAE
men knew they could seek assistance at a nearby camel caravan route, if necessary. Or a
nearby lamasary or Mongol village, for that matter.
The scientists were about finished at the western-most reported fossil locality. While
Granger and his men worked, Andrews hunted, and Badmajapoff and Larson made their
way back to Urga, the expedition was making ready to go back to Kalgan a different way,
due east along the well-traveled main southern caravan route. There were more reports of
fossils to check out.
The 4th was the hottest day so far. Granger noted 82˚ at 11 A.M. and 69˚ at 11 P.M.,
while Conquest [p. 119] placed the high at 95˚ in the shade on an “absolutely windless”
day [p. 119]. All stayed in camp most of the day except for a little propsecting that
evening. The geologists came down from their camp at dusk the next day, the 5th, riding
their horses so that they could work the route along the way. Morris’s map was now
complete and covered from the salt lake on the north to the base of Baga Bogdo and
showed a width of over ten miles. Their car was brought down that morning filled with
gear and a few more paper shale fossils {lower Cretaceous age Conq/107]. No more
dinosaur bones were found.
A wild ass had stood out on the plain [Tsagan Nor basin] in full view of the camp that
morning, sunning itself. Andrews and Shackelford set out for it in the No. 1 touring car
with a Carl Akeley camera in hand [186]. The ass raced off to begin an extended chase
over 30-miles of penaplane that lay in full view of the camp. All sorts of photographs,
both still and moving were taken of it. Its speed at the beginning of the race, Granger
estimated, was about 35 miles per hour and he kept that up for some 16 miles. It even
kicked the mudguard of the car when the vehicle got too close, Granger later learned.
But by the end, the stallion was drained and ready to lie down [in the shade] beside the
car. Instead, Andrews forced it back to within a half-mile of camp and left it standing in
the sun while he and Shackelford drove in for lunch. The ass lay down exhausted.
After lunch, they drove back out to try [attempt] to revive it by pouring water over its
head and body. They [even] got [encouraged, coaxed] the animal to sip some water from
the bucket. But exhaustion overcame it and it died in the middle of the afternoon. It
“became wild ass No. [left blank] of our collections,” wrote Granger [but see Conq/111-
112 where Andrews changes this story some, especially the outcome].
The next day, July 6 [date per WG-Conq/113, ie. note that Conq tracking WG diary here
as elsewhere], Andrews and Shackelford ran down a[n] wild ass colt that was only a few
days old [Conq/113]. Shackelford roped it and it was then loaded aboard the touring car
and brought back to camp. Since it was wild, it was not taking kindly to things, Granger
observed once they arrived. But eventually, they got it to drink milk from a canteen.
While Granger, Berkey and Morris worked the fossil beds, Andrews and Shackelford
decided on July 11th to make a new camp for themselves at the north shore of Tsagan
Nor [Conq/120]. They would call it ‘Lake Camp.’ Granger referred to it as the “lower
camp,” possibly a throw-back to the distinction drawn between his and Osborn’s camps
in the Fayum in 1907. There, however, Osborn’s camp was termed the “upper camp
[Bull. 22, p. []].” Loh, the Urga chauffeur, and Bato were to be left with Granger, Berkey
and Morris.
Colgate and Serin returned from Urga midday on July 11th [Granger thus shows 9-day’s
roundtrip, whereas Conq says it was 12, see Conq/119] with mail for Granger from Anna
and family and friends in America. The next day, Colgate drove over to Lake Camp
leaving Serin with Granger. Granger promptly concluded he had “no place” for Serin at
his camp and two days later when he and the geologists drove north to prospect a "grand
cañon,” they took Serin with them for relocation to Andrews’s camp which was on the
way.
Andrews, Shackelford and Colgate were out hunting when Granger and his party arrived
at “Lake Camp,” so Granger deposited Serin along with a note of explanation. Once at
the "grand cañon,” he and the geologs found a rich pocket of small fossil mammals. This
remained the pattern for the next week or so. Granger, Berkey and Morris, and their
native assistants, worked on the Tsagan Nor basin’s varied fossils and geology, while
Andrews, Shackelford and Colgate hunted.
Granger’s team went to the Tertiary exposures fifteen miles east of the Loh Beds [a
Lower Miocene layer of clays of less than one hundred feet thick imposed on the Hsanda
Gol, Conq/107] and found another patch of Cretaceous with paper shales [of Lower
Cretaceous age, p. 107, Conq]. They collected several good small jaws from the Tertiary
[gravels, sands and sandy clays, p. 107, Conq] and finished their examination of that area
by making sketches and measuring a stratigraphic section.
The thickness of the exposed sediments in the basin is between

eighty-five hundred and ten thousand feet. Only a fraction of these
strata was accumulated in any one period. This basin, which
contains the oldest and the youngest basin sediments of which we
have record, is the longest-lived and most active basin we have yet
observed in Mongolia [Conq., p. 108].
In sum, the geologs had topographically and geologically mapped “an area of eight
hundred square miles in a strip extending from the northern limit of thr basin at Usskuk to
the southern margin at Baga Bogdo [Conq/141].”
*
They headed back to Ussuk on the 24th where Morris spent the day sketching “the
remarkable topography exhibited by the Tertiary beds there.” Berkey worked mostly in
the paper shales while Granger collected an interesting small dinosaur he had just
discovered in the Cretaceous Ondai Sair formation Conq/138]. It proved to include a
considerable portion of the skeleton and was later named Protiguanodon mongoliense by
Osborn [Conq/138].
July 25, 1922--80˚ - 8:30 a.m. - 5590; 95˚ - 2:30 p.m. - 5700; 78˚ -
11 p.m. - 5750. Bright. Light easterly wind. A "Gobi Haze" nearly
obscured Bogo Bagda all day. Remained in camp packing specimens
and recording. Geologs to the east side of main wash late in p.m. to
measure the sections of variegated beds above the lava. Morris
started sketch of Bagda and foreground for desert group.
July 26, 1922--68˚ - 8 a.m. - 5600; 73˚ - 1 p.m. - 5660. Clear, light
easterly breeze. Camel caravan arrived at 9 a.m. and camped––the
heat being too great for them to proceed. Berkey and Morris left
with their tent and equipment for the Lake Camp about 11 a.m. Car
returned about 6 p.m. bringing Shack who wishes to take some
movies of my work [on the small dinosaur discovered two days
earlier-Conq/138]. He brought no tent and we're crowded in mine
now. I spent the forenoon packing fossils and repacking the Iren
Dabasu boxes, which have come through safely to date with only
camel dung as packing material. Camels left for Lake Camp at 6
p.m. Prospected near camp in late p.m. [187].
Now it was Granger, Shackelford and native assistants working on fossils. On the 27th,
Granger found a rodent skull new to science [new genra of Bathyergidae, Conq/139] two
miles below camp in the morning. Shackelford, while prospecting in a wash, found an
ulna of a large beast––possibly Baluchitherium, thought Granger [Conq/138]. It was.
More material was found throughout the day––a few fragmentary bones of rhinoceros
and one prospect of humerus, ribs, and foot bones.
The 27th was the hottest day of the season so far, made even more uncomfortable
because there was little breeze to cool them. Granger and Shack went back up to the old
Ussuk camp and spent an entire day on Granger’s small dinosaur (Protiguanodon
mongoliense) which was practically complete except for the head. He figured he needed
two more days to finish excavating and jacketing the parts. Two sections of the tail had
already been taken out in plaster wrapping. On the 28th, the caravan’s Mongolian soldier
escort passed through on his way from the Lake Camp to Sain Noin Khan in search of
mail that had been lost. Granger noted the “wonderful sunsets every evening.”
Cut #8
On the 29th, Granger returned to his dinosaur dig and took out the left fore foot in a
jacket while pasting up a left hind foot to take out separately the following day. He noted
that night that he would have to jacket the entire vertebral column, except two small tail
sections, in one piece. The specimen
lay with head exposed––skull disarticulated, legs sprawled out on

either side. All bones in position. Length about five feet. Chang the
Chinese driver helped up with the stuff in morning, came up at noon
with cold water and again at 7 o'clock to help back with things.
Specimen is about 1 1/2 miles from the well at Ussuk Camp. Auto
cannot go further than the well [188].
Baga Bogdo was still in a light haze––it had not been clear for five days or so. The
temperature now ranged in the 60˚s and 70˚s and the days were often cloudy with an
easterly breeze that sometimes turned north. Occasionally there was a spit of rain in the
early morning or at bed time. On the 30th, the weather looked so unfavorable that
Granger decided not to walk the one and a half miles up to the Ussuk site that morning.
Instead he prospected some badlands roughly two miles southeast of camp. He felt more
comfortable on the flat terrain with rain threatening. But the beds were barren. Returning
to camp for lunch, he found that Andrews and Colgate had just arrived in the No. 1 car.
They came by way of “Grand Cañon” trail [Grand Canyon trail, Conq/105] where they
put out traps for a large sand rat Granger had seen there and nowhere else [Conq/139].
Andrews reported that a Russian botanist in the employ of the Bolshevik government at
Urga stopped by the Lake Camp, probably to check up on their activities. He said he had
been collecting plants and seeds and looking into agricultural possibilities. Traveling by
horses borrowed from the Mongols as needed and living in their yurts as needed, he also
requisitioned food as needed while he traveled. Clearly this man had the authority to take
what he wanted. He was to go on to Uliassutai before returning to Urga by way of Lake
Baikal. It seemed to be an impressive feat of scientific survey by horseback.
After lunch, Granger took Andrews and Colgate to the badlands ten miles southwest of
camp to show them the Baluchitherium fossil Shack had found several days earlier
[Conq/142-this seems out of seq?]. After they prospected for an hour or so, Andrews and
Colgate left for the Lake Camp while Granger continued prospecting, finding fair results
with small mammals. Andrews agreed to send up a truck the next day with medicine for
Shack, who had the hives and was confined to his tent. Since the collections were
accumulating, the truck was to remain with Granger until he was ready to move down to
the Lake Camp. In the meantime, the geologists were working over toward the Bagda
with camels and horses. From there they sent up a small lot of what appeared to be
Pliocene fossils found at the east end of lake.
Over the next three days, July 31st to August 2nd, Granger worked on the dinosaur
specimen at Ussuk with Wang and a Mongol who had come up from Andrews’s Lake
Camp with the truck and medicine. Shackelford remained sick in bed, still very
uncomfortable. The dinosaur specimen was proving to be particularly difficult to collect

not only because of the three or four kinds of matrix in which it was embedded, but also
because the roots of grass and two bushes tangled in it.
Mongols arrived from the west and set up seven yurts at the Ussuk well. They passed
down the canyon by the pocket where Granger was working and “made a picturesque
sight with their camels, horses, cattle, sheep, goats and a few yaks, also dogs. All
belongings were carried on camels.”
Seven more yurts of Mongols came down the canyon the next day making a village of
fourteen yurts now at the well. Granger’s Mongol assistant loaded up empty tins of
various sorts and took them to give to the people at the well. Shack gradually became
more comfortable, although he stayed in bed and was still scratching.
The plaster jacketing for the dinosaur was made difficult because the weather had
become unsuitable for good drying. With the humidity, the plaster wasn’t hardening
sufficiently to hold the bones in place when the specimen block was removed from the
remaining matrix. On August 2nd, Granger managed to get the main section of the
plaster-encased dinosaur weighing about 150 pounds sufficiently dry to carry to the auto
that evening. The entire affair was put in a canvas sling attached to a tent pole and carried
by Chang and the Mongol.
The Mongol had taken more tins up to the yurts that day and came back with a catsup
bottle full of milk. Shack was now much better, up and around.
The 3rd of August was spent in camp working on specimens in the morning. After lunch,
Granger headed to the red beds two miles to the southwest with Wang and the Mongol
for more prospecting. Shackelford felt sufficiently well to go along. They sifted soil for
the remainder of the hind legs and feet of a carnivore that had been found there earlier in
June––specimen No. 54, Granger had recorded. Shack found many fragmentary teeth of
rhinoceros in a sandstone layer where Larson had found a tooth the first week they were
there. They also searched for more of the ulna of the apparent Baluchitherium, but
without success. Granger decided to move to the Lake Camp later the next day
[Conq/142].
After spending the morning in camp packing fossils, Granger, Shackelford and Wang
took the dog-wagon to the end of the badlands two miles southwest of camp [Conq/142].
They excavated a small carnivore before more prospecting. Just as they were about to
leave, Wang rushed up to Granger “in great excitement and announced the discovery of a
“ding howdy" large bone which proved to be the distal and proximal ends of a large
humerus––probably Baluchitherium.” They also found a fragment of jaw with the roots
of the last two molars of the same animal.
But they ran out of time to prospect for other pieces since it was nearly 6:00 p.m.,
Granger’s scheduled departure time for Lake Camp. Carrying out what fragments they
could, they returned to camp where the men were waiting with the truck loaded. Granger
quickly ate a late lunch and then took down his tent which had been up since early June
[?July]. They reached Lake Camp a half hour before sunset.
With the geologs back from their Bogo Bagda trip, the party was all together for the first
time since leaving splitting at Ussuk in June. As they chatted, Granger watched
the most wonderful sunset of the season. A gorgeous rainbow with

one limb directly in front of Bagda, wonderful color effects on storm
clouds to east and in the west brilliant stringers of crimson clouds.
Lake with green water in shore and deep blue further out. Line of
sand hills on opposite shore a beautiful golden yellow. Bagda herself
with her sunlit ridge changing from yellow to golden then rose
colored and finally to a pale purplish [189].
In camp, tents were pitched in a long row facing the lake on north side near the west end
150 feet from shore. The camel caravan rested at the west end of the tent row. The
Mongolian soldier caravan escort returned from Sain Noin Khan as the sun set, without
mail.
August 5––dawn at Lake Camp brought a “wonderfully fine clear calm day––slight
easterly breeze during day but dead calm toward sunset and in evening.” Granger spent
the day in camp preparing and packing fossils. Andrews, Shackelford and Wang drove
back to the Loh Beds in a dog-wagon to search for more of the Baluchitherium
Conq/142-143]. They returned early with what appeared to be a symphsis of lower jaw
and an upper premolar and reported to Granger that a considerable portion of the skull
had been found in a wash. Granger figured he would have to put in a full day at that
location.
He took “a much needed bath in the lake before tea time” that afternoon. Shallow for
several hundred yards out, the lake had a sandy bottom and a temperature of around 70˚.
The Chinese bathe every day, he noted, and seine fish for the small fish which abound in
the fall [190]. The Mongols did not venture into the water, however. “'Buckshot'” told
him that if "Mongol take bath pretty soon make die."
With the CAE men gathered into one camp again, Granger recorded some of the
happenings of daily expedition life. Taxidermists trapped for small mammals, 'Buckshot'
catching six hedgehogs that sneaked into camp at night for bits of meat. A tiny light gray
shrew got into the taxidermist's tent another night. Terns and gulls rested on the beach
directly in front of camp and the sheldrake paraded their young through the water a few
feet off shore. A young shrike, which 'Buckshot' had kept as a pet for two weeks, nipped
the string from around his neck and went on his way. The young wild ass captured
earlier was as wild as ever and pretty well skinned up from the rope with which he was
tethered. His legs were completely skinned and a big strip was burned off his nose. Three
goats kept him in milk and he was beginning to eat a little grass.
Andrews shot a two-year old buck and then a fawn. The fawns were large enough to eat
now. The caravan Mongols, however, disdained antelope meat and were going without
meat altogether. They desired sheep, but Andrews felt that, since the local Mongols ate
antelope whenever they could get it, the caravan Mongols should too. He refused to buy
more sheep. It was probably a matter of "face" with the caravan men more than anything
else, Granger noted.
Granger took the Fulton with Andrews, Shackelford and Wang back to the
Baluchitherium prospect on August 6th. There he found the skull at the base of a small
hill on the edge of the wash. Its left side was largely intact. Apparently it had slipped
down from a higher level and belonged with the lower jaw fragment and the fragment of
humerus found a few days earlier by Wang on the other side of the hill that sloped into
the next wash over. The two clusters were spread 35 or so feet apart from each other on
either side of the hill. Weathered skull fragments spread down the slopes in both
directions.
Granger worked the wash below the skull and found even more fragments missed by
Andrews and Shackelford the day before. He also realized that the large piece they had
brought back to camp was the front of the skull and not the mandibular symphysis. This
meant that the large caniniform teeth were incisors and that the entire skull had to be
nearly five feet long [Conq/143-144].
Poor weather the next day (7th) prevented returning immediately to that locality. Instead,
the men went in No. 1 to the west ridge ten miles northwest of “Grand Cañon” trail. The
red tertiary was well exposed, but a careful search turned up very little. Only a few badly
preserved rhinoceros bones and a fragment of a small artiodactyl jaw were found. Since
there were no other promising exposures of variegated beds to be seen in that vicinity,
they headed back for camp. On the way, they spotted a wild ass and ran it down.
Andrews fired three shots and missed. Then another ass appeared nearby and they took
after it letting the first one go. After they ran this one down in about two miles, Andrews
killed it. The skin and skull were taken and the party returned to camp at about dusk.
The great penaplane lying to the northwest of the lake was fine going for the car, and it
was there that most of the movies of wild ass and antelope had been taken. but while
there were still plenty of antelope on the plain, Granger observed, “the ass have been
pretty well driven off by so much chasing.”
Shackelford went back to the Baluchiterium site at the Loh Beds with Granger in a dog-
wagon the following day (8th) to film the process of pasting and excavating as Granger
tried to finish taking out the huge skull but could not. In the meantime, Shack found more
parts of the skull nearly 200 hundred yards down the wash.
Granger, Shackelford and Wang returned to Loh again the next day. Granger was
finished taking out the skull shortly after lunch. They all then drove to the "Grand Cañon"
trail where Andrews and Colgate had gone in No. 1 to prospect. Reaching that location at
about 4:00 p.m., Granger learned that they had struck a small pocket of concreted
specimens including several fairly well preserved skulls. Shack stayed with Andrews and
Colgate to take photographs while Granger returned to camp with the Baluchitherium
skull.
On the way back, he spotted a tamarisk tree 15 feet high at the bottom of canyon with
two hawk's nests. Tamarisks, he noted, grew “in low sandy areas in this neighborhood
and were the nearest approach to trees we have here. Tamarisk wood is used entirely at
the Lake Camp for cooking,” he noted.
On August 10, “all hands left camp about 10:45 [a.m.] for some exposures of Pliocene [in
the Hung Kureh formation] which can be seen near the eastern end of the lake and which
the geologists have visited twice and obtained important but fragmentary specimens from
[Conq/144].” The group took the cook, two Mongols and 11 camels from the caravan
with McClellan riding saddles strapped on them. They passed around the west end of the
lake and through the line of sand dunes which extended along the south side of the lake.
Shack took movies as they passed through the dunes.
The exposures were reached in the middle of the afternoon. The cook and one Mongol
were sent on ahead to a nearby spring to make camp. The men prospected until nearly
dusk before proceeding another two miles toward Bogo Bagda and into camp. A fine
spring of water bubbled up from the bottom of the draw at the campsite to form a stream
that ran a half mile or more down the draw toward the lake before disappearing beneath
the ground.
All except Berkey slept out in the open on the ground that night. All were also pretty sore
and stiff after their first day of camel riding. The prospecting continued the next morning
in the brownish beds encircling the camp. But only one piece of fossil bone was found.
They had lunch in camp and then all but Berkey and Morris went back to the gray beds of
the day before [Conq/144]. The geologs went to exposures some distance south of the
lake taking one Mongol with them. The cook, another Mongol, and two pack camels
went with Granger and the others.
Andrews found a large deer antler about an hour before sunset [Conq/145] and Granger
had a lively time getting it out in time to get through the sand dunes
before dark. There are trails through these dunes but the blowing
sand keep any tracks obscured most of the time. They are about a
mile wide at the narrowest places and are real live dunes. The line
extends along the northern base of Baga Bogdo––well out––passes
along the south shore of Tsagan Nor and reaches out toward Ikhe
Bogdo a long way. It is an impassable barrier for anything but
camels & horses and the latter have a hard time of it. It was dark by
the time we were through the dunes and we finally struck the south
trail and had an easy trip to camp after that [191].
It took them three hours to return to camp, making it after 11:00 p.m. The geologists had
arrived ahead of them, having come around the west end of the lake.
A busy day lay ahead. The cars were to leave in the morning for Artsa Bogdo mountain
range roughly 60 miles to the east where Andrews hoped to shoot bighorn sheep and ibex
[Conq/145]. It also was thought “probable that we would also find sedimentary basins
worthy of paleontological investigation [Conq/145].” The caravan was to start off in the
afternoon. Granger had to finish packing up the recent accumulation of fossils before they
lumbered away.
August 13, 1922––67˚ - 8 a.m. - 4850. Clear. 44.8 miles to a stream for
night camp:
Broke camp in forenoon and started east along south trail. Wild ass
rides in back of No. 1 with 'Buckshot' holding on to him. Does not
make much fuss over it [192][Conq/145].
Lunch was by a small lake situated 20 miles east of Tsagan Nor along the southern east-
west camel caravan route known as the Kweihwating-Kobdo trail heading east
[Conq/145]. Kobdo lay beyond Uliassutai, roughly 500 miles west of the expedition’s
current location. Kweihwating lay more than 600 miles east and south of the main trail
that bore its name. Oddly, to reach Kweihwating, one took a secondary camel route at the
Jisu Honguer intersection south off the main trail which continued straight to Kalgan.
Many high reeds surrounded the little lake which held an abundance of waterfowl. The
shotguns came out. First Andrews winged a whooper swan [Conq/146]. Then Granger
helped him down twelve gray leg geese, three ducks and three snipe. Shackelford
photographed the injured swan and then “finally turned it loose in the lake.” The tip of
the wing was broken. The hope was that it would heal sufficiently to allow the bird to
resume migration.
There had been a little trouble that morning crossing a nasty sand pocket. After lunch
they had more trouble crossing three or four small streams. One of them, though only 18
inches wide, had such straight banks that the men had to build a sod bridge to cross it.
Many tussocks lay along the stream bottoms obstructing car wheels and entangling
suspensions [Conq/146]. Aside from that, the driving was excellent. Two pet crows rode
in a box and seemed quite at home when released at the new camp site. The only other
small pet they had now was Shackelford’s half-grown hedgehog. 'Buckshot' still had his
ass.
The next morning, they left the trail after covering about 25 miles and drove directly
south to the foot of a mountain located ten miles east of the extreme eastern end of the
Altai range. There they camped at a low pass in the range with several trails leading over
it Conq/149]. The site was on a gentle grass-covered slope at the edge of a draw. Water
was available from wells in a larger draw a mile to the east. While there were no trees,
there were many bushes––mostly of a plume-like plant. The side hills were patched with
the Artshi, a recumbent cedar with pale green fruits, from which the mountain took its
name [Conq/147-148].
Mongols living in yurts below the camp panicked as the expedition approached in cars to
inquire about water. Men on horses took to the hills. Women and children shut
themselves up in the yurts. But once the expedition’s purpose became known, the
horsemen began filtering back in from hiding and presents of mare’s milk (kumis) were
soon forthcoming [Conq/148].
*
Andrews was up and off at daybreak into the Artsa Bogdo range on horseback with Serin
and a local Mongol guide to hunt for ibex and bighorn sheep. He later reported seeing
over 50, mostly ibex and all does or young, and had shot one adult [old] female ibex
[Conq/149&150].
Granger, Berkey, Morris and Colgate took the No. 1 to a bluff about 20 miles northwest
of camp where they could see small exposures of buff-colored beds underlying a heavy
capping of lava. After considerable difficulty trying to drive through a field of tussocks to
reach these exposures, they left the Colgate to find a way around while they walked to the
site. The beds looked Tertiary, buff and red clays, but they found only one fragment of
rather well-petrified bone embedded in the lava. Berkey also noticed interesting incisings
[drawings cut, “prehistoric pictures” etched] on rock in that locality [Conq/150&151-
fig.9].
[insert Berkey/Morris quote re drawings frm Conq/150 re drawings]
After a couple of hours of looking over some low-lying hard red shales that appeared to
be Eocene northeast of the bluff yielded nothing, they returned to camp at sunset. The
men planned to remain in camp on the 16th of August for a day of hair-cutting, cleaning
weapons, making notes and tending to other chores. It drizzled that day. The caravan
arrived late in the afternoon [Conq/151].
Between the fossil collection from Tsagan Nor and what he had gathered since, Granger
now counted eighteen boxes of specimens with the expedition caravan. Most of it was
packed in empty gasoline tin cases. The rest filled two large and one small camel boxes.
Loaded with fossils, the tin cases were carried six to a camel, just as they were when
filled with gas tins.
Though it had been thought that their supply of gasoline was ample, there now was an
alarming shortage despite having allowed for the expected forty percent evaporation and
leakage loss. There was barely enough to get all five cars back to Iren Dabasu where it
was hoped a new supply could be obtained. As a result, all unnecessary side trips, game
hunting and chasing were now curtailed.
The geologists made arrangements to use horses and camels to take them over the
mountain and out into the basin to the south as far as seemed practicable. Granger was to
go with them but in the end decided to go north to some exposures plainly visible from
camp with field glasses. He took a dog-wagon and three natives. Andrews, Shackelford,
Serin and a Mongol went up into the hills for more ibex [Conq/152].
A storm obscured most of the basin. The low-lying Gurbun Saikhan mountain range
could be seen to the east. Five ibex, does and young, came down while Granger was
eating lunch and watched him for a moment from 100 yards away. Andrews later claimed
they were among some he had frightened. But, he was able to kill a young mountain
sheep––one of a herd of 20 or so.
The Mongol village near camp was furnishing the wild ass with milk. The little beast was
looking rather sad with the loss of additional skin from its head and all four legs where it
fought its tether. It also seemed not to have grown much since capture. It was only
slightly taller, but thin and gaunt, and would not eat grass although it had plenty of milk
teeth. It also was still afraid of everyone but 'Buckshot.' 'Buckshot' had hobbled him
recently, and the ass followed him all about camp, even into the cook tent at times
[Conq/151-152].
But the ass was clearly failing and about done in. It was down most of the time and
diarrhea had developed. 'Buckshot' was disconsolate and had already dug a grave down in
a draw near camp. Any upcoming regrets by 'Buckshot' over the loss of it, however,
would be tinged with relief from the others. It had presented quite a problem. Its passing,
observed Granger, would simplify the loading of the cars, in particular.
The ass died in the night of the 18th, Granger recorded on August 19th. “'Buckshot' had
him properly interred by the time we were up. A little mound of earth heaped up on the
grave in true Chinese fashion. We felt more sorry for the boy than for the ass [Conq/151-
152].”
*
The party split up again. Andrews and Shackelford went up into the hills shortly after the
caravan departed for Sair Usu at sunrise [Conq/152]. Berkey and Morris went off to the
south after an early tiffin with their pack outfit, taking four camels and four horses. They
“wished to study the Artsa Bogdo uplift and the region directly to the south [Conq/152].”
In tne meantime, Granger decided he would work more successfully if he set up camp
down on the plain [Conq/152].
Granger loaded all of his gear into the No. 3 car, along with Wong, Loh and Bato, and
drove off to a spring with excellent water near the main trail [?Kweihwating-Kobdo].
There they established camp on a hillside about ten miles directly north of Andrews’s
camp and in plain view of it. Before splitting up, Andrews and Granger had agreed to
exchange signals between camps by motorcar search light or mirror flash every day if
possible.
[Here Conq then launches into another 2-3 page diversion about RCA’s big-game
hunting. You should probably note these whenever they occur.]
Granger prospected that afternoon in the low hills north of his new camp. It was mostly
lava flow with a few outcrops of unfossiliferous gravelly beds beneath. He found an
arched shelter in the lava at the head of a small canyon which recently had been used as a
habitation. A rude bed made of strips of wood occupied the shelter. There also was some
old clothing. A quantity of grain straw done up in small bundles lay strewn in front.
Granger pondered where the straw had come from since he had not seen cultivation of
any kind in Outer Mongolia.
As agreed, there was an exchange of search light signals with the main camp that night to
confirm that all was well.
On the 21st, leaving [Bato] begind to guard camp, Granger set off with Wang and [Loh]
to find a well reported to be ten miles northeast of their new camp. After driving through
region he found relatively uninteresting, they found the well “very filthy, choked with
sheep dung and a dead rat or two in it for good measure.”
From there, they went north, mostly over grass covered hills gradually climbing until
they reached the southern edge of a great sedimentary basin. It looked to be ten miles or
more across from north to south and even broader east to west and was later named the
Oshih Basin [Conq/158]. An hour's prospecting yielded three weathered vertebrae of a
large sauropod which Granger did not have time to examine because dusk approached.
Signals were again exchanged between camps that night.
Granger drove back to the great basin with Wang and [Loh] the next morning (22nd) and
entered at the southwest corner. There they found a good well with clear water, both
Wang and [Loh] confirming it was "horola" which Granger judged meant “excellent.” He
decided camp would be shifted to that location the following day.
Continuing with hhis inspection, Granger examined some of the Cretaceous exposures
along the southern edge of the [Oshih] basin, but found no trace of bone. Three miles
northeast of the well, however, he saw [noticed, observed] a great red, lava-capped mesa,
several hundred feet high and at least two miles long. The beds were apparently the same
as the red shales several miles west of the spring on the main trail. He climbed the mesa
and made a sketch. He then examined the slopes he stood on but found nothing.
However,
an extraordinary wall of lava stones had been built in a north-south

direction across the western end of the mesa where it dropped off
into two pyramid shaped buttes. The wall extends out onto the open
plain for at least a mile in each direction. Much tumbled down but
visible for miles. Portions of the wall are still intact however. This
wall may enclose the mesa but I could not see any easterly extension
either to the north or south. Cannot imagine anything more than a
religious significance in a structure of this sort [193].
Granger noted that the location was about a 12-mile drive from his present camp, almost
due north. More signals were exchanged that night.
*
On the 23rd, Granger sent Bato over to some Mongol yurts to arrange to have a message
sent to Anrews. Instead of Mongols, Bato found two lamas there who were caretaking the
place while the family and stock were away. They had no horse. “While waiting for a
rider to turn up,” Granger recorded later, “Bayard appeared on horseback. Had ridden
down to try and arrange a code of signals with the search lights. Gave me the
‘Contionental’ code. Said out light could be seen by them but only dimly. He stayed for
tiffin and I sent a message back to Roy by him [WGDiary].”
With Colgate’s departure after lunch, Granger and his men moved camp to the new
location 13.4 miles away as measured by the car’s odometer. After they set up within 50
yards of the well, Granger “had the men dip the water out so that a clear supply may run
in.” He attempted to signal off the clouds that night because they were now too low in
elevation to exchange direct signals with the other camp. But he couldn’t reach them.
An instant village of half dozen yurts had sprung up near their old camp while they were
gone for the day, Granger noted. Hundreds of sheep were now about. “They have
probably spoiled the spring by this time,” Granger groused.
Three oil tins were taken over to the two caretaker lamas who were quite pleased, even
though they had not quite understood at first that these were intended as gifts. One of the
lamas, Granger noted, was impaired and had “to walk with his body at right angles to his
legs.”
On the 24th, Granger and his crew started for the bluff where he had found the three
weathered sauropod vertebrae. It was six miles distant going along the south side of the
mesa. When they got to the mesa’s east end, they found themselves entirely blocked by a
magnificent set of badlands that dropped down 200 feet and were extremely rough.
Granger spent the day prospecting there and found a small reptilian skull in concretion
and two prospects of small dinosaurs. Wang found a large sauropod limb bone and “a
small thing, so he said.” The beds seem fairly rich in fossils. In fact, the extent of visible
exposures seemed great enough to keep a party busy for a full season.
The threesome climbed the west end of the mesa on their way back to camp to hunt for
the red-legged partridge. Granger had spotted them two days before, but they were not to
be found. As he strode across the top of the mesa, the sunset made the climb well worth
the effort, partridges or not. “Old Bogo Bagda was enveloped in a wonderful rosy haze,
just a little south of the setting sun,” Granger wrote. Expedition life seemed good, he
reflected. “The chauffeur looks after my floral decoration. Keeps a bouquet on my table
constantly and today he brought in from the badlands a small bush covered with lemon
yellow flowers and transplanted the thing in my tent––near the front––where I can see it
as I sit at table or on bed. It's really quite effective.”
Granger and Wang returned to Wang’s sauropod find at the east end of the mesa. Neither
end of the bone was perfect and the shank was crushed, making it probably not worth
taking. The other specimen, however, was a significant portion of a small dinosaur
skeleton the size of the Ussuk specimen (Protiguanodon). This was to become known as
Psitticosaurus mongolienses [Conq/159]. It was in concretion with its tail and pelvis
exposed. The hind limbs were probably gone, Granger surmised, but he figured that the
anterior portion of body should be there.
He brought in the tail section which was already loose from the ledge and worked the rest
of the day on the specimen which was somewhat larger than the Ussuk dinosaur. It had
been an entire skeleton, but weathering had left it mostly in fragments all of which they
gathered up. There was one perfect hind limb, but the foot and the tail were still in the
rock.
It was clear that this small dinosaur was common throughout these beds––many skeletons
were to be had. It was a dinosaur of a type new to Granger. He thought it might be
something like the Camptosaurus. The next day or so were devoted to the specimen
recently found in the concretionary rock. When he broke into the top of the concretion,
Granger found the skull attached. Extracating it was slow and difficult.
The party returned to camp at sunset. Granger had a bath and seemed fairly pleased in
general with his new, perhaps less complicated setting:
Our well water is splendid for washing but not good for drinking––
not bad but the kind one doesn't linger over. Has something like
washing soda in it. The Mongol, Bato, says that camels like this kind
of water. Look for the geologs tomorrow. These are very quiet,
peaceful days––excellent for collecting.
August 28, 1922––Cloudy all day––faint sunshine occasionally,

alternating with sprinkle of rain. Strong easterly winds. All day on
larger of small dinosaurs found by me, took up hind leg, foot and
pelvis. Have tail to take tomorrow. Wang prospecting and found
several more specimens, one a partial skeleton which will be worth
taking if I have time. We also found a tooth of a Sauropod dinosaur
[?Asiatosaurus mongoliensis?, Conq/159] [194].
Granger had wanted the geologs to come over and study the area. Presumably that’s the
message he had sent to Andrews via Colgate. A lama riding through on the 28th reported
that the geologs had returned to Andrews’s camp the day before. Granger expected their
arrival in another day or so. But they had not shown up as he had hoped. He was irritated
that he might have to fetch them. The weather further dampened his outlook, as his diary
entry for the 29th made clear:
A dismal day––especially with no company. Read and wrote until

tiffin time and packed up specimens and pasted in afternoon. Sky
perfectly clear tonight. It is surprising what a heavy rain it takes in
this country to start the dry washes running. It rained constantly
today for six hours and at times quite hard and yet the washes near
camp were barely running. The absence of much clay in the
formation seems to account for this––the surface soil is mostly
gravelly or sandy and anything but a steady downpour sinks in. Our
Mongol tents shed water except where the wind blows the rain
against the tent––a slight spray comes through at such places and in
a driving rain it comes through freely. The method of closing the
front is not satisfactory and as it usually blows from the front in a
rain we find it difficult to keep the front of the tent dry [195].
Granger and Wang had continued working on the small dinosaurs finding more and more
evidence of them wherever they looked. “The whole badlands where I work seems to be
fairly crawling with dinosaurs on certain levels,” Granger wrote. Finally, on the 30th,
Berkey, Morris and Colgate arrived at about 5:00 p.m., having left Andrews’s camp right
after lunch. They came in the No. 1 bringing along their beds and one tent. Granger
immediately took them for a brief tour of the badlands before letting them settle in at
camp. With another day’s work behind him and the geologs now there, Granger was
pleased to note that the “[b]oys brought over a fine mess of partridges which we had for
supper.”
Granger was up early the next morning. He instructed Loh (Wang and Bato) to break
camp and return to Andrews’s camp while he, Berkey, Morris and Colgate spent the day
going over the basin’s geology and taking photographs. They first went to the west end of
the mesa, which they climbed. They then went back down into the basin and traversed
over it to the north wall where they prospected until lunch. A few fragments of bone
found in a paper shale layer established the age of this north wall as Cretaceous. They
then went back across the basin to the east end of the mesa and up into the lava flow near
where Granger had found the three sauropod dinosaur vertebrae. They exited the basin up
the south rim and drove north to Andrews’s camp, arriving an hour after dark. Tomorrow,
September 1, was departure day Conq/160].
“Starting east tomorrow!”
Our last camp opposite Artsa Bogdo mountain was on the ancient
Kobdo-Kweihwating trail ten miles north of the mountain. We
decided to follow the trail eastward to the vicinity of Ulan Nor [a
lake about 20 miles north of the K-K trail] and then try to strike
northward to the Uliassutai-Sair Usu road, which we believed
could be traveled safely into Kalgan. If this route proved
impracticable we should have to find some other way to Kalgan
[Conq/161].
Friday, September 1, 1922, was a bright and pleasant day as the party got off at 9:00 a.m.
Temperatures ranged from 42˚ at sunrise to 70˚ at around 4:00 p.m. The party drove 29
miles along the east-west Kweihwating-Kobdo trail until they reached a well. Berkey and
Morris rode in the No. 1 (touring car) with Wang as driver and Loh as passenger.
Andrews and Shackelford rode with a Mongol [?Bato] in the No. 3. Colgate and Granger
rode together in the No. 2.
The geologists had been switched into the No. 1 car from the dog-wagon they had been
using so that it could be loaded to capacity with just a single driver. In fact, all the
vehicles were heavily loaded now [Conq/161]. In addition to fossils, rock samples, and
Andrews’s recently collected goat and sheep heads and skins to mount, they were also
carrying enough gasoline to get all vehicles to Sair Usu.
Despite the wonderful weather that day, the trip got off to a rocky start. Two tires were
punctured by dropped Chinese shoe nails that morning––one on the No. 1 and one on the
No. 2. Dropped shoe nails posed a constant problem, Granger recorded. They
have caused all punctures so far on the trip. These nails have large
heads and usually stand upright. Thousands of caravans passing over
the Mongolian trails in times past have left the trails pretty well
strewn with nails from the shoes of the Chinese caravan men [196].
At about 11:00 a.m., the Fulton truck’s clutch suddenly refused to work. Colgate took it
apart and found that both clutch "fingers" were so worn from friction that the small pins
that gripped the rim of the clutch to throw it out were lost [gone]. No new clutch fingers
were in stock, so it was necessary to reattach the pins to the old fingers by drilling
through each pin and each finger tip and fastening them together with wire nails. Granger
made a sketch of this operation which consumed the balance of the day.
By nightfall, the Fulton clutch was still not operable but the work was completed by early
the next morning and the party moved on. The day’s run was 36.5 miles over some bad
sand washes with many tussocks to a section of trail that ran along the top of a long red
bluff. From that vantage point, they spotted a group of yurts off to the south with the
distant, low-lying range of the Gurbun Saikhan behind them [Conq/162].
Andrews drove over to inquire about a [branch] road branching [heading] north to the
Sair Usu trail. There had been no Mongols along the trail to ask. The yurts turned out to
be a yamen, or checkpoint, at the entrance to the southwestern kingdom. The two Mongol
soldiers guarding the road [compound] told Andrews that the north branch was another a
mile or two farther on. The party decided to camp right where they were on the
Kweihwating-Kobdo trail for the night and engage a guide the next day to take them on
to the north turnoff [Conq/162].
Mosquitoes and black flies seemed rampant, Granger noted. Along with a well or two
nearby the trail, they later discovered there was a small pond a couple of miles north in
the badlands. This was only the second spot in Mongolia where these insects had
bothered them so. The other was Ongin Gol where they had stopped on the way out, less
than 100 miles away.
While discussions took place and a decision was made about where to camp for the night,
Shackelford had walked off a half mile north to prospect a red escarpment in the
badlands. He, too, had found the insects particularly annoying and wanted to move
around. Not long after, he returned to report a discovery to Granger. Shackelford had
“found a fine skull of a reptile new to me, white bone in red sandy concretion,” Granger
wrote. It would later be named Protoceratops andrewsi by Granger and William King
Gregory in a paper they published in 1923 [Conq/162].
All hands returned to the escarpment to inspect the find and prospect further. Clearly they
were in a very rich Cretaceous formation as many more fossils were found. Granger’s
included “another small reptile skull and an eggshell, probably bird [Conq/162].” The
men could not know it then and would not for many more months, but they were in one
of vertebrate paleontology’s most magic moments of history. This place was to be called
the Djadochta formation of Shabarakh Usu. It included the “Flaming Cliffs” and was long
considered the most important deposit in Asia, if not the world [Conq/162].
The eggshell was a badly weathered fragment as to which Granger could draw no
conclusion in the field. Fossilized bird eggshells were not uncommon. However, no
dinosaurian eggshell had ever been confirmed. Therefore bird seemed more likely,
although Granger’s “probably bird” left it open.
Fragments of eggshells thought to be dinosaur were first recorded by scientists in 1859.

They were found in the French Pyrenees where nearly complete fossil eggs were
discovered ten years later. These eggs were claimed to be dinosaur by the French
paleontologist Paul Gervais in 1877. But the few fragments of dinosaur bone found in the
same strata as the eggs could not be conclusively associated with them and his claim was
not accepted.
Nevertheless, while definitive evidence remained missing, speculation abounded. In

1899, while visiting at Sheep Creek, Wyoming, Granger and William H. Reed talked of
dinosaur reproduction and the hope to someday find a dinosaur egg in the American
West. Later reflecting on his eggshell fragment find in 1922, Granger wrote:
When the Central Asiatic Expedition first entered the Gobi, in 1922,
it was not known definitely that dinosaurs laid eggs. Reptiles of
today have both oviparous and viviparous methods of
reproduction––even with closely related species of snakes some lay
eggs and others bring forth living young, and it was supposed that
since dinosaurs are reptiles, some of them, at least, might have laid
eggs, although none had ever been found. At Rognac in southern
France some fragments of what seemed to be reptilian egg shells
were found in strata bearing dinosaur bones and there is a possibility
that these are really bits of dinosaur egg, but they may also belong to
other contemporary reptiles. In North America, where dinosaurs

flourished as nowhere else in the world and where their bones, their
gizzard stones, their tracks and their tooth marks abound, not a trace
of their eggs had ever come to light [197].
Knowing this fragment would require laboratory analysis, he wrapped it up carefully for
transport back to the American Museum at the earliest opportunity. Shackelford provided
just that when agreed to conceal it (and the Baluchitherium skull!) in one of the boxes of
motion picture camera equipment he was shipping back to New York that Fall. By Spring
of 1923, the Museum was able to confirm to Granger that the eggshell was dinosaur.
They moved on the next day and drove 81 miles straight north to the familiar lamasary at
Ongin Gol they had visited on the way out earlier that summer. Their new Mongol guide
rode in the No. 3 with Andrews. Shackelford rode in the No. 1 with the geologists and
Granger rode in the No. 2 with Colgate. They left the trail when it became too steep for
vehicles and descended a somewhat frightening escparment a little to the east. The
driving became even more difficult when their route became obstructed by large areas of
deep, loose sand and dense clumps of tussocks. Andrews scouted ahead only to return
discourgaed, reporting that things seemed hopeless. Using up too much gasoline to
negotiate these obstacles was one of their concerns [Conq/163].
They pressed on after finding a faint trail and deciding to follow it. Miraculously, it took
them to a narrow strip of land along a rim free from sand and brush [Conq/164]. They
“crept along this rim for ten miles and finally emerged onto one of the finest auto roads in
the world!,” Granger wrote.
For 40 miles, they drove along a gently sloping bench that was ten miles wide and dipped
off only two feet or so to the rim. The surface was perfectly smooth and covered with tiny
pebbles with only scant growth of grass and no bushes. They later agreed that it probably
was the same great penaplane they had crossed on the way to the Ongin Gol from the east
during their outward journey that Spring. The penaplane appeared to continue on to the
north, and if it reached as far as their former crossing, they realized, it would be nearly
100 miles long. Indeed, it was later termed the “Hundred Mile Tennis Court [Conq/164].”
The penaplane was dotted with yurts. Flocks of domestic animals fed on rich, grassy
bottom land along the river. Once they struck good going, the cars were put on full speed
“and buzzed past the yurts at 30 miles per hour, scattering the herds of sheep & goats,
camels, horses and cattle, the natives peeping around the yurt at us in awe.” They stopped
to camp just south of a lamasary a half hour before sunset. There they were told that the
Uliassutai Trail was not more than 50 miles away and that Merin had crossed the Ongin
Gol nearby some ten days before, informing the lamas that the cars would be coming.
This lamasary, known as ‘Ongin Gol-in-Sumu,’ was “a small but picturesque group of
temples with some 200 Lamas, the cleanest and most intelligent set of these people we
have yet seen,” Granger wrote as he also noted “Puncture on No. 3 in a.m.; trouble with
No. 1 [Conq/164].”
On September 4th, Granger began keeping [taking] odometer readings in his journal. The
day was bright with a moderate westerly breeze. The temperature rose from 45° at sunrise
to 59° at ten o’clock that night. They covered 117 [112? Conq/165] miles that day after
leaving the lamasary at 9:15 a.m., most of it fairly good going. The men angled northeast,
first across the penaplane for about 11 miles and then through low hilly country following
a foot trail. They struck the Sair Usu-Uliassutai Trail at 12:30 p.m. and stopped for lunch.
Having reached this main caravan trail, there was no longer a need for their Mongol
guide. So they sent him back and continued east. The trail was excellent going and
Granger’s odometer readings for that day were:
17.2 - Well
29.6 - "
34.0 - lamasary
44.0 - Well
49.5 - Yurts
59.5 - "
61.2 - Well
67.7 - lamasary
76 (about) - Well and camp
The next day's run was 75 miles to Sair Usu. In the morning they managed to lose the
trail thereby mistakenly making a northerly course that ultimately forced them to travel
two sides of a triangle instead of one straight line [Conq omits mention]. Granger
sketched the route. At point “X” on Granger’s sketch, they finally took on a guide who
showed them the way back to Sair Usu. (Granger also notes taking on guide at restart
mile 14.6 below.) The trail was fair most of the way with only a few bad spots. Started at
8:25 a.m., the drive went as follows:
77.8 - Start
82.5 - lamasary––60.5
93.8 - Well
96.1 - Sand––probably left main trail here
07.8 - Well [restart at]
14.6 - Yurts––took guide
18.5 - Yurts––pool
23.5 - tiffin
30.4 - Well and mud houses
43.7 - Sair Usu
In better times, Sair Usu, sitting at the intersection of main trails to Urga, Uliassutai, and
Kobdo, “must have been a station of considerable importance [Conq/165].” Now it
consisted of a tiny lamasary inhabited by 25 or so lamas, a half dozen yurts, the ruins of a
large Chinese temple and another small temple in fair condition. There were also several
mud barrack houses that had been used by soldiers when the Chinese were in possession
of that region. Water was obtained from several wells and was of acceptable quality.
Merin had arrived with the caravan and reported that all was well. The next day was
spent unloading, repacking and reloading the fossils to the caravan. Unnecessary items
were also taken out of the cars and put on camels to make room for gas––all gasoline
containers were taken off the camels and loaded aboard the cars to get them back to
Kalgan, 536 miles east.
*
Borghese’s 1907 campaign to race from Peking to Paris across the Gobi-Mongolia,
Osborn-Granger’s 1907 expedition to the Fayum of Egypt and Albert Thomson’s
employment of “AutoBilly” in Nebraska had laid the groundwork for the Central Asiatic
Expeditions. The ability of the motorcar to travel off-road was well-known by 1922. The
New York to Paris race of 1908 proved that, as did Horatio Nelson Jackson’s first
crosscountry traverse of the US in 1903 followed by Alice Ramsey in 1909. Ramsey.
"Alice only had 152 miles of paved roadway in 1909, and those roads were primarily
within the cities. ... Otherwise it was all wagon trails, and that's some difficult terrain to
cross
[http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/12/11/woman.crosscountry.driver/index.html]."
Roaming freely about an expansive territory in motorized vehicles to hunt for and collect
fossils and other specimens and materials already had been achieved at some level by
arctic explorers, as well as by Albert Thomson in []. The CAE’s range and extended stay
in Mongolia combining motor car with camel caravan was premised on the experiences
on these explorers along with Borghese, Osborn-Granger, Thomson and other previous
motorcar adventurers. Pre-arranged rendezvous with the caravan for resupply in the field
followed the practice of Osborn-Granger during the 1907 Fayum expedition, as well as
Borghese’s advanced cache arrangement for crossing the Gobi that same year.
In Mongolia, the various rendezvous allowed the expedition to transfer their collections
to date and make room for new ones. Boxes of supplies and gas tins brought out from
Kalgan were emptied and then reloaded with fossils and other collections for transport
back to Kalgan. From there they were taken on to Peking by rail to be repacked for
shipment by ocean liner back to the American Museum in New York City.
This was, of course, essentially the same procedure Borghese used in 1907 and akin to
what Osborn-Granger did in the Fayum that same year. Camels dropped caches along
Borghese’s route through the barren Gobi to sustained his effort which he could not
otherwise have made. In the Fayum, Camels trundled out from Tamia loaded with
supplies and water to keep Granger functioning at his stationary camp at the quarries. The
rotation had the camels returning with boxes loaded with fossils to be taken to the
railroad station in Tamia for transport to Cairo by rail. There they would be repacked for
shipment by ocean liner back to the American Museum in New York City.
Absent the camels, of course, this is roughly the way Granger and others had done things
with horse, wagon and rail since the early days of fossil-collecting in the American West.
Camels required less care and could bear more, however. The experience with camels in
the Fayum in 1907 clearly impressed Osborn and Granger with the power and potential
camels played in enabling a party to work long term at a remote desert work site sending
out a succession of fossil boxes weighing as much as 400 pounds each. Writing for
Science in 1907, Osborn stated that the
party [would] only succeed through thorough, systematic and

prolonged search and excavation... A train of eight camels is
constantly moving to and fro, keeping the camp supplied, a three to
four days' round journey [198].
Thus, as the ancient Persians brought camels to Egypt to abet the consolidation of their
political influence, the Central Asiatic Expeditions deployed them to gain access to the
riches of Mongolia's riches. Unlike Granger's stationary campsite in the Fayum,
campsites in the Gobi were as wide-ranging as the reach of a motor vehicle and
preplanned rendezvous with the double-humped back beast would allow. But Granger
easily could have moved his camp elsewhere in the Fayum, to the Zeuglodon Valley for
example, and the caravan system would have worked just as well.
While the similarities between vast, barren and remote expanses of snow and ice to the
equally barren and remote expanses of deserts and badlands were striking and required
innovation, the CAE had one great advantage over the arctic explorers. Not only did
Mongolia have an established route system, it was populated, there was vegetation, there
was water, there was wildlife, there were landmarks, there were guides and there was
foreknowledge. In organizing this, an already familiar sense existed of where and when
camel and car could meet, and where help could be found.
In the vast expanse of the Gobi and Mongolia that lay before them, the CAE already
knew where it was were going. Exploration was designed to cover wide expanses of
ground because it had already been done before. With their general route in mind, they
knew how much fuel and supplies were needed, how many camels were needed, where
and for how long they were going, and where and when to meet the next caravan.
The rendezvous at Sair Usu was to be the last meeting of motors and camels that season.
Granger spent the 6th repacking fossils for shipment by caravan. All gasoline was taken
off the camels and enough was loaded aboard the cars to get them to Kalgan. Every thing
not needed in the cars was placed with the caravan “in order to reduce the motor loads,
which will be extra heavy [due to the loaded gas tins] starting out tomorrow.”
When the cars sped off the next day, September 7th, Granger resumed noting mileage and
landmarks for the next 60-miles that day and another 57-miles the following day. The
road generally had become a “mixture of good and Badmajapoff,” Granger joked. The
natives, he also noted “have shown great fear of autos all day Conq/166-167].” And now
they were traveling through a “very thickly populated region and it has been difficult to
get proper directions. There are many possibilities of getting off the right road.”
They drove 38 miles from 8:30 a.m. to tiffin time at Promontory Point (Ardyn Obo) the
next day [Conq/168]. While it isn’t clear where Granger got the name Promontory Point,
the trail passed along the base of the eastern end of a very extensive plateau of Tertiary
strata which ended abruptly like the prow of a ship. The face of it rose several hundred
feet high. The mesa was fairly flat on top with an elaborate obo near the “prow” called
Ardyn Obo (ardyn means jewels) [Conq/168].
These were badlands of a general reddish color with a heavy capping of coarse sandstone.
Prospecting the area before and after tiffin yielded several fragmentary bones of apparent
mid-Tertiary age. After tiffin, the ever-developing fossil-hunting ace, Shackelford,
discovered a deposit of rhinoceros material. Granger decided this find alone required at
least a full day's stop [Conq/168].
And one day turned into four. On the first day, Granger picked up a pair of young jaws
from the surface. Excavation led to a pair of adult jaws, an adult skull and considerable
skeleton material. While Granger worked on this, the geologists measured the strata by
taking sections (measuring stratigraphic section with a Jacob’s staff) while Andrews and
Shackelford prospected nearby.
A second smaller but nearly complete rhinoceros skull was found the next day,
September 11. In the meantime, Colgate drove seven or eight miles up the road toward
Kalgan to obtain a fresh supply of water from a well there since a third full day of fossil
work lay ahead. Another palate was discovered the third day as Granger endeavored to
finish up.
A sprinkle of rain just before daybreak on September 13th alarmed Granger. “I had left
pasted skulls uncovered in quarry and I went up and brought them down and covered up
other things.” He stayed in the quarry all morning. Camp was broken after lunch and four
of the cars proceeded on to the well Colgate had visited. Colgate remained behind with
the fifth car until Granger’s last pasted up specimen, the palate, was dry enough to lift
and carry. After they drove off, Granger “held it in my lap all afternoon and let it finish
drying there.”
Granger continued making odometer readings and landmark notations. That day's run was
36 miles in “’[c]hoppy sea’ topography most of afternoon.” These were his last jottings in
that now full diary book. He started a new one.
September 14, 1922
Book III
Mongolia-1922
33˚ Sunrise[;] 76˚ - 3:30 p.m.[;] 47˚ - 9:30 p.m. Light easterly breeze
in forenoon; southwesterly breeze in afternoon; quiet in evening.
Day's run about 28.5 miles. Camp on a level piece of ground by a
well and carpeted with short green grass. 1/2 hour after sunset [199].
With camp break down finished that morning and all cars loaded, the No. 2’s motor
balked and then refused to run at all. Colgate worked on it until nearly lunch time, finally
getting it to sputter along for a mile or so before things went wrong again. He tinkered
some more and got it going again after lunch. After running just a few miles, it finally
quit completely.
Colgate began pulling part after part off the engine until he at last discovered, as
Shackelford had suggested from the beginning, that the carburetor float was rusted
through and now filled with gasoline. In other words, it was no longer a float. With a new
float in stock, the trouble was remedied in short order and the outfit finally got off at
around 4 p.m. that afternoon. Trees resembling the willow-leaved cottonwood were
scattered along the sandy washes they drove through and reminded Granger of parts of
Wyoming. The party drove until dark and then camped near a well. As a precaution, they
drained the water out of the auto radiators for the first time, in case the nighttime
temperature dropped to freezing.
The next day (15th) they pressed on, covering another 83 miles before going into camp
on a flat upland near a Chinese caravan. The road was excellent most of that day, as was
the weather. At some point between miles 05.1 and 19.0 Granger switched cars to ride in
the No. 1 with Andrews. Why isn’t clear and it the first time since beginning the return
trip. It also resulted an interesting departure from the usual convoy routine.
As the route that afternoon took them by the southern end of an exposure of badlands
which extended many miles northward, Andrews and Granger stopped to get out and
prospect in some Tertiary exposures 18 miles east of the Jisu Honguer formation
(permian/Dinantian) while letting the others continue [Conq/173]. In just a few minutes,
they found many bones, mostly of a rhinoceros. That night, Granger recorded that
Andrews had found
a fine pair of jaws (?Titanothere). Other cars had gone on and we

had only a short time to work in. Decided to take a section of one
jaw with the cheek teeth. Had no wrapping material––it being ahead
in No. 2 car––so we appropriated our pocket handkerchiefs and hats
and managed to get the sections to camp without serious damage.
Jaw found 238 paces north of road [200].
Granger surmised “and correctly so, that this was a western extension of the Irdin Manha
basin, in which we had found the first fossils on the Kalgan-Urga road. The formation
was formally designated the Shara Murun, and proved to be of Eocene age [Conq/173].”
They moved on, climbing to the eastern edge of the basin before stopping for water in a
small hollow at Ula Usu (Well of the Mountain Waters) before moving on for a short
visit a small temple nearby called Baron Sog-in-Sumu. From there, they could look
eastward across the broad, 300-foot deep valley of the Shara Murun River Conq/174].
The 16th [Conq says 15th at p.174] brought “rain from daybreak until ten o'clock. Lousy
and dismal all balance of day. Some snow in afternoon.” The run was nearly 68 miles
over road that Granger considered only fair at best. Adding to the misery was a fierce
west wind that blew in at sunset causing the men considerable discomfort until the tents
were up.
The expedition’s next 76 miles on September 17th [Conq infers 16th at p. 175] put them
“practically back in China,” Granger wrote. He found the road was “mostly bad after
striking the Chinese area.” The 74th mile, he noted, had brought them to the “[c]enter of
large yurt colony––Mongols and the first Chinese. Cultivated fields of the latter.” Nearly
all available land was now under cultivation, mostly with oats and potatoes [Conq/175].
The road worsened as rocks and ruts dominated the 54.8 miles they traveled the next day
“over the worst going encountered during our entire trip, mostly rocks and ruts
[Conq/175].” On the 18th, they reached Miao Tan 34 miles north of Kalgan on the main
Kalgan-Urga auto road and “camped” at an inn there. “Spent indoors tonight for the first
time since leaving Kalgan. Had Chinese supper––cabbage & pork to which everyone did
more than justice [Conq/175].”
Kalgan was now only 34.8 miles away and they reached it by four the next afternoon
after fixing a tire puncture on the No. 3 car. Nearly 2,500 miles had been covered
roundtrip in a [loop] that ran west northwest from Kalgan to Urga, then west southwest to
Tsagan Nor in the Altai Mountain Region and then east back to Kalgan. They missed the
Mongolians who were gentle with each other, gentle with animals and gentle with life.
And they missed the idyllic scenery of this now far away, totally beautiful land.
The final stretch of road along the plateau was left very bad from recent rains. The pass
where the wives had parted company with them in April was in horrible shape. They
decided to take a more easterly route to avoid the sea of mud in the main trail. Two miles
below the pass they stopped for lunch near where a small band of workers was trying to
smooth out the ruts in the road.
There, one of the two remaining crows brought all the way from Tsetsenwan escaped
from its box. It could not be caught and had to be left behind.
As the expedition filed into Kalgan, Colgate and Granger were last in the No. 2 car. At
about one mile away from the Anderson & Meyer compound, where the motor vehicles
were to be parked, “our gas gave out and we had to wait an hour until we could secure
more from one of the other cars. Bought one case of gas at Miao Tan this morning to see
us into town. Close figuring!”
They were quartered at the British-American Tobacco, Co. (B.A.T.). A large

accumulation of expedition mail had recently been forwarded to Iren Dabasu, he learned.
A wire was sent asking that it be returned to Kalgan. Granger sent a telegram to Anna.
The flatbed railcars needed to carry the autos to Peking would not be available for several
days. The party took a passenger train to Peking. Andrews and Colgate planned to return
to Kalgan to load the cars when the flatbeds were secured.
Granger arrived at the West Gate Station [in Peking] at 6:00 p.m. and greeted by Anna
whom he thought looked “unusuall well.” Yvette was there, as well
with new Dodge touring car, and took Anna and me around to Wagons-
Lits. Mrs. Shack also at station with car for her husband. Berkey and
Morris still have their beards but I took mine off at Kalgan [201].
Interim in Peking
The CAE’s 1922 expedition season was over for all but Granger. He would be returning
to the Yangtze Basin in a few weeks for another winter of fieldwork at Yanjinggou
[Conq/179]. Anna, Wong, 'Buckshot', Chih (the taxidermist) and a new cook would go
with him. Until then, Granger’s days in Peking were spent resting and catching up with
colleagues. He and the geologists met with Amadeus Grabau at Granger’s hotel on the
evening of the 23rd to apprise him of their findings in Mongolia. Grabau was a research
associate to the CAE, but his advanced arthritic condition kept him from conducting
fieldwork. Following Grabau, Granger had lunch at his hotel with Ting and Andersson to
brief them as well.
Gatherings like these soon merged into a small group of key western and Chinese earth
scientists who met occasionally, usually at Grabau’s home, and became known as ‘The
Peking Circle.’
Granger would have known him from their years of plying the
American Museum’s paleontology laboratories. Now in Peking these
relationships deepened, especially between the two paleontologists.
While Andrews and his wife attended socialite dinners and entertained
in their lavish home such visiting celebrities as Noel Coward and
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Granger was drawn into Amadeus’s more
cerebral circle of scientific friends [202].
Granger now found time to bring his father up-to-date noting that
You will have seen cabled reports of our return to China before this
and doubtless there will be some newspaper articles given out by the
Museum, also there were articles on my work in the May and
September numbers of "Asia." So I feel that you have been fairly
well posted on our doing. I'm sending on a copy of yesterday's
"Peking News" with Reuter's full article on the Mongolian
Expedition. There will be a full series of articles in the trip which
will appear in "Asia,"––probably beginning early in 1923 [203].
Andrews and Colgate went back to Kalgan on the 26th to bring back the five motor cars.
The caravan was to return around the 10th to 15th of October, and Granger decided to
stay in Peking until his collections arrived. “I don't like to delegate the repacking to
anyone else. Fossils require about as much attention in packing as anything I know of.”
Once they were prepared and shipped off to New York, Granger and his party were off
for Yanjinggou.
The original plan back in 1921 when he left for China, he recalled for his father,
was for my return to New York this fall but the opening up of the
great Mongolian field means that I shall probably have to put
another summer there,––especially as Olsen is not here and possibly
may not come at all; a letter from him is up in Mongolia now, along
with several of yours, but Anna read it before sending it up and it
seems that Olsen is still having trouble with his health and feels that
China is a poor place for any but a robust man. As a matter of fact
Mongolia is one of the greatest summer climates in the world, and
as for China––it's as good a place to die in as New York any day
[204].
Granger had left for Mongolia during a rough time of the year in Peking. Now the days
were beautiful, clear and calm with mild temperatures. There was no dust. The vegetation
was still lush and green. Fruit and vegetables were abundant. The town was full of
tourists. And natives who lived inland chose this time of the year for their trips to the
capitol. Anna was in splendid health, weighing more than she ever had before––close to
130 pounds––and Granger found it difficult to get down to work again, finally deciding
that he was “entitled to a little loafing anyhow.” All seemed well.
It had been expected that Osborn would make a ceremonious appearance upon their
return from Mongolia. When it was learned that he could not, they were
keenly disappointed over Prof. Osborn's failure to arrive here at this

time; we sort of had the stage all set, all members in Peking and the
collection will be here shortly––weather perfect and everything. Just
at this point we are anxious to confer with Osborn over plans for the
next year. If he delays his coming for six weeks, as a recent cable
announced, we shall be dispersed when he arrives and the collection
shipped, winter will have arrived and he will not be able to make the
Yangtze gorge trip. Sickness of Mrs. Osborn has caused the delay
[205].
Granger found three unopened letters from his father waiting for him in Peking. He
hadn’t received a letter from his father since July, and these pre-dated that one. The three
had been sent from the US while Granger was still at Yanjinggou but had arrived after
he’d departed that spring. They were then returned to the U.S. and then back to Peking
“with some recent notes on the back of them.” Fortunately they were not among those
just sent for pick-up at Iren Dabasu in Inner Mongolia. A change in the expedition’s route
during their final week in Mongolia had them returning to Kalgan by the old post road
from Sair Usu to the south of Iren Dabasu by some 150 miles [206]. That mail would be
returned shortly. Other mail sent deeper in to Mongolia, however, “we may not get until
next year.” The next American mail would bring something from his father, he hoped.
Granger spent part of nearly each day at the CAE’s Peking headquarters organizing
equipment, giving interviews and posing for publicity photographs. The headquarters was
part of the Andrews’s large residential compound which formerly belonged to The Times
Peking correspondent George Ernest Morrison.
Andrews leased a former palace just northeast of the Forbidden City to

serve as expedition headquarters; it was his personal residence for the
next twelve years. The walled enclosure, occupying an acre of land, was
remodeled into forty rooms including laboratories, bathrooms,
storerooms, garages and stables, quarters for twenty household servants,
beautifully landscaped courtyards, and a sumptuous residential suite
ornately decorated in Oriental style. He joined the polo club and with
his wife entered Peking’s social rounds [207].
In the wake of the great success of the first Mongolia expedition and the rapt attention of
the press that followed, several key CAE members were in demand at social events.
Granger and Anna dined with J. G. Andersson and his secretary-fiancee, Miss Rosenius,
on the 28th, which also was the day the mail came back from Iren Dabasu. The next night
they attended a formal dinner held by the President of the Geological Society of China at
the Chinese Hotel. That was followed by a mobbed meeting at the Society Room Library
where Granger and others summarized the work of the Mongolia expedition. The
American ambassador, Jacob Gould Schurman, was in attendance. ”[S]ee [enclosed]
press notices,” Granger wrote his father.
Berkey was making ready to leave for America soon, and the western members of the
expedition held a festive farewell dinner for him at the Andrews’s residence. It was also a
time of sight-seeing. Walter and Anna attended the polo games with Shackelford and
visited the Ming tombs in Nankou for two days with Pope. The days stretched on
pleasurably: “To Drum and Bell towers with Anna;” “To Agricultural Garden with
Anna;” “To President's Palace––great throngs of Chinese out. Fall Festival;” “Tea [with]
Miss E. Kendall, the author who tells me she went to Urga years ago in a buggy which
was being sent by Larson to the Living God;” “To the Green Jade Fountain in our
rickshaw with an additional boy each to push behind. Had lunch at the marble pagoda and
returned by 5:30; Movies in evening.”
On the 5th, a wire came in from Kalgan that the caravan had arrived safely in Hallong
Ossu region where Joel Eriksson lived. The CAE requested a Chinese military escort to
take the caravan through the bandit area and into Kalgan. On the 6th, Morris, Grabau,
Pope, the American geologist George Barbour and Granger’s assistant Chow went off to
Kalgan by train to reexamine the geology of the pass. Colgate and two other men rode up
with them and then went on to Hallong Ossu to help bring in the caravan. Morris’ group
returned on the 13th, as did Colgate and his men with the caravan loads. Granger met
them all at the station with trucks to transport everything to headquarters. Off-loading
was completed that night. Morris had brought “back an interesting reptile from the
Kalgan variegated beds, vertebrae and [fragmented] pelvis.” A day or two later Granger
began the work of packing fossils for shipment as Shackelford developed film.
October 26, 1922

Peking
Dear Father:-
Two letters have come from you this week,––one from Rutland and
one from Des Moines, also a couple of [Rutland] Heralds. Glad you
could go to the encampment. Our collections are pretty well packed
now and I'm getting ready to return to Yen-ching-kuo early in
November, taking Anna with me as far as Wanhsien where she will

probably make her headquarters at the China Inland Mission [208].
Shackelford, Granger wrote his father, was to sail home on November 12th and “take to
the Museum one or two of the most striking of my fossils, for publicity use.”
Shackelford’s motion pictures also would be on view by January, either sold to a
syndicate like Fox or shown by the American Museum at a New York theater. And
Andrews had cabled an 800-word story to Asia magazine that would appear soon,
perhaps in December. Another written story with illustrations would be coming out early
in 1923.
Berkey, Granger continued, should just about have arrived in San Francisco by now.
Pope, “the fish and reptile man,” was to start next week for the island of Hainan and stay
for the winter. He would not be making any of the Mongolia trips. Andrews and Morris
would remain in Peking for the winter.
It was decided that next summer’s Mongolian party was to specialize in paleontology.
Granger asked to have either Olsen or Thomson to assist him while also urging W. D.
Matthew to visit if he could. Olsen still seemed unwell, however, and it wasn’t clear
whether he would make the trip. “Mongolia is healthy enough but we were 900 miles
from a doctor at one time last summer and it is a poor place to be sick in,” Granger wrote
his father.
Fall was ending early as life in Peking headed for November. Strong icy winds blew off
the Mongolian plateau into western China. A killer frost was on the way, but it hadn’t hit
Peking just yet. Chrysanthemums still bloomed, trees stayed in leaf and crickets still sang
at night. Some Chinese caught them and kept them in tiny jars until fight time. Then,
after making considerable wagers on the outcome, they put two of them in a large bowl to
“slug it out.” The crickets were even "weighed in" like prize fighters before the fight.
Shackelford was going to get a picture if he had the time.
In the meantime, socializing and sightseeing continued. There was a dinner at J. G.

Andersson’s with Andrews, Morris, Grabau, Black and Anna––a “Scandinavian dinner––
interesting and good, as always at Dr. Andersson's.” On November 2nd, Shackelford

exhibited a selection of his films from Mongolia, about 1,500 feet, at the Andrews
compound. Black, Anna and Mrs. Shackelford attended.
Unfortunately, much of Shackelford’s filming of the CAE would become lost over time
as edited sections were simply discarded and much of what remained was slowly
deteriorated by acid. Very sadly, little has survived.
Shackelford and his wife made ready to leave for the States on November 7th and
Granger’s trust in him became clear. “Shackelford is taking back, as excess baggage,
three of my boxes containing the Baluchitherium skull and some other smaller things.”
Despite the skull’s immense size, great weight and extra expense, its promotion value
was worth it. And so was one of the smaller things -- the eggshell.
The Grangers and Andrews were at the station that morning to say goodbye to the
Shackelfords when they left on the 10 a.m. train. Then it was off to lunch at the
Andrews’s and dinner at Mrs. Kendall's. Two days later, the Grangers themselves
boarded a train at the Peking train station and headed for the Yangtze.
Granger got his men and expedition equipment on an earlier train on the evening of
November 8th with James Wong, the interpreter, in charge. "'Buckshot'," now of
Mongolia experience, went along as general assistant, Whey [Huei] as the cook and Chih
as the taxidermist. Like Granger and 'Buckshot', Chih was now a Mongolia expedition
veteran. On the 9th, Granger and Anna followed on the semi-weekly express with Chow,
their No. 1 assistant. This train had one 1st Class Coach, one 2nd Class Coach and a 3rd
Class Coach for servants of passengers, as well as a dining car and baggage and mail car.
It was more suited, Granger thought, for traveling with Anna.
A cold winter wind blew into Peking stirring up much dust as their train rolled out. They
were due in Hankow on Saturday at 9:00 a.m., but when they crossed the Yellow River
the next day after dark, they were two hours behind schedule. Warlord general Feng's
troops were advancing north to Peking and their movements were delaying Granger’s
train at nearly every station along the way. In the evening, reports of banditry in southern
Honan Province made it likely, Granger surmised, that progress would be slow.
At about midnight on the 11th, the train was halted at Yen Cheng in southern Hupeh
Province and held there for the day. Bandits were reported to have taken several towns on
the railway line south of that station. Several train loads of Wu Pei Fu's troops were sent
through to the scene throughout day. Two trains coming from the north, including the
regular daily express, were also halted and turned around to take the place of the
northbound trains held up somewhere south of the troubled area. While sitting at the
station, the Grangers met a local French padre and a man in charge of the local China
Inland Mission. The latter was harboring ten or so women refugees from other missions
in devastated towns. The husband of one of the ladies was being held for ransom. A few
wounded soldiers were returned to Yen Ching later that day and the Grangers learned that
“considerable fighting has taken place between soldiers and bandits.” The “bandits” were
an army unit that recently had been abandoned by their officers, but had not been
disbanded, disarmed or paid off. They seemed not to have much choice but to turn to
banditry while trying to resolve their status.
The Grangers’ train started south just after lunch on November 12th. It proceeded slowly
and reached the bandit area at about dark. Soldiers were camped along the tracks to
protect the trains. Fires of burning villages and farms lit up the sky to the west. The
burnings spread for miles parallel to and not more than five or ten miles away from the
tracks. At one large town, the women folk of the Bank of China’s local manager hustled
aboard, taking over whatever space they needed in the dining car because no more berths
were available. There were eighteen, including children and a servant.
Without further incident, the Grangers finally arrived at Hankow at 7:00 a.m. on the 13th.
They had been delayed two days. 'Buckshot' met them at the station and they all went
directly to the Terminus Hotel while Wong shopped for supplies [209]. After breakfast,
Granger went to the International Banking Corporation to arrange an account and then on
to the Asia Banking Corporation to obtain money on a letter of credit he carried. His next
stop was the steamship office to engage passage to Ichang aboard the steamer Kiang Wo
leaving at 8:00 p.m. The party did some additional shopping and then went aboard the
Kiang Wo late in the afternoon. They were the only passengers and the Kiang Wo had a
new captain from the previous year.
They steamed into Ichang harbor at 8:00 p.m. on November 17th. The postmaster, a
Frenchman Mr. Caplain, immediately came alongside in his postal sampan to advise that
the Shu Hun would start for Wanhsien at dawn the next morning. Granger was then taken
directly over to the Shu Hun in Caplain’s sampan to meet with Captain Bienairus and
engage passage. Later that afternoon, he and Anna went ashore to visit with Caplain at
his office and then at his house for tea. Dinner was back aboard the Kiang Wo with Wong
and the Captain after which they transferred to the Shu Hun. The expedition men and
baggage had been taken over earlier that afternoon. The Shu Hun was very crowded; so,
the Grangers were given the captain's stateroom. Wong was berthed in the Steward's
room.
The Grangers absorbed the beautiful trip through the lower gorges aboard the Shu Hun.
As they anchored for the night at Wushan, conditions in the gorges were peaceful. While
they saw many soldiers, all were either drilling on various parade grounds on the steep
slopes, or along the river paths. Granger found Captain Bienarius to be “a most genial
sort of a fellow and threw open for our use the Captain's bridge which is on our deck and
directly over the pilot's bridge.” The Captain’s cabin, he noticed, had an old bullet hole
through the door, as did Wong's. “In fact,” Granger realized, “there are bullet holes about
wherever one looks on the boat.”
The only rapid that gave them trouble that day was the Yen Tan. It was at its worst level
for navigation. To get up and over Yen Tan, the Shu Hun had to go under “forced
draught, against the current,” by cranking up its boilers to the limit. The smokestacks
grew so hot that water had to be poured on adjacent wood trim to prevent fire.
Even with the boilers at full blast, the boat was brought to a complete standstill by the
grip of the current’s immense force near the top of the rapids. It remained caught for
nearly a minute before the propeller finally won the contest and slowly edged the steamer
over the brim. Steamers would soon have to be hauled over that rapid by trackers,
Granger noted.
The Shu Hun steamed in to anchor at the opposite shore at Wanhsien after dark on the
19th. Not wishing to ferry his equipment across the river to town after dark, Granger
hired a large sampan, had his expedition equipment loaded aboard and posted his men to
guard it as it lay alongside the Shu Hun. He and Anna boarded in the morning before the
Shu Hun sailed out. In the meantime, Chow was sent ashore to Druggist Chang's to
arrange for coolies the next morning.
Granger and Anna disembarked in the rain at 6:00 a.m. The sampan was then poled to
shore and out of the way until the Shu Hun departed. Afterwards, it was rowed across the
river and landed near the Post Office pontoon where Chow and the coolies had arrived to
unload the expedition equipment and take it up to Druggist Chang's. While that was being
handled, Granger took Anna to the China Inland Mission where she would be quartered
when not with him in camp at Yanjinggou. The Mission’s director, Mr. Darlington, had a
chair waiting at the wharf for her.
That afternoon, Granger called on Mr. Annette, British Customs Commissioner, and
arranged to have the local general and town magistrate asked when Granger could pay
them a call. All agreed on 11:00 a.m. with the General and 3:00 p.m. with the Magistrate.
Granger and Wong made the call on General Chang Tseng the next morning going by
chair. Contrary to his usual practice, he obtained a four-coolie chair for himself and a
two-coolie chair for Wong. To Granger, the general appeared to be
not over 35 years old, looks intelligent and has had some military
training in Japan.... Found the General interested in our work and had a
chat of an hour and a half with him. The usual bad champagne,
chocolate etc., as a layout [210].
At Granger’s request, the General issued an order for Druggist Chang to post at his shop
that forbade soldiers from using it as a barracks, as they had been doing recently. Granger
planned to store his fossil boxes there again this year and needed the room. The General
also invited Granger to a dinner he was hosting at the Darlington's the following day.
After lunch at the Darlington’s, Granger and Wong called on the Magistrate who,
according to Granger, “was cordial and gave us notice (huchao) and other passes to use in
our work. He is of an ordinary class, however, not at all up to his position.”
*
November 23, 1922

Chow left today for Yen-Ching-Kao to get things ready for Wong
who goes up tomorrow. Dinner of the General's at 7 o'clock. Present
besides the Mission people and Anna & I.
Wanshien Magistrate
General Chang's Secretary
" " Newest wife
Capt. Nielson of the "Monocacy"
Mr. Annette [211].
It was “a rather peaceful meal in the absence of anything to drink––the Magistrate went
to sleep in the drawing room afterward, much to the amusement of the ‘newest wife’ who
is a good-looking woman in her teens (one baby) and came decked out in gorgeous
costume and loaded with jewelry.” The Magistrate happened to have called on Granger at
the Mission at about 4:30 p.m. and then remained for the dinner after an invitation by the
General.
Wong left early the next day with Huei [Whey], 'Buckshot' and Chih while Granger
stayed with Anna for a few more days to help settle her in at the China Inland Mission. It
was an English mission and Granger noted that the Darlingtons seemed like fine people
who were doing everything in their power to make the Grangers feel comfortable. But,
Anna wrote later,
their house is not fitted up with stoves to withstand the winter cold.
In a few rooms there are very small open fireplaces, which make
little impression on the cold air. Very wide verandas on the upper as
well as the lower story, out buildings for the Chinese helpers and a
tall Chinese temple close by on the south side keeps the sun from
helping to warm the rooms. There isn't much sun in Szechuan
anyway, though it is abroad today much to my delight. If it were
safe for me to roam about on the hills back of the house alone, I
could easily get up my circulation in that manner. While Walter is
here to go with me, I do go out once a day [212].
There was a frost the first night and snow on the hills within sight of Wanxian. Anna
wrote to her Aunt Jane about their train standing for two days and nights on a siding in
the province of Honan awaiting the disbanding of a gang of robbers several stations
ahead of them. It was a worrisome time. There was concern that the soldiers who were
sent to disperse the bandits away from the railroad might desert to join the looters,
“leaving us more than ever exposed.” But,” she wrote, “if that did happen, it was not until
we had passed through the danger zone. It is impossible to get any news of what is really
happening once one is out of the district.”
During the trip up the Yangtze, she wrote, she had nothing to fear except the violence of
the river itself. The Gorges were wonderful and it took all of the daylight hours of two
days to pass through. And they had been aboard one of the most powerful steamers in
service.
There were three places where the cliffs were more precipitous and the river narrower
than anywhere else. It took hours to pass through these most thrilling sections and none
of the scenery was tame. “I think it is because the majestic beauty continues hour after
hour that one gets so solemnly impressed. The fearful power of the rushing water adds to
one's awe. For myself I shall be glad when we are safely down to Hankow again and
beyond its power.” However, that wouldn’t be until next spring.
Walter was to leave for his camp at Yanjinggou in just a few days. It was a day’s journey
from Wanxian. After things got well underway there, Anna wrote
I am to visit the camp. I doubt if I will be any colder than I am here,

with no fire of any kind in a north bed-room. It happens that the
temperature just now is particularly low, 29˚ yesterday and 30˚ this
a.m. It will warm up again. The banana palms in the garden looked
sick enough after the frost. We could see the snow in the
mountains;––none fell in this town. The banana trees do not yield
any fruit, but the orange and pomolo trees are well laden [213].
She took tiffin aboard the American gunboat USS Monocacy anchored in the river. There
was steam heat in the officer’s mess which thoroughly warmed her for the first time in
forty-eight hours, in or out of bed. A British gunboat, HMS Teal, was also in port and its
captain, Lieutenant Commander Harrison, was a guest for the luncheon party aboard the
Monocacy. After tiffin, they visited the Teal and later in the afternoon they went to the
Standard Oil Company installation with Mr. Overstreet for tea and to watch a game of
tennis.
It was dark but with a new moon shining when they returned to the Mission, a one-hour
ride in a chair. The streets were narrow, ill-lit, and level at intervals only, most of the
route was up or down stone steps so that one felt “in terror of being dropped at every
moment. Yet ‘they’ say that the coolies rarely stumble with their loads.”
Thanksgiving dinner was already arranged, she wrote Aunt Jane. The Darlingtons, their
two assistants, a Miss Rice and a Mrs. Jackson, and Anna were invited to the Standard
Oil quarters as Mr. Overstreet's guests. Walter would remain in camp.
At Christmas time the Darlingtons expected their three children, who were away at
school, to visit them for the holiday. While the English school the children attended was
on the seacoast near Peking, their parents had not seen them for two years. The children
could not travel without an escort and such a trip was very expensive. This separation
from their children while they were away being educated was, to Anna’s mind, one of the
greatest trials a missionary had to endure. As well, they had to suffer danger to their lives,
as these English mission people had many times. “No one can say that they are not the
highest kind of heroes.” Yet she was not convinced that the native people they labored
over were
worth the sacrifice; whether it wouldn't be doing plenty enough to

educate on American soil such Chinese as are eager to acquire the
knowledge they must have and impart to their fellow men before
they can be fit to join the company of the nations. Just as an
American learns more of things Chinese in one hour on Chinese soil
than he would by years of reading at home, so it is with a Chinese
visiting America. This land is so vast and so thickly populated by
people who are illiterate that they never will know anything different
from what they do now until a better class of Chinese themselves
make a concerted move to better conditions. I could tell you a lot
more but must do some other correspondence now [214].
In parting, Anna longed
to hear how you are. Can not send you a greeting card this year.
None to be had here and it is too late besides. I was much occupied
at the date when Christmas mail should have been gotten ready.
Bought only a few cards before I left Peking, and by dint of much
trouble got them posted at one of the stops which our steamer made
on the Yangtze. Much love to you, dear Aunt Jane, keep well if you
can. I hope we shall get safely back to you some day [215].
It was going to be a long winter in a strange place. This was not Peking. Sophisticated
city culture and abundant western influences did not exist in Wanxian, a river trade town
and much more frontier-like. Westerners were very much in the minority. Physical
danger was heightened. The fighting en route to Hankow and the harrowing passage
through the rapids up the Yangtze had shaken Anna. She now found herself in a cold
house with warm people whose mission she doubted and who were so unlike her in their
own practices and passions.
Walter apparently did not sense her state of mind. His report to his father expressed a
brighter picture. He and Anna attended a native wedding ceremony on the street near the
Mission, a Christian ceremony conducted by Mr. Jackson, one of the Darlington’s
assistants. They also watched a big fire over toward the Haikwan (Chinese maritime
customs) that night at dinner time, the third big fire they had seen since their arrival.
Apparently there was fighting.
Nevertheless, Anna was “comfortably fixed here in the China Inland Mission with
English people... Soldiers live in the temple on either side...but are orderly at present and
a Christian compound is the safest place in China at all times. Once in a while they are
violated but it is not at all common.”
*
The river level was down now, just twelve feet above low water mark and only a few
steamers were running. On November 20th, Granger departed Wanxian for Yanjinggou.
It was a four-hour trip to the Fu Tan by way of the north bank. They then proceeded
through the rapids by staying close to shore and pushing their sampan from behind, with
one of the crew wading in water hip deep. Their hike up from the landing to Yanjinggou
was slower than usual
because of poor coolies and rather heavy loads. Had two carriers who
rowed [protested] over going until Chow cuffed one of them into
agreement. We have often had trouble getting coolies at the river end of
the trip [216].
Granger found that everything at camp was about the same as the previous winter. There
had been one death in the village and one marriage during the summer. A small weaving
frame set up opposite his quarters was an addition to the village’s industries. There also
was a rather noticeable increase in the number of pigs, chickens, and ducks as the
villagers gradually overcame the devastation wrought by the Shen Ping in the spring of
1921 when practically all their livestock had been killed off. Wong and 'Buckshot' had
already been up the Lung Goo (Lung Ku) hill once and found one producing fossil pit.
They bought a few fragmentary items of which a young Stegodon was of the most
interest to Granger.
Thanksgiving Day was “dinner at midday with pumpkin pie by way of celebration.” Back
in Wanxian, Granger reflected, “Overstreet has a turkey and has invited the Mission,
Haikwan and ‘Monocacy’ people to dinner.” Anna was there, too.
December 5, 1922
Dear Uncle Charles:-

Have just received a letter from Walter at his camp in the mountains,
in answer to mail that I sent to him by messenger yesterday. He is
well and sees prospects of getting a good deal of bones. On Dec. 20
he expects to come in to Wanhsien and will take me out to camp

with him to stay as long as I can keep warm [217].
Granger planned to remain in camp until December 19th. The weather was often cloudy
and rainy, and sometimes dark and gloomy. There was snow in the higher elevations
around camp. His days were spent as they were the winter before––visiting the pits to
examine and perhaps purchase material, hunting and trapping for taxidermy, and
entertaining. Captain Corlett of the Widgeon paid another visit.
Corlett brought along a Mr. Dixon of McKenzies, an export business at Chung King. The
two had arrived with their assistants and luggage just before dark on the 9th for a week-
end outing. Dixon was the “No. 1 of McKenzies and has a considerable force of
foreigners under him in Chung King.” Born in China of English missionary parents,
Dixon was an expert rifle shot with medals from the Shanghai Rifle Club.
Granger returned to Wanxian as planned on the 19th. Arriving in the late afternoon, he
found that all was well with Anna and the Darlingtons and their three children. Letters
from Andrews, Matthews, William J. Sinclair and Charles awaited him. His first full day
was spent resupplying his cash and food. He also visited the Druggist Chang where his
specimen boxes were being stored––in Druggist Chang's bedroom. The soldiers had
honored General Chang Tseng’s notice and vacated the place. But Chinese soldiers were
drilling on parade grounds throughout the city, Granger noted. “[E]very one says there is
sure to be trouble here this coming spring.”
He and Anna departed Wanxian at 9:00 a.m. on December 22nd. After a somewhat
difficult time getting through the rapids, they arrived at the landing at Pai Shui Chi
(Paishuchi) at midday. It had taken four hours to pole, row and track the boat and twice
the Grangers had to leave the sampan, once to warm up by walking, and again to lighten
the load when it passed swift water in the river just below the Hu Tan (Tiger or Fox
Rapid). A tracker from another boat kindly helped them get through that difficult section.
Upon landing, they walked up to the inn at the top of the steep bank and ordered hot
water for tea and oranges and peanuts to eat. Chow boiled eggs which were eaten with
bread. They ate somewhat bemusedly––a crowd of curious locals, men, women and
children, had formed to watch them. After an hour, they left the inn and began the 11-
mile hike up to Yanjinggou. Coolies carried the luggage. Walter and Chow walked while
Anna was carried in Wong's chair, Wong having sent it down earlier along with extra
coolies.
To Anna,
the most striking thing here is the arched bridge made of stone.
Steps lead up to the top on each side. We made our first halt at Hsiu
Kai Tien, one mile distant. The district is very mountainous, but
cultivated almost up to the very summits. Crop is principally rice.
Our roadway is only a stone-paved path cut in the side of the hills or
running between the rice paddies. A mis-step would mean a frightful
spill. My coolies were sure-footed and nothing befell. The last lap of
the journey had to be done by the light of a lantern carried by the
rear coolie [218].
Having reached Yanjinggou at about 6:45 p.m., they felt stiff and chilled. A pull of
whiskey by a fire basket Chow had out for them made Anna feel more comfortable.
After supper they gathered around the fire in the cook's room and
after getting thoroughly heated through, got into bed. The owner of
the ancestral hall where Walter works and sleeps had scruples
against women occupying his premises. He was prevailed upon to
let me stay in the building in the day time. At night he obliges us to
take one of the gallery rooms in his inn. This is a windowless place,
but draughty enough by reason of numerous chinks in the roof and
partitions. Smoke frequently pours in through the door-way. Should
a guest arrive late, talking continues far past our bed-time hour.
Ducks in the court just outside begin their quacking at the first signs
of dawn. Wearing a night cap helps to drown the sounds some-what
[219].
Wong’s room was made into a dressing room for her and Wong was moved to Granger’s
old quarters. There was a “grand reception after breakfast the next morning to see the
foreign lady.” Although two western woman apparently had once passed through the
village, Anna was the first to stay [220].
Christmas, 1922
Anna had developed a sore knee which confined her to camp. As it improved, she took
short walks. With 'Buckshot''s help, she also began turning evergreen branches decorated
with red berries into three Christmas wreathes.
Granger was preparing a Stegodon skull for pasting by removing the loose clay and
fragments of lime rock embedded in the harder clay around the skull. Several new birds,
he noted, had been shot recently, bringing the total to at least 90 species of winter
residents. His medical practice had resumed. “Our daily clinic has increased to some half
dozen patients each morning.”
The gloomy weather at Christmas holiday was brightened by Anna’s decorating. After a
breakfast of tangerines, oatmeal, scrambled eggs and bacon, pancakes with syrup and
coffee on Christmas morning, Anna finished making the wreaths she had started the day
before. 'Buckshot' had made a frame-work for them out of split bamboo. The branches of
an evergreen tree resembled a fine arbor-vitae and made up the body of each wreath. A
thorny shrub furnished suitably scarlet berries. A tall, plume-like grass was bound to
some of the pillars of the Ancestral Hall which gave a festive appearance. Jars of ferns
and red berries were placed about to complete the decoration.
The Christmas dinner cooked by Huei [Whey]
was lacking in nothing for perfect satisfaction, the menu being as

follows (Mrs. Darlington presented the plum pudding):
Tomato Bisque Soup
Creamed Salmon
Mashed Potato
Leg of Mutton
Braised Onions
Carrots
Plum Pudding – Hard Sauce
Coffee, Tangerines, Bon-Bons

Cheese [221].
Chih, a Catholic, asked for the rest of the day off after making up three bird skins in the
early morning. 'Buckshot' also was given most of the day to himself. The boys were
going to have “a big feast of "Jowdzus" this evening,” Granger wrote.
Expedition Work Continues
Expedition work continued its day-to-day operations but Granger delegated more
responsibility to his men. This may have been due mainly to Anna’s presence. 'Buckshot'
and Wong, more often than not, went to the bone pits to inspect for fossils.
The weather that winter also seemed worse than the previous winter. Granger had
planned a trip to the pits at Shih Pa Tse on the 26th, “but it was raining at breakfast time
and I gave it up. Much of the trail to Shih Pa Tse is bad going in rainy weather and it is a
long tiresome trip in good weather even.”
News of coolie drafting in Wanhsien also concerned him––”looks like a soldier

movement,”he wrote. Nevertheless, the next day he was off to Shih Pa Tse with Wong
and 'Buckshot' and a four-man chair. There he found a small amount of material and still
more at a clearing on the hill two miles farther on. He discovered that the natives were
actually bringing up bone from a new pit at the clearing and “got a very good carnivore
skull before it had been wholly ruined.” He planned to return to this place in a day or so
to look over material already taken out and stored in the house nearby.
On December 30, 1922, he returned to Shih Pa Tse with 'Buckshot' and the chair coolies.
Chih accompanied them to the top of the hill and then went off to hunt. Wong remained
in camp with Anna. Granger discovered that two pits were being worked along the path
one mile west of the Tso Ma Lin trail and were yielding a few fragments––mostly rodent
and small artiodactyl. He took 5 x 7 photographs. Two miles beyond on Shih Pa Tse, at
the clearing, was another pit that had been exhausted. The workers at that pit were now
drying and cleaning their haul. He took all the artiodactyl teeth from the assortment and a
“perfect carnivore skull” that had already been laid aside for him. It was quite different
from the one he had obtained from the pit on his first visit. This pit, he noted, contained
mostly large artiodactyl with a few small carnivores and broken Stegodon teeth. He also
noted that the natives
were using a process of drying I have not seen before. A bamboo

mat about 10 x 5 feet was supported in a horizontal position, like a
table, about two feet off the floor of the room and the bones laid out
on this. A fire of charcoal sticks underneath did the drying. Several
men sat around this mat cleaning the bones with iron tool looking
something like an oyster knife. Mr. Wong thinks that artificial
drying of bones means an urgent need of money. Otherwise they
would be dried naturally and no fuel wasted on them [222].
Granger was now paying 20 cents per 20 catties and that seemed to be the prevailing
price that year. "Lung Goo" Tan, he noted, seemed to be out of the bone business and Tan
Wu was taking his place.
Granger playfully nicknamed several of the Tan family members he dealt with.
“Bucktooth Tan,” also known as “Tan’s Son,” was the son of “Inn-Keeper Tan” and
worked as a coolie for Granger. “Inn-Keeper Tan,” of course, owned the inn adjacent to
the Tan family ancestral hall where Granger resided. “Mrs. Tan” was “Inn-Keeper Tan’s”
wife. “Grandma (‘Wandma’) Tan” likely was the Tan family matriach. “Lung Goo Tan”
also worked for Granger, although his Tan family relationship is not known. “Tan Wu”
replaced “Lung Goo Tan,” but his place in the family is not known either. “The Tan
Family Committee” presided over Tan family affairs. “Charley Tan” and “Tan the Fifth”
were so named by Granger, but not further described.
The New Year, 1923
All hands remained in camp on New Year’s Day. Anna made repairs to her clothes while
Granger mounted bird skins. It had been a dismal day, windy and raw with temperatures
hovering between 44˚ and 48˚. At dark, they went to the inn next door to warm
themselves by Inn-Keeper Tan's fire. Later that evening, a messenger came out from
Wanxian with a batch of mail forwarded by Darlington. He spent the night and took
letters back from the Grangers the next morning. The Grangers reluctantly delayed
opening the letters and packages until they had finished supper and could take possession
of the cook's quarters. “He gets chased from his fire every night for our benefit. It is the
only time we get thoroughly warm for the whole day,” Anna wrote.
Among the mail was a letter from Andrews and it brought chilling news––Charles
Coltman had been shot and mortally wounded in his car by a Chinese soldier at the
Kalgan gate. Coltman apparently had refused to allow his car to be inspected by the
Chinese. The Chinese apparently suspected him of attempting to illegally take silver
dollars into Mongolia. Samuel Sokobin, the American consul at Kalgan, was with
Coltman in the car and tried to intervene. Why Consul Sokobin was there to begin with
was not explained. If it was to provide protection, as an initial news account suggested,
then seeking protection may be why Coltman had accompanied the CAE convey that
previous April [223].
In any event, Coltman was armed, although whether Sokobin was was in dispute. The
Chinese claimed he was and that both men fired a total of shots at the soldiers who then
returned the fire that killed Coltman. The Americans claimed that Sokobin was not
armed, and that Coltman could not have drawn his pistol and fired because he was
driving. That suggests, however, that Coltman’s vehicle was not halted as ordered, or had
resumed motion without permission. Coltman's parents were in America on vacation at
the time, Andrews noted, and the expectation was that the matter would be taken up in
Washington. Granger expressed his condolences.
About ten militia men were camped up on a hill nearby on New Year’s Day night as the
Grangers read their mail by the kitchen stove. It was said that they were passing through,
bound for their homes, and were to move on the next day. The snow that began to fall at
daybreak came down in large flakes that melted as they landed in the village. The hills
were coated white right down to the village’s perimeter, so Granger again canceled a trip.
And the soldiers did not move either.
It was 33° and “at this temperature,” Anna wrote, “dressing in the open is a chilly
proposition.” The Grangers took a walk that afternoon and then had tea upon returning.
They went to the Inn for a while after supper, but that kitchen was not as warm as usual.
So, they
went to bed very early. Fine moon light in the court as we passed
along the corridor to our dark bed-room, which is little more than a
cow shed. The rafters supporting the slanting tile roof and the barred
and paper-covered window remind one of the stable as pictured in
the paintings of the nativity. It could easily serve as a model for a
German Crippen. The quacking of ducks in the passage way just
back of our heads helps to keep up the illusion that we are living in
biblical times. The room is one story above the ground, tho. Through
breaks in the floor we can look down into the living quarters of
some of the members of the Tan family. There is a door way into a
store room beyond ours. We may not investigate that corner because
we have been warned that the supporting beams may give out and let
us through! What day or moon light reaches us, comes in from the
court or from the space next [to] the temple wall, where the tiles of
our roof fail to connect [224].
Camp life seemed sluggish. A man brought in three fine third molars of Stegodon, all
apparently belonging to the same animal. Granger bought them for $5.00. Chih and
'Buckshot' went hunting, but without much success.
The soldiers remained camped on the hill. Their Sergeant called them to order and
delivered a lecture to two of them who had had a quarrel about a piece of bedding or
some such. His lecture was followed by five strokes of the stick on both hands of each
man and they were ordered to remain out in the weather as a general punishment. The hill
was still covered in snow. Furthermore, the villagers said it was one of their coldest
winters.
A Temple Visit & Yanjingou Valley View
Granger, Wong, 'Buckshot', Chih and Anna went up into the hills on the 4th to visit a
temple called Erh Hsien Tung, or Two Fairies' Cave. Anna made the twelve-mile journey
in a rude seat suspended between two bamboo poles, her feet resting on a small rod hung
below. She found this mode of transportation to be very comfortable “except when going
down very steep stairways, when one misses having anything to brace one's hands
against.” Chih and 'Buckshot' hunted birds along the way.
The party had lunch over a fire in the building at the entrance to the cave: hard-boiled
eggs, a tin of baked beans, cheese, bread and butter, chocolate, a glass of port and a cup
full of rice-water obtained from the coolies when they cooked their food. After lunch, the
group took candles and walked into the cave for some distance. Images were set up in
niches carved in the wall at the entrance. There were highly colored figures representing
the sun and the moon. The Chinese had used a natural basin in the limestone resembling a
wall-fountain as another place suitable for a god. Steps cut into the rock led up to that
figure, but one would have to be of "fairy" dimensions to make the ascent easily,
observed Anna.
The biggest thrill of the day occurred in the home stretch when they reached a
commanding view of the Yanjinggou valley and a “sea of mountain peaks that rose like
rows of dragon’s teeth” in every direction. The sun was out finally, “making this view of
the mountains“ wrote Anna, “one long to be remembered.“
Anna: Again First Foreign-Woman Seen
The sun shown brightly all the next day as well and it was comfortable to sit out, so long
as one stayed protected from the wind.
Another pig killing had taken place in front of the Tan's Inn. A bench was brought out.
Candles and joss were placed on it and lit. Red paper was placed near by. Then the pig
was stuck into and blown up. A rod had been run through its body several times and then
a man began blowing into the places where the rod had been inserted. Slowly the pig
grew to twice its size until it looked like a balloon. This was said to make it easier to
remove the hair after first scalding the hide.
The next day they ascended one of the highest hills in the neighborhood. They stopped at
a large farmhouse just below the summit where they ate lunch in a pine and cedar grove
on some steps leading to a round platform which served as the resting place for three
stone tombs. The entire household, consisting of two men, five women and at least six
children turned out to watch them eat. The women and children had never seen a foreign
woman before.
The head of the house was given some soft cheddar cheese on a cracker and a quarter of a
can of baked beans that was left over. He ate a little and sent the rest down to the house.
The sun was just right for taking photographs. Walter and Anna left Wong and 'Buckshot'
and went to the next farm house which overlooked the entire valley of Yanjinggou. Rice
paddies extended tier on tier below them. From their vantage point, they could plainly see
the trails they had taken on the opposite mountains when they visited the Two Fairies'
Cave temple two days before.
Back on the trail, they all stopped at a large farmhouse just below the summit where they
had lunch. The expedition men and the four coolies who carried Anna’s chair were
invited to sit at a table near by and share food and drink wine with the host. Anna was
given a place beside the fire with the women and children. They had boiled turnip,
pickled turnip, another kind of pickle, smoked meat, smoked sausage and rice. At Wong's
suggestion, Anna tried some of the liquid that the rice was boiled in. It was quite thick,
she thought, and would be tastier if a little salt were added.
The host, a confirmed opium smoker, was about to indulge in a smoke when they had
arrived. Wong induced him to let the Grangers see how it was done while one of the
women offered to let Anna smoke her pipe.
Lying on his kang (a brick sleeping platform), the host picked up a bit of opium from the
flat clay or wooden slab on which it was purchased. This bit was held over a tiny lamp to
heat. When it was of the right consistency, it was manipulated with the needle against a
stone until a ball was formed. This was placed on top of the pipe bowl and then a hole
was pierced in the center of the ball. The pipe bowl was held against the lamp at such an
angle that the flame touched the ball. The smoke from this was drawn through the pipe
and into the mouth. After about five or six puffs, the smoke was finished.
An opium container held three balls, Anna noted. This man smoked seven times a day.
His No. 1 wife, who had offered her pipe to Anna, also had the habit. Both now showed
dark complexions and dull eyes.
Walking back by a grove by the farmhouse, Anna noticed a huge rock on the face of
which were two vines. One resembled closely, she thought, the English Ivy. The other
had long leaves and bore in their axis clusters of round scarlet berries with a rosy pith
inside. This latter vine was well supplied with sharp prickles, as were so many plants in
that region. Fan-shaped palm leaves and ferns with fronds three feet long were among the
tangled undergrowth creating an enchanting spot. Anna could see how tall and straight
the pine trees could grow when allowed to. Except in sacred spots, she wrote, “the natives
cut everything down ruthlessly for firewood.”
It had been a pleasant day all in all. From the steps where they had lunched and their
extensive view of the valley up which they had traveled where “countless rice paddies
shimmered in the sun[, c]edar trees, with lower branches all cut away, but still
picturesque, gave variety to the immediate landscape, while a wonderful company of
peaks formed the background.”
The fright of their trip by train and through the gorges was replaced by Anna’s delight in
her Yanjinggou surroundings. She and Walter went for daily walks, studied the regional
flora and savored local persimmons that were “deliciously sweet and juicy.” The cook
would make three kinds of candy to go with their afternoon tea. And one morning, as the
weather warmed a bit, Anna and Walter “scrambled up the hill-side over the cave we had
entered the other day to see if any bats were living there and succeeded in finding a place
where the earth had fallen in and made the lighted chamber which had so appealed to us
when we were exploring the inside.”
January 9, 1923
(Anna:)
Walter, Wong, Chou and 'Buckshot' all went to the Tan's breakfast
feast. I was invited, but declined. Tan's women folk are not admitted
to the feed. The table was spread in the shrine room. One of the
courses was liver from the pig killed yesterday [225].
After the meal, Granger and 'Buckshot' were off for an inspection of some bone pits on
the trail to Shih Pa Tse. They were back at 6:00 p.m. without much to show for the hard
climb. Back at camp, Anna noticed that a little boy who used to stand about their
courtyard nearly naked now wore a complete outfit made out of some blue cloth that she
had given his mother. “She was so ignorant that she could not cut out the clothes. Some
of the neighbors did that for her. It took her ten days to do the sewing. Mother made her
boy kou tou to me.”
Granger was now feeling out of touch and finding little of a scientific nature to interest
him. In a letter to John T. Nichols back at the Museum in New York, he wrote that he felt
he was simply duplicating his existence there of the previous winter [225a]. Since
everything was more familiar, it was not so engaging. He felt as if he were in a sort of
winter exile. He had hoped to have a “white man with me this time but things did not
seem to work out that way.” But this was where the fossils were and that was his job. So
there was nothing to do but stick it out.
The continuously dismal weather was the worst feature of the winter there, he wrote.
There was not much frost, but the days were endlessly cloudy and damp. They lived
practically out of doors on a balcony overlooking an open court, because in all of that
district “there is no room with both light and heat and one would be obliged to build his
own structure if he wanted such accommodations.” Most of their days were spent in a
temperatures between 40˚ and 50˚. This was fine for climbing the hills which surrounded
them, he noted, but too chilly for making up bird skins in comfort, or preparing fossils or
doing anything with the hands.
In addition to collecting fossils, he was also trying to assemble a good representation of

recent mammals and birds. By the end of that season he expected to have about 500 each
of birds and mammals, a significant sampling of the mammal and the winter bird fauna of
that region. There would be about 35 species of mammals and over 100 species of land
birds. Granger wrote that he “enjoyed making the acquaintance of the birds––the magpie
being the only familiar friend.” He had seen only two or three species of birds that so far
had escaped his collection––a small hawk and a swallow that was plentiful along the
Yangtze, ten miles away, but that did not venture up into his valley.
Andrews was discouraged about the bird spotting, he wrote, principally because of the
apparent lack of interest by the Museum’s Bird Department in ornithological work in
China. Nevertheless, Granger felt he should not let the opportunity pass to get a
representative collection of the region. He let a native taxidermist do the majority of the
work and assisted with the more difficult specimens that were beyond the man’s skills.
“He was taxidermist for several years for Deha Tanabe, who made an extensive
collection of the birds of North China, and he apparently did not receive proper
instruction at the beginning and got into some bad ways and a Chinese is a hard person to
reform. To[o] ‘sot’ in their ways.”
Granger continued in his letter to Nichols that he had received news the Linnean Society
was going strong [robust] and that the Explorers Club had at last got a permanent home.
He had heard of it first “through Harry Frank who lives in Peking at present and is
writing for the Century Co. about conditions in China and Mongolia.” Granger also
hoped that the folks back at the Museum had had a chance to see Shackelford's films of
Mongolia and perhaps also to have heard him speak personally of the expedition’s
activities. “We were all quite enamored of ‘Shack’ and hope they will send him out
again. I've been camping most of my life but never got in with a more congenial crowd
than we had last summer. That party will be pretty difficult to duplicate.”
In that regard, Granger was hoping to have either Olsen or Thomson over in the spring as
his assistant. “The Russians are going to get in on this new field in the north before long
and we must do what we can next season to give it at least the ‘once over.’”
Finally, Granger confided:
About the only time the members of the Expedition can sit around
the same table is a short period each spring and fall. Even in
Mongolia Pope was not with us and so our table had one vacant
chair. Just now Roy is in Peking, writing and getting ready for next
summer. Morris is also in Peking working up his geological and
topographical notes and studying Russian. Pope is on the island of
Hainan and I'm in Szechuan, a big triangle. My best regards to Mrs.

Nichols and yourself, in which my wife joins. Also please remember
me to any friends in the Museum who may inquire about me. Don't
ever hear from anyone in the Museum outside my own Department.
So particularly glad to get your letter [226].
Chapter [ ]
A new pet dog, ‘Teddy Bear,’ had discovered that Anna’s "huo pen," or fire basket, was a
source of warmth. “This morning he teased so hard to be put on top that I wrapped him in
a towel and let him have a nap there. First time he has ever been warm in his life
probably.”
It was time for Anna to go back to Wanxian. Granger took advantage of the opportunity
to take a load of fossils in as well. On the way down the mountain, they stopped at two
pottery works. “Walter took some photographs. Nobody would do their work because
they were all determined to see the foreign Tai tai. We induced the man who puts the
decoration on the bowls to paint a few so that we could watch him. When the last firing is
over, the dishes are soft gray, and the painted pattern is deep blue.”
At the China Inland Mission in Wanxian they found all was well and that the Darlington
children were still there. They also noticed that the “soldiers are thicker in the town than
before.” There was more drilling than ever. It was said there were now over 10,000
troops in Wanxian proper and across the river nearby. The rumor was that trouble would
commence shortly after the Chinese New Year on February 16.
The Grangers visited with the various westerners in town for business and pleasure.
Walter left an order for more fossil boxes to be made by the Standard Oil Co.
“carpenter––same man who did our work last season.” While there at the Standard Oil
offices, Granger “saw a copy of Dec. ‘Asia’ with our cablegram and an explanatory
article by Matthew.” It was peculiar to be in Sichuan Province reading a popular western
magazine account of work he’d just done in an entirely different land only six months
earlier.
On the 20th, Walter and Anna boarded the U.S. Gunboat Palos at Captain George
Sampson's invitation to lunch with him and the other officers. Served were olives, salted
peanuts, soup, fried fish with sauce maitre d'hotel, chicken, carrots, mashed potatoes,
peas, apricot pie, and coffee. Later, wrote Anna, at Mr. Overstreet’s, they “had a nice
afternoon around a fine open fire in very comfortable chairs. Mr. O. showed us some
Chinese handiwork, coats, shirts, scarfs, bamboo wall panels, etc. I bought two of the
scarfs. One is a lovely garnet red and the other old gold. At five o'clock we had delicious
tea and cakes.” Anna remained at the China Inland Mission for a spell.
Granger pushed off with Chow for Yanjinggou the next morning at about 10:00 a.m. The
trip up the river was particularly slow, taking four and a half hours. The sampan was
smaller and lighter than the kind he normally used. Even so, making headway was
difficult since the river was shallow and swift. It seemed the crew was having difficulty
finding gentler backwater stretches where they could pole more effectively out of the
main force of the stream. But Granger also thought his “crew of three none too efficient.”
Eventually, the three were sent overboard to push the sampan while Granger worked the
steering oar from the bow. It took 20 minutes or more to gain just 100 yards through one
of the swift and shallow places.
Back at camp, Granger learned that he would have to discharge "Bucktooth" Tan
“because he has been flirting with various ladies hereabouts recently and using our
uniform as a protecting screen. Wife of Asst. Gent'y of lower village one of the victims
and some little row has been made over it.” To replace Bucktooth Tan, he hired one of
the villagers, whom he nicknamed “New Lau,” because he was “Old Lau’s” cousin.
Now Wong was ill. On the 25th, Granger returned from inspecting the pits to find “Wong
ill with stomach pain and having passed a round worm about a foot long.” Granger gave
him a healthy dose of castor oil. He then sent Old Lau in to Wanxian with a letter to Anna
along with a note of inquiry to Dr. Williams at Chung Chow regarding Wong's illness.
But, by the next day, Wong had recovered and was up and around.
In the meantime Granger noticed that
Laborers have today cut down a fine hard wood tree growing along
the trail through the rice paddies opposite the temple. It was the only
fine tree to be seen from our front door. Someone in Sin K'ai Tien
owned it. Great inroads have been made this winter on the small
second growth groves of soft wood in this section. A few more years
and there will be little left here in the way of trees [227].
Old Lau was back in camp at about 9:00 p.m. with a big bundle of New York newspapers
and letters from Charles, Andrews, Osborn, Childs Frick, Bill Thomson, Peter Kaisen,
Bayard Colgate, and Rutland friend Rob Davis. Anna also sent along a large pile of
Christmas cards they’d received and reported that all was well except that a thief tried to
get into the house adjoining the mission compound. The intruder was scared off by the
occupant as soon as he opened the door. Two other places were broken into in that
neighborhood, presumably by the same person.
On the 31st, Granger recorded that “a Major General or something passed through the
village this morning and stopped, with his bodyguard of 60 or so soldiers, for tiffin at the
lower village. On his way to Wanhsien from the Hupeh border. I did not see him.”
Granger was making ready to embark on a four- or five-day trip along the fossil ridge to
examine the working pits and make whatever collections he could. He took 'Buckshot'
and three coolies. They camped at farmhouses along the way [228]. Since the route
branched off the main trail which led from the river over into Hupeh province, he figured
he probably would be the first white man to travel there. He expected the usual rather
large and attentive audience wherever he stopped––they often stood three rows deep
around his dinner table.
The temperature continued around 30˚ and 40˚, sometimes nearing 45˚. It was a healthy
enough climate he thought, since he’d had no illness other than one cold during his two
winters there. Spring weather would set in about February 25th. At about that time the
previous year, fruit trees were already in bloom down the river. In a letter to his father, he
wrote that he imagined that the Chinese crickets were not the same species as the eastern
American, but that they did make almost the same noise and were about the same size.
The ones used for fighting in Peking, he noted, were light brown instead of black. It was
too cold in Sichuan for crickets in the winter time “but I think they were singing when we
came in September of last season. It is the one home touch to this country.”
As for an American newspaper account Charles had forwarded, Granger replied that it
“was a much garbled reporter's story––certainly not Berkey's stuff. Berkey is a very
modest, gentle man and Roy is always fair and generous in giving credit.”
The Expedition’s discoveries in Mongolia in 1922 were now generating considerable

fervor in the press. Publicity value overruled accuracy. Charles’ lengthy correspondence
with Granger led him to feel that the ensuing publicity wasn’t treating his son fairly. He
expressed that concern and Granger tried to assure him that it was just an unfortunate
mishap. But was it? Was it just another garbled reporter; or had Berkey opportunized at
Granger’s expense; or had Andrews fiddled with the facts?
Granger’s assessment of Berkey seems accurate. As to Andrews, Granger was being

hopeful, perhaps still not completely aware of Andrews’s propensity and willingness to
distort. He could not have done anything about it anyway, and likely would not have.
Granger cared simply about doing his job. Like Berkey, he was a very modest, gentle
man. He recognized that the two men he was working with, Osborn and Andrews, had
egos totally different from his and Berkey’s. Though Osborn was running the show, he
had given Andrews almost free rein on the publicity front. Regardless of whether Granger
was the key man in the CAE’s scientific fieldwork was irrelevant. Regardless of whether
Granger was the main cog in the DVP itself was irrelevant. Granger persisted with his
work not caring about credit. He felt lucky and gratified to be doing what he was doing.
He felt a solid contribution to science, regardless of acclaim, was the ultimate goal.
Granger set off the next day with 'Buckshot', Old Lau, the opium smoker, and a quide.
Chih accompanied them as far as the first night’s camp at Lung Chia Ta Yuan Tsi where
he wanted to hunt squirrels and trap. Everybody was out in the sun that day and seemed
to enjoy it greatly. The three carrying coolies had adjusted loads according to their term
of service with Granger. The guide, a new man, carried two beddings––about 70 catties;
the opium smoker, an occasional employee, carried the cots, duffel bag and additional
items––about 40 catties––while Lau, the ranking coolie, carried two baskets with the food
and cooking utensils––around 30 to 35 catties. Granger began making barometer readings
and noting the weather at time intervals during this trip, as he had in the Gobi:
Yen-Ching-Kao -1290
Inn -2240 - Brt.
Summit -2775
First Camp 1st -3550 - 3:30 p.m.
First Camp 2nd -3725 - 9 a.m. Brt.
Trail before descending
to Lan Chia -3775 - 2 p.m. Cloudy.

Lan Bu Yan -3675 - 5 p.m. Cloudy.
" -3650 - 8 a.m. [229].
Back in Wanxian, Anna also enjoyed the day. “Another day of sunshine!,” she wrote.
“Temperature 38˚ at 8:15 a.m. Sat out all morning enjoying the brightness.” Although the
next day turned cloudy, she was warmed by a gift. “Walter sent one of his men in with a
note. I had been wishing to hear from him all day. Sent him out money and two Rutland
papers. He sent me in a nice fox skin which he bought from a native. The fur is reddish
brown tipped with white.”
Granger’s trip to the ridge 2,000 feet above the village lasted six days. The weather was
much colder than at Yanjinggou and that required stamina. On the second day, February
3, 1923, “Our host insisted upon a Chinese breakfast which I ate on top of my regular
eggs, bacon and coffee––pretty heavy diet to begin the day on. Our coolies have been
taken care of by the host and are well fed & bedded.”
They set off along the ridge, inspecting and selecting fossils at various work sites to buy
and pick up on their return. The topographic and geologic features in that area were
exactly the same as to the north except that the valley along the east side of the “Lung
Goo” ridge was lower, narrower and steeper, Granger observed. As far as he could see to
the south––perhaps ten miles––the characteristics were the same, except for some high
ridges he observed to the east that ran parallel with the fossil ridge.
As the collection grew, so did the size of the party. “We now have five coolies in our
caravan.” But when they then spent a day trapped in a snow storm, it was time to return
to Yanjinggou. “Our food is getting low and I'm reduced to sharing 'Buckshot''s fried egg
& rice mixture.”
It was the first day of spring according to the Chinese calendar. The snow was mostly
gone as they returned the next morning although ice remained on the paddy fields at 9:00
a.m. The town sewer was being cleaned out in preparation for the New Year. Preparing
for that festivity in Wanxian, Anna bought several sorts of paper, "Tung Shihs," which
the Chinese used at New Year. “Yellow paper used if family has been in mourning one
year, blue if two years, and red if three.“
She sent the mail out to Granger which included a telegram from the Museum forwarded
by Andrews stating that Olsen and one other man would be coming to China in March to
assist him. A letter from Andrews stated that he was having trouble getting last year's
fossil collection through the customs; the Chinese wanted to inspect the boxes before
they left the country, Granger noted, “and this is impossible. Most of the boxes cannot be
opened without ruining the boxes.” So they remained in Andrews’s compound in Peking.
Only the fossils Granger had sent along with Shackelford as excess baggage had made it
to the Museum.
There also now was concern that they would have difficulty getting new expedition gear
into China from America in the spring. The customs people had been “very decent up to
the present time but there is a new crowd of officers in since Wu Pei Fu's victory last
summer.”
The Chinese New Year was approaching, Granger wrote his father on February 8th, and
there were the usual signs. “The Chinese drag everything out until it gets tiresome. They
cannot even take a holiday and get it over the way the rest of the world does,” he
complained. But he was also anxious:
I'm curious these days to know just where the fighting is going to
take place after New Year's. The Wanhsien soldiers are getting
ready for a scrap somewhere but I don't know where it will be, and
don't care much so long as they keep away from Yen-ching-kuo.
Szechuan claims independence now but probably it will eventually
come back to the central government whether by choice or force
[230].
February 12, 1923––7 a.m. - 43˚; 4 p.m. - 47˚. Cloudy.

In camp packing fossils, with 'Buckshot', in preparation for going in
to Wanhsien tomorrow. Plan to take in the big Stegodon skull, two
coolie loads, and six baskets of smaller things, and one coolie for
baggage. Chih hunting down by the pottery works again in
afternoon; killed another squirrel and a new bird, blue back, white
streak on face. Annette and Overstreet are to return with me on New
Year's day unless plans miscarry (emphasis supplied) [231].
Granger left camp with Chow and the coolies the next morning. When they arrived at the
river landing at Pai Shui Chi (Paishuchi), they were told of heavy coolie drafting in
Wanxian. They reluctantly rented a sampan for the downriver trip on the agreement that
Granger would protect the boat's crew while they were in Wanxian. He decided to take
along Old Lau outfitted in a Museum uniform to help with baggage. Granger thought the
Museum uniform, which was white with a large red border, would keep the man fairly
safe from the soldiers.
The sampan arrived at the Post Office pontoon early that afternoon. Old Lau went up to a
hotel with the men’s personal baggage, Granger’s bag going on to Anna’s room at the
Mission. Chow and Granger then dropped down river “to the Haikwan with the fossils.
Mr. Annette kindly loaned me his coolies to get the bones up to the temple and we
dismissed the boat.”
As Granger headed for the Mission, he found the streets almost deserted. Coolies who
had not been drafted were in hiding. Five thousand men were said to have been taken by
soldiers moving in two directions––to the south on the Hupeh border and to the west
toward Chung King on the north side of the river. There was talk of fighting on the
Hupeh border. General Chang seemed “to be the No. 1 in these parts just now. His two
companies of the First Army having gone toward Chung King. He has installed a
telephone line crossing the river near the Liking Station and going up the T'o K'o valley
to Long Chen Pa.” Annette doubted that he or Overstreet would be able to leave town
with Granger for the holidays.
Granger made ready to return to Yanjinggou on the 15th. Most of Wanxian’s shops were
closed and there were no coolies in the streets. Five thousand men were reported to have
been taken away from their homes––most of them given no opportunity to notify their
families. These coolies would be fed, but not paid. Those of them sent to the front, of
course, would be in danger of getting shot.
Darlington's gate man, however, knew where they hid and offered to obtain two or three
for bearers if Granger agreed to protect them from being drafted. There was a temple near
the mission which was used especially for ‘coolie storage.’ Looking in through the street
side door, one could see a gallery packed with the poor fellows waiting for the soldiers to
move along. Wives of the drafted men would gather in the street outside the door to try to
catch glimpses of their husbands. How this place remained undetected by the soldiers was
not known.
One of Darlington's Christian workers came in from Lung Chu Pa that night with news
that First Army soldiers camped there had done considerable damage to a church under
construction. Annette and Overstreet abandoned plans to go to Yanjinggou with Granger.
Anna would go instead. Darlington thought she would be safer there than in Wanxian.
Granger wrote to his father and W. D. Matthew to bring them up-to-date. He noted that
the map of their auto route in Mongolia the previous summer, as published in the
December, 1922 issue of Asia magazine, was wrong in one respect––they did not cross
the Altai Mountain range with the autos. They skirted along the north face. The
geologists, however, did cross on camels and horses. And Granger had climbed up far
enough to be able to look into the desert on the south side of the mountain range.
He wrote that he was returning to camp on the 16th and taking Anna with him for her
second visit. Spring, he noted, had already set in, in a mild sort of way, and the
countryside was bright and fragrant with the purple and yellow blossoms of beans and
rape.
For a week now, he continued to his father, soldiers had been drafting carrying coolies to
transport the army’s equipment. Granger figured there was going to be “quite a little row
here this spring between local factions of the Szechuanese army. Some fighting has
already taken place to the south––along the Hupeh border.” There was one American
gunboat in port and another up at Chungking. There were also the British gunboats
Widgeon and Teal, the French gunboat Doudart de la Greé and a Japanese gunboat on the
upper river that winter. He thought his own valley was not likely to be disturbed since it
was off the main trail.
To W. D. Matthew, Granger wrote that while he had not yet found any fossil primates of
consequence, he had turned up some fine small carnivore skulls––”a thing you noted the
absence of in last winter's collection. Also some skulls of the larger carnivores––bear,
hyaena, etc. and three skulls of tapir––one of them practically a perfect skull with jaws.
Quite a year for tapirs.” He realized his efforts had added considerably to the knowledge
of the fauna of the region and expected to make more new finds before the close of the
work on about March 10th.
Granger regretted that his old buddy Albert Thomson, an experienced and capable
collector, could not be worked in with Olsen. “My only apprehension about Johnson has
been that he might not be able to develop the technique necessary for the delicate work of
collecting mammals. Most of the things which I took out last season were difficult
work––even the small dinosaurs.” Albert Johnson was a rancher from Sweetgrass,
Montana, who had assisted Barnum Brown at dinosaur digs in Montana and Alberta,
Canada. Brown’s history was mainly with large dinosaurs. Johnson’s experience was
likewise and, Granger feared, would do little to prepare him for the exacting tasks [more
delicate/complicated work] that awaited in the Gobi [231a].
in his February 15, 1923 letter to Matthew, Granger reiterated his concurrence that the
1922 fossil collection had to remain free of inspection by the Chinese. “My own stuff
would have to be repacked in new boxes if the present ones were opened, and the
geological material is all sealed up in tin-lined cases.” He closed with this:
Am taking Mrs. Granger out to camp tomorrow, as being rather

safer and more undisturbed than here in town. No one has ever been
hurt in the Mission, I believe, but there have been some close calls.
It looks like another junk trip down through the Gorge for me this
spring, which I don't relish but don't really worry about unless the
fighting comes in to the river. I can't seem to dodge these provincial
wars, although nothing serious has happened yet. Last year I ran
directly into the Ichang battle and this season into the Honan bandits
and there is promise of lively times hereabouts in the next few
weeks...
But the missionaries and the government officials and

representatives of business concerns live here and travel up and
down the river and nothing much seems to happen to them. There is,
however, a growing dislike of and contempt for foreigners in this
section. I find it more noticeable than last winter. It is not so marked
out in the country districts but in the city and larger market-places
one is sneered at a good deal. If our gunboats are withdrawn, as I
have heard it proposed, then all foreigners will withdraw too [232].
The Granger party left the Wanxian for Yanjinggou shortly after 9:00 a.m. on Chinese
New Year’s Day. It was a smooth sampan trip this time. One man and two boys handled
the oars. Walter helped the smallest boy with the bamboo tracking rope at the Fu Tan
rapids.
They ate the sandwiches that Mrs. Darlington had made for them, along with tea, puffed
rice and peanuts they purchased at the inn on the bank above the Pai Shui Chi (Paishuchi)
landing. As they made the steep climb up to Yanjinggou, they met “scarcely anyone on
the road [trail] on account of its being a holiday. Front doors all closed in the village of
Tsin Kai Tien and decorated freshly with red strips of paper and tissue paper cut out in
different patterns. Often branches of evergreen are used, held together by a loop made of
the joss paper burned ordinarily at shrines. In certain places along the road, tables were
placed out of doors around which were groups of men standing. No business transacted
on this day.”
They reached camp at a little after five. Full darkness soon set in shortly after. Some of
the Tan clan arrived to set off a cannon in front of the altar three times as part of their
ancestor worship. As the holiday progressed, Wong became busy doling out money to
various people who had been making him presents of rice, eggs, chickens, and other
goods. “Grandma" Tan gave Walter some steamed cakes made of rice flour. The cakes
were white, about 3/4” thick, 3” wide and marked in the middle with a design in red ink.
To Anna, the taste was flat. Salt, sugar or flavoring of any kind would have helped, she
thought. But the consistency was rather good.
That morning, Tan had set off bombs in the temple, outside the temple and in front of his
two houses before the Grangers were out of bed. “Three explosions constitute [a salute]
to the dead.”
Festivities continued. Itinerant acrobats appeared at the temple to give their show.
Occupants of both villages and nearby farms streamed in to watch; the assembly entirely
filled up the steps, altar platform and court of the temple. Three tables were stacked on
top of one another to create a platform high enough to elevate the performers so that they
could be seen. It also heightened the risk to the participants, thus spicing up the show.
Four men, each with a shrill-sounding instrument, beat in unison throughout the two-hour
performance.
At one point, two of the actors united in impersonating a lion, covering themselves with a
variegated silk robe to which a huge lion's head with a long mane was attached. A few
bells sewn somewhere on the disguise gave a pleasant tinkle as the lion leapt about trying
to intimidate another man costumed as a monkey. At 6:00 p.m., it became so dark that the
stage manager lit three round swinging lanterns and four four-sided paper lanterns hung
on the ends of long poles. These were supplemented by Granger’s museum lighting
equipment, which consisted of two carbide lamps and four or five kerosene oil burners. It
was 7:30 p.m. before the audience was satisfied and people began returning to their
homes.
Anna continued her reading of “Mrs. [Elizabeth] Bishop's book ‘The Yangtze Valley and
Beyond’” and making diary entries describing yet another troupe of itinerant performers
passing through the village.
There were five players, all men, one dressed as a woman. “She” wore a fancy skirt with
a tight fitting waist, a wide belt and long, snug sleeves with white pearl buttons. “She”
walked about with her legs enclosed in a gaudily painted wooden case with two handles
projecting behind. This was intended to represent a wheelbarrow. In one hand, she carried
a much battered-up folding fan. In the other she carried a man's size handkerchief which
she waved wearily at the others, as the occasion offered. One man seemed to be making
advances toward the maid, but he was continually repelled by the others with blows from
a palm leaf fan.
For music, the troupe had a variety of percussion instruments––one drum, a large gong
held suspended by a cord from one hand and struck with the other, a pair of cymbals, one
small metal disc held flat in the hand that gave out a high pitched sound when struck, and
several bamboo rods hollowed out in sections and set with pieces of "cash." Anna thought
these had an effect similar to castanets. A dramatic incident was being conveyed through
recitations by individual actors in turns with the troupe uniting in a chorus at the end of
each sentence. But there was little variety, to the Grangers’ ears, and they could not get a
sense of the story.
At the end of the show, requests for "kum shaw," (cumshaw, or donations), from Wong
and Walter were skillfully interwoven into the narrative. Two hundred coppers were
handed to the manager of the show and, since the actors would not get much of that
amount, eighty more coppers were given to them. The troupe then departed to repeat their
act at another time in another location.
It had been so long since the Grangers had had any warmth from the sun, that they moved
the breakfast table into its rays the day they finally appeared. “Walter took a picture of
the table, Mr. Wong, "Chow" and myself,” wrote Anna. After eating breakfast and
reading their mail, Walter and Anna walked up a hill under a bright sky. They arrived at
an inn with a splendid New Year’s decoration on its front door and were invited inside.
Tea was offered in tiny handleless cups. As Anna looked about, she noted four colored
panels hanging in the center of one of the walls. They appeared to be calendars. Over
them, running the full length of the wall, was a shelf on which were placed candles and
brass dishes. Another wall had a panel of white cloth with the figures of a woman and a
man in blue.
The mistress of the inn was feeding a small child seated at a table upon which was a tiny
metal brazier filled with charcoal. A brass dish containing some chopped-up food “was
boiling merrily over the little stove,” Anna wrote. When the child ran off into an
adjoining room, she noted, “he jingled a row of bells hanging from silver chains to the
back of his head dress––this very cunning.”
There was more festivity. An engagement party was being held and the Grangers were
invited to the feast. A young girl was being pledged to a young boy––she was 13 years
and one month old and he 13 and 10 months old. Some of the gifts to the bridegroom
were a cap, a pair of shoes, pens, ink and paper. The oddest things in his tray, Anna
thought, were a little cedar tree and a bunch of garlic, both tied with red ribbon, along
with some pieces of sweet potato. The potatoes and tree, she surmised, were to be planted
and the garlic to be eaten, though Wong said that was not true. The bride-to-be received
trays of soap, cologne and cosmetics. Other trays were filled with confections made of
rice highly decorated with splashes of red, yellow and green dyes.
After the party, the Grangers took their third stroll of the day. They found a warm, sunny,
dry hillside commanding a fine view of the valley and the mountain range that
surrounded it. Four young boys had followed them out of curiosity. After shooing them
off, they sat down to enjoy the view.
A messenger came in from Wanxian at noon the next day with mail and papers. There
were letters from Granger’s father, Olsen and William Sinclair. Olsen with two other men
were preparing the Baluchitherium skull, as Osborn had told him to hurry the work
because he wanted to exhibit the specimen to raise $10,000 for expedition purposes.
Darlington reported that things were quiet in town, but coolie drafting was still rampant.
February 27, 1923
Dear Father:-
Anna still in camp but will take her in about the first. Expect now to
start down river in junk by March 16th or 17th. River fairly quiet
below here so far as I know [233].
Granger made ready to pack up the expedition, wrap up business and break camp once
again. Anna would be taken down to Wanxian in advance along with the fossils still in
camp. Granger chuckled when one of his longstanding collecting problems struck again.
Wong had shot a yellow-vent flycatcher.
This is the bird which has a great variety of calls and which fooled
all of us last year many times with the result that we had by the end
of the season a series of twelve or fifteen of them, all but the first
few having [been] shot under the impression that they were
something else. Thus glad we have avoided shooting any until today
when this bird, high up in a tree, fooled Wong [234].
The advance party started off for Wanhsien at 9:00 a.m. on March 2nd with nine coolies,
two for Anna's chair and the rest for lung ku and baggage. They took all fossils with them
except a box of small skulls. They arrived at the post office pontoon at around 3:00 p.m.
As before, Old Lau disembarked with the personal baggage to take up to the Inn and
Mission and the sampan then dropped down river to unload the fossils at the Haikwan.
A chair could not be hired at the post office landing because coolie drafting had
intensified. But there were some coolies about who attempted to rush their sampan. They
had to be beaten back with walking canes. Chow grabbed Anna’s and cracked it over one
man before the man finally retreated. No gunboats were in the harbor at the time,
although the HMS Teal steamed in shortly after. The word was that General Chang Tseng
was getting ready to vacate Wanxian and several thousand coolies were being held in
various temples for his emergency use. The coolies were being kept on reduced rations,
receiving only three meals in four days. One lay dying outside a temple near the Mission.
It looked as if things would not go well for Chang Tseng. He had already sent his wife
out of the city.
The Grangers unloaded their gear and settled in. As they looked about the town, they
noticed that the hillsides were becoming very pretty in their spring greenness with
patches of yellow where mustard, known as rape, was in flower. Blossoms everywhere
were very fragrant and the willow trees in the temple yard next door were in leaf. Birds
competed for attention with their mating songs. The most noticeable triller, thought Anna
and Walter, was a bird with a marked resemblance in manner and form to the American
mockingbird. The day after next brought the first bright sun of the season, and it become
so hot that it gave Granger “a fine headache” during a walk he took with Anna. He had
intended to play tennis with Annette and Overstreet but had to give it up and go to bed at
once, “feeling some better” after a few hours rest. It hailed that night for the second time
since they’d been back.
Still not feeling up to the mark, Granger returned to Yanjinggou the next morning, March
5th. There was little traffic on the river until just before they reached the landing where
they began to encounter boat loads of soldiers heading down to Wanxian. Apparently,
from what Granger could surmise, it was the First Army in retreat.
There were many more soldiers waiting at the landing itself. Some of them attempted to
commandeer his sampan even before it touched shore, but he succeeded in blocking them
until his gear had been properly unloaded. New Lau and another of his regular coolies
waited for him at the landing dressed in Museum uniforms. Chow was recovering from a
previous fall and needed a chair to take him up to camp. Given the situation, this required
some searching. Eventually, two coolies were found and sneaked out of their hiding place
in between arrivals of groups of soldiers who were now pouring into the landing area.
The party started for camp at about 3:00 p.m. just as soldiers at the landing began
shooting at passing boats trying to force them to stop. One small junk going upriver under
sail with a crew of two was fired at several times as it passed along the opposite shore.
Both crew finally left their posts, ducking down below the gunwales, while letting the
boat sail on its own. It appeared to get past the danger safely.
The trek to camp was made without incident although they met many small groups of
soldiers and baggage coolies along the way. They estimated they passed 30 litters
carrying badly wounded men. Another thirty men walked by with bandaged heads, feet or
arms. Almost no village men were to be seen along the route between the river and camp.
They found Wong “holding the fort” and reporting that all had gone well in camp.
Soldiers had camped nearby early that morning, but had done no damage. Reports of
heavy fighting along the Hupeh border stated that the First Army was in retreat. Wong
had remained awake and on guard most of the previous night. They remained on a high
state of alert. The old opium-smoking coolie was hired to maintain watch as well.
In Yanjinggou itself, all young men, eligible as coolies, had gone into hiding well away
from the main trail. The women and children left behind wore “an anxious expression.”
All was quiet that night, March 5th,
until about 11 o'clock when small bodies of troops and coolies with
luggage began to arrive and disperse themselves among the various
houses and inns of the village. Many groups pounded on our door
and each time Wong went down, flash-light in hand, and opened the
door and told them of the presence of the foreigner and threw the
flash on the flag hung out of the latticed windows. Sometimes if
there was argument I went down also and the flash was thrown upon
me to prove Wong's statement. No one tried to force entry but about
midnight a large contingent arrived and as it was raining then the
officer in charge asked permission to put the coolie loads out of the
rain under our balcony. We permitted this and also for the coolies
and accompanying soldiers to come into the shelter and put two
officers in the Lung Goo gallery. The soldiers brought in straw and
sweet potato vines and made themselves comfortable and were all
asleep in a short time. Two sergeants slept by the wood pile near the
shrine. Other houses in the village were evidently well filled with
soldiers. At day break our party [of soldiers] left for the river [235].
All the next morning, March 6th, small contingents of soldiers came straggling down the
hill, many of them stopping in the village. Granger took in several officers and gave them
cigarettes. He also “showed them our birds & mammals.”
At about noon, while he was showing four lieutenants some of his collection, a large
column of soldiers appeared on the hill coming down at a trot. The lieutenants hastily got
their men together and started off in advance of the column. The message had been sent
to speed the First Army’s ‘movement’ to the river and for nearly two hours a solid line of
men and equipment passed Granger’s doors. The officers told Granger that the army was
hastening to the defense of the T'o K’o valley.
One field artillary piece and two or three machine guns were in the formation. The
coolies were having a hard time handling such heavy equipment. Older coolie men
staggering under their loads goaded on by the soldiers. After a slight break at around 2:30
p.m., a second column appeared moving much more briskly. By 4:00 p.m. the last of the
soldiers had passed.
Wong and Granger walked down to the lower village where they found nearly every
house deserted. Even the women and children were absent. “Things pretty well upset but
seemingly no great damage done to furniture or houses. One woman had come up to us
earlier in the day saying that the soldiers were breaking up her tables & chairs for
firewood but we saw no evidence of such a thing,” Granger wrote. Three men were
buried in the lower village that day––all of them were said to be soldiers who died either
in the village or on the road.
The two Laus remained on duty that night. 'Buckshot' was dressed in one of Granger’s
khaki field shirts. He added leggings the next day “to make him look more imposing.”
Wong donned a trench coat and a Tom Brown belt with a pistol attached. Granger kept a
weapon with him at all times, as well. While the front doors of the hall were left open
during daylight, someone always stood guard.
Back in Wanxian, Anna was examining the American mail forwarded from Peking.
Matthew, Thomson, Osborn and Frick all sent congratulations on the Baluchitherium
skull. Osborn named the species Baluchitherim grangeri in honor of Walter and increased
his salary in recognition of the difficult circumstances of his work in China. It was akin to
hazardous duty pay. However, at the moment, Granger knew none of this.
All was quiet through the night in Yanjinggou. But at daybreak on the 7th, scouts from
the Second Army passed through town and down to the Yangtze. The Second Army was
on the advance. Another patrol arrived shortly after, and stopped to rest and cook rice.
Then, at about 6:00 p.m., General Yang Sheng came along in a chair. Granger left his
quarters and went down to the front gate “to greet him as he passed. He returned the
greeting most cordially.”
Behind the general was an almost a continuous file of soldiers and coolies which
continued until dark. Stragglers, on the other hand, continued long into the night. Wong
and Granger spent most of the day sitting on either side of their doorway watching “the
interesting procession, talking to the officers when they stopped and giving out cigarettes
judiciously.” In front of the temple, Granger had hung a museum banner from the same
pole as the American flag. Written in Chinese, it read "America – Museum
Representative.”
An officer told Granger and his men that the nine- or ten-hour gap between the last man
of the retreating First Army and the first of the advancing Second was due to the First
Army’s having flooded the valley at Tso Ma Lin by breaching a dike near where the last
fighting took place. The Second Army had to cross in small boats, a slow process.
Otherwise there likely would have been fighting in the vicinity of the village.
The pursuing Second Army had become quite desperate recently, fighting in snow with
nothing but corn to eat. Their defeat of the First Army was due largely to this––the men
of the Second Army were willing to die if they could not advance to the Yangtze. They
advanced rapidly, but not hurriedly. Their general behavior seemed much better than that
of the First Army. They paid for rice and, beyond the breaking of a few rice bowls, they
did no damage to houses or furnishings. All the stoves in the upper and lower village
were in use throughout the day cooking rice and vegetables for the soldiers who paused a
half-hour or so for food and rest. Both armies would make free use of firewood, mostly
brush and the Second Army men also took green cabbage out of the fields without paying
for it. But the townspeople made no complaints.
Interestingly to Granger, none of the Second Army’s wounded passed by. He was told
they were all being sent back to field hospitals at the rear.
The men of the Second Army were also “much better equipped as to guns & ammunition,
although pretty ragged as to clothing.” The guns and ammunition had been supplied by
warlord general Wu P'ei-fu. Many of the rifles were new, from the Hankow arsenal Wong
told Granger. There were at least four pieces of field artillery and many machine guns.
The field pieces were handled by about 25 coolies with the barrel, outside cylinder, and
rear piece each requiring four men to carry. Two pairs of coolies handled each of the
machine guns. Some in the First Army later laid its defeat to the Second’s superiority in
artillery and rapid-fire guns.
The women had remained in the upper village throughout, Granger noticed, probably
because of his presence. Inn-keeper Tan and the old opium-smoking fellow were the only
men who had not fled. But everyone had worn “a much worried expression.”
Just before dark, Granger got into conversation with a gentlemanly officer in citizen's
clothes, as was the custom for most officers above the rank of captain. The officer offered
to take a letter to Anna which Granger had kept ready for such an opportunity. It was a
“note saying that we're all well.” He told Granger that General Yang Sheng intended to
pursue the First Army until he could break it up entirely. The officer said the Northern
Army was to march down the T'o K’o valley from Long Ku Pa. Granger thought, but did
not say, that the First Army men he saw passing the day before did not seem to have the
appearance of defeated men. “I think that they have really little interest in the contest and
are as satisfied to retreat as to advance.” In fact, it seemed to him, that the possibility of
looting Wanxian and other towns was more of an incentive for retreating than was
advancing into inhospitable country along the Hupeh border.
Among the swarm of soldiers in Yanjingou, one officer spoke with a Peking dialect: “the
Peking ‘burr’ echoed in the Hall while he was here.” 'Buckshot' recognized it, introduced
himself “and took him [the officer] in for a hasty cup of tea. The officer seemed delighted
to meet a northerner.” In recording that event, Granger declared that 'Buckshot' had
“found our Peking man today.” This was a savvy allusion to the ongoing work at
Zhoukoudian by Andersson and Zdansky in the search for ancient man. Not only was
Granger clearly at ease with his intuition that such would be found, his use of the term
“Peking man” predates any public awareness that discovery of the hominid later known
as “Peking Man” had been made.
Many seemingly good-natured monks walked with the soldiers, and there were mascots
as well. One man passed with a partridge in a bamboo cage. Another had a squirrel sitting
on his shoulder eating a sweet potato. The Second Army seemed keen on getting on to
Wanxian to find good shelter and rest. They apparently had been led to understand that
the soldiers of the First Army would not put up much of a fight. Many of them had said
outright, Granger learned, that they would not fight, and it seemed they were living up to
their word. In the meantime, there was not much for Granger and his men to do but stand
guard at the front door of the temple and wait.
Anna waited as well. On the 6th, she noted, a First Army non-commissioned officer still
in Wanxian had sent his wife
to the Fu Ying T'an (Happy Sound Hall––the name for this mission)
for protection. Dr. Darlington is away at K'ai Hsien. Mrs. D. said she
could not keep her, that if she did, others would ask to be kept and
there was not room even for their own church members in the
compound. Today the husband appeared and said he would set fire
to this place because his wife was turned away. This makes us all
anxious. I have packed a grip ready to grab at a moment's notice
[236].
She also received a note from Mr. Annette saying that there was fighting at the Fu T'an
rapid near the Pai Shui Chi (Paishuchi) landing.
[Walter] March 8, 1923––52˚ - 8 a.m.; 51˚ - 1 p.m.; 50˚ - 6 p.m.

Cloudy:
Another quiet night––a good many of the stragglers stopped over in
the village, but there was no disorder [237].
These soldiers and coolies, many of them having lagged behind because they were lame
or ill, filed past in small groups, not over a dozen in any party. In the meantime, it was
learned that much of the bedding and a great deal of rice had been taken from the village.
General Yang Sheng apparently had expected to find the food supply low in Wanxian and
was taking along all the provisions he could find. Some of the women folk began
reappearing in the lower village, but the men had not yet dared to show themselves.
Occasionally one of the men would sneak down the hill in back of Granger’s temple and
go in by the side door to get news. Upon learning that soldiers were still passing, he
would return to his hideout.
No one had been up from the river landing yet and Granger remained “entirely ignorant
of what has happened below here.” A local doctor came in to obtain medicine from
Granger for a fellow somewhere along the trail who had been stabbed through the thigh
two nights before “because he did not open his door quickly enough upon summons.”
This was the only case of a villager injury Granger had heard of so far.
In the meantime, matters remained tense in Wanxian. Oddly, to Anna, the day after the
First Army departed and the townspeople awaited the Second “was the most beautiful
one that one could imagine, and an extremely rare thing in Wanhsien.” But early the next
morning, “all hands wakened at four o'clock...by disturbing noises in the city. Some of
Chang Tseng's retreating army got back to Wanhsien and started the riot act.” A throng,
lead by someone beating a watchman's gong, went through the streets on the opposite
side of the stream from her location.
“It was a hideous howling of a street mob which went from one end of the city to the
other led by people beating on gongs.” After a few shots were fired as well, Anna and the
others got dressed and prepared for whatever violence might take place and then sat and
had tea until the din stopped. Just before noon they received news that the Second Army
under General Yang Sheng had entered the gates and presented "credentials" to the city
magistrate. Some of the soldiers then marched right back out of the city in pursuit of the
First Army.
The bugle stopped blowing. Absolute stillness prevailed. Mrs. Darlington, Anna wrote,
was “quite worn out with yesterday's worries and the sleepless night. Mr. Darlington still
away. She tried to reach him by messenger, but no one could be found who was willing
to run the risk of being on the road. At 5 p.m. a soldier of the Second Army brought a
note in from Walter saying that he was all right and there had been no fighting nearer
than Tso Ma Lin.”
It was March 9, 1923, 48˚ at 8 a.m., 50˚ at 4:00 p.m. and cloudy in Yanjinggou. Four
soldiers and a major who was ill stopped over at the inn the night before and there were a
few coolies and soldiers in the lower village. Everything was quiet. The two Laus had
been on night duty. It was to be another day of stragglers, mostly singles, twos or threes.
A few rice and baggage carriers were among them. But mostly they were the sick and
injured. Only a few of them still had weapons.
Two coolies had come up from the river to report that there was no fighting there at
present. There was a persistent report that Granger’s old friend, the boat owner at the
landing, had been shot by soldiers of the First Army, but there were no details. A beggar
from next door had carried a load part way down the trail that day and reported that two
coolies had died at the halfway rest place. There must have been others farther down,
Granger thought, judging from the very bedraggled appearance of some of the men who
had passed him.
Most of the women and children were now back in the lower village, but the young men
were still engaged in watchful waiting. Three of them had gone to Granger’s temple to
hide, but when they saw a soldier coming down the hill they ran off.
Chih and 'Buckshot' felt it was safe to put out traps. It was the first time since the trouble
had begun. They caught one rat and four brown-stripe mice. 'Buckshot' also took out the
shotgun, went up the trail and shot three specimens of one of the new finches.
His shooting frightened the locals half to death. They took to the woods until someone
recognized him and gave out the word to return. An old man then came down to the
Temple and requested Granger not send men out with guns for two or three days because
the locals were still keyed up and panicky at the sound of a shot.
Inn-Keeper Tan's daughter came in from the paper works, a mile and a half distant, and
reported that soldiers of the First Army had taken ten measures of rice and paid nothing.
Another fellow reported losing $10.00 worth of food and clothing to the First Army.
Soldiers did not usually quarter themselves more than a half-mile off a trail, but the
scouting and foraging parties had gone out as far as two miles off trail to find rice and
whatever else they could lay their hands on. One old woman had suffered the loss of 300
coppers the first night of trouble.
*
Inn-Keeper Tan's fat pig was back again. A fat pig was usually the most valued
possession of the farmer thereabouts and would be taken back to the hills along with
bedding and other necessities whenever trouble came. Tan’s pig was worth $25.00,
whereas an adult water buffalo might bring only $18.00 to $20.00.
The village was settling back to normal again and most of the young men had now
returned. They kept a constant eye on the trail, however, and when they saw two or three
soldiers coming down they all sneaked back up into the hills until the danger was past. As
a precaution, Wong’s little girl was to stay with them for another night.
While preparing for bed, Granger realized he had not been able to take more than his
boots off for days. He and his men had been constantly on guard and ready for trouble.
He planned to send one of the Lau’s in to Wanxian the next day to get whatever news he
could about military events there and take a note to Anna along with letters to Andrews
and his father. On March 10th, he wrote:
Dear Father:-
The military situation came to a culmination a few days ago and
Wanhsien is now occupied by another general and another army. A
large part of the retreating force came down our valley and almost
across our doorstep. We were a bit anxious for two days, until the
victorious army had passed in pursuit but nothing unpleasant
happened. We have not yet heard from Wanhsien except that there
was no fighting in the town. I'll ask Anna to enclose a note telling
what really happened. As soon as the river is calmed down we will
be ready to start for Ichang. I had a junk for the voyage all picked
out and was ready to charter it when the trouble broke.
I'm practically done with the collecting here now and am just
holding on for the political situation to clear. The new General is
much more liked by the foreigners of Wanhsien than the old one and
he is in league with the northern forces, which makes our passing of
the provincial frontier easier probably.
You are about beginning sugaring back home now. Here the willow
trees are leaving out and the wheat along the river is beginning to
head. Noonday temperature here in camp has been about 60˚ on two
days. In another month it will be too hot here [238].
A dozen or so Second Army men filtered [sifted] down through the valley the next day,
along with a major's wife. There were several guests at the inn that night. Only one was a
soldier in uniform, so far as Granger saw, and he noticed no guns. One outfit with a
dozen coolies had gone through that afternoon and stopped for a rest. About half the
coolies then made a run for it at an opportune moment and escaped.
Lau left for Wanxian at 8:00 a.m. wearing his Museum uniform. The previous day
Granger had learned that the old boat owner was not dead after all, “but had only had a
wordy row with the military.” This day he heard from one of the few coolies returning
from the landing that the old boat owner had been stabbed. However, “coolie information
is not very reliable at any time and especially so now. Most of the men we have
questioned report that they got no pay but plenty of rice to eat and one fellow said they
had given him some rice to bring back and cook along the road. Most of these men are
decidedly foot-sore and weary.”
Chow had been doing practically all of the camp’s medical work that winter, and doing it
rather well in Granger’s opinion. He seemed to understand the principles of western
doctoring. Yet, to Granger’s dismay, he borrowed an old Leopard ?petilla that Granger
had given Inn-Keeper Tan the year before. Following the traditional Chinese way, Chow
planned “to soak it in Kaoline wine and then apply the wine to his bruised leg! Talk about
your "Changing Chinese"––not so you'd notice it.”
Camp and village life continued to edge back to normal. With danger passed, Wong’s
adopted little girl would rejoin her family. 'Buckshot' and Chih went hunting at the
pinnacle and the pottery works––they shot one bird and spotted no squirrels. Wong
helped Granger with trapping. Granger had been unable to catch a shrew of either of the
two species he’d observed since he began the trapping campaign mid-February, and he
was wondering what had become of them. The villagers returned to tending the fields and
gathering firewood from the mountainside. Firewood in the village was nearly exhausted.
Militiamen from Wanxian arrived with a notice requiring each district to furnish 100
picules of rice to the Second Army. In the meantime, five miles above Wanxian, General
Yang Sheng’s engineer was devising a bridge of junks stretched across the Yangtze River
and held together with five bamboo cables and four small wires anchored to boulders on
either side.
Anchored at both shores with planking laid across the entire span, this bridge of boats
apparently would barricade all river traffic. It, Granger was told, was for the General's
“use in case of a retreat. His troops are said to be engaged at Feu Shui––half way between
Wanhsien and Liang Shau Shen.” But it also meant that Granger’s descent by junk into
Wanxian would be blocked. He sent Old Lau to Wanxian to learn what he could about
the situation and to pick up supplies.
In the meantime, Granger continued to wrap up work for the season. New Lau was sent to
bring back their old fossil guide who was then engaged to go along the ridge “on a trip to
take not more than five days and bring back to such desirable things as he can pick up.”
Granger felt he could not go himself because of the military situation. He also did not
want to divide his party by sending 'Buckshot' and a coolie alone. He promised the guide
70 coppers a day for his time and a bonus for good fossil skulls. In the meantime, Wong
caught three brown-stripe mice in his traps and shot a rabbit, the first they had seen or
heard of in the two winters they had been there. He later built a toy boat and sailed it on a
paddy field to the great glee of every child in both villages. Their only toy seemed to be
the shuttle-cock, so the toy boat created great excitement.
At Wanxian, Mr. Annette sent over to Anna a huchao which he had obtained from the
Second Army’s military headquarters. She was to send it on to Granger to facilitate his
safe return to the city. Annette also advised her to tell him to break camp at once. Old
Lau called on Anna at 7:00 a.m. for the huchao and letters and then left for Yanjinggou.
That afternoon, Anna went to see the bridge of boats. It looked complete. One of the
Darlingtons’ assistants told her that indeed the river was no longer passable because of it.
“This means difficulty for Walter in getting his camp equipment to Wanhsien,” she wrote
that night.
Old Lau returned to camp at 8:00 p.m. with supplies, a note from Anna and letters from
his father, Osborn, Thomson, Andrews and Frick. “Thomson writes much news of the
Dep't. and has seen the first showing of the Mongolian pictures. Osborn seems elated
over the Baluch. skull and the reptile skull from the red beds of the Artse Bogda region.
A note also from Annette enclosing a huchao from General Yang Sheng passing my
outfit from the Pai Shui Chi [Paishuchi] landing to Wanhsien.”
Old Lau reported that the pontoon bridge was completed and that Northern soldiers were
passing over it. The junk Granger hoped to rent was still at its mooring on the north bank
below the landing. But unless the bridge opened up he would have no use for it. Lau had
met the old boat owner at the landing and found him well. Annette was advising Granger
to go in to Wanxian soon “as there are rumors of reverses of Yang's army to the westward
near Liang Shau.” But Granger decided against it, reasoning that “I cannot get ready for a
few days and anyhow prefer to wait until Yang either advances or retreats. Cannot afford
to be caught with my outfit in a battle along the river.” Instead, he went up
to the water cave in the p.m. to take notes on the intermittent flow [of
water there]. Waited from 10 a.m. o'clock until 4:10, when it came:
4:10 Start
4:17 Stationary
4:19 Rising} this rise only slight. 1 inch on gauge.
4:20 Stationary
4:30 Dropping slightly
4:39 " rapidly
5:00 Slightly above minimum [239].
[New Chapter]
March 14, 1923 - 43˚ - 8 a.m.; 58˚ - 2 p.m. Clear at sunrise.

Alternating clear & cloudy balance of day. Much high wind. Wong
engaged a native cook to give our annual feast to neighbors and
friends on the 16th... Our clinic seems to have developed recently
largely into a baby clinic and from 10 o'clock until tiffin-time the
court resounds with the squalls of infants remonstrating over Chow's
ministrations [240].
Granger and his men were preparing their good-bye tiffin to neighbors and friends. In the
temple kitchen, two cooks stayed busy into the night. During the day, two officers of the
Second Army had stopped by on their way into Wanxian. One, it turned out, was a cousin
of Druggist Chang. Granger sent a note to Anna with them saying he was in something of
a quandary over a boat arrangement for the downriver trip. If there was no chance of
getting a junk from the landing past the bridge, he would need to haul his gear by land
and obtain a junk in Wanxian. He had no idea how long the bridge would remain in place
or whether it would eventually be possible to pass a boat through, and, if it became
possible, when.
What he did know was that he had to leave camp soon, boat or no boat. Annette had
urged him to get out quickly. Anna had expected him to be back in Wanxian by now.
“Worried about Walter,” she wrote, “He was to have come in to Wanhsien today and he
did not arrive.”
Granger’s farewell tiffin was held on March 16th. Tables were set on earth platforms in
front of the shrine, two tables for men and one for women. The guests included Inn-
Keeper Tan's family, the local militia captain and members of three other families who
had entertained the expedition members that year. There were about 25 people including
Granger and his crew. The two Laus served the guests. Old "Grandma Tan” was a most
enthusiastic guest, Granger noted.
The cooks were from Sin K'ai Tien and were “better than the average. Three or four kinds
of dried sea food (?cephalofods) gave our feast quite a distinction for these parts. What
Chow calls "Beche de Mer" being the piece de resistance.”
Immediately following the feast, Granger dispatched Old Lau to Wanxian with letters to
Anna and Annette asking for definitive information about the pontoon bridge. He planned
to depart the landing by junk about the 19th and needed to know whether he could pass
through the bridge and on into Wanxian. Old Lau was to return with that information by
the next night, “if possible.”
Meanwhile, collecting continued. A trap set by Wong the night before yielded a third
specimen of a big sulfur rat. It was badly chewed up so they decided to keep only the
skeleton. This rat had been living within a mile and a half of camp, but it was the first
they had seen or heard of this type in the two winters they’d been trapping. Most of the
natives declared that it was new to them as well. Wong caught his specimen in a very
steep place on the mountain side. As for fossils, a man brought in a portion of a young
Stegodon skull with the report that all pit work was now suspended.
Anna received the note from Walter, brought in by the two officers of the Second Army.
She dispatched it to Annette asking for news to send back to Granger via another coolie
(Old Lau) expected from camp the next day. Annette responded that the bridge of boats
was now open every day from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Walter, he thought, should have no trouble
bringing his junk down from Pai Shui Chi (Paishuchi).
The weather cleared at noon on the 18th. Granger noticed a wonderful light on the hills
all afternoon. The air was very “warm & soft,” fragrant with the blossoming rape fields.
Granger was packing up. The traps they had set out again the previous night for the big
rat remained empty––”they eluded us. Collecting is over with now.” The temple court
was full of people waiting to take away the expedition’s discarded boxes, cans and
bottles. Old Lau returned from Wanxian at dinnertime with the note from Annette
confirming that the pontoon bridge of boats would be open for river traffic for five hours
each day from 9 a.m. Everybody was busy packing, and by night everything was in order
for an early morning start.
Wong went down to Pai Shui Chi (Paishuchi) to finalize arrangements for a junk all the
way to Hankow. The cost was $140 for the junk with a crew of seventeen or so. Granger
would pay extra for any pilots needed to negotiate rapids down river.
That night (18th), Granger sat down to respond to Osborn’s latest, one-page letter. He
thanked Osborn for the increase in pay, “feeling particularly glad to have been
instrumental in bringing credit to the Museum the past year.” The extra money would
come in handy, he wrote, because he had been in the field almost constantly since his
arrival in China and wished to return home “by the western route and see [Guy Ellcock]
Pilgrim in India and [Clive Forster-]Cooper in England.“ The longer trip home would be
a welcome change, he said, from the tedium of back-to-back fieldwork in strange places.
“Tomorrow I break camp here and shall have a scant two weeks in Peking before leaving
for another five months in Mongolia. I would like to hear how you feel about my going
on around.” He had not yet been in touch with Andrews about it. He had written Matthew
recently, giving him a brief summary of the results of that winter's work at Yanjinggou.
The collection was smaller than the previous year’s, but much more select, he thought.
“The Doctor [W. D. Matthew] will be pleased with the assortment of carnivore skulls
especially.”
Granger thought the Yanjinggou localities warranted another season’s worth of work, but
he was not inclined to do it himself. “I have already made the suggestion to Mr. Andrews
that if you think it worth while we could send my highly trained native assistant down
here next winter to pick up the better things and to keep an eye out especially for
primates. Many pit workers are learning that it is worthwhile to take extra care of good
skulls and another season should be even more productive of fine specimens than this one
has been.”
Perhaps, he suggested to Osborn, when “you come to China this summer try and arrange
for time enough to come up through the Gorges and visit this really remarkable locality.
My interpreter, Mr. Wong, would guide you safely and well. Steamers are running in the
summer and if political conditions quiet down you would be perfectly safe.” But, for the
present, it had been a trying time: “Things have been much upset recently but we've come
through it safely and now if I can get through the gorges with my junk without mishap
my anxiety will be over with.”
Regarding his 1922 Mongolian work, Granger acknowledged that he went feeling
very apprehensive about the palaeontological results of the

expedition. The stories we heard about the nature of the plateau
were not in the least encouraging. But as the season advanced we
began to realize that we were making some big finds and that we
were really opening up an important new fossil field. Returning to
Peking and getting a little perspective on our season's work [we]
were still more pleased, and now that we have reports from our first
shipment we are elated [241].
Granger was addressing the high, advanced public expectation placed on the CAE.
Certainly interest was fired up; the Expedition’s hunt for fossils and “ancient man”
epitomized it. It was now Granger’s task to deliver from a field he’d never seen.
In 1920, Osborn and Andrews were furiously at work sending out fund-raising letters
with glowing assurances about the American Museum’s forthcoming scientific
expeditions to Asia. In a solicitation letter, Andrews wrote that it
will be the largest undertaking in which the Museum has ever

engaged and will have far-reaching results, which should be of
considerable importance to our diplomatic and economic relations
with the Orient. Because of your intimate knowledge of the
problems of the Far East, President Osborn has asked me to tell you
something about the plan. I have already had a talk with Mr. [John
Pierpont "Jack"] Morgan, [Jr.[ concerning it and he is greatly
interested, as I feel you will be...[242].
And Osborn promised that
the expedition which we are sending to China is of such scope that it

should be of immense importance in our relations with the Far East
and I feel that you cannot help but be interested in the work which is
to be done...[243].
Granger was particularly pleased, he wrote Osborn, with the little reptile skull found by
Shackelford. Shackelford, Granger noted, “should have been a fossil hunter.” Since it was
an entirely new species, Granger no longer felt worried that he had been unable to place
it, even ordinally in the field by evolutionary or stratigraphic sequence. “You ask about
the possible age of the beds,” Granger wrote in response to Osborn’s inquiry as to
Shackelford’s find:
This must at present be determined solely on the fossils themselves.

The formation makes a great flat-topped bench, the extent of which
we could not determine and the exposures, some 200 feet thick, are
along the northern face of this bench. They are not weathered down
enough to expose the underlying formation so to us it was just an
isolated mass of sediment, different in color and other features from
anything we saw and containing a different fauna. From the fact that
we found only reptiles and birds we were led to suspect Mesozoic
age but it is totally different looking formation from the one in
which we had found the dinosaurs previously.
We must by all means get to this place again this summer as it

appears from your reports to be one of the very most important of
our finds. The exposures we examined lie within a half mile of the
main caravan trail from northern Shansi to Uliassutai [244].
This site was to become known famously as the Flaming Cliffs.
Granger wrote that while he’d had a good many species named after him in the past,
“beginning with rats and mice and running up through rabbits, sinopas and titanotheres,
as a climax [the Baluchitherium is] indeed an honor and I thank you.” But in giving
names to their important finds, he hoped Osborn would not forget Andrews.
He is not a palaeontologist but it is to his able and most enthusiastic

leadership that we are indebted for what we did accomplish. The fact
that he fully realized that the fossils were the important thing last
summer and that he gave me all possible opportunity in my work
helped immensely toward our success in this branch [245].
In closing, Granger predicted that with able assistants for the coming season and “with
the good fortune which seemed to follow the Third Asiatic Expedition, we should reap a
harvest. We have only the Russians to fear, politically and scientifically as well, but
Mongolia is a big place and if we are let alone I think we can get our share of the
treasures.”
Anna, he added, was pleased to have Osborn’s remembrance. She had been very well that
winter and, while she had been upset over the local politics, she had otherwise enjoyed
her trip to Sichuan. “Her big thrill is coming though those cussed Gorges!”
Granger sealed the letter and was ready to hit the trail the next day.
[Granger] March 19th. Left camp about 8:30––26 coolies including

our two––one load heavy & got additional man at 1/2 way place.
Boat ready. Stopped at restaurant for usual kaoliang & peanuts &
oranges. Pontoon bridge at 1:30 closed. 'Buckshot' and I went on in
sampan leaving Wong in charge to come through in morning when
bridge is open. Only private in charge [245a].
[Anna] (Temp. 54˚ at breakfast time. Faint sunshine.)

Walter arrived at 5:30 p.m. His boat stalled at the bridge. It got there
within the time set, but the bridge had been closed ahead of the hour
stated. Mr. Wong stayed on the boat with the assistants and the
equipment [245b].
The junk was brought through on the 20th, when the bridge was opened at seven in the
morning. The USS Palos lay in port as did the HMS Teal. Granger and his men
immediately got busy repacking as boxes stored in Wanxian were loaded. The junk was
ready on the 21st and all went aboard for the night. Such was the haste that Granger’s
diary-keeping was reduced to nearly unreadable notes scribbled on loose leaf paper by
pencil rather than in his more carefully maintained softbound books penned by ink.
In the midst of final preparations for departure, Granger had accepted an invitation to
lunch at the Standard Oil facility. His friend Lieutenant Commander George W. Sampson
of the American gunboat Palos (II) was also there. The gunboat was stationed at Wanxian
and monitoring events between Chang Chung and Yang Sheng.
After learning of Granger’s plans to evacuate the next day, Sampson offered to escort the
junk to Pan T’o (Pau’ tou or Panto), 20 or so miles downriver. This section of the river
was considered one of the most frequently ambushed. Also, in light of matters at
Wanxian, it was as far as he could go. Suggesting that Anna could travel aboard the Palos
(II) for that leg, Sampson had a favor to ask in return. The Palos (II) had a delivery to
make to the USS Quiros, a command gunboat stationed at Ichang. Granger agreed to
assist.
Anna’s diary-keeping remained composed. They awakened early, both had breakfast
aboard the Palos at a little after seven and then both craft pushed off at nine. Anna
remained aboard the Palos. The weather was fine, and perhaps a little too warm, she
thought. In the late midmorning, the Palos steamed by the junk and went into anchor at
Pan T’o (Pau’ tou or Panto). This was thought to be a stronghold for bandits and the
Palos at anchor would provide security for an overnight stop. It was 10 a.m., and
Granger’s junk was still on its way down.
At noon, Anna disembarked with Captain Sampson and walked along the bank to a point
where they could spot Granger’s junk which came into sight at 1:00 p.m. Soon a sampan
from the Palos arrived to pick up Anna and the captain to take them back to the gunboat.
Sampson invited Granger to come aboard and they all sat down to “a delicious tiffin. The
ship's doctor (Stone) and Lieutenant Connelly joined in entertaining us.”
Following lunch, Lt. Connelly took them to visit a temple built in a hollow location in
some shelving rocks on the opposite shore. It was an unusual structure with one room
reached by a ladder and containing a Buddha blackened by oil constantly poured over it
by worshipers. Niches had been cut into the Buddha’s body which were just big enough
to hold tiny crockery bowls. These were used for “libations.”
Another building had numerous plaster figures on a low platform. Among the effigies,
Anna spied a small lion carved of wood and covered with dust. As they had just paid the
caretaker fifty-cents for a feast and tea which, on second thought, they dared not eat, she
thought he might feel disposed to give her the small lion. ”[S]o I asked him and was
much pleased when he said I could take it. Walter was so amazed at my temerity that he
forthwith doubled the man's fee, and we departed, half expecting that he might follow us
and change his mind, though he was smiling contentedly when we left.”
The captain had played baseball with the crew on a nearby sandy beach. Walter, a
longtime Brooklyn Dodgers fan, had watched the game. On their return, he and Sampson
both had showers, and Anna wrote
a luxury Walter had not enjoyed for many a long day. A game of
"hearts" finished up this red-letter day, yet not exactly, because after
we returned to our junk to get ready for bed, the ship's #1 boy came
over to bring us a parting souvenir in the form of silk bands for our
hats. I have mine on my khaki hat [246].
The Grangers dined with Wong aboard the Palos. In the hour before the meal, they all sat
out on the forward deck watching the evening fade. The river had taken on the
appearance of a lake hemmed in on all sides by mountains.
The 23rd brought a favorable light breeze and was the fourth fine day in a row. The
Grangers had intended to push off by daybreak but were persuaded instead to go aboard
the Palos for coffee and egg sandwiches. They reboarded their junk at about 7:00 a.m.,
followed by “two sailors from the Palos who are being sent down to Ichang, also a
Chinese soldier who begged for a ride.”
The two craft parted and the Palos steamed up river as the junk headed down. Hsing
Lung Tan (Hsinlungtan) was the first rapid to be negotiated. They waited until the junk
had passed through “before having our real breakfast. All hands except the cook got out
and walked around the rapid.” They noticed many soldiers of the Northern Army
marching up river along the tracking path. The procession continued throughout the day.
Ominously, at Yun Yeng on the opposite bank they noticed the fine temple called Chang
Fei Mio with its perpetually lit lantern. Years ago, Chang Fei is said to have famously
advised a general and his army trapped in Kuei Fu gorge to escape by cutting steps into
the rock of the cliff-face by the first man to ascend.
The Grangers reached the river town of Kuei Fu (Kueifu) at 4:00 p.m. Chow served tea,
bread, cheese and jam and then all hands went ashore. When Walter and Anna returned to
the junk, they found the laodah, or captain, was loading sugar cane and coal aboard. It
took considerable persuasion to convince him that he was violating Granger’s lease
agreement which specified that no extra cargo could be shipped.
After dining on two ducks the Palos men had shot and presented to them, the Grangers
were in bed at 9:30 a.m. to be up and dressed at 5:30 a.m. and out on deck by 6:00 to
watch their approach to the Kuei Fu gorge.
The Kuei Fu cliffs seemed lovely in the morning mist, Anna noted. A huge isolated rock
stood guard at the entrance with roosting cormorants. One could see evidence that a chain
once had been anchored to stretch across the river as a blockade. Beyond, a sheer rock
face stiil held the steps cut into it, carved hastily by an anxious army that had to climb to
escape on the advice of Chang Fei. However, the stairs seemed so steep that, to Anna, the
way appeared impassable.
Shots rang out as they reached the lower end of the gorge. Soldiers demanded that they
halt their junk and allow some of Granger’s coolies to be taken to man an ammunition
junk. Wong persuaded them that there would be no help from Granger’s men since
Granger held special status. They were allowed to proceed on their way.
Minor rapids were negotiated between Kuei Fu and the entry to the Wushan gorge, which
they reached at a little after 10:00 a.m. It was quite hot by then with only a breeze when
they entered the gorge. When they sat for tiffin at noon; however, the light breeze had
shifted to a following wind.
They were near a village in the gorge called Pei Shih at about 1:00 p.m. when tiffin ended
and Granger spotted four or five men up in the cliffs. Shots rang out only two hundred
yards away. Granger and his men grabbed their weapons and returned fire, assuming they
were bandits, not soldiers.
Wong fired first with his rifle. A Palos sailor, McRoberts, then opened up with his
automatic pistol. After emptying it, he grabbed Wong's rifle and emptied it. The other
sailor from the Palos, Crabtree, also fired with his automatic pistol, as did 'Buckshot' with
his rifle. Chih was armed, but did not fire. Chow hid with Anna, first on the floor in the
cabin and then in the junk’s hold. Not armed, the Chinese soldier who begged a ride to
Ichang stripped off his uniform and also hid in the cabin.
Sampson, the captain of the Palos, had alerted Granger to be ready for trouble of this
kind. Just before the shooting began, Granger had stepped to the after deck behind the
cabin to scan the cliffs and shore with his binoculars. He spotted a man on the cliff
appearing to signal another man to fire.
Forty-three rounds of ammunition were sent up from Granger’s junk. The noise and spit
of so much returning fire had quickly silenced the bandits. Though firing first, they’d
gotten off only three shots. One was aimed at the steersman, and the other two at the
rowers. Their aim was to disable the junk’s steerage, render the boat helpless and perhaps
force it to shore.
Now the junk had all the air of a state of siege. Bedding and duffel bags were banked up
against the insides of the junk’s cabin in case incoming firing resumed. But the danger
had passed, and they reached Pa Jung at 7:15 p.m. with barely enough light to see as they
tied up to the bank. Wong immediately paid a visit to the yamen (a headquarters or
residence of a Chinese government official or department) to report on the bandits and all
hands then turned in early. But at a.m., they were rudely awakened by a soldier begging
for a ride to Ichang. Wong quickly got rid of him by saying there were armed men aboard
who were prepared to shoot. The soldier said he would look elsewhere for a berth.
They shoved off at 6:00 a.m. in an intermittent rain. The hills were white with
blossoming plum trees. The occasional peach tree stood as well with large and showy
flowers. Colors added a bit of charm to the river scene. There was little traffic. The few
craft were filled with soldiers of the Northern Army.
A strong upstream breeze slowed progress. Anna watched some “red boats” coming up
river with their set sails striped with alternating dark blue and white vertical panels.
These were the rescue boats of the Yangtze that monitored the rapids along the gorges
and provided assistance whenever a boat wreck occurred. Each rescue boat flew a red
flag on the port quarter [247].
It was March 24th. The day’s oncoming wind grew so strong that the junk could no
longer proceed. It put to shore and tied up for a time, but soon started off again. Reaching
Lao Kuei Cho at 4:45 p.m., it was moored for the night. All hands went ashore. The
village had just one street that ran parallel to the shoreline high along the bank. Wong, in
American soldier's trench clothes, the Chinese soldier back in uniform, the uniformed
American sailors, and the Grangers dressed in western riding attire must have presented a
strange sight. That might have been what drew the curious natives out to watch them.
There was no evidence of aversion to the foreigners as had been so noticeable in
Wanxian.
March 26, 1923––Misty––but sun shining early enough to make the

gorge, which we entered directly after getting under way at 6 a.m.
[248].
It was a beautiful day, Granger continued, though such a strong wind sprang up that it
was thought best to wait before trying the Hsin T'an rapid. As Grangers’ junk was taken
to a mooring on the opposite shore, all watched as the steamer, Sha Kiang, was hauled up
and over the rapid. At 8:30 a.m., the pilot they had engaged at the head of the rapid said
he was ready to proceed. Coolies loaded with bedding and baggage followed the
passengers off the junk for the walk around the rapids. The junk swung into the rough
waters of the rapid and, as all watched from shore, it passed through safely. A river
inspector followed in his craft. He “did not come through in as good style as ours did.
This man is the one who was attacked by bandits at Pau tou a few days before we started
from Wanhsien.”
While making their way down the shore, the Granger party “sauntered along the tracking
path, watching a native scooping fish out of the river in a dip net and emptying the catch
into a basket just as fast as he could turn from one to the other.” The little fish were about
the size and shape of smelt and many of them spread out on boards to dry in the sun.
Another kind of fish brought in was three feet long. Granger photographed the rapid, the
fishermen and a rock along the tracker’s path which showed how continual use of the
bamboo hauling ropes had worn deep grooves into the limestone.
The junk was already at anchor in a bay below the fishing village well before they
arrived. Granger photographed the scene on the beach in front of the junk. Peanuts and
pomelos were added to their larder before they pushed off at 9:30 a.m.
The scenery through the "ox-lung" and "horse liver" gorges was, to Anna, “very fine.” At
the lower end of these was another difficult set of rapids which obliged them to take on
two pilots. One held the rudder and the other the sweep. The Ta Tung (Tatungtan) rapid
“looked villainous enough, but gave our men no serious trouble.” The steamer Ta Fu had
foundered at this place just a few days before and was still bailing water as they passed
by. The wind began to blow against them at 10:00 a.m. and the sky became overcast. But
then, at 1:00 p.m., the wind died and the sun came out making the afternoon oppressively
hot.
They stopped at the little village of Huanglingmiao (Yellow Cliff Temple) at the head of
Ichang gorge to take some tracking rope in for mending, “it being one of the centers for
making bamboo hawsers.” When they started off again at 3:45 p.m., the wind resumed
blowing upstream against them. At 4:00 p.m., one of the oars broke and had to be
replaced with a new blade. Once in the Ichang gorge, the sun set, the wind died and the
moon rose.
The night was clear and bright. Mat coverings over the cabin’s entries were left open and
all slept well. As they departed for Ichang with a favorable breeze the next morning,
Anna noted that
compared to the Wushan and Kuei Fu [Wind Box] gorges, the

Ichang gorge seems very tame. One does not feel so strongly what
an awful convulsion of nature took place to make all this river
scenery the wonderful thing it is. The cliffs are neither very high or
precipitous, and are mostly covered with grass & shrubs giving them
a lady-like appearance. The highest water level mark that we saw
was 60 ft. The bases of the cliffs do not show the ravages of a
mighty current [249].
They arrived at Ichang harbor just before noon and moments later Walter and the two
Palos sailors were ferried over to the American gunboat USS Quiros. There he transferred
custody of the two sailors to Captain Mclaren along with their weapons and an
accounting for their spent cartridges. The sailors, it turns out, had been sent downriver to
be dishonorably discharged from the Navy and returned to the States. Since the Palos had
not been free to bring them down because of the trouble in Wanxian, Captain Sampson
had asked Granger to take custody of the men in return for their added protection. The
reason for their discharge is not known.
Captain Mclaren invited the Grangers for lunch, although he and his fellow officers had
just finished theirs. The Grangers accepted, “being glad of the change from the rather
cramped quarters of the junk.” There they met Lt. Buckhalter whom they knew from the
Monocacy. After tiffin, while the captain and Walter went ashore to do errands, Lt.
Buckhalter took Anna to visit
two places where grass linen table covers and runners decorated
with cross-stitching in blue are sold. I bought several pieces of Mrs.
Graham's of the Scotch Mission and Ranking Memorial Hospital.
We also went to see the work done at another Scotch Hospital &
School where a Miss Moore has charge of sales. A ride into the
Chinese City came next where I bought a blue & white cloth curtain.
The pattern is put on after the Batik method, certain parts being
coated with a mixture which keeps the dye from entering the goods.
At five o'clock Walter & I, the captain & Mr. B. all turned up at a
Mrs. Windhams for tea. Mr. P. C. Windham is the Ichang manager
of the Robert Dollar Steamship Co. Their house is on the Bund. It
was nice having the "eats" in true American fashion [250].
Dinner was back aboard the Quiros and then it was off to their quarters aboard the SS
Tung Ting sitting in port awaiting departure for Hankow.
A hard thunder shower blew in at 9:00 p.m. cooling off the air. The heat had been
unbearable all day.
Since the next day was to be a layover, the Grangers decided to celebrate their safe
arrival. They strolled about the city of Ichang, taking lunch here, tea there, shopping,
playing tennis, shopping and relaxing. That night, while they sat out in the moonlight on
deck aboard the Tung Ting, “thirteen sailors from the British gunboat "Gnat" came
aboard, bound for England. They are a bit hilarious from the send-off their companions
have been giving them.”
The Tung Ting steamed out of Ichang on the 30th at 5:00 a.m. and spent the entire day
travelling down river. Once stopped for the night, Walter and Anna sat out on the main
deck talking with the Tung Ting’s Captain Bailey. They then moved to the top deck to
listen to a sailor play his mandolin. Well rested and out of danger, Granger now found
time to write legibly to his father. “You will be glad to hear that we're safely through the
gorges again and aboard a steamer with my party, collections and equipment and bound
for Hankow,” he began. “I should be in Peking, with good luck, about the fourth. I will
write you directly upon arrival there. We made the trip down in five and a half days this
time and had beautiful weather except one half day.”
“A couple of sailors who were ready for transfer,“ he wrote,
came on [down] to Ichang as our guests. We ran into a small band of

robbers in the Wushan gorge and opened up on them with
everything we had. Our junk was not hit and I'm not sure that we got
any of the bandits, but we broke up their little party in a hurry and
they will hesitate a bit about firing on the next junk flying the
American flag [251].
Ichang, he added, was a very pleasant time “after the anxiety of getting my party through
the gorges.”
The weather was perfect now––just warm enough for comfort and the countryside was
bright and fresh from spring rains. The Yangtze was at its lowest level, and as they
traveled along they could see only the steep banks––none of the flat country lying
beyond. That land was below high water level and was protected from flooding by the
embankment. Long lines of coolies were seen at many points repairing sections of the
bank before the coming seasonal rise of the river. Many junks with their sails set had
made a pleasant picture along the otherwise now flat waterscape. Because of the bright
moon, they could travel at night which advanced their arrival time. Olsen and Johnson
were probably in China by now and Granger was sorry he hadn’t been there to welcome
them, but Andrews would be there to greet them when they arrived.
All were awakened at 2:00 a.m. by the noise of the Tung Ting docking at Hankow. It was
a clear and warm Easter. The sailors from the Gnat managed to depart right after
breakfast, while Walter and Anna set off for Sunday service at the church in the English
legation.
Later that afternoon, a Captain Tully escorted them aboard the steam tug Tan Wu to a
picnic in their honor hosted by some of Hankow’s prominent foreign residents. The party
traveled some 25 miles back up the river and landed at a “very pretty grassy hill topped
by a picturesque temple pavilion.” Company included “Mr. & Mrs. Lackey (Butterfield
& Swire), Mr. Todd and Mr. Grant (Jardine & Co.), [and] Mr. & Mrs. Archibald of the
Central China Post, a newspaper.”
Walking up to the summit Anna noted several interesting wild flowers, one like the
American lilac, another like the American rose, only lavender in color, and third very like
the American cornelia.
A hard wind came up as they returned to the boat. The captain decided to return to
Hankow at once. The original plan had been to dine aboard there and then enjoy a
leisurely cruise back down to Hankow in the moonlight. But now the waves were so high
that the boat was drenched with spray, obliging them to stay in the cabin for the trip back.
“All were more or less anxious on account of the rough water.”
Easter Monday:
All banks closed, so that we can not draw our money and get the
Express Train to Peking tonight as we wanted to. Weather cold &
windy & disagreeable. Stayed on board the Tung Ting all morning
and turned the cuffs on one of Walter's shirts. In the afternoon made
an attempt to get across the river to Wushan to see Pres. & Mrs.
Gilman of Boone University. The only ferry that had not stopped
running on account of the rough water was so overcrowded with
passengers that I was afraid to set foot on the boat and so we
returned and had tea on board the Tung Ting [252].
Granger had a miserable time in the rain getting his baggage transferred from the steamer
to the railroad depot that Tuesday. And when he saw the poor quality of the
accommodations aboard that train, he decided to leave Anna and Chow in Hankow to
await the Thursday night express. Anna was put up at the American Christian and
Missionary Alliance where they had supper. He was off early that evening to oversee the
weighing of his fossils at the depot and told Anna that he did not expect to be able to take
off his clothes to sleep for the next two nights.
Chow brought Anna to the station on Thursday, April 5th at 8:30 p.m. He traveled on the
same train, but in 3rd class. She worried about him because she had been told by people
at the mission of a number of thefts occurring in 3rd class travel in China. The train
started off at 10:00 p.m. and proceeded only a short way when it stopped unexpectedly.
Anna had heard a man weeping bitterly and evidently he had been discovered. It proved
to be someone who had hidden himself under the car just beneath her compartment to
steal a ride to Peking.
Later in the trip, “the dining car got on fire and had to be uncoupled and a miserable
substitute taken on in its place. There are not enough dishes to go around, no salt or
pepper boxes. Too few glasses, etc.”
The next day brought fine weather as they continued north through flat country. When
they crossed the Yellow River, Anna could see dwellings, habitats, cut into the cliffs.
Chow checked in on her occasionally.
Anna’s train arrived on time in Peking at 9:45 a.m. the following day, her 20th wedding
anniversary. Walter with Vance Johnson, one of the CAE’s two motormen for 1923 (Mac
Young the other), were at the station to greet her.
Once back in their suite at the Wagons-Lits, she noticed that things looked
very spruce. Waiters in the dining room now wear a nice silk
sleeveless vest over dark blue gowns, very becoming costume. We
have same room and the same boys to wait on us that we had when
we left last November. Had tea at the Andrews' compound, tho the
Andrews were not there. Met Dr. Morris' wife, and think he is lucky
in his choice. Weather raw and cold with considerable wind. Found
three wedding bouquets in my room on arriving, two pots of flowers
and a bunch of small pink roses. These were from Walter, Mr. Olsen
& Mr. [Peter] Kaisen combined [253].
Kaisen, Granger’s trusted field assistant from Bone Cabin Quarry was now in China,
along with Albert Johnson, to supplement George Olsen which gave Granger the team he
desired. However, as he had written his father, he would have much preferred Bill
Thomson over Albert Johnson.
Notes on Chapter
April 8, 1923
Peking
Dear Mary:-
Anna hasn't decided what she will do this summer but probably will
go to the seashore for August again, or possibly up on the plateau to
a Swedish Minister's there. It gets almost intolerably hot here in
Peking in August [254].
Walter Granger’s youngest sister, Mary Granger Morgan, lived in Hanover, New
Hampshire in the US with her husband Frank and their two small boys, Millet and
Norman. Frank taught mathematics, first as a professor at Dartmouth College and later at
the Clark School, a local, private boys school.
The father, Charles, still lived in Rutland, Vermont, not far away. He was recently
widowed and their aunt and Charles’ sister Jane had moved in with him. It seemed to be
working well enough, Granger learned that both “have been comfortable and that the
arrangement has been a good one.”
Mary’s and Walter’s brother Arthur Granger also lived in Rutland with his wife Julia.
Arthur was an editor at the Rutland Herald and Julia was a teller at a bank in town. They
lived only a few blocks away from father Charles and Aunt Jane. The letters Charles
received from Granger were passed on to Arthur who occasionally published excerpts in
the Rutland Herald. The townfolk enthusiastically followed news of this amazing
international quest by one of their own. For Charles, who had facilitated his son’s
apprenticeship at the American Museum in 1890, it was a proud time.
Granger also wrote to his sister Daisy, saying that “It was almost like getting home to
come back to Peking this time. Christmas boxes from you and Mary and six letters from
Father as well as yours and a couple of Mary's to you and Father.” Daisy and her husband
Frank lived in Winchedon, Massachusetts, not far from the rest of the New England
family. Another brother, Martin, lived with his family in Maryland and, while out of the
New England loop, stayed in touch.
Holiday baskets of goodies had arrived in Peking in perfect condition and Anna and
Walter were having a fine time looking over and savoring their contents. It would have
been better, of course, to have had these in camp at Yanjinggou, but Granger had asked
Andrews not to forward large parcels from home that winter because the delivery of
parcel mail was “so frightfully slow on the Yangtze and there is considerable danger of
looting by bandits.” In fact, Granger did not even get much of the normal mail that winter
as he reported to Daisy. Absence of Christmas cards from friends and family who always
remembered him meant, he thought, that that mail indeed must have been lost.
In the winter, he explained, the mail went up through the gorges in post boats that were
simply large sampans with a sail and a crew of eight or ten oarsmen. Many of these boats
capsized in the rapids. Over both winters in Sichuan Province he had received letters
which had been in the river and then dried out. This past winter the mail was so sparse
that he feared it “got into the river and never got out again.” He asked Daisy to “get all
recent news of our doings from letters to Father,” and, in parting, remarked
Expect you will be getting your "American Rickshaw" out soon

now. We have seen out here in Peking too, they even use them up on
the road to Urga although they prove a bit too light for that traffic.
Anna went up on the plateau in one last spring,––made more racket
than all five of our own cars put together, but it got up the hill
somehow and got down again. Our own cars are Dodge's, the best
car out for the Mongolian work; just the right combination of power,
weight and durability [255].
Anna discovered that her former rickshaw boy was now working for someone else.
“’Chang’ got me a new boy.” “He is nice, but I don't like his side-wise gait.” Perhaps that
sentiment was lost once the quick round of socializing began. On April 11, they went to a
dinner at Mr. & Mrs. Morris'. Two new members for the 1923 Mongolian party were
there, J. McKenzie (Mac) Young, a motor man and a member of the U.S. Marines now
assigned to the CAE, and C. Vance Johnson, also a motor man and also a U.S. Marine.
The dinner favors were unique. They were modeled in a clay-like substance and
represented the calling of each guest.
Walter's was a prehistoric-looking man dragging a lizard behind him. His pockets were
stuffed with bones, and in his mouth was the omnipresent pipe. Anna’s place at the table
was indicated by a seated woman's figure in a priest's hat and was called "The Goddess of
Szechuan." After supper they told stories, a form of entertainment in which the Morris'
reveled.
Soon there was a gathering at Dr. Andersson's during which he announced his
engagement to Miss Rosenius. The following night, dinner was held at Dr. Grabau's in
the West City in a continuance of the Peking Circle tradition. The Grangers themselves
gave a dinner to welcome the new assistants for the 1923 Mongolia trip––Olsen, Kaisen
and Johnson. James Wong was invited as well.
Walter spent time at the CAE headquarters cleaning and arranging gear and making ready
for the Mongolian trip. It was now mid-April, 1923, and he had been in the field almost
continuously since August, 1921. His expedition schedule to date had been one to
Zhoukoudian for a few days, one to Sichuan for the winter of 1921-22, one to Mongolia
for the summer of 1922 and another to Sichuan for the winter 1922-23. These had been
back-to-back expeditions for this 50-year old. Already he’d twice been trapped in
Chinese warlord battles, once been ambushed by Chinese bandits, and [thrice] directly
shot at or confronted by Chinese soldiers. Now he was about to embark for another
Mongolia trip. At least it would be peaceful out there.
No other western member had been as engaged in a marathon of fieldwork and danger as
Granger, and never would be. Years later even Andrews acknowledged that the CAE’s
accomplishment “...which brought large results to science and to the Museum, never
could have been achieved without Walter.”
The gratifying results were back from the museum in New York: Granger’s eggshell
fragment was dinosaurian, new dinosaur species were confirmed and the Baluchitherium
was a huge hit. The fossil fields were rich and collecting was the key. Yet, in the middle
of his last-minute preparations on the day before departure to Kalgan, Granger and Anna
made time to go to the Andersson-Rosenius wedding supper at the Peking Hotel on April
16. “Guests gathered in the room at the end of the dance hall and the meal was served in a
private room opening off from it,” Anna wrote. It was a gathering that included Ting,
Grabau and a long list of dignitaries and diplomats, but not the Andrews [256].
“Mongolia, 1923”
The 1923 CAE Mongolia expedition party set out from Peking for Kalgan by train the
next morning [Conq/183], April 17, 1923. Granger listed the cast:
April 17, 1923
Cars:
2 Fulton trucks of last year's expedition.
2 "Dog Wagons of last year's expedition.
1 Dodge touring car--new.
Party:
Roy Chapman Andrews-Leader.
Walter Granger-Paleontologist.
Fred K. Morris-Geologist & Topographer.
George Olsen, Peter Kaisen, and Albert F.
Johnson-assistants in Paleontology.
J. McK. Young [chief] and C. Vance Johnson
[assistant]-motor transport.
Merin and 5 Mongols with the 61 camels.
Serim Peel, Bato and Ioshih with the motor
cars, Serin replacing Serim Peel about
June 1st.
Chow (No. 1), 'Buckshot' (Asst. in Pal.)
and two cooks. (Whey [Huei], No. 1
cook, joined in May).
Two Chinese chauffeurs and an assistant to
[V.] Johnson (Lieu by name).
Chih (taxidermist) and Whey [Huei] (cook)

to join in May.
Dogs:
Mushka and Buster (a fox terrier belonging
to V. Johnson) [257].
With the addition of longtime field assistants George Olsen and Peter Kaisen and
newcomer Albert Johnson, this was now primarily a fossil- [hunting/collecting]
[gathering] expedition. Frederick Morris would handle geology and topography without
Charles Berkey; photography would be handled without James Shackelford; and two
active duty U.S. Marines from the Legation Guard in Peking, Mac Young and Vance
Johnson, were detailed to replace S. Bayard Colgate on motors.
Despite huge promotion of and public interest in the CAE and now the assurance of
continued success in collecting fossils, perhaps even a complete dinosaur egg or two,
movieman Shackelford was not with the 1923 group. Nor was anyone was assigned to
replace him. This time, the Expedition would travel without a professionally-kept visual
record, except for the still photographs made by its members and by Granger’s continued
diary-keeping.
The men left at 8:30 a.m. Granger hired a Ford to take him, Anna, and Olsen to the train
station while Yvette Andrews took Kaisen and Johnson in her car. All the heavy duffels
went with the dog-wagons which had departed headquarters at 6:30 a.m. for loading on a
freight train. Chow and 'Buckshot' went aboard with them while other native assistants
rode with the expedition vehicles secured to flatcars. Anna, Mrs. Morris and a friend of
the Morrises, Miss McIvers planned to accompany their husbands to Kalgan. J.G.
Andersson arrived to see them all off at the station. Ironically, Mrs. Charles Coltman,
whose husband was killed at the Kalgan-Mongolia barrier the previous December
[Conq/184], also happened to be a passenger on the Grangers’ train.
April 17th was the same date the expedition had left Peking for Mongolia the previous
year. This time, however, the weather was decidedly cooler after a rain and it snowed on
the way up through Nankou pass to Kalgan. After all these years, a usable auto road from
Peking to Kalgan still had not been constructed.
Arriving in Kalgan at about 4 p.m., all hands except Andrews took rooms at the Pioneer
Inn which now occupied new and rather attractive quarters, according to Granger, just
east of the American Consulate. Andrews put up [with a Mr. and Mrs. Dorrance of] at the
Meifu where the expedition vehicles were to be parked. That train had arrived at about
8:00 p.m., and Young and Vance Johnson had begun unloading the vehicles.
A high, chilly wind that evening [night] was followed by a raw and cold day. Half-inch
thick ice covered puddles in the yard. Sheep-skin lined coats and sweaters were in order.
Larson, just in from Urga, reported considerable snow, as well as drifting, and that the
road up to Chap Ser was very muddy [“the soft snow which formed a gluelike mud.”-
Conq/184]. Carts would be needed to lighten the cars by taking some of expedition’s load
up over the pass. But cart and handlers seemed to be scarce at the moment. So it was
decided to wait until the 20th to let the mud dry a bit and locate some carts [Conq/184].
Larson’s timing was not accidental. He had come to Kalgan to pick up $25,000 in silver
to take back to Urga for purchase [of] skins and horses. With that kind of money in his
car, he thought it wise to travel in the company of the CAE convy
to get our protection through the bandit-infested region of Tabool. A

motor car with Chinese passengers and Russian driver was held up
there recently and stripped of everything––(Chinese bandits––
probably soldiers). Also a caravan belonging to Larson was recently
held up and robbed [Conq/184] [258].
Cut #17
As they waited, the Grangers took tea at the American Consulate with Samuel Sokobin,
then Vice Consul. Mrs. Coltman stopped by, as well, with some of Coltman’s family.
[Though it is not known why,] Sokobin was the other person in the car when Coltman
was killed. The incident had precipitated a diplomatic row between Washington and
China which remained unresolved.
Three carts were finally found, rented and loaded on the night of the 18th and sent off at
daybreak on the 19th for Miao Tan. Andrews telephoned Granger at breakfast that
morning asking for keys. The carts had been detained at the Liking (tax) station because
some of the boxes were locked and could not be inspected. After breakfast, Granger and
Andrews went to the Liking station only to find that the carts had already been released.
Andrews was now down with a severe cold, but everything was set for a 9:00 a.m. start
on the 20th [see Conq/184]. The Grangers decided to take a last walk up to the North
Gate and back. As they went down the main street, they realized they were being hailed
by someone. It was Persender, ”the man who was discharged from the Expedition last
year for doubledealing.” Persender had survived and done well since the 1922 debacle.
He escorted Walter and Anna to his new compound from which he operated a
transportation service to Urga. He had seven cars, he said, driven by Russians. He
insisted on sending the Grangers up to the North Gate in one of them [Conq omits any
mention of this. Would be amazing to think RCA said 19th in order to “erase”
WG’s/AG’s Persender event!].
The north wall defined that edge of town was an older, inferior section of the Great Wall
of China. Mongol caravans came down to that gate to unload their goods and take on new
cargo for the return to Urga. Outside the gate the Grangers saw products of many kinds
piled up on the ground and covered with mats. Some of it was brought in from Mongolia
and some of it was awaiting shipment to Urga and beyond by camel train. Tea, hides and
packages of camel's hair formed most of the bales they saw piled up. Open stalls nearby
displayed articles made of pewter, brass, white metal. Anna bought a small covered jar of
the white metal for 50 cents.
A group of Mongols passed through, three riding fast ponies and two on trotting camels.
Anna had noticed several groups of Mongols in town that day––”very picturesque people,
riding through the streets of the town on camels and horses, costumes of the brightest
colors and fancy head-dresses for both men and women.” It had been wise, she and
Walter later agreed, to accept Persender’s offer of a car since the distance to the Great
Wall and back was much greater than they had thought.
They walked back to the Pioneer Inn from Persender’s compound and made ready to
view the movie film taken by Shackelford in Mongolia the previous summer. It had
started showing in a local movie house the night before. “About half our crowd saw it
then & the other half saw it tonight at the same hour,” Anna wrote. Supper was at 9:00
p.m.
The expedition was ready to leave in the morning [of the 20th]. There were eight
westerners in the party this season and Granger wondered whether it would be a bit
crowded in the vehicles. But they would splitting up the party soon and establishing
separate camps. Granger’s plan, he wrote his father, was “to keep the two dinosaur men
[Kaisen and A. Johnson] by themselves as much as practicable and have Olsen with me.
Later on Andrews, Morris and I will do some prospecting to the westward of where we
were last year (Tsagan Nor), out toward Uliassatai and also to the south of the Altai
Mountains.”
Their first destination [layover] would be Iren Dabasu, 260 miles from Kalgan, where
they had made their initial finds the previous year [in 1922]. This year, the Chinese postal
officials hoped to arrange for mail service to the party while it was in that vicinity which
was near by Ehrlien telegraph station. The Chinese were even considering establishing a
weekly or fortnightly courier service that would follow [deliver mail to] the party as it
progressed west. “At any rate we will be in much better shape for mail than last season,”
Granger wrote.
The weather had improved, Granger continued to his father. Much of the snow on the
hills was gone. The party hoped the mud up on the plateau was dried by now. The
procedures and route out were the same as the year before. The party was not much larger
with the addition of Olsen, Kaisen and Johnson, since Berkey and Shackelford were
dropped. Andrews would not remain with the party long, Granger informed his father. He
was “to return to Peking early in May for supplies, etc., and we can send in for all sorts of
things at that time. I'll know by then, for instance, whether my tobacco is lasting
according to schedule or not.” There may have been a twinkle in Granger’s eye when he
wrote this, since surely, after years of experience with extended expeditions including
one deep into Mongolia just the year before, Granger knew how much tobacco to bring.
April 20, 1923

Third Asiatic Expedition left the Mei fu [] compound for Mongolia
9:15 a.m. Everybody in high spirits. I [Anna] returned to Peking on
the 11:30 a.m. train. Arrived at the hotel at 6 p.m. Weather much
milder, though there was snow still lingering on the tops of the
mountains between Kalgan and the Nankou pass [259].
While Granger gave no further explanation for Andrews’s need to return to Peking, the
expedition having just set out in the same manner as they had the year before which
required no return trip to Peking, Anna would divulge the [real] reason when the time
came.
She took up residence at the Wagons-Lits Hotel after seeing the men off and considered
going to the seashore for a month later in the summer. Kalgan, her alternate choice, was a
fair place to spend the summer because it was at 2,500 feet in elevation and had a dry
climate. However, there were few foreigners there beyond the US Consul Sokobin, a
Standard Oil man and his wife, two or three British-American Tobacco Company people,
a few families engaged in trading with Urga, and missionaries. The countryside around
Kalgan was quite barren. Hardly a tree stood anywhere except for the few poplars planted
about the foreigners’ residences. Surrounding hills and fields were absolutely barren at
this time of the year, not yet sporting a spear of grass or even a weed. All was just soil
and stones. Later, when the rains came, the landscape would green up a bit. But, still,
Anna thought, the absence of trees would leave it with an empty look.
Larson waited patiently on the Mongolia side of the Liking [tax] station with his two-car
fleet for the CAE party to arrive. When in did, special passes from the local general,
Granger noted, allowed them to proceed through the Liking station tax-free. The
American consul was not with them this time, as he had been in 1922.
Granger noted the car seating arrangements:
No. 1. Roy [driving], Granger, Olsen, Kaisen.

" 2. Chinese chauffeur [driving], Chow.
" 3. Young driving, Morris.
" 4. V. Johnson driving, [A.] Johnson.
" 5. Chinese chauffeur [driving], 'Buckshot' [260].
The remaining native assistants rode “on top of the trucks.”
The road up to Wanchuan Pass was adequate and the one dog-wagon that did become
stuck in mud was hauled out with the Fulton. Once they reached the top at noon, lunch
was passed out to be eaten [and consumed] as they drove on.
They made Miao T’an at three only to find that the carts had not yet arrived. After was
decided to spend the night at a local inn, the carts arrived about an hour later and the
native assitants set about transferring everything from carts to cars. “Chinese chow was
served for dinner, prepared by the innkeeper.”
A squad of Chinese soldiers had awaited them at Miao T’an, the officer-in-charge taking
the names of the CAE men and informing them that he had arranged for a mounted
detachment to scout ahead of the fleet when it departed the next morning. The officer said
it was to "’protect’ us,” Granger wrote, noting that the officer also “[r]equested us ‘please
not to shoot his soldiers when we came upon them,’ a commentary on the Chinese soldier
of these parts [Conq/184].”
A hard freeze that night set the mud sufficiently to enable the expedition to get underway
very early that morning and set off for P’ang Kiang, 175 miles from Kalgan and 143
miles from Miao T’an [Conq/185]. It was a cold, clear and windy day for those driving in
the open vehicles. Road conditions were fair throughout. Chinese farmers, they noticed,
had stretched their cultivation to 88 miles out from Kalgan and even up into the Tabool
Hills [260-a] [Conq/185].
[Conq at p. 185 says they saw 20 mounted brigands lining both sides of the hills before
they were out of the culitivated area...but WG makes NO mention of this.]
The group stopped for lunch at Chap Ser. Most of the Mongols hired by the Expedition
lived in the Chap Ser area. But the Chinese advance into Mongolia was such that there
was now comfortable lodging at Chap Ser, Granger noted. The Chinese-owned inn
sported several rooms each with a wide kang (sleeping platform) and a stove.
While stopped at Chap Ser, they met up with Serin. Merin had left Serin behind this year
“because the other Mongols said he had become too unbearable because of his being
employed last season as a hunter and later as a guard to the caravan from Sair Usu to
Kalgan.” Andrews decided he would pick up Serin when he returned from his Peking trip
in May and bring him back to camp.
After reaching P’ang Kiang at 6:30 p.m. on the 21st, the tents went up and the "’bar’
opened.” Granger recorded the tent configuration:
Mess tent - Andrews & Granger

Small tent - A. Johnson & Kaisen
“ “ - V. Johnson & Olsen
“ “ - Morris & Young
April 22nd’s run Iren Dabasu was 80 windy, chilly miles to Iren Dabasu. A tire was
punctured on the No. 2 by a Chinese-made shoe nail. A pinion gear broke on the No. 4
truck. It took almost three hours to install a new gear and then have tiffin. When the party
finally reached Iren Dabasu to set up camp about a hundred feet from the previous year's
site [Conq/188], it was sunset. Merin and the caravan had not yet arrived.
There was now a considerable Chinese community at Iren Dabasu, Granger noted. A
Mongol girl residing there, he observed, now dressed and wore her hair in Chinese
fashion. Six or seven yurts used by Chinese travelers as an overnight stop in 1922 had
been replaced by a new building with several rooms including a storeroom for gasoline
tins. The entire affair was surrounded by a mud wall. Down near the water wells was
another large, mud-wall enclosed complex which served as an automobile station selling
gas and oil. The telegraph station was just north of this compound [Conq/186].
On the 23rd, Olsen, Kaisen and Johnson prospected the Cretaceous beds near camp at
Iren Dabasu while Granger, Andrews, Morris and Young drove off west in the No. 1 to
reconnoiter [Conq/188]. Eight miles by road from camp, they found a considerable patch
of Cretaceous material--‘gray-white strata,’ Granger termed it [Conq/188]--at the east end
of a lake. Many weathered dinosaur bones lay about.
They continued southeast on good road and crossed a granite ridge. On the far side of that
ridge, they found an entire bluff of exposures apparently Irdin Manha in age. They
collected a few teeth fragments and some foot bones.
[Conq/190, Andrews’s disavows capability to be ‘a paleontological collector’ and is told

by Granger to stay away from fossils.]
They drove another mile beyond the bluff to a dry lake and then on to a small lamasary
called "Boloto." They were about 30 miles away from Iren Dabasu when they turned
back to retrace their route to camp. Upon their return, Olsen reported he had found a
promising prospect of a carnivorous dinosaur material just 200 yards south of camp
[Conq/190].
Granger decided to send a telegram to Anna saying all was well.
While Olsen remained at work on his carnivore in the Cretaceous near camp on the 24th,
Granger went off five miles south with Andrews and Young along the main trail to the
Oligocene Houldjin gravels [Conq/191]. They returned to camp for tiffin and then went
back for the afternoon. But nothing of much consequence was found. In the meantime,
Olsen's discovery had yielded a good hind leg and foot and part of the other hind foot.
Granger assigned 'Buckshot' to assist Olsen, noting that 'Buckshot' seemed to be “doing
good work.”
Granger noticed that the auto traffic between Kalgan and Urga had increased
considerably since 1922. The cars were mostly Dodge automobiles driven by Chinese
and Russian chauffeurs carrying mostly Chinese passengers. Each car carried eight
passengers and their duffels and Granger counted five or six cars passing by each day.
Those arriving late always stopped and a lantern was kept burning on a high pole at each
compound as all night beacon. Some of the vehicles, Granger thought, might have been
Persender’s.
On the 25th, Granger spent the day in camp following the departure by Andrews and V.
Johnson for Kalgan in two trucks at dawn. From there, they would go on to Peking by
rail. The plan, Granger wrote this time, was to bring back “the 90 cases of gas left in
Kalgan and get additional supplies of food, etc., from Peking––also they will try and have
some new pinion gears made for the trucks. We now have only one spare left.”
Olsen continued the work on his carnivore in the Cretaceous while Kaisen and A.
Johnson prospected in the Oligocene at the Houldjin gravels. In Peking, Anna kept busy
with social calls and other engagements. She also called on Wong who was at a German
hospital and Grabau who was at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital. It is not
known why either was hospitalized.
On the 26th, Granger went off with Kaisen and A. Johnson to inspect their newly
discovered eastern exposures with promising outcrops containing dinosaur material.
Granger agreed that the eastern exposures were promising and quarrying was begun
which soon led to significant finds of small carnivores (Kaisen) and pre-dentaries (A.
Johnson). Olsen remained behind to finish up his carnivore. [ADD per 189-190
Conquest] START HERE]
It was April 27th. Merin and the caravan still had not arrived, nor was there any word of
them. [As we later [soon] learn,] Not only were some of the men still without their cots,
food supplies, including necessaries such as milk and butter, were perilously low.
Andrews was aware of these developments when he left camp on the 25th as orginally
planned. In Conquest [192], he claimed to be returning only to Kalgan, making no
mention of going on to Peking [Conq/192]. He also threw in another one of his conjured-
up, unverifiable bravado adventures to boot in “An Experience with Brigands” at page
192 of Conquest. This was patent malarky since it would have been foolhardy to travel
alone, especially with the foreknowledge he had that there were bandits in the area, and,
in fact, he wasn’t traveling alone.
V. Johnson was accompanying Andrews in a second vehicle. While Andrews claimed to

have gotten a mile ahead of Johnson when the alleged incident occurred, he simply
wouldn’t have had the courage or the stupidity to place himself in such a situation. That’s
why Johnson was taken along to begin with. Andrews never went into or about the field
alone: that’s his history.
Perhaps more troubling is that Andrews also implied in Conquest [186] that Merin and
the caravan had arrived safely at Iren Dabasu before Andrews and V. Johnson departed
on the 25th, thereby also implying that there was no longer a problem with the
expedition’s food supplies. Precisely the opposite was the case and this is another
example of Andrews’s [wholesale] distortion of events [the facts] not only to self-
aggrandize, but also to hide his malfeasance [character failure]. In this case, it was his
failure of leadership. [And this would not be the only example [instance] on almost the
same set of facts.]
Neither Anna or Walter Granger made reference to Andrews or V. Johnson reporting a

bandit incident while on their way to Kalgan from Iren Dabasu, and both Granger
accounts otherwise unmask Andrews’s telling of the entire matter. This also occurs
elsewhere and perhaps is why the Grangers’ CAE diaries and letters were not left with
the American Museum. They might not have survived to see the light of day.
While serving as the basis for the Mongolia expeditions narration in Conquest, the
Granger diaries also posed a conundrum. Unlike the after-the-fact revising, editing and
polishing process Conquest went through, the Granger diaries were raw, spontaneous,
private, contemporaneous accounts of events that happened the very day they were
recorded.
With Andrews returning to Peking just two days after arriving at Iren Dabasu, it was up
to the expedition’s second-in-command Granger to set aside science and try to find
Merin, or at least try found out whatever he could. Granger set off with Morris and
Young in a dog-wagon packed with bedding and a day's provisions. Ioshih went along as
interpreter. The men drove 30 miles south along the Kalgan-Urga “auto route” and then
20 miles along an easterly branch on which Merin was supposed to have come. The first
10 miles of this branch were fine driving over the penaplane, Granger noted. But the next
10 miles were “billowy and slow.”
At a fork in the road, they met a Chinese caravan which had just come over the easterly
route. They reported not having seen Merin on the way out from Kalgan, although they
had encountered him when they were going into Kalgan a week or so before. Further
inquiry along the route proved “fruitless” and having only enough oil [fuel] left [supply
left in camp/on hand] for another 100 miles or so of driving capability [range], they
decided to conserve and not continue their search for Merin. Turning back at “a point
about east of the Ting lamasary on the auto route,” they returned to camp [just] before
sunset.
With Merin and the caravan still unaccounted for, the expedition remained faced with
dwindling amounts of food and fuel. Granger paid $7.00 the next day (28th) for a sheep
to slaughter, even though the animals were in poor shape that year and the Mongols were
not anxious to sell any. That same day, he returned to the recently-discovered eastern
exposures with Olsen, Kaisen, A. Johnson and 'Buckshot'. With 'Buckshot'’s help, Kaisen
opened a quarry of small carnivores. Nearby, A. Johnson found a deposit of pre-dentaries
with associated material including limb bones.
Andrews “has returned to Peking for the Spring Races,” Anna noted in her diary on April
28. Andrews kept a stable of race horses in Peking and had absented the expedition to
return to watch his horses run. Delivering a letter to Anna from Walter that stated that
“the caravan has not made connections with the men now camped at Erhlien,
consequently some are without their cot beds and food supplies have given out, even such
necessaries as milk & butter,” Andrews had left anyway, not to rescue the situation, but
to watch his horses race [260 - b].
V. Johnson had gone all the way to Peking with Andrews, apparently to oversee the
making of new pinion gears. Whatever the case, Anna recorded that “Mr. Johnson
(Marine) here for tiffin. Showed me some photographs of the campers at Erhlien and of
scenes in Kalgan.”
On the 29th, Granger was still looking Merin. He drove back with Morris and Mac
[Mack] to a lamasary 25 miles southeast of camp hoping for news of the caravan on a
hunch that Merin might have taken a more easterly route. But there was no news. While
there, Morris and Granger “examined the exposures of Tertiary to the west of the lake
and found sufficient fossils to determine these beds as Irdin Manha.”
On April 30, 1923, a Mr. Wooden stopped by Granger’s camp on his way back to Kalgan
from Urga carring a message from Larson that prospects were good for getting passports.
A Mr. Lacy of Jardine Mattheson & Co. then came in at dusk, on his way to Urga, and
reported that Merin’s caravan was about 50 miles south on the main trail.
With this welcome news, Granger set out the next morning, May 1, with Young, Chow
and a Mongolian assistant in a dog-wagon to locate Merin. They found him 30 miles
from camp. While all had been well with the caravan, Merin explained, he had been
forced to travel slowly because the camels were not getting good feed. The caravan,
moving at a rate of only two miles an hour, was reduced 15 to 20 miles a day of progress.
It was still more than a day away from camp. Granger took a load of provisions and
returned to camp for lunch, shooting an antelope along the way to supplement their food
supplies. He telegraphed Anna to say "Caravan arrived."
The next morning there was ice on the dishes of water left out for the dogs. This was
followed on the 3rd by “[s]ome considerable shower of rain and hail about 6 p.m. West
wind. Small draw near camp running water which collected in pools in the sand dunes.”
Anna went to the Andrews for tiffin that same day and received a letter from Walter,
probaby sent down via Mr. Wooden who had stopped by the camp a few days earlier. The
American sweets she had sent along with Walter “came in very fine during the food
shortage.” On the 4th, Anna wrote, “Mr. Johnson took me out to the races at Pa Ma
Chang in a borrowed auto. I won eight dollars the first time I bet. Spent all of this and
two dollars besides on further bets but did not win again. Mr. Johnson lost over $30.”
On the 5th, Granger and his men worked in “a windstorm from the southwest late in the
afternoon; much dust.” The temperatures ranged from 42˚ F in the morning to 73˚ F in
the afternoon. He went with Morris and Young 20 miles southwest on the Kweihwating
Trail where they found good Irdin Manha exposures and many fossils, although they
seemed unusually broken up. The men returned to camp in a dust storm.
All hands were back in the quarries at the eastern exposures on May 6th. Olsen worked
his area a mile or more to the northeast of the road. Kaisen’s and A. Johnson’s quarries,
now developing into important deposits, lay some 400 yards to the southwest of the road
and were the main exposures of this section.
In Peking that day, Anna went to see Chinese paintings exhibited at the Returned Foreign
Students Club to aid a famine relief fund. The scrolls were loaned by individuals whose
collections were rarely seen. But very few foreigners were present, perhaps “on account
of the horse races,” Anna surmised.
On the subject of foreigners, Anna had just learned that 27 foreigners were captured by
bandits at Paotzuku in Shantung Province. Some of them were held 38 days and among
them was the well-known J. B. Powell, editor of the China Weekly Review. The
newspapers were also reporting a “bad hold-up by bandits” on the Pukow-Tientsin line at
Liu-ching, also in Shantung Province.
Back at Iren Dabasu, the weather turned bad again with a strong wind all day on the 7th.
First it blew in from the west, then from the east and finally from the north. It was too
much wind for fieldwork, and the men remained in camp.
Anna went over to the Andrews’s compound on the 7th to give him a packet of items to
take back to Granger. Andrews was planning to depart Peking in two days, having been
there since the 28th. Upon her return to the Wagons-Lits Hotel from the Andrews’s, Anna
found a telegram from Walter. “He just sent love which I was glad to get.”
*
May 9th found Granger, Morris and Mack 25 miles to the northeast just beyond a small
lamasary called [Sa Tuga or Sa Tunga], prospecting in a basin of red sediments. found
two or three bone fragments, “but nothing identifiable.”
Granger “[k]illed a fine buck on the return journey.” He also found “[a] bush, plum, in
full flower; brought some branches home.” The next day was spent back with olsen,
Kaisen and A. Johnson at their sites in the eastern exposures. Morris and Mack remained
in camp.
Andrews and Vance Johnson arrived in camp just after dinner on May 11th with the two
loaded trucks. They’d been gone since April 25th, nearly two and a half weeks. With
them in a rented Ford automobile was Colonel H. R. “Hal” Dunlap, commander of the
U.S. Marine Legation Guard in Peking, along with two other Marines, Major Williams
and Private Bresrep [Conq/193]. This was a hunting party that had gotten underway
before reaching camp, the Colonel and Major each shooting an antelope on the way out.
Credit is given in Conquest to Dunlap and Williams for having “done much toward
equipping the Expedition, and we had planned to have them visit us before we started
west [193].” It is not clear whether this plan [agenda] provided another reason for
Andrews to go back to Peking and, if so, why is not clear either. The expedition camp at
Iren Dabasu was not hard to find, as ordinary civilian motorists began demonstrating
during the 1922 expedition.
On the other hand, it is possible that the U.S. Marines needed CAE cover in order to enter
Mongolia and that is another reason why Andrews needed to leave the field. But even
that does not explain why he had to go all the way back to Peking, other than to watch the
horse races.
What equipping of the expedition the two officers assisted with also was not disclosed.
Nor is it known whether their effort began with the 1922 expedition. It is likely, however,
that it related to weapons of which the expedition had an assortment: rifles, shotguns,
handguns. It is also known that, at some point during the CAE, Andrews began using a
silencer when hunting.
Andrews delivered Anna’s mail to Granger and gave news of the bandit activity in
Shantung Province. He’d brought a new temporary mess tent from Kalgan for the hunters
and two new pinion gears made in Peking. Another pinion gear had broken on the way up
from Kalgan, but they had managed to make it into camp without changing it. That night,
he unveiled a leather covered "Sonora" phonograph presented to the expedition by last
year’s motorman, S. Bayard Colgate. It came with about 30 double records and there was
“much interest shown by the Mongols over this machine.”
The daily routine resumed. Granger and his men [staff, crew] continued collecting fossils.
After cataloging, they were packed in boxes using coarse, dead grass cut by the Mongols
for cushioning. One bed of red sandy clay near A. Johnson’s quarry had “contained
abundant fragments of smooth curved plates [Conq/191].” Later in the season while at
another location, “Granger began to suspect that these...represented dinosaur eggshells.”
Sent off to European scientist Victor Van Straelen for study that Fall, Granger’s diagnosis
was confirmed when in 1925 it was determined that these were egg shell fragments
representing different types of dinosaurs. Iren Dabasu thus became “the second place in
Mongolia where dinosaur eggs have been discovered [Conq/191].” [Van Stralen also
continued the question whether the eggs from Rognac were really dinosaurian.]
In the meantime, Andrews and the marines were off hunting antelope each day. For
evening entertainment, in addition to the new phonograph, the men now had “a set of
horseshoes and a game is on tonight.”
The winds continued. Andrews and his hunter friends started targeting grouse as well as
antelope. The opportunity presented itself one morning when newly formed pools of
water in the nearby sand dunes began attracting grouse. The birds flew down low over
camp to land at the water. Several hundred birds passed over the tents daily between 7:00
and 9:00 a.m., Granger observed. Before the pools formed, only a few birds of any kind
were to be seen about the camp.
*
Andrews, Morris and the two officers made a short reconnaissance trip to the west on
May 16th, and reported badlands bluffs 25 miles away. There was no road but they said
the going was fair. They made ready to move on. The plan was to move to [?out onto] the
Irdin Manha bench leaving Kaisen and A. Johnson at Ehrlien with 'Buckshot', Liu, No. 2
cook and a Mongolian assistant to finish up their respective quarries [Conq/193].
Olsen closed his quarry, though it was not yet exhausted, covering it up and marking it
with an obo [cairn]. The military men left camp on May 18th at about 7:00 a.m. and
returned to Kalgan [Conq/193]. Olsen packed, Andrews reorganized the caravan loads,
and Granger went to the quarries. The caravan was to leave at daybreak on the 19th. With
the tents down, dinner was outside that night for the first time in weeks.
In preparation, Andrews bought one camel for $55 and 24 cases of gas for $14 and $15
per case, the two stations having different prices. Two five-gallon tins fit into one case
which was made of wood and alone weighed 65 pounds. The Standard Oil Company had
furnished the expedition with 1,800 gallons of gas (and four cases of cylinder oil) that
season though 2,200 gallons of gas had been supplied for the 1922 season.
Andrews now thought more would be needed with the extra return of two trucks to
Kalgan by him and V. Johnson and the driving around in the field by hunting parties. The
vehicles averaged about seven miles to the gallon under ordinary driving conditions.
Sand, rugged terrain and additional loads could affect that mileage significantly.
Loss rate was another factor. Carrying liquid in soldered, rectangular tin cases packed in
wood boxes aboard the humped, swaying back of a lumbering camel was not a most
stable way to freight fuel. Extreme temperature ranges during hot days and cold nights
exacerbated the situation by causing the metal to expand and contract. The gas tins used
that season had been re-soldered at the seams and packed with extra care to prevent the
evaporation and leakage that had occurred in 1922 when the fuel loss rate was 50%.
Putting two steel bands around each wood case also helped cut the loss rate during the
1923 season by about 30%.
The idea of using steel drums had been raised and then [but] abandoned because of the
cost to manufacture, the difficulty of placing [seating] and securing a round drum on a
camel’s back, the trouble having either to dispose of steel drums somewhere in the field
or return them to Kalgan empty, and the need to return [large quantities of] fossils from
the field. The empty wooden gas tin cases [crates] worked perfectly for this. Otherwise
lumber would have to be brought in to construct them.
May 19, 1923––57˚-7:30 a.m.; 63˚-2 p.m. Calm at daybreak, strong

northwest wind starting up at 8 a.m. and developing into a gale with
much dust. Caravan off at sunrise. Motors at 8:20. Camped about 11
a.m. on edge of flat near the spring on the main highway where it
drops down over the Irdin Manha bench. Camp is about 1/2 mile
northeast of the telegraph line. Passed our caravan 7 miles out from
Erhlien. Too windy in the afternoon to do much prospecting. Kaisen,
Johnson, 'Buckshot', Liu, No. 2 Cook and our Mongol remained at
Erhlien to finish the quarry [261].
Tents “were pitched on the edge of the bluff, near a spring which bubbled out of a layer
of Eocene clay. To the north and west we could look over the rim of the basin to the
sculptured flanks of the great escarpment; to the south and east lay the flat reaches of the
Gobi erosion plane as level as a gigantic polo field [Conq/193].”
Once established, Granger went off to the location where he had collected part of a
titanothere jaw found by Berkey in 1922 [Conq/195]. Nearby in a small wash, he almost
immediately found another fine pair of titanothere jaws weathering out at the very bottom
of the wash. He decided to wait to excavate until after tiffin when Andrews could come
along and take photographs of the “untouched prospect” in situ. He decided to subdivide
the formation to distinguish the upper gray sandy clays, sands and gravels (Irdin Manha)
from the red clays below it (Arshanto) [Conq/194].
Interestingly, Conquest states at p. 194 that “We did not know until later that it was near
where the Kalgan-Urga road cuts this [Irdin Manha-Arshanto] deposit that the Russian
explorer, Obruchev, in 1892, collected the fragment of a ‘rhinoceros jaw, which was the
first and only fossil recorded from Mongolia, prior to the 1922-1930 work of the Central
Asiatic Expeditions.” This seems illogical.
First, Obruchev’s Mongolia venture was published by the Imperial Russian Geological
Survey in Russian in 1893. The fossil, as we know, was sent to Dr. Eduard Seuss whose
conclusions were published in English by the Royal Geological Society in 1897. These
followed years of speculation about Mongolia by earth scientists such as Lydekker who
had been dealing with rumored fossils from Mongolia before Obruchev’s find.
Henry Osborn, notorious for keeping informed of developments in paleontology

worldwide, was no stranger to British scientific publications, or probably even Russian
publications, since it would have been irresponsible not to be kept up-to-date is
considering exploration in Central Asia. Obviously, his 1900 publication of his theory on
the significance of Central Asia to the origin and dispersal of mammals followed the
British publication on Obruchev’s find in Mongolia by two years.
Perhaps Conquest was saying that they did not know until later precisely where Obruchev
had made his find. That, however, raises the question: what new piece of information
informed them?
Second, there indeed were other pre-CAE fossil discoveries in Mongolia besides
Obruchev’s. J. G. Andersson began making them in Mongolia in 1919, personally
informing Andrews (and Osborn) of his intent to do so in mid-January of that year. And,
as we know, he was succeessful.
Andersson, of course, went to Mongolia because of reports from Larson, Eriksson,

Haldjinko and Jensen, and perhaps others, that fossils were there. While Andersson
published on his finds in [ ], on April 22, 1922, Granger recorded wishing to visit
“Andersson’s Pliocene locality [at] Ertemte near Tabool.” But Andrews thought they
should keep going. Oddly, Conquest finally acknowledges Andersson’s antecedent work
at p. 240, 50 pages after ignoring it.
Back to working out Berkey’s jaw that afternoon, Granger soon discovered “a fine skull
and a single ramus of another jaw––all three specimens washed in close together.” The
pair of jaws he had found when he first entered the site evidently belonged with the skull
he had found while working on Berkey’s 1922 find. Olsen also found a titanothere
maxilla in the same locality [Conq/195].
Merin and the caravan arrived in the afternoon of the 20th and set up camp between the
expedition tents and the road. A strong west wind on the morning of the 21st developed
into a fierce gale afternoon and then into a severe sandstorm that night. With Olsen
assisting, Granger spent all that day and the next two days carefully excavating, “my
skull & jaws Conq/193].” The gale continued through the night leaving the next day’s
sun obscured by dust throughout the day. By the evening, calm had returned.
Back in Peking, Colonel Dunlap delivered the letter to Anna that Walter had sent in with
him. Her eye was now inflamed, and she decided to have it treated at the Methodist
Hospital. Shortly after her return to the hotel, “Miss Aldrich and Miss McFadden called.
Much astonished that I did not go to the Rockefeller Hospital to have my case looked
after.” She recovered in time to attend a tea, “a gathering of about twenty women to meet
Miss Jane Addams [262].”
Andrews and Young returned in a dog-wagon to Ehrlien from the new Irdin Manha bench
camp to pick up the several boxes of fossils left there and bring them back. The plan was
to send V. Johnson into Miao T’an with all fossils collected to date. From there, they
would be taken on to Kalgan by cart for storage at “Paulsen's.” This arrangement would
permit the party to proceed west without the extra weight in the vehicles. As for fossils
collected after V. Johnson’s departure for Miao T’an and before heading west, “we plan
to store with the telegraph operator at Erhlien,” Granger noted.
Granger returned to the Iren Dabasu quarry to check in with Kaisen and A. Johnson
finishing up their work. With still plenty of bones around, they either duplicated those
already collected or did not offer sufficient diagnostic association with other bones. One
load of fossils was taken out of the quarry and back to the Irdin Manha camp.
Checking in at the telegraph station, they found a cable from Larson to Andrews stating
that it now seemed hopeless that the party would obtain Outer Mongolian passports from
the Urgan government. In light of that, Andrews decided to go to Urga on the 26th to see
what he could do to secure the passports. V. Johnson’s trip to take fossils to Miao T’an
was postponed so that he could accompany Andrews [Conq/195-196 glosses right over
this-makes no mention of it].
On the 25th, Granger and Olsen finally freed the titanothere skull and then prospected to
the southwest. Granger found more titanothere jaws but did not develop any new
excavations. Early the next day, Andrews and V. Johnson left for Urga and were back
before sunset, having been stopped at the Inner-Outer Mongolia border at Ude by a
Mongolian official who would not allow them to proceed without passports. They were
“much put out by the matter,” until they stopped at Erhlien on their way back to camp
and found a telegram from Larson saying that the passports had been granted.
Anna, in the meantime, had
Received a letter from Walter late in the afternoon. He reports the

finding of a skull and jaws of a titanothere, a choice specimen. The
wind has been long & violent at the camp, Irdin Manha, the same as
here. Some of the time could do no prospecting or excavating. In the
evening went to the pavilion to hear Fritz Chrysler. He was as
wonderful as ever. Had fine audience. Chrysler’s bored expression
lasted until the last two encores when a faint smile appeared. The
loveliest piece was Chrysler’s transcription of Rimsky-Korsakoff's
"Hymn to the Sun" from "Coy d' Or [263]."
Over the next few days, the wind and weather continued to interfere with the collecting.
Andrews, V. Johnson and Young, on the other hand, began hunting antelope daily. All
were back in camp by nightfall and lit up the sky with a fire. It served as a beacon for one
of Larson’s men, a Mr. Lacey, who came into camp from Urga after dark in Larson’s car
on the 27th and left for Kalgan the next morning with a borrowed magneto (electrical
generator) and a letter for Anna from Walter.
On the 29th, Granger and Olsen began using Chih, the taxidermist, as an assistant infossil
fieldwork. Since the expedition now had a good series of the recent mammals from that
region, it was thought wise to have Chih devote his time to fossils. Morris also assisted
when he was not working on his own assignments or conducting motorized

reconnaissance. Andrews, Young and V. Johnson continued to hunt when not attending
to logistical and maintenance matters.
This was the work pattern that continued while they waited for their passports. It was all
quite congenial and, occasionally, Andrews did make it into the fossil field. “He came
down to my specimen in afternoon,” Granger noted, “with a cold bottle of beer. Also one
for Olsen in the next pocket beyond.”
Shortly after 6 a.m. on June 1, V. Johnson drove left fo Miao T’an with as much fossil
material as the Fulton could carry. It was estimated to be two tons [Conq/195]. Granger
noted it “was the hottest day of the year, so far, owing to lack of wind.” It was warmer in
Peking, too, Anna noted, with “hot wind” blowing.
Fossil collecting continued over the next few days as the workers focussed on finishing
up their specimens to bring in to camp for cataloguing and packing. It was now June 6th
and Granger set off that morning to his fossil deposit in the northeast of the basin with
Andrews and Chih in the No. 1 car. Morris and Young followed in a dog-wagon. Granger
and Chih planned to work that area all day while Young and Morris went on to explore
the basin farther to the east. Andrews returned to camp.
Morris and Young picked up Granger and Chih on their way back at 6:00 p.m. Returning
to camp, they found that V. Johnson had returned from his trip to Miao T’an, that Lacey,
driving back through from Kalgan in Larson's car on his way to Urga, had brought mail
and newspapers and that the Marines had sent out a case of beer and sour mash whiskey
as a “thank you” for hosting their hunting excursion. Olsen, in the meantime, reported
that 'Buckshot' had found a sizable Creodont skull at their locality [Conq/196]. 'Buckshot'
actually had found it the day before, Granger recorded:
all hands to the big skull which I believe to be an entelodont [giant

bear-like artiodactyls]. Morris makes a sketch of it in situ. Camels
will leave tomorrow for the place on the Sair Usu trail where we
found the titanothere’s jaw last fall. We leave as soon as the Urga
passports and the Buriat representative who is to accompany us,
arrives. Lacey is to take an oral message to Larson to please hurry

matters [264][Conq/198].
This specimen was later determined not to be an omnivore as Granger orignally thought,
but a primitive carnivore with features “remarkably similar” to Entelodon. In part
confusing the matter was that it was “the largest terrestrial carnivore which has thus far
been discovered in any part of the world.” Osborn named it Andrewsarchus mongoliensis
[Conq/196].
[Andrews makes a big deal here (Conq/196] of disputing Granger in the field and
ultimately being vindicated by Osborn. But, really, WTF did Andrews know...]
On the 8th, the passports still not having arrived, Granger brought his father up-to-date.
“On the 6th,” he wrote, “...I got a fine batch of mail including your letters up to No. 84
(two of that number) and the maple sugar. Thank you for both.” The caravan had left at
daybreak the day before (7th), he continued, and they too would depart as soon as they
received their Urga passports and the government representative who was to accompany
them.
The morning and evening temperatures were in the low 50’s with winds that had the men
still walking around in their fur coats despite an occasional midday temperature of 85˚.
Climate was quite variable in this high plateau region wherever they went, Granger
noted, and they could count on about six weeks of actual summer and no more. It seemed
to run from July 1st to August 15th.
Collecting was going well, Granger wrote. He figured he could get a full caravan load by
fall and they had already taken out two camel loads in addition to the first car load taken
to Miao T’an. He then admonished his father for having shared Osborn’s letter about
naming the Baluchitherium after him and granting him extra pay for the risky China
expeditions. “I had hoped you would not pass the Osborn letter around,” Granger wrote.
“Thought probably you would not.” Nevertheless, “You may give out any facts of my
letters you like now to the [Rutland] Herald. The ‘Asia’ articles of last season's trip are
coming on and there seems no further reason for keeping things out of print.” In any
event, Granger added, Osborn had written recently that he hoped to sail for the Orient on
July 25th, and expected to be in Peking when the expedition returned from the field.
A. Johnson, Morris and Granger set off in a car on the 9th to the southeast, but found no
fossils. Olsen continued to work on 'Buckshot'’s Creodont skull while Kaisen attended to
several small prospects of titanotheres. Andrews and Young drove to the Erhlien
telegraph station and came back with two cables from Larson indicating that their
passports would be delivered to the camp and that a daytime beacon should be set out. A
truck was parked on the edge of the plateau near camp to serve as a guide post for the
passports bearer.
At last, they would be on their way into Mongolia. Final arrangements were made with
the telegraph agent at Erhlien for storing fossils until their return in the fall. At 9:00 a.m.
on June 10th, four cars stopped at the Ehrlien telegraph station on their way from Urga to
Kalgan. One of the cars carried a Mrs. Popoff, apparently the wife of a Russian official in
Urga, who carried with her the Expedition’s passports. Not finding the daytime beacon
the CAE had set out, she decided to leave the passports at the Ehrlien telegraph station
[Conq/198].
Only learning of this later in the day, the men decided to pick up the passports the next
morning after breaking camp. They were about to head west, Granger wrote, “and
immediately get out of touch with the rest of the world.” Granger took time to write
another letter to his father. Their first six weeks, he recounted, had been spent along the
main highway between Kalgan and Urga. Cars passed by their camp every day. Some
days there were as many as ten. However, once one left the main route, there were no
more cars to be seen. At one lamasary, not more than 10 miles off the main road, the
lamas were badly frightened when an expedition vehicle approached. That meant,
Granger observed, “that both the autos and lamas stick pretty closely to their prescribed
routes or abodes.” That is, they didn’t mix much.
The plan was to meet the caravan at Ula Usu near the Shara Murun River where they had
located a great fossil deposit the year before, he wrote his father [Conq/198]. They
planned to travel roughly 100 miles south to intersect the old Chinese post route from
Kalgan to Sair Usu. Then they would take that route to the northwest for some 200 miles
before driving cross country west to meet the main trail between Kweihwating and
Uliassutai. They would stay west on this trail all the way to the Altai Mountains.
Much of this followed the route by which they had returned in the fall of 1922,
but we're going to attempt some cutoffs this time. A good deal of the
Gobi is such fine going for the cars that we do not need to keep the
established routes of travel although it must be said that the old
camel trails, which have been smoothed down and hardened by the
pressure of countless thousands of padded feet, are really better
going than the cross-country routes which we have had to take
sometimes [265].
Stretching southward from their present camp was a great flat tableland with a hard
pebbly surface. There was little vegetation to impede a car. “[W]e can push our Dodge
touring car to forty-eight miles an hour and one hardly needs to touch the wheel,”
Granger wrote.
Hunting antelope on these plains was also a simple matter. They drove up to within a 100
yards or so, and then stopped quickly, got out and started shooting. If they did not get a
kill the first time, they jumped back in the car and overtook the animals again. Forty-five
miles per hour was about as fast as an antelope could run for any length of time, although
it could run as fast as 60 miles an hour when fresh.
Responding to his father’s inquiry about "Mongol cultivation, Granger replied "there
ain’t no such animal.” The previous year, he wrote, they traveled some 2,500 or 3,000
miles and never saw a single sod turned by a Mongol. In the extreme northern part of
outer Mongolia there may be some farming, but certainly not where the expedition party
had traveled. The Mongol diet was, consequently, almost entirely meat, milk and milk
products such as butter and cheese. They ate beef, but greatly preferred sheep.
The nine Mongol members of the expedition would not even eat antelope, insisting
instead on buying sheep for which they were allotted 8/s ($8.00 silver) a month. “The
antelope they could have from us for the asking but they will have none of it. Other
Mongols eat antelope, however, and I think that our own group would if there were not
some one to buy sheep for them.”
The Expedition’s westerners practically lived on antelope, he wrote, supplemented by

sheep once a fortnight or so just to keep them from tiring of the game. Their dinner menu
that night was:
Bean soup
Roast antelope
French-fried potatoes
Baked macaroni with cheese
Young green onions
Corn fritters
Stewed dried peaches
Biscuits, tinned butter, and
Tinned milk and loaf sugar [266].
“Not so bad for the Gobi Desert!” he wrote. There also was bottled beer if any one
wanted it, but with the temperature averaging around 50˚, everyone seemed to prefer
coffee. The beer was a luxury sent out by friends in Peking and would soon be gone. The
onions would last another two or three weeks and the potatoes until late July. They would
manage to get through August to early September on the other provisions. Lunches were
usually much like the dinners but without the dessert. Breakfasts were cereal, eggs or
meat, pancakes and syrup, and coffee.
While the Mongols did nothing agriculturally, Granger continued, the Chinese were
doing a great deal. It would not be many years before they were directly up to the
southern edge of the Gobi with the cultivated fields, substantial villages, Buddhist
temples and their entire civilization. Chinese cultivation now extended 88 miles north of
Kalgan and was advancing in some places as much as 10 miles a year. As the Chinese
advanced, the Mongol had to retreat, “for a nomadic people cannot live in a highly
cultivated area; they must have the open country for their herds.”
The 700 miles between Kalgan and Urga was divided into southern grasslands, the true
Gobi desert, and the northern grasslands. Not only was precipitation in the grasslands
sufficient to grow crops, even in the Gobi, Granger wrote, “I think farming could be
carried on successfully in many places by irrigation from the numerous shallow wells.”
The Chinese were wonders at farming, he noted, and their advance into the plateau was
some day going to be a serious problem for the Mongols. The Great Wall was now well
behind the advancing Chinese.
While the Mongols moved with their herds wherever grazing took them during the
summer months, in the winter they established permanent camps. Winters were
extremely harsh. Camps were usually located at the south slope of a hill. A small shelter
was created for the sheep by piling up a wall of stones or cakes of dried manure. There
they made the best of it, although Granger wondered how the stock got “through one of
these terrific winters I do not know. But in the spring when we came up, here they all
are––not fat but a long way from being dead.” The animals, of course, grew an extra
heavy coat of hair or wool that was an enormous help in the fight for existence. The
Mongols themselves were very comfortable in their felt yurts (gers) with their argul fires.
But the daily task of tending the flocks during the raw winter days must have been
strenuous.
The yurt (ger), Granger continued, was the most practical structure for habitation in that
region. It was circular with a conical roof and made of heavy felt mats laid over a
collapsible framework of small slats. The yurt was secured in place by ropes attached
firmly to pegs driven into the ground. In blizzard conditions, the walls of felt kept out the
cold and even the sound of the howling wind. Family life of the Mongols was confined to
one room of the yurt “and is something of a mess of course. An odor of rancid mutton fat
is the dominating thing and the fact the Mongols never wash doesn't help things along
any.”
Both men and women wore long gowns lined in sheepskin for winter and heavy cotton or
silk for warm weather. Trousers and heavy leather boots with turned up toes and “a
ridiculous peaked hat completes the costume.” They always rode when possible, either
horses or camels, and seemed clumsy even ungainly on foot, especially in their great
boots which were made large enough to permit the addition of several felt or woolen
socks in severe weather.
Granger estimated that 60-75% of the male population over eight-years old were
“lamas––priests of the Tibetan church. Lamas do not marry, do not kill, and do not work,
absolutely worthless parasites and it is just this which is sapping the life blood of a once
powerful and dominant race.”
It was now June 10th, but real summer had not yet set in. The Expedition men all had on
their sheepskin coats that day and still felt the chill. The dry air and almost daily wind
made the region an excellent one in which to carry on fossil work. “On the whole it's an
enjoyable summer climate and there are few biting insects in the Gobi which is a
wonderful relief.” They were starting west in good health and spirits, Granger assured his
father, “and if the fates which looked after us last summer are still kindly disposed we
shall be returning to Kalgan in September with another successful expedition behind us.”
He thought he might have an opportunity to send in a batch of letters by a Chinese

caravan bound for Kweihwating in northern Shansi Province, but he asked his father not
to expect mail until the expedition got back to China.
Then we will cable and you can get news either from the Museum or
through the New York papers. You are probably seeing the articles
in "Asia" this summer. There is a series of them and they seem to
give a fairly good account of our doings last year. The later articles
are better than the earlier ones I think [267].
By now, headline press accounts and feature magazine articles were touting the CAE’s
feats and results and examining some of the men behind them. One newspaper account
began with “Shanghai Writer Describes Walter Granger as Man to Whom Earth is Open
Book.” Another chronicle was headlined “Walter Granger: A Great Paleontologist.” The
New York World later featured Granger under the banner “New York’s Strangest Jobs––
Bone Picker on Gigantic Scale His Job as He Probes Far Past––Builds Dinosaurs From
Few Bones He Searches World For––The Dinosaur Man.” One of the museum’s
journalists later was to name him “Daddy of the Gobi.“
June 11, 1923-

(W. Granger diary entry):
48˚ - 7 a.m.; 78˚ - 2 p.m. Mostly bright, calm––not enough breeze to

stir the flag. Johnson and Kaisen took out a jaw and ?maxilla of
titanotheres in forenoon. Roy & Mac took our ten boxes of fossils to
Erhlien in the p.m. and brought back the passports. Olsen and I in
camp all day packing up for tomorrow's travel [268].
(A. Granger diary entry):

(Perfect weather.) Went to the Andrews compound and opened up
Walter's Szechuan collection to see if the moths were in the boxes.
Mrs. Dye & Miss Walters came to see the bird skins. Mrs. Andrews
asked us all to stay for tiffin [269].
The men in cars covered 101 miles on that calm and bright June 12th, passing the
“lamasary of Ula Whatica” quipped Granger at mile 16.1. At mile 84.2, they caught up
with and overtook Merin and the camels. Since it was then only 4:30 p.m., they drove
another two hours before making camp on the edge of a dry lake bed.
[Conq’s trip seq. at p. 198-199 seems different and perhaps summarized.]
Starting off again at 7:15 a.m. on the warm, foggy morning of June 13, only four miles
into the journey not 15 minutes later, they suffered a tire puncture on the No. 1. The trip
continud unevefully until mile 67.3 when they lost V. Johnson's dog Buster near a creek.
Camp that night was on the fringe of the [Eocene] badlands near the Well of the
Mountain Water and where the previous year Andrews had found the set of titanothere
jaws of Granger partly excavated and then covered the rest.
It was 59˚ at 10:00 a.m, clear and turning hot by midday in the Gobi on June 14. Though
calm, there were many "sand devils" (sand lofted in whirlwind) in the basin north of
camp. All hands prospected close to camp from morning until tiffin. There was a hum of
activity. A new species later named Protitanotherium mongoliense by Osborn
[Conq/200], Granger uncovered the balance of the titanothere jaws found by Andrews in
1922, while 'Buckshot' worked a titanothere skull and jaws he had just found. Chih found
a jaw and Kaisen a forefoot. Olsen opened a quarry of small artiodactyl bones while A.
Johnson found a fine hind foot bone of an artiodactyl.
Granger helped 'Buckshot' with his skull all the next day while Olsen worked the
artiodactyl quarry. A. Johnson found a new rhinoceros prospect, and Kaisen stayed busy
with several finds he had made. In the meantime, after reconnoitering to the north by car,
Morris and Young reported considerable badlands exposure in that area, but few fossils.
Morris planned to set up camp 30 miles to the west [?at Jisu Honguer-Conq/203] the next
day to begin work on the Palaeozoic [?Permian-Conq/203]. In the meantime, a procession
of Mongols from the nearby yurts continued filtering into camp to visit.
The 16th was clear day when Kaisen found a fine titanothere skull that morning. Morris
went off with Young, Chih, Ioshih and a cook to make his new camp 18 miles west on
the trail. Andrews accompanied them in another car and returned to the main camp by
tiffin. By noon it began to cloud over with a strong west wind following. All hands were
back in camp when, at 3:30 p.m., the wind “became a severe sandstorm and continued
until nearly 5 p.m. when a dead calm set in––followed by more wind before sunset. Calm
in evening. Tents buried in sand [Conq/200].”
[Conq devotes 2 1/2 pages of Andrews’s b.s. prose to this at 200-202.]
Andrews’s eyes had started giving him serious trouble, Granger noticed, apparently due
to the sandstorm. The wind blew hard again that night and by morning (17th) the tents
were sagging and partially buried as they had been after the storm the previous afternoon.
The sand continued blowing all day making fossil collecting and camp life difficult and
uncomfortable. Nevertheless, “Kaisen finds another titan. skull. I worked all day on
'Buckshot''s titan. skull.”
Back in Peking, Anna had lost weight. She went to the tailor's “to gather in my skirts &
dress which had to be altered.” She was also busy packing to go to the seashore for a few
weeks at Pei Tai Ho, a fashionable resort. The Thompson family had asked Anna to be
their guest for a few days. The Andrews’s six-year old son George was staying at the
shore, at the home of Mrs. Goodrich, while Yvette remained in Peking [270].
“Took my first bath in the ocean,” Anna wrote later. The Thompsons were “religious
poeple [sic],” she noted, idiosyncratically misspelling ‘people’ as she did throughout her
diaries. Their children went to Sunday, school and they all went to the five o'clock
afternoon service. Later, at eight o'clock, Mrs. Thompson and Anna joined “a group of
people who met to sing hymns on the rocks above the beach in the moonlight.”
Granger continued with extracting 'Buckshot''s skull which he considered a good

speciman. It was found under the lower jaws Chih discovered the first day they were
there. V. Johnson had also found a large titanothere skull.
The abundance of titanothere bones at Ula Usu was amazing. There

were many spots where hundreds of fragments lay in a white heap on
the surface, remains of skeletons which had weathered out and broken
up. Although we discovered no complete usable skeletons, hardly a
day passed that someone did not find a new skull or important bones
[Conq/202].
Merin came in with the caravan later that day reporting they had negotiated [encountered]
some rough trail. He also said that Ioshih had frightened the locals along the route by
telling them that the expedition party “had many arms and much ammunition and that
soldiers were following behind us.” Andrews, Chow, Serin and Merin later went to try to
arrange for storage of extra gas and accumulated fossils for retrieval upon their return in
the fall. They were considering placing them at a nearby lamasary called Baron Sog-in-
Sumu.
The evening of the 19th was calm, but a heavy southeast wind developed by noon the
next day kicking up dust. The camel caravan made ready to leave for Ardyn Obo, a shrine
consecrated by the lamas. The cars were to follow in a few days taking the same trail they
took in 1922 [Conq/203].
Granger continued work on a specimen he’d designated “No. 105,” as well as on the new
skull and jaws found by Chih and 'Buckshot'. Andrews and V. Johnson went off to hunt,
stopping by Morris’ camp along the way for lunch. The following day they took nine
cases of gas into storage they had secured at Baron Sog-in-Sumu [Conq/203].
The weather alternated between breezes, sandstorms and rainstorms. Merin was off at
sunset on the 21st. Meanwhile, Granger discovered that a mongrel dog had destroyed the
plaster jacketing on specimen No. 105, the Protitanotherium mongoliense [Conq/200]. It
would have to be redone. Kaisen's three jacketed skulls were brought into camp as a
precaution.
As he worked on his specimen, A. Johnson was finding that an entire skeleton was
attached [associated with] to the rhinoceros skull he had found. On the 25th, Andrews
and V. Johnson drove to Morris' Jisu Honguer camp to pick up and bring back four cases
of rock samples while 'Buckshot' and Granger finished plastering Vance Johnson's
titanothere skull and the others also finished up their specimens.
Andrews, Kaisen and V. Johnson took a truck loaded with 21 boxes of fossils and a dog-
wagon with Morris’s four boxes of rocks up to the lamasary for storage on the 26th.
There was now about a ton of fossils stored at the lamasary, along with a supply of
gasoline [Conq/203]. Eight dollars was advanced to the lamas for which a receipt in the
shape of a half of a block of wood was issued.
V. Johnson’s missing dog, Buster, found by Mongols at the creek and then cared for, was
brought back camp. He was, Granger noticed, “thin but mighty happy to get back.”
On the 27th, the expedition was on the road again covering 166.9 miles that day. They
picked up Morris and his group at mile 18.9 at 8:00 a.m. The entire party reached Ardyn
Obo at 8:00 p.m. and set up camp as a west gale blew.
Andrews, Young and Morris drove over to a nearby group of yurts the next morning to
inquire about a road they had heard ran south to the Kweihwating Trail. All other hands
prospected along the face of a bluff near the camp while Granger reopened his
Baluchitherium quarry from the previous year. Andrews and his group returned by tiffin
without information [empty-handed]. After tiffin, he and Young went out again to locate
an "oasis" called Gatun Bologai and a road said to be 20 miles southwest of where they
were.
The expedition was setting up to return to the Flaming Cliffs where Granger had found
the dinosaur eggshell fragment and Shackelford had found the new dinosaur
Protoceratops, now thought to be ancestral to any known horned dinosaur. They were
loking for a direct route to the Flaming Cliffs rather than going via their longer [return]
route from the year before [Conq/204].
A pit viper was found [had crawled] into Chow's tent that day [271]!
The party remained at the Ardyn Obo camp for a few days while Granger, 'Buckshot' and
Chih worked the 1922 quarry discovery and the others prospected the bluffs nearby. V.
Johnson with Olsen, Kaisen and A. Johnson drove along the bluff in a dog-wagon. Many
small jaws and other fragments were found to the west along the face of the bluffs. They
were all titanothere, Granger realized, and represented a range of age from young to old.
As the collectors worked the bluffs, Andrews and Young backtracked the route the
expedition had taken out until they met up with the caravan. They needed to hold the
caravan at the last campsite, Ula Usu, because there was no grazing at the new one at
Ardyn Obo {Conq/205]. That accomplished, they returned at about 5:00 p.m. bringing
extra provisions with them. Granger listed some of the items: butter, jam, tomatoes,
sugar, corn, macaroni, potatoes, onions, beef tablets, cream of wheat, corn meal, baking
powder, crisco, bacon, eggs, matches, small beans.
The plan was to go on to Sair Usu, the central headquarters of the post road installations
in Mongolia, and send the caravan along by a more direct overland route [272]
[Conq/205]. On July 3rd the men drove 81.6 miles before going into dry camp at a site
Granger described as a cotton-wood-like grove [Conq/206]. The next day (4th), they
drove another 65 miles to within nine miles of Sair Usu when they stopped at 3:00 p.m.
to make camp and take the rest of the day off in celebration of the Fourth of July. Always
investigating, Morris set out to examine the hills nearby.
July 5th was spent there as well. It was a warm day, the afternoon high reaching 90˚ at
3:00 p.m. even with a strong south wind.
Pressing on for Sair Usu the next morning (6th), the men departed at 7:15 a.m., stopping
at 8:00 to replenish their water supply at a well near some old walls and a shrine. Still
hoping for a way to cut south directly to the Flaming Cliffs, they inquired at a lamasary
named by Granger as Mangti in Suma along the way which led to engaging a lama as “a
guide on trail running south from here.” After enduring 115.9 miles of hard riding that
day, they halted at 6:30 p.m. to make camp near a temple called Menk Ta Urtu
[Conq/207].
Soldiers were camped a few miles away. Conquest (p. 207) described it as a basic
training camp for drafted Mongolians, lamas included, and was run by Buriat officers.
After completing this phase, the recruits were sent to an advanced training camp and then
on to Urga for training under Russian officers.
The expedition started off along a small road at about 7:00 a.m. the next day (7th) with
their lama guide. Not long after, they left the road to head west cross country. Tiffin
break was at a well after which they resumed their cross country trek until striking north
on a northwest-southeast road. This was followed for several miles before the men left it
to continue their drive cross country due west. There they promptly got stuck [bogged
down, trapped] in sand, forcing a return to the road which they took for a few more miles
before attempting another cross country run to the west.
Granger found it a welcome change when the cars finally reached the hard, smooth
surface of the great Ongin Gol penaplane. Some distance below a lamasary, the men set
up camp at a creek along the lower edge of the penaplane at around 5:30 p.m. There was
a strong northwest wind that evening and a
wonderful sunset. Day's run 111 miles. Old Lama to return

tomorrow. A new one engaged to take us to south trail by a new
route tomorrow. Camped on grass tonight. In p.m. passed several
dead horses & 2 men. Chinese soldiers killed many Mongols two
years ago [273].
*
The new lama, a young fellow, arrived early to pilot the party south. They broke camp at
about 7:30 a.m. and started out across the vast penaplane toward a small lamasary called
Holostai Suma 10 miles distant. The first Mongol guide, "Hoodoo Lama" as Granger
dubbed him, had left camp early by camel so that he could wait for them at the turning
point where they were to veer slightly to the right and proceed south on the penaplane.
The surface alternated between perfect going and sandy-lumpy. They were obliged to
detour in two or three places before finally “to our surprise [we] found ourselves on our
old tracks of last year where we had crossed a great tamarisk bottom with powdery soil.”
After crossing this, they found the main trail between the Gurbun Saikhan and Urga and
followed it to the Flaming Cliffs. The road, they noted, was not much improved from the
previous fall. They had had to get out and push the trucks across a big sand wash before
turning westward along the base of the dramatic red bluff. This brought them into camp
at the top of the bluff at 4:00 p.m., very near the spot where they had made two of their
most important finds in 1922: Shackelford’s Protoceratops and Granger’s dinosaur
eggshell fragment [Conq/207].
Everything was exactly as we had left it on our last visit. The marks of
our tents and the motor car tracks were almost as distinct as though
they had just been made [Conq/207].
Their water came from a good well about one mile to the north, in the lowland. Seven
yurts set up near the well could be seen from camp. A lake, a mile away to the northeast,
which had water in it last fall, was now just a muddy basin. Following camp set-up, the
fossil hunters proceeded down the escarpment to investigate the area. An hour’s worth of
work in the exposures “yielded many prospects––including one skull of the Protoceratops
which I found in a concretion on the surface [Conq/207-RCA claims he found it].” It was
clear there was a wealth of material yet to be uncovered.
(Anna) July 5, 1923:

Returned to Peking in company with Miss Conantz... Had a hot
journey and felt quite used up on reaching the hotel [274].
While Walter and the men were out in the field, Anna had fallen ill. On July 7th, she
asked a physician, Dr. Heath of the Methodist Mission, to come over to the Wagons-Lits
to see her. ”She [Dr. Heath] has put me on a diet of ice water. At 9 a.m. I feel much
better.” But the prognosis was not good. Anna was at the onset of an extended illness.
“Dr. Heath says I have amoebic dysentery.”
There was a storm in Peking that afternoon and the city was pummeled with “the largest
hail-stones I ever saw. Some windows were broken and undoubtedly much damage done
to foliage.” In spite of the weather, visitors began paying calls, some bringing flowers.
She eventually moved to the Andrews compound “to stay for a while.”
Back at the Flaming Cliffs on July 9th, all hands were “out prospecting and many finds
were made. The ‘pocket’ from which Shack got the skull last year seems rich––much
more so than I had suspected from the two hour's examination last fall.” Granger assigned
'Buckshot' to Olsen while Chih worked independently. The latter had just found “a
weathered skull of either a slender-headed reptile or a toothed bird,” Granger recorded
[275] [Saurornithoides mongoliensis?-Conq/213].
A trio of soldiers came into camp to check passports. One,
who seemed to be No. 1, and who arrived later than the other two,
was inclined to argue our right to excavate fossils in this kingdom.
After establishing our right to [do] this by our passports the soldiers
resorted to the superstition about excavating in the ground and said
that sickness among the natives would be soon to follow our work.
Andrews finally talked him into submission [276].
July 10, 1923, found Andrews and Young staying in camp to get ready for departure the
next day for Artsa Bogdo to hunt. They planned to stay three weeks and would take Chih,
the No. 2 cook, and Serin with them. Granger and his party would remain at Flaming
Cliffs during this time. They would then break camp and meet up with Andrews and his
group at Artsa Bogdo.
As the morning of the 10th developed, Andrews paused from packing to take movies and
stills of three Mongols who had come into camp and were introduced to the phonograph.
They were intrigued by this device and, as they listened, Andrews began filming them
before returning to packing. Granger had remained in camp that morning to sort fossils.
When Olsen came in from the field for lunch, he quietly advised Granger of a major
discovery. He had found
a group of fossil eggs, dinosaur’s presumably. Two or three fairly

complete but somewhat crushed eggs are weathered out and several
more crushed or broken eggs are running in the bank. All are
clustered into a small area––eggs touching each other. They are
elongated and measure about six inches long. A partial skeleton of a
small ?carnivorous dinosaur lies directly over the eggs and separated
by only a few inches of matrix [277].
Conquest and all other historical accounts of this event place it as having occurred on
July 13th [Conq/208]. Granger’s diary, which has been consistent date-wise with
Conquest throughout, shows the discovery as having occurred three days earlier on July
10th. Why? The answer seems to lie with Granger’s determination as to when the find
should be made known to the others.
When Olsen came back to camp for lunch, he apparently quietly reported the find to his
boss Granger and no one else. Granger’s diary makes no mention of Andrews being
informed or visiting the site, as did Granger. Instead it suggests that Granger decided not
to make the discovery known. After lunch, it states, he simply returned to the field with
Olsen to assess the matter.
In her diary written years later, Yvette Andrews claimed that Andrews was not present
when Olsen’s famous dinosaur eggs discovery was made. But she also has the year
wrong, placing it in 1922 instead 1923. Perhaps she was thinking of Granger’s find of the
eggshell fragment at Flaming Cliffs [?Shabarakah Usu] in 1922. It is likely that Andrews
was not made aware of its possibilities, since even Granger wasn’t sure what it was at the
time.
Andrews always let stand the assumption that he was present for and aware of Olsen’s
historic dinosaur egg discovery on July 10th and that he remained with the party in the
days that followed [278]. This was not the case. While it is true that Andrews was at the
Flaming Cliffs camp on July 10, 1923, when Olsen discovered the eggs, he was not in the
field but in camp preparing to depart on an extended hunting trip at a new camp at Artsa
Bogdo, which he did early the next morning [Conq/214]. After several weeks, Granger et
al., also planned to break camp at Flaming Cliffs and meet up with Andrews at Artsa
Bogdo.
That is, Andrews left the main camp at Shabarakah Usu (Shabarakah Usu is a geological
formation within which Flaming Cliffs is a fossil locality) on July 11th with the intent not
to return. This means either that Andrews saw no need to remain at Shabarakah Usu
because of Olsen’s Flaming Cliffs discovery, or that he did not know of it. It is possible
that he never saw Olsen’s discovery in situ before he departed Shabarakh Usu early on
the morning of the 11th.
Granger might have been pleased to have it that way. Though surely a highly gratifying,
historic though not unexpected experience, Olsen’s find nevertheless presented a delicate
and complicated challenge. It wasn’t just eggs he’d discovered: it was a whole nest of
them, along with a dinosaur skeleton lying over them. This was unique, a first of its kind.
Preparing it for plastering and extraction promised to be a delicate, complicated task. The
fewer hands and feet roaming about, the better.
CAE cinemaphotographer Shackelford was not around in 1923 to capture Olsen’s

discovery for motion picture film. Had he been, Andrews likely would have remained at
Shabarakah Usu for a few days. Instead, Granger made do by taking still photographs. He
even moved one of the eggs and a bit of debris around it to get a different look (see
Figures []). One of them became Plate LII in Conquest. And while Andrews and others
posed with finds of eggs in 1925, so far as is known, no photograph exists of anyone
posing with Olsen’s find in 1923.
Andrews and his party departed Shabarakah Usu at 8 a.m. on July 11th. They took the
touring car, No. 2 dog-wagon, two small tents, enough food for three weeks, saddles, and
hunting gear. They also took whatever else they could from camp in order to fully load
their vehicles and make as much room for fossils as possible in the vehicles left behind
with Granger when he moved out three weeks later.
Granger spent most of the 11th in camp, leaving Olsen alone to do the work on his eggs
discovery. Contrary to the filmed re-enactment two years later that portrayed surprise and
glee, the CAE’s most significant fossil discovery to date was in fact handled just like any
other find. The eggs were not stumbled upon by men tumbling wildly down the side of a
bluff, as was depicted in Shackelford’s 1925 film re-enactment. No egg was picked up in
haste and thrust at Granger for confirmation, also depicted by Shackelford [278a].
Granger would not have tolerated this sort of mayhem in fieldwork. But, in fact, he
appeared to tolerate the very things it was just said he wouldn’t have by participating in
Shackelford’s re-inactment. Why? Publicity: he bowed to pressure to promote the CAE.
Wishing to be or not, the expedition’s chief paleontologist simply had to be in the film. In
doing so, there appears to be a slight look of chagrin on his face.
On With Life at the Fieldwork Camp
With Andrews gone, Morris moved into the mess tent with Granger on the 11th. He sat at
one of the wooden dining tables to do his work shifting his materials over to an extra
empty table at meal times. Granger sketched the arrangement.
Back in the field, 'Buckshot' continued development of his numerous prospects. One was
a “fine” Protoceratops skull with a complete series of vertebrae down to the 10th or 11th
caudal. As he excavated a forelimb, a femur and the pelvis were also revealed. Kaisen
also worked on developing a “very good” Protoceratops skull with detached jaws. And
Albert Johnson found a dinosaur egg [apparently of a different dinosaur? - see Conq/211]
that day while working on various prospects of jaw and skeleton material. The finest
fossils found so far, Granger noted, were coming from these beds.
V. Johnson spent the 11th in bed with a touch of malaria. Granger gave him 15 grains of
quinine before going out into the field long enough to take 5 x 7 photos of 'Buckshot's’
specimen and of the exposures. Olsen was still being left alone to ready his momentous
find for removal. Two had spilled out of the nest due to erosion and were broken. The
remaining eggs and the dinosaur skeleton lying over them were encased in sandstone.
Olsen’s job was to excavate around the portion of the sandstone block containing the nest
and skeleton and then jacket the entire thing. The entire affair was to be shipped back to
New York City where DVP lab preparators would painstakingly removed the plaster
casing and then work out the sandstone material from the skeleton and nest of eggs.
Thirteen eggs were found inside the matrix and were determined to be of Protoceratops
andrewsi [Conq/209].
A number of Mongols had drifted into camp that day, the 11th. A group of five young
men said to be horse-raisers also arrived that day. They appeared to prosperous and,
having learned of the expedition’s presence, had come some distance just to visit.
The news also had spread that the expedition party carried medicine. Two Mongol men
came in for treatment, one for sore eyes and the other for a bad scalp and skin disease.
In the evening, three girls and four or five men including an old blind man from the yurt
near the lake came to visit. All were treated to the phonograph. V. Johnson later “amused
the girls with some of his slight-of-hand tricks.”
On the afternoon of the 12th, Granger spent all morning in camp cataloguing fossils. In
the afternoon, he opened up a small prospect near Kaisen’s location and found a partial
skull and skeleton of a small dinosaur. Olsen, in the meantime, had located the skull and
neck vertebrae of the dinosaur which lay over his nest of eggs. While the skull suggested
Struthiomimus to Granger, no conclusions could be drawn in the field since it was not
exposed enough to determine whether it possessed teeth [Conq/209].
This dinosaur was later named Oviraptor philoceratops by Osborn [Conq/208].

[All throughout Conquest at pp. 208-213, etc., RCA talks like he knows what he’s talking
about paleontologically. But fact is that he didn’t. He also said in the same book that he
was not a paleontologist nor had he the temperament for collecting. And to underscore
the point, he was off hunting, etc. most of the time. THEN, at p. 214, he discusses going
off to hunt at Artsa Bogdo and says: “The work at Shabarakh Usu was entirely
paleontological and geological, and was so efficiently handled by Walter Granger that I
could be of no use there.”]
The beating of a drum in the small yurt “village” in the basin a mile or so to the north of
camp indicated that a lama doctor was attempting a cure, according to the expedition’s
Mongols. There were now seven yurts in that area: four in one group and three singles.
The group of four had moved in that day and now got water from the same well as did the
expedition. Camp fire fuel was another issue. “Our cooks and the other Chinese are using
tamarisk stalks for fuel instead of argul,” Granger wrote. “Some of the tamarisk plants,
which grow as a little forest a mile and a half to the north, are higher than a camel and the
trunks are six inches in diameter. Our Mongols however still use the good old argul from
force of habit. Even in the fine larch timber country of Sain Noin Khan last year the local
Mongols used argul.”
The fieldwork continued to take its own pace. On July 13, Granger remained in camp
most of the morning pausing only to take snapshots of Olsen's nest of eggs and the
overlying skeleton. In the afternoon, he worked on a small skeleton opened up the
previous day and then on a fragmentary skull of Protoceratops discovered the day they
arrived. Olsen, with 'Buckshot’s’ assistance, continued work on the eggnest. A. Johnson
found a new Protoceratops skull and partial skeleton to excavate. Kaisen continued work
on his hind limb and tail of the same genus, Protoceratops.
Morris took section samples in and about the locality. After dinner, when it looked like
rain, he and Granger went back to the locality by auto with some Mongolian assistants to
bring in all the samples that were finished.
Taking time on the 13th to calculate their progress, as well as the needs of the weeks
ahead, Granger realized that
because of the heavy running between the Sair Usu trail and here
and the consequent large consumption of gasoline we are short on
this commodity. Andrews took enough to get him safely to Artsa
Bogdo and left us with enough in the trucks to take them there when
we move, a few gallons (4) in the dog-wagon, and three extra cases.
This will give us enough to make the daily trip to the well, allow
about 140 miles of exploring and take the dog-wagon to Artsa
Bogdo. Assuming, of course, that the caravan does not show up
before we leave here. At the rate we are now collecting it is hoped
that the camels will come because otherwise we shall have heavy
loads in spite of the reduced food and gasoline [279].
Two Mongols, he continued, came into “our clinic today––one for sore eyes––a common
disease hereabouts––and one for the treatment of sores on the head, possibly syphilis.” A
rain began to fall that night at about midnight and continued until noon the next day
(14th). The sun came out making the afternoon very warm. There was thunder to the
south at 5:00 p.m., but no more rain fell. Granger remained in camp that morning. Kaisen
prospected and found a skull or two out in the basin near the red buttes of Flaming Cliffs.
After tiffin, Granger, Olsen and A. Johnson took a break in a tamarisk grove. On the way
back “we stopped and paid our respects at the group of three yurts.” Olsen took
photographs of a diminutive sheepherder. A boy of about four showed no fear of them
and was highly pleased at the presents they gave him from their pockets––a piece of
string, a cigarette picture, a bit of tinfoil and two matches. Later, some Mongols came up
to the camp for entertainment by the phonograph and V. Johnson's sleight-of-hand
performances. The usual game of horseshoes was forsaken. “One of our four horseshoes
broken tonight and no way of mending it!”
A day or so later (16th), the little sheepherder wandered up to the camp in the forenoon
from his yurt, a mile out in the valley to the north. He was entertained in the Mongols’
tent and finally went to sleep there. Later his father came up looking for him and took
him home. He was about five––so his father said––and was about 2 1/2 feet high. It was a
beautiful sunset that evening, Granger noted. A Chinese caravan passed by just after dark,
traveling eastward. He could hear the bells, but could not see the camels.
Local Mongols continued to frequent the fossil collector’s camp daily. One night (17th),
there was a “tug-of-war” between seven Chinese and seven Mongols. The Mongols won.
Unfortunately, Mushka the dog had thought something was wrong when the action
started, and proceeded to bite one of the visiting Mongols in the hip. Merin dressed the
wound.
At the camp clinic on the 18th, one young woman from the yurt village was being treated
with antiseptic wash for a loose and sore molar, but was experiencing no relief. She came
up to the camp with her blind husband “and V. Johnson extracted the tooth with a pair of
pliers from the auto kit. She presented him with the usual blue silk sash as a thank
offering.”
The fossil hunting continued to intensify and expand. Over the next few days, many more
skulls and jaws were found. The men began exploring several miles out in all directions
typically being taken out in a vehicle and then prospecting various exposures in that area
by foot as well as propsecting along their way back in to camp. Sometimes they went out
in a vehicle, parked it and then radiated out from what Granger called the “car base.” On
at least one occasion (18th), all found themselves having walked back into camp, leaving
V. Johnson to walk back out to get the car.
A. Johnson prospected to the west and, after returning to camp, reported finding a
concretion at a lower stratum containing a wealth of material. Since it was not yet
dinnertime, he, Olsen and Granger went back out to take a look at it. The next day, Albert
Johnson again prospected to the west. Kaisen was dropped off two miles to the east to
prospect for the day in an area that also proved to be fossiliferous. He then walked back
in to camp for the evening, checking on some of his earlier prospects along the way.
Olsen and 'Buckshot', in the meantime, worked on two skeletons found within 500 yards
of camp. One of these developed a good skull. Fossils were coming in at such a rate that
Granger often stayed in camp just to catalogue them. Packing them safely had become
another issue. Luckily, Kaisen “found a place where we can cut a coarse grass for
packaging purposes.”
On the 19th, Granger concluded that their effort “exhausts the exposures in this
direction,” while noting that there remained unexamined exposures six to eight miles
away to the southwest.
Their success was such that material for wrapping and packing fossils was now
exhausted. As a result, Bato started cutting the very coarse grass Kaisen had found
growing on sandy hillsides. It was the only material readily available. “Better than the
Ula Usu "whisk brooms" anyhow... We have used so much burlap here that I have had to
commandeer everything I could find about camp––even to the wrapping of the various
spare parts about the cars and the padding under the boys' beds.”
On the 20th, Granger recorded that there had been no news of Merin. “Some of our food
will be getting low, but our greatest need is gasoline, and burlap for pasting purposes.”
Worsening the situation was that the increased Mongol presence had begun to roil their
water supply so much that the men had to drive to another source. “Vance Johnson is
now going down for water about half past six in the morning, driving himself. We get
cleaner water this way because it gets rather muddied up as soon as the Mongols come
along with their stock. It takes about one quart of gas to make the trip.”
Granger took stock of the situation. There were
20 gas cases, 5 or 6 camel boxes and 2 special boxes of fossils, and

there are many more good things in sight in the badlands. Our
available packing boxes consist of about 12 or 13 gas cases, no
camel boxes and no lumber for the special boxes.
By the time our present collection is packed we shall have a good

truck load, and I do not quite see how we are going to transport both
our equipment and collection to Artsa Bogdo, even with the help of
the caravan, unless the dog-wagon comes down to help take the
large sections which we cannot get into boxes. Evidently much of
our larger material will have to be sent back to Kalgan [281].
It was time to notify Andrews:

July 21, 1923––76˚ - 8 a.m.; 89˚ - 2 p.m. Bright:

Have decided that Roy should be notified of our success in the fossil
field––so great in fact that we cannot move from here without help
from the caravan or an extra car from the other camp [280].
Granger’s note to Andrews on the 21st informed him of the situation and requested that
he send an empty vehicle back to Flaming Cliffs immediately. It also raised concern that
Merin may have passed to the north and missed them. Bato, who had taken the note to
Andrews, was to return to Granger’s camp with a bag of white flour borrowed from
Andrew’s camp and then start out in search of the caravan early the next day. With two
horses borrowed from nearby Mongols, he was to return within four days, success or not.
Food was low, but the bag of white flour was not for cooking. Granger was informed that
“the cook in looking over our three remaining bags discovered that two of them were
buckwheat which I found to be worthless for pasting.” Therefore, the bag of white flour
was needed for pasting. As if to underscore the point, on the day Bato left, Olsen reported
finding a “fine large and complete Protoceratops skull” and Johnson and Kaisen reported
finding new skulls and skeletons. Granger sighed, “our pile of bones under the tarpaulin
at camp is assuming formidable proportions.” There appeared to be no end in sight.
On the 24th, at the extreme eastern end of the Shabarakh Usu basin, Morris found a new
Paleocene formation unusual in that it lay atop Cretaceous deposits of the Djadochta
formation [Conq/218]. Later named the Gashato formation, it yielded largely unknown
fauna of early Tertiary age “for the most part too specialized and peculiar to cast much
light either on phylogeny or on correlation [Conq/218].”
Spending most of his days in camp, Granger continued to clean matrix off some of the
specimens as well as catalog each. But he also checked on his men’s prospects each,
sometimes stopped to admire one of Morris’ sketches of the Flaming Cliffs, and then
would off to work for a spell on one of his prospects or someone else’s. On the 24th,
three Mongols came up to him while he was in the field “and shared with me some small
green milkweed pods which they were eating––not at all bad. They ate seeds, silk and all,
but Ioshih, to whom I showed them, later ate only the outer back.”
Granger watched a caravan of nineteen camels pass by in the afternoon, bound west. It
was not Merin. The 25th began with a sprinkle of rain which, after tiffin, turned into a
continuous drizzly rain until about 7 p.m. Then it cleared to reveal “a glorious sunset with
rainbows in the east.” There were no Mongol visitors at camp that day for the first time
since the expedition’s arrival.
Bato returned from Andrews’s Artsa Bogdo camp on the morning of the 26th with a sack
of flour and Andrews’s reply. Granger summarized it and his reaction:
[P]oor luck hunting––3 sheep and 1 Ibex and none large. Mannlicher
ammunition gone bad. Suggests our waiting for Merin but going on
the Artsa Bogdo by ourselves in case he doesn't arrive promptly.
This latter course is impossible with our great accumulation of
fossils [282].
Andrews had declined to send a vehicle to take the fossils as Granger had requested.
Granger, his men and their collection were therefore stuck in place with dwindling food
and gas supplies, the continued need to make a daily run for potable water, and no
apparent relief in sight. A lama who had recently come up the Kweihwating Trail did,
however, report to Bato having seen Merin's caravan "500 li away" and moving slowly
because of the poor condition of the camels. Bato thought the "500 li" was an
exaggeration and that Merin would arrive in three or four days.
Granger bought a sheep––”an extra fat one for $6.00. The cook says he is out of fat for
cooking and needs the mutton fat.” They were also getting short of sugar and he told
Chow to try to buy some from the Chinese traders who were camped about three miles
northwest out in the flat. They typically carried a brown sugar for sale to the Mongols,
Granger was told. He also paid $8.00 rent for the two horses used by Bato for his four-
day roundtrip to Artsa Bogdo. “The owner came up this evening in an effort to get an
extra dollar because the horses were returned this morning instead of last night but I
didn't allow it,” Granger added.
Morris was out with Kaisen all day that day, the 26th, sketching the badlands. Olsen and
'Buckshot' prospected down toward Kaisen's pocket bringing back one large skull in a
concretion and reporting a peculiar skull they found late in the afternoon but had no time
to excavate.
Except to note the daily morning and afternoon time and temperature, Granger entered
nothing in his diary for the next three days. Then, on July 30th, he wrote
I came in to camp for tiffin to find Roy, Mac and Serin there, they
having come down from Artsa Bogdo in about four hours in the
touring car (7:20 to 11:30). Roy became anxious about the caravan
and decided to leave the hunting until the camels arrived. He reports
fairly good success with the sheep and Ibex but no very large
specimens [283] [Conq/216].
Granger’s diary records that Andrews left Chih and the No. 2 cook behind at the Artsa
Bogdo camp with one tent, the dog-wagon, $10 to buy sheep and enough food to last
them ten days. Further, since his hunting venture had used up practically all of the gas
allotted to him, Andrews planned to borrow from Granger’s supply to drive out along the
main Kweihwating Trail the next day and seek word of Merin.
In Conquest, Andrews wrote
While Young and I were at Artsa Bogdo, our minds were not
entirely at rest, for the expected messenger announcing the arrival of
the caravan did not come. We became so worried at last that I
decided to leave the cook and camp-gear at Artsa Bogdo, put all the
gasoline in one car, and drive back to Shabarakh Usu. We reached
there without incident on July 30, but were disappointed to learn that
there was no word of the caravan. Matters were becoming serious,
because there was only very little gasoline left, and food and other
supplies were running short [Conq/216].”
Granger recorded that Andrews left not one, but two assistants, Chih and a cook, behind
at Artsa Bogdo with 10-days’ food supply. Why mention of Chih is omitted in the quote
above is not clear, but implicit is that Andrews intended to return. More significant,
however, is Andrews made it sound as if he rushed back on the 30th based on a worry
fueled by no word and then acted to save the day. But, of course, he had received word,
six days earlier: Granger had notified him of Merin’s failure to show up at Shabarakh
Usu by written note delivered to Andrews by Bato on or about the 24th.
Fully informed on the 24th, Andrews replied to Granger that he wouldn’t budge. Six
more days of hunting passed before he finally relented and returned to Shabarakh Usu. In
delaying, he consumed another six days’ worth of non-rationed food and fuel to continue
hunting before deciding to return to the scientists’ camp where rationing was already in
place. Then he had to cadge what was left of Granger’s fuel to look for Merin. This was
the second time in as many months that the expedition’s main party had run seriously low
on food and fuel due to a missing caravan while, for himself, Andrews chose diversion.
Prospecting and discovery continued apace, nevertheless, on the 30th. Olsen and
'Buckshot' went back to their [newly discovered - see 8/1 entry] “(?)Eocene beds to make
a small collection, including a perissodactyl and a tiny Archaeomeryx-like thing––several
of this latter [284][?is this the Gashato formation thing viz. Conq/218].” Granger had
worked on Morris' specimen in the morning while Kaisen and A. Johnson worked on
prospects to the east.
On July 31st, Andrews, Young, Morris and Ioshih went off in a dog-wagon to a lamasary
about 45 miles southeast near the main trail. A field meet was being held there, and
among the Mongols present were travelers from the east. But no one had news of Merin.
Back at Shabarakh Usu/Flaming Cliffs, Granger bought a sack of Mongol flour, a few
yards of blue cloth for jacketing and some sugar, all for $14 from a Chinese merchant
who had set up camp nearby. The sugar was of two kinds,
a semi-refined brown sugar and some dark brown raw stuff full of
cane pumice but sweet. Both kinds were dealt out into eight parts
and a drawing, from numbers in a hat, was held and the various piles
thus distributed among us. We have about eight or ten ounces each
now to use as we wish [285].
Granger then went with Kaisen and Johnson to look over some of Kaisen's specimens.
Olsen and 'Buckshot' continued working to the east of Kaisen. They all rode up in a dog-
wagon and “were dropped off at our places.”
On August 1, Serin was sent off to the north in search of Merin. The lama’s claim on July
26th of having seen Merin's caravan 500 li away seemed to have been unfounded. The
expedition’s Mongols now said that it was the Chinese merchant who had brought the
news, and that he had not actually seen the caravan but had met a lama who said he had
seen it. Serin obtained two horses in the morning and started out riding one and leading
the other. Andrews promised him a .22 caliber rifle if he found the caravan.
Olsen and 'Buckshot' rode off to the southeast by horseback that day to examine Morris’s
newly discovered Eocene (now Gashato) formation. Morris accompanied them on a
camel. A tiny quarry at the site of the discovery of the small jaws obtained on the 30th
yielded some additional and well-preserved jaws of that same small form [?
Archaeomeryx-like]. There were also one or two other small genera found there
[Conq/218].
Olsen and 'Buckshot' went back to the Eocene (now Gashato) again the next day on
horses, but with poor success. Nevertheless, the material collected in these red beds had
been on such a scale that the party was again finding themselves desperately short of
pasting material. The regular supply of burlap had long been exhausted, and all bits of
any other suitable wrapping material to be found about the camp was already taken.
“Spare parts on the cars have been unwrapped, trimming has been cut off the bottoms of
our tents and all available old clothing cut up.”
Taking Stock
Serin returned from the north as dusk fell on August 4th. It was just after dinner when
one of the party caught sight of him through fieldglasses while still over five miles away.
They watched though the glasses until he entered a tamarisk grove. He reported having
gone as far north as the Ongin Gol temple, but had found absolutely no trace of Merin.
All were keenly disappointed, Granger confiding “the situation appearing really serious.”
In an unusual move, all were convened to decide what to do. It was a long conference.
Morris acted as interpreter for the three language groups––Chinese, Mongol and
English––patiently translating everything said for each group. It was finally decided that
Serin and Bato each would take two horses and head out on different routes for the ?
Talyü Suma [Toylee-in-Sumu, Conq./224-225, the point from which Merin had started.
The men were to leave the next morning
and go on until they find Merin. We now have a half sack or more
of Mongol flour (whole wheat) and about 1/4 sack of white flour
and less than a half sack of buckwheat. Further use of flour for
pasting is to be prohibited and only such skulls, etc., as can be taken
out with the paste already mixed will be taken up. We have tea (fine
Chinese) in plenty and there are still two tins of Anna's "S. S.
Washington" coffee left and there is a small quantity of rice and
spaghetti, also a few tinned beets [286].
Ioshih also departed camp on horseback the next morning. He was headed for Andrews’s
Artsa Bogdo hunting camp with a note for Chih and the cook to relieve any anxiety over
why Andrews, Young and Serin were not yet back. He took two horses and hoped to
return by the third day. He was to “bring back any sugar, jam, etc., there may be there,
leaving flour rice and tea for the two men.” Breakfast was now reduced to “thin rice gruel
and pancakes.”
August 8, 1923, was bright in forenoon but clouded over by afternoon with heavy
showers off on the distant mountains. Morris and Granger set off on foot to the Eocene
(now Gashato) beds, six miles southeast of camp. [Conq/218, for some reason makes no
mention that Granger also worked the Gashato formation, along with Morris, Oslen and
'Buckshot' who are mentioned.] The others went to their various sites along the bluff.
Andrews went along with them “to look at their various prospects.”
Morris and Granger first detoured to the Chinese merchant’s caravan camp to ask for
some flour. They were received “very courteously in their large tent and gave us tea and
bread and presented us with a half sack of whole wheat flour, all they feel they could
spare.” The caravan was on its way from Quashing [?sp] to Uliassutai with Mongol tea
and high-grade cloth for gowns. Their camels were in such poor shape upon arrival that
they planned a stopover for a month, if necessary, to feed up before going on their way.
There was water at a good spring at their camp, flowing at a rate of two or three barrels a
minute, Granger noted. The water collected in a small pool which slowly settled into the
ground. A brood of ruddy sheldrake sat on this tiny pond. As Granger and Morris
approached it, a white-tailed eagle hovered overhead. The six young––nearly full
grown––took flight while the parents took after the eagle “and drove him off much after
the manner of a pair of kingbirds chasing away a crow or hawk.”
After leaving the Chinese caravan merchant’s camp, Granger and Morris went to
prospect the upper Eocene beds (now Gashato) for a few hours without success. In the
meantime, they picked about three quarts of the ripe garnet-colored berries. Two clumps
of bushes were found “draping their stems down over a cut-bank, which were just prime
and a beautiful sight covered with clusters of berries.” They returned to camp
with flour, berries, etc., arriving at camp about 7 o'clock to find that
Ioshih had returned to camp, from his trip to Artsa Bogdo, about 10
o'clock having found our caravan camped near the temple twenty
miles this side of the sand grouse camp at Artsa. He brought back a
box of cube sugar, a tin of coffee and some butter. V. Johnson,
immediately upon Ioshih's arrival, went up along the bluff in a car
and found Roy and the two, with Ioshih, set out for the caravan.
They have not returned at bedtime and we presume they have gone
on to the Artsa Bogdo camp to get the other car. Chow says that
Merin passed us to the south, on a trail which runs along the base of
Gurbun Saikhan [287].
That night, Granger, who had eaten his “entire allotment of the caravan sugar this
morning for breakfast,” dined “on cube sugar.”
August 9, 1923
Merin with about fifteen camels was found at the Artsa Bogdo
camp. The balance of the caravan near the small temple. Two
camels have died on the trip, two purchased for $75 and $55
respectively and two traded off for fresh animals with $35 each to
boot. Camels in fair condition as a whole [288].
Andrews and V. Johnson returned from their Artsa Bogdo camp to Granger’s Shabarakh
Usu/Flaming Cliffs camp with a fully loaded dog-wagon at about 12:30 p.m. on the 9th.
They brought 16 cases of gas, four camel boxes of food and supplies, and five bags of
camel wool for packing fossils. Merin had further reported that there was a severe
drought in the region between Ardyn Obo and the Ongin Gol. Also, the route he had
taken taken out of the Talyü Suma [?Toylee-in-Sumu-Conq224/225] was indeed to the
north and was suitable for the auto use except for one steep mountain slope. And, he and
the caravan had crossed the Ongin Gol another 20 miles beyond the temple where Serin
inquired of Merin and must have been in that region several days prior to Serin’s inquiry.
Rain and wet ground kept the party confined in camp that day (9th). After tiffin, some of
the natives headed out by car to collect grass for packing while Kaisen and A. Johnson
finished up their prospects. Olsen and 'Buckshot' began the work of packing fossils
[Conq/218]. Granger went out with a car to carry out several jacketed skulls of Kaisen's
and A. Johnson's that had been stored in the field under a canvas cover.
Dinner that night (9th) was a grand affair:
Tomato Soup
Tinned Sausage on Toast
Creamed Dried Beef
Rice––Tinned Beets––Beans [289].
*
A heavy Gobi haze had begun setting in each day, Granger recorded, as the expedition
made ready to move. All fossil work was to be completed by the 11th. Kaisen and A.
Johnson went off with Liu and the dog-wagon to finish up their prospects. Olsen and
'Buckshot' remained in camp to continue the work of packing. Still in the field, A.
Johnson had one skull to complete and Kaisen had a skull and a “beautiful” Protoceratops
skeleton with skull [Conq/220]. While there, Kaisen found yet another a fine skull and
jaws of a carnivorous dinosaur. Nevetheless, everything not excavated by the following
day would have to be left behind.
On the 11th, Granger set off on the Urga-Gurbun Saikhan trail at 6:00 a.m. in the No. 1
with Andrews, Morris and Young with Ioshih as interpreter to reconnoiter the area
between Flaming Cliffs and the Gurbun Saikhan mountain range. They paused at the
Chinese merchant’s camp to give him a small sack of rice and five tins of jam as a ‘thank
you’ for the sugar and flour he’d provided a few days earlier. Then they proceeded south,
mostly off trail, until they reached foothills about 20 miles south of camp. There they
turned west and headed into the ravines and washes at the base of the hills where they
found Tertiary beds but no fossils.
They stopped for tiffin at about noon and then turned north, coasting down a long gentle-
grass covered slope. After working their way through an area choked with tussocks, they
proceeded eastward along the Kweihwating-Uliassitai trail until they came to a great
valley with exposures of Red Beds along both sides. Andrews took time to shoot, with a
Savage rifle, one of two adult bustards standing within 55 yards of the car at the base of
the mountains. Granger had hoped to prospect at the Red Beds, but a dense haze was
forming in the basin that caused concern about whether they could find their way back.
They could no longer see any of the landmarks and began to navigate by compass. It was
if they were in fog on an open sea.
They left the trail and headed to the northeast across the valley to rejoin a northerly trail
some five miles west of camp. About half way back to camp, they ran into an immense
herd of large-headed antelope [Conq/219]. There were several thousand, the largest herd
Andrews said he had ever seen. The driving surface was not suitable at that point or they
could have gone directly in amongst them. As it was, some of the animals passed within
fifty yards of the car and hundreds were within two hundred yards.
Andrews and Young shot two old bucks and one young female. They took the head only
from one buck and planned to tell the first Mongol they encountered about its body left
on the plain. Further along, there was another herd of a thousand or more antelope. It was
a mix of bucks and does, as it had been in the first herd. The two antelope and bustard
were brought back to camp for food. Total mileage for the trip, Granger noted, was about
80 miles and they were in by 3 p.m.
From that one locality our collection numbered sixty cases of fossils,
weighing five tons. It included seventy skulls, fourteen skeletons and
twenty-five of the first dinosaur eggs ever seen by human eyes
[Conq/220].
Kaisen, A. Johnson, 'Buckshot' and two chauffeurs drove up along the red bluff to bring
in last of the fossils and cut more grass for packing. All were back in camp for tiffin.
Collecting at Flaming Cliffs was now ended. Olsen and 'Buckshot' were nearly finished
with the packing. Granger could the total number of fossil boxes coming from that site to
four regular camel-load boxes and 34 gas tin and grocery boxes. There were still 25
large-jacketed specimens yet to be packed, some of which were too large even for a
camel box and would require special crating. It was planned to leave Lieu behind to
guard about 20 small cases until a dog-wagon could return from Artsa Bogda to retrieve
them. Unboxed material would be taken along in a dog-wagon and in the back of the No.
1 car for eventual packing at Artsa Bogdo.
Nearby Mongols, upon learning that the expedition was about to depart, came into camp
to collect tins and other discarded items. But relations had cooled:
We've recently been rather put out by the demands of our Mongol
neighbors for money for all favors done us and Andrews is giving
out tins now only to such as bring milk or otherwise show a
disposition to be ungreedy. The Rich Man wants one of our auto rain
coats in exchange for horse hire and a dicker will be made with him
tomorrow [290].
The party was up at 5:00 and off at 7:30 a.m. on the 12th [Conq/219]. While they were
loading, Andrews took the No. 1 over to the Rich Man's yurts and dropped off the
raincoat.
Merin's caravan was found camped one mile east of the Sand Grouse Spring at 12:30
p.m. and the party stopped for tiffin. They got back in their cars at about 1:30 p.m. and
headed for the Oshih Basin. To reach the pass accessing the Oshih Basin, they took
Granger’s old road from the Sand Grouse Spring. Merin went with them so that he would
know just where to bring the caravan the next day. Arriving at the spring where Granger
had camped in August of 1922, they found the water low and roiled, and tasting as if
there were a dead animal in it. It was “simply impossible to drink.” The well had recently
caved in after a heavy rain and apparently quantities of filth had washed in from the
slopes above it.
Fortunately, a Mongol living a half mile east told them of a good well to the northwest.
Andrews decided to camp at the edge of badlands some distance away from it. That well
was at the western edge of the basin where they had seen yurts and herds in 1922. After
camp was set, Andrews, after picking up the Mongol at his yurt on the way down as a
guide, took a dog-wagon across the basin to the well. The distance from camp was about
11 or 12 miles of ‘farily good’ driving. The water was plentiful and excellent. Because of
the distance from the camp to the well, the party went on short rations for washing. They
hoped to make two trips for water that would last three days. There were to be no baths.
Andrews had hoped to go back to Artsa Bogdo in a Fulton to pick up Chih and the
equipment left there, but it was too late in the day to attempt it. “So Merin spends the
night with us and will return to his caravan tomorrow when Young goes in after Liu and
the boxes and Roy goes up to the Artsa Bogdo camp to bring back the men and outfit
now up there.” There were 44 cases of gas with the caravan. A hasty examination showed
that evaporation loss had not been as excessive as they feared.
Andrews went back to the camp at Artsa Bogdo in the Fulton the next day while Young
took a dog-wagon to the Shabarakh Usu/Flaming Cliffs to fetch Liu and the balance of
fossils to be boxed. Chih and the No. 2 cook seemed glad to be back among their fellow
men when they arrived, Granger noted. Young followed them in before dark with Liu and
Bato.
Bato, who, like Serin, had been sent out several days before to find Merin, had returned
to the Shabarakh Usu camp after the main party had left. He reported having gone a 100
miles or so down the Kweihwating Trail and then across to a temple where he met Serin.
Serin planned to get a camel at that point and go on to the Ardyn Obo headquarters, if
possible. Neither had heard no news of Merin passing through that region. And, so, Serin
still did not know he’d been found.
On the 13th, all hands prospected near the new camp with little success. Merin arrived by
noon the next day with his 39 camels, all the gas, surplus food and equipment. He pitched
camp near the main party. Three of his camels were in very poor condition and would not
be able to make the return journey. He would try to trade them off for one good camel.
Collecting resumed as some of the fossil hunters fanned out. Olsen and 'Buckshot'
remained in camp packing up fossils left over from the Shabarakh Usu camp at Flaming
Cliffs. Granger set off with A. Johnson to an outcrop of fossil-bearing beds near the trail
about five miles east of camp. They found two prospects of Camptosaurus which were
”not extra good but worth taking.” They also visited the sauropod vertebrae site Granger
found the previous fall and discovered some ribs. They returned to develop it further the
following day, deciding to take out the ribs. Kaisen went to assist them a day later, and
the work was finally done by the fourth day. Nothing more was found [Conq/222].
Granger also spent time in camp labeling and recording fossils. The total number of fossil
boxes to date was 135. One large skull remained unboxed for lack of boxing material. It
was to be wrapped in felt for transport in the dog-wagon. In the afternoon, Andrews,
Young and V. Johnson took two truck loads of fossils and some of the gas to Merin's
camp, now on the trail near the Sand Grouse Spring. Granger, A. Johnson and Kaisen
headed east in the No. 1 to hunt sheep they’d spotted from the sauropod site. When they
arrived, however, the sheep were gone. Evidently, figured Granger, they either had
moved across the basin to the north, or had slipped along the bluff around to the east and
out of sight.
August 21, 1923
The men broke camp about 8:00 a.m. on August 21 and drove to Merin's location to
unload “such equipment, etc.[,] as we shall not need in this hunting camp.” There was to
be a recreation break for all except Morris who took the No. 3 car loaded with camping
equipment, food, and other supplies and headed east to the small lamasary 17 miles away.
There he planned to establish headquarters and prospect northward before re-joining the
main party at Merin's camp on the evening of the 24th.
The rest headed for ‘the old hunting camp’ on the slopes of Artsa Bogdo, reaching it in
time for tiffin [Conq/223-224]. The little Mongolian lama who had hunted and been
employed by Andrews in 1922, was on hand with an outfit of horses and two Mongolian
assistants when the party arrived. After tiffin, the hunters broke into groups. Andrews,
Kaisen and the little lama drove out to the west returning long after dark with a “fair Ibex
head (RCA) and a female sheep (PCK).” Olsen and A. Johnson hunted on foot up the
draw behind camp. V. Johnson went on foot to a high mountain a few miles southwest.
There he shot a baby ibex. Granger with Young and one of the extra hunters, an old lama,
rode horseback along the front of the range to the west for several miles. After watching
two or three groups of ibex, they finally picked out one and shot at it. Wounded, it got
away.
Granger and Young went with the little lama and another lama as horse tender for a high
peak 4 or 5 miles west of camp. They took beds and food enough for two days and
reached “the old camp on top about sunset.” Granger slept in a small ave Andrews had
used several before. Mack slept on a bed of Artshe stalks.
The hunting continued for several days. In a deep valley a mile from that camp [away],
Granger and Young spotted one herd of sheep and two herds of ibex. Granger hit a sheep
in the chest with his first shot. As it rounded a hill 500 yards away, Young shot and blew
a large hole in its abdomen. It ran off and had to be tracked for a mile down the valley
“by the blood and long strings of intestines” before Young finally finished it off with two
more shots. It had a “fine old head, 19 1/2 in., but tips of horns were broken in fighting.”
Young took it [severed it and carted it off] anyway.
After getting the sheep’s head to the top of the mountain where they had left their horses,
they rode back to the old hunting camp to pick up their pack horses and start back for the
main hunting camp. “Arrived home in time for late tea.”
They broke camp the next day in a drizzle after luncheon and made a soggy passage
down to Merin's camp {Conq/224]. Morris was already there, having arrived earlier in
the day from the temple. Morris reported a successful geological reconnaissance around
the temple. And he had brought Serin with him.
Serin had made it back to Shabarakh Usu with his two horses by way of the Kweihwating
Trail. After returning the horses, the "rich man" who owned them brought Serin
as far as the finger-clutch camp and there had put Serin afoot for
some reason and he had to walk ahead to the temple carrying his
saddle on his shoulders. At the temple a lama told Fred [Morris]
about Serin and he picked him up this morning [291].
Serin reported that after leaving Bato, he continued east on the Kweihwating Trail, and
later the Kalgan Trail, finally reaching a lamasary about a two-day march from Gatun
Bolgai. Starting out from the temple on a camel on the last leg of his journey, he was then
set upon by two young lamas who clubbed him off his camel and robbed him of thirteen
dollars and Granger’s loaned field glasses. Serin returned to the lamasary and, after a day
or two of rest, started back to rejoin the main party.
Another season in Mongolia was coming to a close. The men were setting out for Iren
Dabasu. There they would rendezvous with Henry Osborn who was enroute from the
States. Andrews would go to Peking to pick him up.
With the help of Mongol guides, they planned to take the most direct route back by
following a northeast diagonal that kept them off most of established trails. That would
save them hundreds of miles compared to 1922 when they drove north from Flaming
Cliffs to Tugurik and then east-south-east to Sair Usu and then on to where the road north
to Ihren Dabasu intersected at Urtyn Obo.
They broke camp early on August 25, 1923, in “dismal weather with heavy clouds over
mountains––all day.” Raining as they left, their tents and other equipment became
soaked, adding “probably 1,000 lbs. of water in the loads [Conq/224].”
Eighty-seven miles after departing Merin's camp, they passed through an alkali wash
when the clutch collar loosened on the No. 5 truck. Since it was four in the afternoon and
repairs would take a while, they decided to camp in place. They called site “Clutch Collar
Camp [Conq/224].” Then, five miles into next morning’s start, the pinion gear broke on
one of the dog-wagons. It took until 2 p.m. to repair it and get underway again
[Conq/224].
With a native Mongol to guide them, the party traveled cross country for several days
before reaching a post [telegraph] station in the lowlands. The going had been rough,
even nasty recorded Granger. It also seemed as if they’d seen more trees in that region
during the last day than they had anywhere else in the Gobi. “All washes leading down
from the hills to the south of the trail are well-wooded, reminding one of the large stream
valleys of Wyoming,” Granger wrote on the 27th. The clerks at the station advised them
to return to the main road six or eight miles to the south for better driving [Conq/224].
After stopping at a well to fill the radiators and pick up another Mongol guide at a yurt
nearby, the group proceeded east along a main trail, then north cross country with yet
another guide in search of a road said to go directly to the Gatun Bologai oasis. The road
was much farther away than the guide had indicated. After heavy going, they reached it at
a point where it headed up along a sand wash and entered rocky hills. They followed this
for about 20 miles until darkness set in, forcing them into camp just short of Gatun
Bologai [Conq/224]. While the cook and mess tents were put up before nightfall, the cars
had to be parked in a circle and all search lights turned on so that the men could finish
setting up the remaining [rest of the, their personal] tents [Conq/224].
A large Chinese horse drive they had overtaken late that afternoon before going in to
camp likely meant that the spring at the Gatun Bologai oasis would be overrun with
livestock by the time they got there. After an early departure the next day, avoiding a
sand wash by scouting on foot and finding a way for the cars through the hills, they
arrived at Gatun Bologai not two miles away on the Sair Usu trail. Surrounded by camels,
horses and sheep, the oasis was “very muddy and unattractive––in great contrast to the
place when visited by Roy and Mac late in June [Conq/225].”
From Gatun Bologai, they traveled cross country to avoid traveling a southerly loop in
the Sair Usu trail. The trail was rejoined at a well, just south of the lake, where they had
obtained water the previous year. They reached the Toylee-in-Sumu lamasary near the
Ardyn Obo at 1:30 p.m. and stayed until 3 p.m. took a few hours to sort out provisions
and readjust loads to make room for the extra food and fifteen cases of gas that had been
stored there [Conq/225].
While at the lamasary, they learned that Merin's caravan was said to be a half-day away
and that the camels were in good condition. The three sick camels left behind earlier that
summer, however, had died.
The party moved on, making a day's run of 68 miles before going into camp that night at
a well in the bottom of the wash near what Granger termed the "Elaborate Obo." This obo
was “a large affair of loose stones decorated on top by a bunch of wooden knives, spears
& other cutlery.” Granger sketched it into his diary.
August 30, 1923

Dear Father:-
We're now on our eastward trek; left the Altai Mountains five days
ago and have come thus far safely. I remain here [Ula Usu] for a
week or ten days and finish up some work and then continue on to
Iren Dabasu where I will be in touch with the telegraph again.
Andrews goes on tomorrow with one car and is due in Peking on
Sept. 4th. He hopes to meet Prof. Osborn there and bring him up on
the plateau to see us all in our native haunts before we get in to
Kalgan. This will be a fine experience for the Prof. if he can make it
[Conq/225][292].
The men had reached Ula Usu at noon that day. By Granger’s reckoning, they were now
200 miles south-southwest of Iren Dabasu. The countryside was a bright green with
onions and other vegetation, in great contrast to its appearance earlier in June. Evidently,
though Granger, it had rained considerably over the past month. Camp was pitched a little
farther up the ridge than where it was earlier in June, closer to the rhinoceros skeleton A.
Johnson had found earlier that season. They planned to jacket it and take it out first thing.
Once settled in, Andrews drove over to the lamasary in a dog-wagon to bring back the
gasoline stored there. All was well with the fossil boxes also in storage, he reported.
Granger took a moment to write his father from Ula Usu that
everything has gone smoothly this summer,––no sickness, no

accidents, and unusual success with the fossils. You will have seen
cabled reports of our work long before this reaches you... We've had
no news from the outside world for three months now. Hope all is
well with you and the rest of the family. I have no definite plans for
homecoming, but it looks now as if I would be in Peking until early
December getting our collection packed and shipped. Caravan will
not reach Kalgan until into November I'm afraid. Andrews is to sail
October 13th and I have to close up the work myself. I shall surely
be back by January or early February [293].
He expected to reach Kalgan by September 15th, five days earlier than in 1922. The
weather was still mild, he added. The morning temperature was around 50˚ F and by
noon it was as high as 80˚. The first frost the previous year had been September 11th, and
they could look for bad weather to begin any time after that.
Andrews, Young and Vance Johnson set off for Iren Dabasu early the following morning
with Lieu and Serin in the No. 5 truck, the No. 2 dog-wagon and the No. 1 car. They
stopped at the lamasary 14 miles to the east of the Ula Usu camp to load the fossils left
there earlier and take them on to Iren Dabasu. All fossils reposited at Iren Dabasu would
be taken back to Kalgan and ultimately to Peking when the main party left Mongolia.
Vance Johnson, Lieu and Serin were to return to the Ula Usu camp while Andrews and
Young went straight on into Peking in time to greet Osborn [Conq/225]. It was planned,
“if possible, to bring the professor up on the plateau to meet the rest of us as we are on
our way in from Iren Dabasu early in September.”
In the meantime, Olsen worked with Ioshih to reopen an earlier prospect of lower jaws of
titanotheres found in June. In the process, they found a skull with jaws. Kaisen went back
to work on his old quarry of miscellaneous titanothere fossils while A. Johnson, Olsen[?],
'Buckshot' and Granger went to work on the rhinoceros skeleton. It seemed to be nearly
complete with only one fore limb and half the tail missing. Everything had remained
nearly in position, except the ribs on the top side. Granger figured the specimen would
take several days to encase and extract.
V. Johnson, Lieu and Serin returned from Iren Dabasu on the 3rd with a letter from
Andrews announcing that while all was quiet in China and Urga, Tokyo was nearly
destroyed by a typhoon, U.S. president Harding was dead, and the Chinese president had
been ousted. That night, a Mongol dog seriously damaged the plastering on the scapula
and anterior vertebrae of the rhinoceros skeleton. Granger thought it was “probably the
same dog which destroyed the lower jaw for me in June. This dog ate first a tin of paste
and then attacked the wet bandages.” The dog then visited Olsen's skull and “as we had
seen him starting down that way at tiffin time Vance Johnson took a rifle along when
Olsen returned to work. The dog sneaked away as they approached and Johnson killed it.
Ate some paste but did no damage to skull.”
Work continued until the 7th when all remained in camp to pack and get ready for the
move to Iren Dabasu. Granger was pleased to see that they had accumulated another
sixteen boxes from the Ulu Usu site. Everything was packed now except the large
ceratopsian skull all done up in felt pads and brought along from Flaming Cliffs. Granger
took 5x7 group photographs of the CAE’s 1923 ”foreigners and natives.”
The party got off on the 8th. Four of the native assistants rode on atop the pile of
equipment, boxes and gear loaded aboard the No. 4 truck, as did another five on the No.
5. Granger noted proudly that he “drove No. 2 Dodge all day without accident. Road
mostly fine.” And while the No. 4 truck’s [dog-wagon’s] differential gear was now
damaged, V. Johnson elected to drive it anyway since he preferred to run on the broken
gear as long as it held out and keep the remaining spare set in reserve. At 2 p.m., camp
was set up on the Irdin Manha bench near an obo. It had been good going most of the
way except for a stretch of soft sand where the men were forced to unload some of the
No. 4 truck [dog-wagon] and push it through by hand. Tarpaulins were laid down to
provide traction and prevent further sinking. The operation took about an hour.
After making camp, Granger took the No. 2 dog-wagon to the Ehrlien telegraph station to
see about news from Andrews. V. Johnson and Lieu went along in the No. 5 Fulton with
a load of fossils. Granger found telegrams waiting from Anna and Mrs. Morris, but none
from Andrews. But then, just as he was about to send a wire, a message came in from
Andrews confirming Osborn’s arrival and requesting Granger to maintain camp at Irdin
Manha.
Granger replied announcing their own safe arrival and asking for a definite confirmation
of the plans for meeting Osborn at Irdin Manha. When there was no response, he decided
to wait overnight at the auto station with V. Johnson and Lieu, noting with some disgust
that the road between Irdin Manha and Iren Dabasu was “vile from cart traffic. 30 camels
drawing carts passed north at sunset. Said to be Larson's. Traffic heavy on trail now.”
A telegram came in from Andrews the next morning at about 10:00 a.m. confirming that
he and Osborn would arrive at the Irdin Manha camp on the 14th. Granger replied that V.
Johnson and Lieu were about to start for Miao Tan with a load of fossils. It seemed
prudent, thought Granger, to start getting the collection back to Peking as soon as
possible. After the Fulton set off, Granger “bought two doz. eggs ($1.00) and twenty
catties brown flour ($4.00) from the auto station to help out our larder. We get water from
the well two miles or more east, as before.”
It was now September 11th. Rainy weather began interfering with prospecting. But there
was some excitement. Just after tiffin, a wolf came to within 200 yards of camp and
Mushka took after him. The wolf turned and chased Mushka back and then lay down. A.
Johnson and Granger “got after him in the dog-wagon and soon ran him down and
Johnson shot him. Have saved skin as a specimen––hair very short & thin.”
No motor cars passed by that day, rather unusual in these times, Granger noted. They
drained the auto radiators that night for the first time since Spring concerned that the
water would freeze.
On the 12th it rained intermittently all day and no fieldwork was conducted. Some of the
showers were sufficient to leave pools in the road and making the going soft when Kaisen
and Granger drove over to Erhlien in the No. 3 at about 11 a.m. They found no messages
from Andrews “although we waited until 4:30 p.m.” In the meantime, Granger sent a
wire to Anna who recorded in her diary that day that “Mr. Andrews & Prof. Osborn
[have] returned to Mongolia [to join] the expedition camp at Erhlien.” Granger also
“bought another gas tin of flour and 10 catties of rice at the station. Took several gallons
of water up to the telegraph agent who finds Erhlien water disagreeable.”
Granger and his party were able to prospect on the 13th finding labyrinthodonts and
titanothere. V. Johnson and Lieu returned from Miao Tan that day bringing “...melons
and grapes. Uneventful journey but reports twenty miles of bad road between here and
Pankiang and some mud in the Chinese cultivation.” Still no news from Andrews.
The 14th was another perfect day and, while there was some prospecting nearby, the
party spent most of the day relaxing in camp while V. Johnson overhauled the cars. At
about 10:30 a.m.,
a motor came up to camp from the south. Had in it a Mr. Marshall

and the Chinese inspector of the telegraph line from Kalgan to the
Inner Mongolia line. Mr. Marshall bound for Urga where he buys
sheep for an English concern. Sheep are trailed eastward from Urga
to Harbin where they are butchered and sent in refrigerator ships to
England. Three cars following behind his had $100,000 in silver
which he was taking up to Urga for his business. He reported that
Andrews & Osborn & Young were in Kalgan when he left and were
due to leave for Miao Tan after tiffin on the 13th and to spend
tonight in Pankiang [294].
Larson arrived at the camp at about 4 p.m. “having come on from the [Hallong Ossu]
Mission today.”
He had in his car Miss Nielsen, a nurse, formerly of Urga. Also three
or four Mongols. His second car followed him. He is taking up
$40,000 in silver. Said Andrews would be here for tiffin tomorrow.
Reported having seen Anna in Peking and her not being well.
Further reports of the earthquake in Japan. Yokohama said to be
totally destroyed and 80% of the houses in Tokyo gone [295]
[Conq/225].
Vance Johnson shot a fine dry doe that day while he was fetching water. “[Th]is gives
some game for the professor's tiffin tomorrow,” Granger wrote in his last diary entry for
the 1923 Mongolia expedition.
Osborn’s visit to the Irdin Manha camp 250 miles out from Kalgan lasted two days and
was duly documented with photographs of him with expedition members and fossils still
in situ. On the 17th, the entire group returned to Peking. Thus ended the second
Mongolian expedition of the CAE. Including Zhoukoudian, it was Granger’s fifth
expedition since his arrival in China in June of 1921.
[At Conq/226-227, RCA brags about Professor O.’s interest in Coryphodont tooth he’d
found.]
*
Notes on 1923 CAE expedition to Inner and Outer Mongolia
[]
[Chapter]
[To Walter’s father:]

September 19, 1923
American Museum of Natural History
77th Street and Central Park West
New York
My dear Mr. Granger:-
We have had no word as yet from our field party since the first of
June. My last letter from Walter was written on Decoration Day. As
soon as we have any cable message I will send you word; we expect
to hear within a short time, probably by the end of this month, but it
is always possible that they may be delayed in order to finish up
certain work before they can come back to civilization. I do not
think there is much risk of trouble in Mongolia unless from some
accident to their equipment. They are a pretty strong party, crack
shots, and have nothing that bandits would value much, so that any
organized attack on them is unlikely, and the natives in that region
are few in numbers, widely scattered, and so far as I understand
quite friendly everywhere. Walter's south China expedition I think
involved more risk, and I am glad he is out of that region.
So far as I know he plans to come back by way of India and Europe,

and so we do not expect to see him until Christmas time or
thereabouts. He will certainly come home with feathers in his cap,
and it is the greatest pleasure to all of us here that the credit of the
greatest paleontological discoveries of recent years should come to
him. His laurels are certainly well earned.
Sincerely yours,
W. D. Matthew [296].
On the 26th, Matthew wrote again to Charles and enclosed a copy of a cable from Osborn
to Asia Magazine indicating that Walter had “arrived safe and well at Peking, and that the
expedition this summer has been a splendid success.” On the 28th, the Andrews held a
function for Osborn in Peking. Thirty people were invited including all CAE members
(except Chinese and Mongolian assistants), prominent western residents in Peking,

members of the Chinese scientific community and the American Minister.
The dining room was designed to represent a huge Mongol tent within which five tables
were arranged. Various papier mâché dioramas depicting scenes from Mongolia were the
center pieces of each table. Place cards done in color showed camels, tents, motor cars,
Mongols, and other such subjects. Anna’s
had Baluchitherium painted on it, two animals browsing on trees.

Dinner was good. Flower arrangements in corridor and drawing
room delightful. The date was the 45th anniversary of Prof. Osborn's
wedding. Andrews proposed a toast and the Prof. responded. After
dinner both Andrews and the Professor made a speech concerning
the experiences in Mongolia. Party broke up at twelve [297].
Professor Osborn, his wife and Andrews were to take the same boat for America on the
16th of October. Morris and his wife would follow on the 30th. Anna and Granger were
to leave by mid-November. They thought they might get back in time for Christmas
unless they went by way of Europe, and that would depend largely on Anna's health. She
had had a bad summer with dysentery “and was not any too strong yet, although she
seems to be picking up with the coming of cool weather and already weighs more than
she did in the States (124 pounds).”
All the expedition vehicles were sold in Kalgan, purportedly for more than was originally
paid for them. Andrews planned to spend the winter lecturing in America to raise money
for future expeditions. The dinosaur eggs found in 1923 were the key to that quest
[Conq/230], as had been the Baluchitherium in 1922.
Further, wrote Granger, Andrews expected to return to Peking in late spring or early
summer of 1924,
but not in time to make a trip to Mongolia. The next exploration

there will have to hold over until 1925. If I come out again, as now
seems likely, it would be in the spring of '25, in time to join the
Mongolian expedition. I came out here for a year and a half, you
remember, but we have opened up such an extensive and important

fossil field that I've simply had to stay on for another year and it will
probably be to the advantage of all concerned if I continue on in this
field [298].
As for the mail delivery, Granger reported that a big batch had followed them around
Mongolia the past year (1922) but never caught up. It was finally returned to Urga where
Larson held it until the summer of 1923 “when he managed to smuggle it down to Kalgan
and from there it was sent up to our camp by Osborn. So now I think the slate is clear.”
Granger then addressed an incident still lingering from the 1923 expedition. The
Bolsheviks in Urga apparently remained upset that the CAE had not waited for their
representative to accompany them. “[B]ut we had an itinerary to follow and it did not
include waiting indefinitely at Iren Dabasu,” wrote Granger. A young Mongol did arrive
after they had started west and could have easily have overtaken them had he tried,
Granger wrote. They had heard that he was a very decent fellow, but it would have been
difficult to have him with the party. They could not have him, as a Buriat, in a tent with
their own Mongols. He also would have further crowded their cars, and Granger doubted
whether he “would have cared for our mess, with our foreign food.”
Under separate cover, Granger sent Charles copies of Peking’s English papers with full
accounts of the summer's trip and the recent Geological Society meeting. “In giving the
report of the trip to the newspaper men,” Granger advised his father, Andrews
has adopted the motto of the Californians ‘Always tell the truth but
tell it big enough.’ With regard to the results of our work, however,
there is no exaggeration; we have made a splendid collection [299].
Granger busily repacked the fossil collection already in Peking for shipment back to New
York [Conq/229]. When finished, he hoped to take a three-day trip with Anna to the
Western Tombs, he advised his father. By the end of that trip, the caravan would
probably arrive with the rest of the fossils and another repacking job would be on hand
[Conq/229]. After that he would look up the steamship sailings for America. He hoped to
get off a letter each week while he was in Peking. He would have written earlier,
but the boat which was to have sailed today has been delayed and I
delayed the letter in consequence. This probably goes on the boat
which carries the fossil men; it should reach you before they reach
New York because the mail trains are faster than the passenger
trains [300].
By October 22nd, all western members of the CAE party except for Granger were
somewhere on the Pacific Ocean heading home. Morris and Kaisen were about to land in
Vancouver. Pope was nearing Honolulu. Olsen and Johnson on one boat and Osborn and
Andrews on another, were half way across the northern route.
The first lot of fossils was now ready for shipment. Granger awaited the arrival of the
rest. He and Anna, in the meantime, had decided they would return by way of the Pacific,
he wrote his father, and would be home sometime in January. To which he added:
It looks now as if I should be coming back to China; have had talks

with Prof. O. on the subject and he seems to approve. Probably I
can't do any work that will bring me more credit [301][Conq/228].
[ ].
November 18, 1923

Grand Hotel des Wagons-Lits, Ltd.
Peking, China
Dear Father:-
The caravan arrived in Kalgan the first week in November and I
went up and disbanded it and brought the collections back to Peking
where we are now packing them [Conq/229]. The camels––about
fifty-one––will be wintered on the plateau and probably be kept on
until the spring of 1925 when the Mongolian work will be resumed.
I have engaged passage on the "President Cleveland"; leaving
Shanghai on Dec. 12th, and going down to HongKong then on to
Manila,––back to HongKong and up to Shanghai and then starting
across. It will be about Feby. 1st, before I get to Rutland, but so long
as I couldn't be there by Christmas it does not so much matter. I
hope you have some celery and apples left by that time. All of the
balance of the party should be in America by now. Kaisen was
probably the first one back, Olsen will probably write you after he
reaches the Museum; he was to stop a few days in California and
also in Utah to see his father. Weather cooling off here now––
freezing most every night––but there has been no snow yet. I'm still
boxing up our summer's collection but will be through this week;
have a total of 135 cases, including my last winter's fossils from
Szechuan. Glad I do not have to go back to Wanhsien this winter;
plenty of trouble down there apparently. I have a small Thibetan rug
for you,––and a Chinese hat which you can wear indoors if you like
[302].
By November 22, Granger’s fossil-packing was finished and he only awaited permission
from the Chinese government to ship them. He thought that would come by early
December and all boxes would begin their way across the Pacific.
It also had been planned that he would

take two of our Chinese boys to America with me for a few month's
training in our laboratory {Conq/229]. The Dept. of Labor has sort
of half promised a special dispensation in the case and unless they
change their minds when we reach San Francisco there should be no
difficulty in the matter. It[']s going to be some trip for the boys.
They both speak English and I will outfit them with some foreign
clothes and get them to practice up with the knife and fork [303].
The two Chinese assistants were 'Buckshot' (Kan Chuen-pao) and Liu (Liu Hsi-ku).
Granger planned to send a cable to the Museum when he was finally leaving Shanghai
and ask Andrews or Matthew to also notify his father once they received it. He and Anna
would have a good many changes in temperature to go through, he added, if they took
“the southern trip. Clothing will vary between furs and palm beach suits before we reach
California.”
On November 27th, Granger confirmed to Andrews that he and Anna planned to leave
Shanghai on December 27th and arrive in San Francisco on January 15th. The two
Chinese were to go along with them unless he got an unfavorable report from their
medical examination due the next day. Apparently the U.S. Department of Labor was
agreeable to “the entry of the boys under a bond.” But Granger wanted Professor Osborn
personally to clarify with the Department
that they are to enter under my escort and not his, as they had
understood; also the Museum should arrange for some bonding
concern in San Francisco to have a representative meet us and attend
to the bonds for the boys. These bonds are, so the Consulate informs
me, usually not in excess of $500 gold for each person [304].
At San Francisco, Granger put the “boys” on a second-class sleeper on the Union Pacific
line with tickets through to New York. He’d written to an old collecting associate from
the American west days, Paul Miller, at the Field Museum in Chicago asking if he would
see that Liu and 'Buckshot' got [were] transferred properly in Chicago and started east. “I
will, of course, wire the Museum about the arrival of the boys in New York, so that
someone can meet them.”
Granger then informed Andrews that “ever since you left, the matter of taking the boys
back has seemed rather inadvisable to me but the thing had progressed so far that I did
not want to take the initiative in stopping it.” His belief, underscored by Grabau and
others of the ‘Peking Circle,’ was that the feelings and needs of the Chinese scientific
community would be better served by training Chinese lab assistants in China.
Laboratory work on some CAE fossils could be done in Peking, instead of having them
all shipped overseas. It would be savvy politically not to perpetuate the inference that
China was inadequate for such training, as Andrews had suggested in 1920.
Although it was too late to stop 'Buckshot' and Liu from heading to New York, ultimately
Granger’s position prevailed. In 1925, a paleontology laboratory was established at CAE
headquarters in Peking and training of Chinese preparators begun. It was a hit. In 1926,
one Chinese student wrote
Most recently, Dr. Wong got me a small job. He asked me to learn

practical experiences in the preparation of Fossil Bones under the guide
of George Olsen, Assistant to Dr. Granger. So that every afternoon, I
spare my time to work in the Paleontological Laboratory of the 3rd
Asiatic Expedition. Though it is not difficult task, but requires patience
and takes long time [305]!
“The Osborn furniture and your rugs go with the first boxes” Granger continued in his
November 27 letter to Andrews. The second consignment of 49 boxes would, if the
huchao arrived in time, be sent on the Radnor (former USS Radnor?) sailing December
12th or the Ethan Allen departing on December 29th. Both were direct to New York.
The caravan had arrived in Kalgan in the first week in November and all was well. Merin
had made some trades of poor camels for good ones and came back with 55. Of these he
thought 51 would last the winter on forage, but four would have to be sold. Merin had
been paid up to May 1st and his meat allowance was also paid up. He would recoup
expenses for additional food, extra felts for his yurt and some incidentals, from the
proceeds from the sale of those four camels.
Other expeditionary news from Peking was that the Swedish explorer and climatologist
Sven Hedin had been in town for two weeks. He then left for Sweden by way of Urga,
Larson taking him up from Kalgan. S. T. Dockray was still about, but hoped to leave
soon for New York. Frederick Wulsin was back and now planning his Quoting
expedition. “I've a notion that there will be plenty of room there for Pope too, if you see
fit to send him in. Conditions in Quoting are said to be bad just now and Wulsin may
delay his trip.”
Also, Granger continued,
a Mr. Floyd S. Tangier-Smith blew in to the hotel and told me that

he is to accompany a party bound for Kashgar. A Mr. Lamb, motion
picture man, seems to be heading the outfit and they have some
arrangement with the Fox people. Smith spoke of a conversation
with you some time ago and of your arrangement with him to pay
him $.50 (gold) each for small mammals and $1.00 (gold) each for
larger ones, which he hoped to collect in Quoting. He says he is to
look after the zoological collecting on this trip and would like some
traps and also to dispose of the mammals collected at the above
rates. I will get him 100 or so traps and you can write him, care of
your wife, about the possible purchase of his material. Says he has a
good taxidermist along, one whom [Arthur de Carle] Sowerby
knows and recommends [306].
J. G. Andersson was still away collecting in Kansu province, Granger’s update continued,
and Mrs. Andersson seemed uncertain about his plans. Andersson was apparently now
worried about the non-payment of salaries, including his, by the Chinese government and
that he might return to Peking before he had planned.
Granger also had gone to Tientsin that past Saturday to see

the stuff collected last season by Pere Licent and Pere Teilhard out
Kansu way. They have the first positive evidence of palæolithic man
in these parts––great quantities of Mousterian-type implements at
the base of the loess. Also the bones of the various animals upon
which these men fed. But no trace of the men themselves [307].
Skulls found nearby, however, were comparatively modern and surely dated to a much
later time. But there was no doubt about the antiquity of the flints found. Interesting also
was a great quantity of Struthiolithus egg shell discovered in a nearby refuse heap. The
humans undoubtedly fed upon these eggs, Granger opined.
Granger relayed to Andrews that he had promised Teilhard that he would send copies of
Third Asiatic Expedition publications on fossils. Would Andrews please make a note of
this and have them sent in care of the French Catholic Mission at Tientsin. Teilhard had
been dispatched from Paris, Granger informed, by the famous French paleontologist
Marcellin Boule for the special purpose of making the Kansu trip with Emile Licent.
Apparently Pére Licent had found these two important sites some time ago along the
Yellow River where it turned northward in the Ordos region. One of the sites stretched
well up into Mongolia. Whether early human culture was confined to the Yellow River
valley remained to be seen, Granger noted that “we may find something of it to the
northward.”
In parting, Granger said that he would write again before sailing from Shanghai. Yvette,
he reported, “seems to be going strong––has had a cold the past few days but looks first-
rate. It was pretty lonesome-looking around the ‘Hutung’ now,” a reference to the
Andrews’s large and enclosed residential compound in Peking which also served as the
CAE’s headquarters.
The Grangers began their final week in Peking. “It's quite a little wrench,” he wrote his
father, “getting away after two and a half years, but I expect everything will get packed
up somehow and all essential matters attended to.” There were last-minute details
connected with taking the two Chinese stateside, such as obtaining affidavits, outfitting
for foreign clothes, and the like. It surely would be a “wrench” for them, too. The weather
in Peking was now getting cold and the various ice rinks of the city were being put in
order. There was never much snow in Peking, but there was plenty of freezing weather
and skating was the chief winter amusement for the foreign residents.
The Grangers departed Peking for Shanghai on December 8 on the 9:00 a.m. train.
Yvette, “little George” and the Wulsins, among others, were there to see them off. It was
difficult to realize, Anna wrote, that they were really leaving Peking and
that some of the good people to whom we said good-byes would likely
never cross our paths again. Others were to be in Peking more or less
permanently and these we may see if we return. The parties were
pretty thick toward the last and we both got rather used up from lack
of sleep, and caught colds.
The balmy weather in Shanghai was in great contrast to the snow and ice the Granger left
behind in Peking and Tientsin. Shanghai occasionally had a frost but not much. A few
flowers still to be seen in the gardens and some trees were only now shedding their
leaves.
The Grangers were to board the SS President Cleveland on December 13th. The ship had
arrived from the States early on the 12th and would sail back out at 1:00 p.m. on the 13th.
While waiting, the Grangers visited with their old friend C. C. Asker of the Customs
Service at Wanxian. He was now stationed in Shanghai and had a house in the French
concession along with a car. The car “has made it very nice for us. Drove out to St. John's
University yesterday and had tea with Mr. Morton, son of Dr. Morton of Middletown;
said he was home last winter.”
Shanghai was growing rapidly, Granger noted––”houses going up everywhere and

magnificent bank and office buildings being constructed down town. Captain Dollar said
in a speech recently that Shanghai was the second port in the world in tonnage of imports
and exports. But it is not China any more than New York is America.” Granger, prone to
seasickness, also noted that the sea seemed “very calm the past few days––hope it will
stay so for the next month! I did not miss a meal coming over but can hardly hope for the
same luck returning.” Anna, who had a cold, had gone outdoors that morning anyway “to
get used to the air before sailing.”
The Grangers departed Shanghai aboard the Cleveland at 2 p.m. on December 13th and,
at dusk, went into anchor at a sand bar in the Yangtze to await high tide at 1:00 a.m. and
clear the sandbar.
There were two days of pleasant sailing weather. If a little chilly the first day, it certainly
was balmy the second. On the 15th at 7:00 p.m., they were within sight of Hong Kong
harbor. The China coast had remained in sight most of the trip. On the second day they
also were continuously in sight of fishing fleets. Sometimes over a hundred junks were
within just a few miles of them.
The Philippines was to be their next stop, in a day or so. Granger had “my straw hat and
white ducks ready for Manila!” It was to be a short vacation. They were due back in
Shanghai on the 26th and expected to have dinner ashore with C. C. Asker before
reboarding and sailing for the States on the 27th.
Walter and Anna remained on deck that evening to watch as they went into anchor at
Hong Kong. The banks of the harbor, steep, high and studded with twinkling lights, made
it all a “pretty” sight. A launch took them in directly after breakfast the next morning.
Anna shopped and bought a string of ivory beads. Then she and Walter took the tramway
up to Victoria Peak to “a fine view of the city and bay & mountains. Had lunch at The
Peak Hotel. Returned to the wharf at 3 o'clock. Boat left port at 4 o'clock.”
The sea built and that sent Walter to his berth. “Sea rough & our boat light, result––
Walter in bed all day.” The temperature was rising, as well, making their cabin
uncomfortably hot. They reached Manila at a little after nine in the morning, quickly got
ahore and checked into the Manila Hotel. The weather was said to be cool, but, to
Granger, it seemed unbearably hot. The humidity, he noticed, was higher than the
temperature.
On the 19th, the Grangers went out for a morning auto ride to the Ishuan hot springs with
their friends the Dickersons. Along the way, they stopped many times to look at trees,
rocks, houses, industries, eat a coconut, and sample some sugar still uncooled in a
sugaring off station at a cane plantation. Lunch was at a hotel at the hot springs run by “a
nice Southern American lady.” That night, they “took dinner with Mrs. Jarman, met Mr.
& Mrs. Fowler and Mr. & Mrs. Fleming.” The next morning, they went riding again with
the Dickersons to visit Manila’s water supply facility. More interesting trees were seen
along the way, Anna noted, one a gardenia whose blossoms were used “to make the "Y
lang y lang" perfume.”
At noon they lunched with a Major Parfit and his wife, her mother and sister. After “a
most delicious meal,” Walter showed his Mongolian pictures. The Grangers left Parfit’s
at 2:00 p.m. to return to the hotel, pack, board ship and return to Hong Kong for a few
days.
The Grangers departed Hong Kong for Shanghai on Christmas Day, “one lovely sailing
day,” Anna wrote, with the temperature around 70˚.
Mr. McGreagor of Manila and Miss Lancel of California were the

leading spirits in organizing some deck sports in the morning. There
was a special dinner at night, with colored balloons & snappers and
paper tapes to play with afterwards. At eight there was a movie and
at ten o'clock Chinese chow was served in the tearoom. Mr. Lyons
brought along a very long string of firecrackers, some small ones
and larger ones at intervals. The string was suspended from a pole
held well over the side of the boat. Explosions lasted for ten
minutes, and made a pretty show. The captain of the boat assisted in
the ceremony [308].
“This is my first Christmas afloat,” Granger wrote his father. There was a small
Christmas tree in the dining salon and “the place was gay with flags and bunting.” He and
Anna had had
three fine days in Manila where we fell into the hands of friends and
were taken around in a car to various places of interest. Saw
primeval tropical forest coconut and banana groves, went through
native houses and old Spanish churches, and were entertained at
luncheons and dinners by various people. Returning to Hong Kong
we spent some time going about the town and around the island in a
car. Could have made the trip up to Canton but preferred to stay in
the harbor [309].
The sea was clear blue that day, but by nightfall they would be passing into the muddy
waters of the Yangtze delta. The discoloration went far out to sea, although the line
between blue and mud remained sharply demarcated. Due off the Yangtze bar some time
that night, Shanghai would be reached the next afternoon.
Once in Shanghai, Granger disembarked immediately to determine whether all was clear
for the passage of the two Chinese, 'Buckshot' and Liu, to America. As soon as he could
get “my two boys aboard at Shanghai I shall feel relieved and will then be ready for the
homeward voyage,” Granger wrote to his father. He was hoping there had been no hitch
in the matter since it had been a bit of a task to obtain their entry to the States.
They and Chow were waiting for the Grangers at the wharf. Granger went in the next
morning “to finish up matters in regard to Chinese boys who are being examined
physically for the third time, tho there is nothing the matter with them.” As a result, he
and Anna were left with only a little time left in which to do a bit of shopping. Their ship
was to leave the wharf at 3:00 p.m. and go to anchor off Wu Sung.
A Mr. White, Anna noted, who had got off their ship at Hong Kong and was then left
behind when it departed, had “managed to come up to Shanghai on another boat and is
now one of our number again. Still going strong on the whiskey.”
The President Jefferson of the Admiral Line also was sailing to Seattle, Granger noted in
the letter to his father, and probably would keep near the Cleveland as far as Yokohama.
She will then take the northern route which is shorter and should
reach the States several days ahead of us, so I'm sending this [letter]
by her. She left Hong Kong a few minutes ahead of us and the speed
of the two vessels are so nearly equal that now, thirty-four hours
later, we're only a half mile ahead of her [310].
After the Cleveland left its mooring at eleven in the morning on December 28th, the sea
became rough almost immediately. Walter went straight to his bunk. That evening, few
people showed up in the dining room for dinner. Anna, one of the few, “lost my supper
shortly after eating it.”
Walter slept in his clothes all night, remaining in bed until four in the afternoon of the
29th. The ship reached the entrance to the Inland Sea at about eight that evening where
the water was calmer. Nearly all went out on deck to see what was reported to be very
lovely scenery. But the wind blew up a gale, snowflakes filled the air and all turned in
early to make up for lost sleep.
Anna and Walter were miserable with afflictions as their ship entered Kobe harbor at
11:30 a.m. on the morning of December 30th: “I with a strained back and he from food
poisoning,” she wrote. Both were bedridden, although Walter did go ashore for two hours
after lunch to buy some pearl beads for Anna. Once returned to ship, however, he was
back in bed until dinner.
They departed Kobe that night at 9:00. The next morning, Fujiyama could be plainly
seen. “A glorious day, clear sky, a few clouds in the neighborhood of the mountain, water
deep blue with whitest of whitecaps,” wrote Anna. “I managed, with Walter's help, to get
a view of it from the port-hole three times. At about noon it appeared very near and large.
Snow extended a good way from the summit.”
Walter now had a rash all over his body. And, though Anna was feeling more
comfortable than the day before, she still was unable to move about easily. Reaching
anchorage at Yokohama at 6:00 p.m., the Grangers decided to pass on the New Year’s
Eve party scheduled in the dining saloon that night.
Walter felt better the next morning, January 1, 1924, and went ashore early with Mr.
Senneck, the ship’s head wireless operator. But after departing Yokohama at 10:00 a.m.,
both Walter and Anna were back in bed, “though our condition is improved.”
It was now the 2nd and the ship continued to roll. The Grangers kept their porthole open
all day. Walter finally got up at about 4:00 p.m. and was able to stay up for a couple of
hours. Anna could “now move about on the level without help.” When the sea roughened
at supper time, both Grangers took their meals in bed. The ship rolled all night, at times
nearly tipping the Grangers out of bed. It was a cloudy sky on the morning of January
3rd. Two kinds of birds were within view of the porthole, Anna noted, though she did not
name them.
Both Grangers were on deck at 11 a.m.––the sea had calmed. But, in the middle of the
afternoon, a large rogue wave hit the ship. Every room had something in it upset by the
force. Anna’s bottle of chloroform liniment fell, spilling its entire contents.
The Grangers went to “bed directly after supper because of the billows. Sky clear.” The
heavy roll of the ship continued through the night and all the next morning until finally it
settled sufficiently that they were up and on deck again at 11:30 a.m.
The sea continued to heave on January 5th. One of the wireless operators told Walter that
it was all the result of a bad storm reported further north. The Grangers took their
breakfast in bed and then went up on deck where the sports contests had begun. A Mr.
McGregor was the chairman of this event.
At 2:00 p.m. a Miss Alexander gave a talk on the Baha’i movement. A fancy dress ball
took place that evening. A Miss Lancel won the second prize by dressing herself as a
doll––curls, stockings rolled down, gray dress with pink sash to match hair ribbons, deep
lace crochet collar at neck. First prize went to a woman in Japanese costume. A Mr. Pratt,
dressed as a ‘Chinese #1 Boy,’ won the men's first prize. Second prize went to a man
dressed as a colored dandy. Honorable mention was given to a Mrs. Osborn (not Henry’s
wife) and a Miss Pryser who dressed as Hugenot and Moro respectively. A Mr.
McDermot received mention for his "sheik" costume.
On the 6th of January, Walter commented to Anna that “the ocean is still here but not
here still.” The ships’ rail-to-rail roll had continued for five days without intermission. It
was said to be a common thing in those parts at that time of the year, Anna assured
herself. She began working on a handbag she planned to give to her friend Sarah Sinclair.
There was a movie show in the evening, and that morning a Mr. Petit gave a talk on some
sidelights of missionary work in China. It was now Meridian Day. The sky was clear, but
the ocean was full of white caps and not nearly smooth enough for Walter’s comfort. He
felt miserable and was now trying some of Mrs. Osborn’s medicine.
At the concert that evening, Mrs. Kitchen
(star performer in the “Merry Widow”) sang several times with true
artistic finish. A Bohemian from Shanghai gave some Italian songs
and was heard with enthusiasm. Mr. Harwood accompanied Mr.
Sinnock's piano-playing with the clappers, afterward doing the same
stunt with a couple of table spoons. At ten o'clock, Chinese chow
was served in the tea room [311].
On January 7th, the sea was “wobbling in four directions all at once. Motion kept Walter
in his chair all day.” But it had turned warmer and some of the passengers were now out
on deck in summer clothes.
It was Italian dinner night for that evening's entertainment. Several couples dressed in
costume. A “Mr. Harwoood borrowed the room-boy's dark blue cloth coat, put bands of
red on collar & cuffs, (material cut from the red border of a ship's face towel!) wore a
Sam Brown belt and sword (the steel bar used to close the drawers of a wardrobe trunk)
and a black felt hat with rim turned up on one side and feather stuck in cavalier fashion––
best get-up of the evening.”
They sailed into Honolulu quarantine at 3:00 p.m. that afternoon. But it was after five
before they were allowed to dock because there was found to be a case of small pox on
board. Two men, a woman and one child were taken off the ship aboard the doctor's
launch. Before sailing out at noon the next day, Walter sent a telegram to his father. It
read simply: “Pleasant weather due fourteenth.”
The 10th was a fine day. Many cumulus-nimbus clouds sat in the sky. But although the
sea looked calm enough, it rolled the boat a good bit. This was said to be characteristic of
that part of the ocean, Anna noted, while she continued sewing on the brocade bag she
was to give Sarah Sinclair. Walter had written nearly nothing in his diary since their
departure from Shanghai.
Everyone dressed for the Captain's Dinner on the 13th. At about 8:30 p.m., the
passengers assembled in the social hall to witness the distribution of the "Sports" prizes.
Mr. McGregor was the spokesman and Miss Lancel and Mrs. Wooten assisted in the
distribution of prizes. Mr. Sawyer made a speech complimenting the captain and crew to
which the captain briefly responded. Some of the men took the balloons that they had as
favors at dinner and burst them at appropriate times throughout the various speeches,
causing much fun.
Once the ceremony was over, Mr. McGregor brought out a game called Kon Kon. He had
bought it in Honolulu and it was a shallow box filled with tiny rolls of paper on which
were written amusing stunts to perform. One received his/her paper roll by punching the
box at a circular spot with a match end which caused the roll to drop out on the lower
side. Anna’s stunt was:
Make a spit curl on your sweetie's forehead.
Dancing came next, along with singing Hawaiian songs. The sea became rough before
they went to bed. It stayed so all night and into the mid-afternoon of the next day. At one
point, such a big wave hit that it spilled into the ventilator shaft on the top deck that led
down to the dining room. Buckets of water poured into the room.
They afrrived at San Francisco Bay on the 14th at about 6:00 p.m., too late to be
examined by the port doctor and go ashore.
[ ].
WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM
Received at Rutland Vt.

SB San Francisco Calif Jan 15-16 1924
C. H. Granger, Pearl St., Rutland, Vt

Greetings from the home soil. Your letter received. Los Angeles
next week. Walter [312].
They docked at 9:15 a.m. on the 15th of January and cleared customs at 11:30. Sarah
Sinclair and a Mrs. Stewart, at the wharf to meet them, presented Anna with a bouquet of
violets and Walter with a box of cigars. Anna gave Sarah a string of pearls and “[t]he
brocaded bag which I made for her seemed to suit her fancy too.” The Grangers were
escorted to the fine, old Stewart Hotel. While Anna rested that afternoon, Walter tried to
find out whether 'Buckshot' and Liu would be admitted into the U.S. without delay. It
turned out, however, that the immigration authorities had not had any advice from
Washington and telegraphing was now in progress to find out what to do. This was
presenting a unique case because, of course, the museum had asked for special handling.
Anna spent the morning of January 16 in the hotel room putting her clothes in order and
writing notes while Walter went to Angel Island to visit 'Buckshot' and Liu. All steerage
passengers from the Cleveland had been taken there the previous day. But nothing further
had developed in the matter ‘Buckshot’ and Lieu. As soon as Granger could get them
started for New York, he planned to go over to Oakland for a few days and then to Los
Angeles and home. It would be February, he told his father, before he could get to
Rutland and he hoped “you all hold out until then. Hope you have some snow. I saw
some on the top of Fujiyama the other day and there was a film of it at Peking but that is
all I've seen since last winter in Peking and not much there either.”
Paleontologist Charles L. Camp of the University of California was the Grangers’ guest
for dinner that night. They went to a restaurant he recommended called the ‘Aladdin.’ It
was decorated in Chinese fashion with “real Chinese girls” to wait on the tables. A curio
store sat off the tea room, Anna noted. After dinner, Camp took them to a variety show.
“Nazimora gave a one-act performance, clowns did some good acrobatics and a dough
boy got off a funny monologue reminiscent of the war.”
Anna spent the morning of January 19 mending her clothes. In the afternoon Walter took
her to Golden Gate Park to see the new aquarium. They both thought the exhibit was
“very finely done.” After dinner at the Palace Hotel they returned to their own hotel.
Many of the hotels around there, Anna noted, were
filled with movie artists who have come up from Hollywood to hold
a ball to-night. They were not allowed to hire a hall in Los Angeles
for use all night, so they come to San Francisco where no
restrictions were placed on the dancing hours. The lobby of the
Palace hotel was filled with men & women who were waiting to see
some of their movie favorites come down in the elevator to go to the
ball––which is held in the Exposition auditorium [313].
As they waited for word from Immigration in Washington, the Grangers filled their days
with socializing and sightseeing. In one day, they visited the sight of the World's Fair,
looked in at an art museum, passed by the Presidio and its military barracks and
fortifications and went up to Twin Peaks for a view of the city and the bay. On another, it
was a ferry boat ride to Oakland and an evening performance of dancing by Pavlova and
her company. Yet another was to “hear Heifitz play in the evening. Enjoyed the program
which was rather simple in comparison to some that are rendered before New York
audiences,” wrote Anna.
On January 22nd, word finally came “that the Commission for Immigration is now
advised from Washington to allow 'Buckshot' & Liu to enter the U.S. Walter has gone to
the bank to buy the bonds to deposit for their release.” The next day the Grangers
escorted 'Buckshot' and Liu to their train at the Santa Fe depot in Oakland. Walter then
spent most of the next two days at the University of California with Charles Camp and
others, including future CAE member paleobotanist Ralph Chaney. Both Grangers were
invited to a faculty dinner at the University on the 30th, Walter lecturing afterwards in
Wheeler Hall with a presentation of lantern slides he had made of Sichuan and Mongolia.
The audience was “attentive & enthusiastic.”
Granger wrote his father on the 1st of February to say that at last he was ready to travel
east.
I did not get my boys out of the Immigration Service until a week
after we arrived in S.F., and it was the 23rd when I finally put them
on a train and started them east. Then I moved across the bay and
put up at Miss Sinclair's. At the university, where I went the next
day to see my old friends in the Department of Geology, they asked
me to give a public lecture on the 30th and as a courtesy to my
friends there I did so. They were all keen to get some first hand
information about our doings in the east. Had a very responsive
audience of about six hundred. Yesterday was asked to a reception
by President Campbell of the University and met many of the
faculty.
At Los Angeles I hoped to see my old boss, John Rowley. I had a

telephone conversation with him when we were at Uncle Jim's in
1921 but did not get to see him. He is the taxidermist at the Los
Angeles Museum now. He made some wonderful animal groups for
the Museum out in the Golden Gate Park when he was up here.
Much needed rain has come at last and things are green again. In
another two weeks Spring will be on in earnest. I do hope you are
not getting too impatient at my delay, but while I'm here I ought to
see people I'm particularly interested in because there may be no
opportunity the next time I pass through [314].
Granger wrote his father again on the 5th to say that he finally had met up with Rowley,
his wife and three boys. Granger and Rowley had not seen each other “since 1901 when
he left the Museum in New York.” The Grangers also visited the famous La Brea pits for
the first time and paid a visit to San Diego’s Natural History Museum and [the Zoo’s]
zoological laboratory. Then he would “be starting eastward by way of New Orleans after
we have had a short visit with Jim––two or three days.”
Uncle Jim was Charles Granger’s brother. A real estate boom, Walter noted, was
underway “and Jim is holding his place at $20,000 and will pretty surely get it within a
year or so––perhaps this spring. He will sell for that amount and probably take a cheaper
and smaller place further out.”
There had been no rain there yet, he added, and things were awfully dry, “the usual
"unusual" California weather. Every year brings record weather of some sort.” While
they were at the zoological station, Anna noted, “a reporter asked for an interview at the
last moment.” They also ran into one of Granger’s old northeast Wyoming collecting
buddies, Frederick B. Loomis, and wife and two boys, a “great surprise.”
The Grangers departed aboard the Southern Pacific Railroad on the morning February
9th. “Saw wonderful orchards of oranges, olives, & dates throughout the day.” When
they reached Yuma at a little after 4:00 p.m. and the Colorado River thereafter they began
seeing cacti of various kinds. The most startling one, to Anna, “was the Sahuaro, tall &
straight.”
They awoke the next day, however, to find that the train was heading back to Tucson. A
wreck ahead of them obliged them to go back and take the Rock Island Railroad to El
Paso with a time loss of 12 hours.
At 8:30 a.m. on the 11th, their train crossed the deep canyon of the Pecos River. The
bridge was over 300 feet high and led the railway up to traverse along the top of a high
plateau for some distance afterwards. That countryside, Anna thought, was very sterile
and rocky, a “badlands” variety so familiar to her husband. She did see some mistletoe,
however, growing on a high shrub which some other passenger on the train mistakenly
thought was mesquite, she chuckled.
When they arrived at San Antonio at 2:00 p.m., Anna’s impression was that it as a large
city of one-story buildings with an aviation center, the air filled with flying machines, and
flat land all under cultivation so far as she could see. Rumbling on eastward, they arrived
at Houston at about 7:30 p.m. that night.
Rain fell as the Grangers’ train rolled into New Orleans early in the morning of the 12th.
They checked into the Monteleone Hotel, an establishment, Anna thought, that was “not
first class in any particulars and especially poor as to the ‘eats.’" Later that morning they
took a sight-seeing bus around the town. There was a park that “was a pretty place,
contained a body of water for swans, some nice statuary in bronze around a large pool,
and many live oak trees with the Usuca barbita hanging from the branches.” Lunch was
in an oyster house. Oysters on the half shell sold at 30¢ per dozen.
At 2:30 p.m. they took a steamer on a sight-seeing trip along the Mississippi River.
Docks, grain elevators and factories of various kinds along the way interested them as did
the typical upriver boat laden with cotton tied up to one of the wharves.
Their steamer was propelled by an immense stern wheel. It was a paddle-wheeler new to
Anna. The boilers were in the forward section of the vessel. One deck was given up to a
dancing floor and another had many tables where refreshments were served.
On their return, they visited a shop to buy some bottles of perfume made by a local
Frenchman. Anna chose Magnolia, Jessamine and Sandalwood. Oysters were had again
for supper after which the Grangers went to bed early “to make up for lack of good rest
on the train from Los Angeles.”
They took the 8:30 a.m. train out of the Louisville & Nashville R.R. depot bound for for
New York. At Montgomery, Alabama, their car was attached to a train going over the
Southern Railway tracks. Anna found the landscape to be very low and swampy. The
higher parts were favorable to the growth of the pitch pine, she noted, and they saw many
trees cut near their bases, cups placed at the bottom of the gash to collect the sap.
As they entered North Carolina shortly after breakfast, passing a little to the east of
Tyron, the country became hilly and well-wooded. Deciduous trees mingled with the
pines. The soil looked pink. Factories began to appear, such as towel, denim and furniture
factories. There were macadam roads here and there. And the “Negroes' homes,” she
wrote, “are larger and kept in better repair [than those she’d just seen].” They reached
Danville, Virginia, at 2:30 that afternoon. It was Valentine’s Day, 1924, and for the next
year, they would no longer be so far away from home.
[Update on CAE publicity and impact; Granger’s year in States; setting up for 1925
season as “the big one”]
1925
January 1, 1925
77th Street and Central Park West
New York City
Dear Father:
Here is the first letter of the new year. I'm beginning to think about
passports and I may need the old one which I left with you.––the last
time I was up it was on the small table in the living room. The table
that Aunt Jane uses. Would you please send this passport down to
me. You can have it back if it is of any interest to you. This is a
pretty nippy and windy day. We saw the old year out at the house
last night and go to Brooklyn for dinner tonight. Olive and Millett
came to the Museum yesterday. Millett went back with his father to
Hanover late in the afternoon [315].
January 22, 1925

27 West 82nd St
New York City
Dear Father:
I think I told you that the passport came safely. I plan now to go
home on Friday night Feby. 13th and return to the Museum on
Monday morning following––this gives me Saturday and Sunday
with you. I'd like to stay longer but there is too much to do. The
following weekend will be so close to starting time that I don't dare
make it then. We'll probably go out by the Santa Fe again and stop
over a day or so with Uncle Jim. If we don't go by the southern route
I shan't be able to see him for I couldn't go down from San
Francisco. I enclose prints of the snaps I took at the White Mountain
luncheon. Pretty good of you & Frank and the boys but the girls
were out of luck––the pictures are underexposed.
Your affectionate son,

Walter.
P.S.: We're hoping to see the eclipse Saturday morning if all goes
well––Museum employees are to be given until 10 o'clock to do it
in. W. [316].
It had been a year stateside for the Grangers and their two Chinese assistants. 'Buckshot'
and Liu were now on their way back to Peking to begin packing camel boxes for the
CAE’s 1925 Mongolia expedition. Urgan passes were already issued and all seemed to be
set for the coming summer. Granger hoped, however, that the Urgan government would
not see the report [an item] just published in the New York Times. It was based on a
letter written by Andrews, now back in China, to various of the CAE’s financial
contributors mentioning rather harshly the killings of several [?anti-Soviet] officials in
Urga during the summer of 1924. “It might work out against us if the Soviets did learn
about the report,” Granger wrote his father. “They are a sensitive crowd to some things
and mighty callous to others.”
Granger also informed his father that “the Pathe' people have begun the story of our
expedition––it is coming out in several installments. I haven't seen it yet but will as soon
as I hear where and when it is showing.”
The Grangers departed New York City on Wednesday, February 25, 1925, from
Pennsylvania Station at 2:20 p.m. on the “Panhandle Express.” They arrived in Chicago
the next day at about 5:15 p.m. and checked into the Blackstone Hotel. Granger spent the
next morning at the Field Museum and that afternoon at the Walker Museum where he
visited with Paul Miller who had helped with transiting 'Buckshot' and Liu though
Chicago. Then he and Anna were off on the "Overland Limited" at 8:10 p.m. that night.
As they traveled through Nebraska toward Wyoming, Granger prepared a letter he would
post in Cheyenne. It was to George Sherwood, a savvy administrator at the Museum. He
told Sherwood that he had been unable to attend to one of Andrews’s requests about
photos before leaving and asked whether Sherwood would look after it. Andrews wanted
enlargements made of four or five of the CAE’s field pictures to hang in the headquarters
office in Peking. Granger suggested the following:
1) Group picture with Prof. Osborn––Sept. 1923, 5

x 7.
2) Expedition camp in Oshih Basin with lava
capped mesa in background––Aug. 1923, 5 x 7.
3) A good caravan picture––probably one at
Tuerin, 1922––Kodak––would be best.
4) Motor fleet at top of Kalgan pass with Great
Wall in background––1923––Sept. Kodak.
5) The best of the pictures of the running wild
ass––1922 4 x 5 [316a].
These enlargements, he wrote, could be packed with a shipment that was to be sent off
that spring. Or they could be sent over by mail if they were not made too large. In either
event, he assured, they would not get them until they returned from Mongolia in the fall,
which was soon enough.
Oakland, California, was in early spring with fruit trees in bloom and lawns bright green
when they arrived. Sailing time was Saturday, a few days away. Olsen was due any day
and Shackelford was due Thursday. Granger hoped to spend Wednesday at the University
of California. Dr. Chaney would be giving them a dinner there that evening. On Thursday
and Friday “the Expedition crowd will be together in San Francisco and by Saturday I
ought to be in fine shape to get seasick as soon as we get outside the Golden Gate. Rough
weather is liable to come the first two days out if at all, and then again in the Yellow Sea.
Sort of a greeting and farewell.”
Andrews, in the meantime, had cabled Granger to proceed via Shanghai which to
Granger meant that the railway to Peking was now back to running. “I am glad not to
have to take the trip from Kobe to Tientsin in the small steamers as would have been the
case if the trains between Shanghai and Tientsin were still interrupted.”
They were to sail out at noon on March 7th with five members of the Expedition aboard
ship this time, plus four wives, three children, a sister, a brother and a friend. The weather
promised to be good, Granger assured himself. San Francisco and vicinity was as fine and
lovely as ever, he wrote his father. “I enjoy this part of California. Spring has set in and
everything is bright and green.”
Granger listed the sailing party:
Walter Granger & Wife

Roger Granger [Anna’s brother]
Mary Smith
R. W. Chaney, Wife, 3 children and
Mary Chaney - sister
George Olsen
N. Nelson & Wife
J. B. Shackelford & Wife [316b].
Notably, Peter Kaisen and A. Johnson were not returning, although George Olsen was.
Ralph W. Chaney was a paleobotanist from the University of California. Nels C. Nelson
was an archaeologist who had been at the American Museum since 1912 and was known
primarily for his work in the American Southwest and Europe. Topographers would be
added as well, as will be seen, as would physician Dr. Harold Loucks of the Peking
Union Medical College [Conq/232]. The days of medical treatment by a paleontologist
and taxidermist were over, at least for the CAE-Mongolia.
This 1925 Mongolia party was to be the largest of the CAE’s five Mongolia expeditions.
But its supposedly innovative, multi-disciplinary scientific approach was not actually
employed until this 1925 season when the disciplines of paleobotany, archaeology and
topography were added to those of paleontology, geology, zoology and taxidermy during
the first two seasons [Conq/231].
Furthermore, not all western members of the 1925 CAE were employees of the American
Museum. Berkey, Morris, Pope, and Chaney were non-Museum scientists, Young and V.
Johnson were U.S. marines, a new assistant motorman, Norman Lovell, was British and
the topographers, one of whom would join the sailing party in Honolulu, all were U.S. or
British military men [Conq/232].
Departing Oakland
Newspaper photographers took shots of the 1925 Expedition members gathered at the
dock in Oakland before they set off. Although there was a fairly rough sea outside the
Golden Gate Bridge and many passengers became ill, there were no more storms. The
sailing was relatively pleasant all the way to Honolulu. Granger did miss dinner that first
night of rough seas, however. And there was to be no St. Patrick's Day. When he and
Anna retired to their beds on March 16th, they woke up the next morning on March 18th.
St. Patrick’s Day, the 17th, had disappeared beneath the 180th Meridian.
The party arrived in Honolulu at about 8:00 a.m. on March 13th. Charles Berkey met up
with them there, along with Fred Morris and his wife. Chief topographer Major L. B.
Roberts of the U.S. Army Reserve, a friend of Berkey’s, also joined them there
[Conq/232]. Topography was to be a major endeavor and selected as Roberts’ assistants
were Lieutenant F. B. Butler of the U.S. Army and Lieutenant H. O. Robinson of the
British Army’s First Royal Lancashire Regiment.
While this military presence within the CAE became public knowledge in later years, it
was not well known at the time. The premise for topographical work was that nearly all
existing maps of Mongolia were based on a Russian map “which is very unreliable.
Apparently much of it was prepared from native information, and this is proverbially bad
[Conq/237].” But, of course, guides seemed to suffice; Larson seemed to know his way
around, as did other westerners living and working in Mongolia; the CAE had
successfully driven deep into Mongolia in previous seasons and would do so again during
this one without a good map; and Granger and the geologists seemed satisfactorily able to
note, sketch and locate their Mongolian discoveries for future reference.
Since the poor, Russian-based maps had not significantly hampered the CAE in 1922
amd 1923, or for this 1925 season, the questions then become: what scientific purpose
would be accomplished by new mapping and why was the mapping being done by U.S.
and British military personnel, one of whom was recommended by Berkey? The answer
is that the CAE’s topographical endeavor carried military and commercial implications,
as well as scientific.
This point was not lost on the CAE. Wanting to commence the mapping survey at the
Kalgan railroad station and take it through the north gate and up over the Wan Ch’uan
Pass into Mongolia, Andrews declared in Conquest at page 237, that:
It was by no means easy to carry out the initial and most important
stage of the survey. Marshal Feng Yu hsiang, who then was in
charge of the Kalgan region, had refused to permit another foreign
geological party to make a survey of the Pass. There was no
probablity that we would fare better at his hands. In such cases, in
China, I have found that the best plan is to go ahead until you are
stopped. It is quite possible to make unending trouble for oneself by
being too conscientious in the observance of rules. Therefore, I
instructed Major Roberts to say nothing to the authorities, but to do
his job. If he got into trouble, I would guarantee to get him out of it.
Departing Honolulu
Granger’s Museum colleague, paleontologist William King Gregory, happened to be in

Honolulu for vacation and came to the dock on March 7th to see the CAE party off. It
was good weather all the way to Yokohama, which was reached early in the afternoon on
March 23rd. The Grangers spent the night at the American architect Frank Lloyd
Wright’s new Imperial Hotel. “This,” Granger wrote his father, “is the strangest hotel I've
ever seen and one of the best. It stood the earthquake almost better than any other
building in the city. The dining room floor is somewhat warped but no cracks show in the
walls.”
They were back at the harbor for sailing at 10:00 a.m. the next morning. March 25th was
fine sailing through the Inland Sea into the Yellow Sea, which was perfectly calm. They
hove to at the Yangtze River sand bar to again wait to cross it that night at high tide and
then sail on in to Shanghai.
After a visit to the American Consul and two visits to Customs with Roberts, Granger got
all expedition gear cleared by 11:00 a.m., “without examination and without duty.”
However, a letter and wire from Andrews delivered to Granger while he was still aboard
ship had advised “us not to arrive in Peking before Apr. 4 as the Empress of France
crowd will have all hotel rooms until that date. All hands to the Palace Hotel.”
Arrive Peking
April 8 and 12, 1925

Peking
Dear Father:
We all reached Peking on Saturday the 4th and our baggage came in
Tuesday three days late; it never gets across the Yangtze at Nanking
in time to get put on that day's train and as trains are run to Peking
only three times a week now the traveler usually has to spend two or
three days waiting for his baggage here [317].
The party got off from Shanghai on April 2, 1925, at 11:30 p.m. The train had only one
first-class coach, so the ladies took one compartment and the men two others. Chow, who
was working in Shanghai at the moment, was at the station to see them off. He planned to
return to Peking in another week to join the party once it started for Mongolia.
Liu, 'Buckshot', Whey [Huei], along with Yenching University (1923-1932) geology
professor George Barbour, were at the station to greet them [n. Barbour and his odd non-
ack. of Granger] when the party arrived at Peking on the 4th at 7:30 p.m., five hours later
than scheduled. The contingent checked in to the Wagon-Lits hotel. Andrews, who had
been in Peking since July, 1924, showed up that evening to report that all expedition cars
except his No. 1. had been sent up to Kalgan along with most of the gear; the Chinese
assistants were mostly assembled and ready to go; and herpetologist Pope was already
back at work in Fukien Province.
Public interest in the CAE’s Mongolia work was such, Andrews continued, that new
funding now totalled $284,000 [Conq/231]. Outfitted with new cardigans sporting, big,
fraternity-like, TAE (Third Asiatic Expedition) patches, along with dashing hats and
military-like shirts, trousers and footgear, this 1925 CAE venture seemed to be making a
point of fashionable territorial presence [occupation, conquest].
In addition, Dodge Brothers Corporation had supplied the Expedition with an entirely
new fleet of four cars and two trucks (‘dog-wagons’) modified with “heavier springs,
increased radiation, larger gas tanks, and open ‘express’ bodies [Conq/231].” Including
Andrews’ personal touring car, this more functional fleet totalled seven vehicles. The
days of the cumbersome Fulton truck were over.
Merin and his caravan were already on their way to Shabarakh Usu/Flaming Cliffs and
expected to arrive before May 1 to await the CAE men in their new motor fleet
[Conq/235-236].
[Conq/233-235 contain some interesting background info. including negotiations with

Urga and RCA meeting Kozloff.]
[ ].
The warlord General Feng Yu Hsiang, known as the Christian General, who now
occupied Kalgan and was in full control of that region did not recognize the Peking
government. So the Expedition had to deal directly with him. They were hoping this
situation would not delay getting started though Inner Mongolia, but there was no way to
tell until they reached Kalgan. Beyond that, they anticipated no trouble entering Outer
Mongolia since the Urgan passes had already been issued. Looming on the horizon, on
the other hand, was an expected “contest this summer between Gen. Feng and Chang-Tso
Ling, the Manchu warlord. If it comes, we shall be safe in Outer Mongolia and the wives
safe in the Legation Quarter here [in Peking],” Granger wrote his father on April 8. Not
addressed was whether and how the contest’s outcome might affect the CAE’s return.
For the moment, Anna and Mrs. Shackelford would stay at the Wagons-Lits Hotel, Mrs.
Morris would go back to Shanghai and Mrs. Nelson had taken rooms with a friend
outside the Legation Quarter. The Chaneys were renting a house in one of the residence
compounds of the Rockefeller College.
On the 12th, Granger continued his April 8th letter to his father. “This letter has hung fire
for several days––there is so much to do in the ten days we have here that I seem to find
but little time for letter-writing. Social life in Peking is pretty strenuous and a quiet
evening in our room at the hotel is something we look forward to but don't get very
often.” Expedition party members all were well he wrote, except for the usual Peking
colds which newcomers acquired at that time of the year. It was a season of dust storms
and the germ-laden atmosphere was hard on mucous membrane. “It's a wonder we don't
get all sorts of disease from this filthy city dust, but the ever-present sun seems to take
care of things pretty well. There are no rains in North China until late June as a rule.”
The three topographers, he reported, were already up in Kalgan on the 11th to begin
surveying before the rest of the party arrived. That was scheduled for Wednesday, April
15, and, with good luck, the party would get off for the plateau on the 17th. He also
promised that “I will send you some newspapers with accounts of our doings” under
separate cover.
Arrive Kalgan
Granger drew $3,000.00 from the Harbin bank for Expedition expenses and the main
party left Peking for Kalgan by train on April 15 at 8:28 a.m.
Granger, Berkey, Morris & wife, Chaney & wife, Nelson, Olsen and
Dr. Loucks. A Miss Wolff from P.U.M.C. [Peking University
Medical College] accompanied Mrs. Morris and Mr. and Mrs. Daley
of the Chicago Tribune came along to see us off. Roy and Shack to
follow tomorrow after attending to urgent matter––mostly radio––
today [318][Conq/238].
Their baggage was put in charge of Liu and Whey [Huei] to follow on a later train and
navigated through the new “Octroi” (tax collector) that had been established by Feng.
The General, Granger noted, was in residence in a compound just north of the Catholic
Church.
Upon arrival, the CAE party filed over to the Pioneer Inn run by a Mr. and Mrs.
Williams. Bachelors were obliged to sleep on their cots in another compound owned by
the Inn a short distance north. Larson, now relocated from Urga because of the political
changes there, had built a new compound that stood in between.
Kalgan was busy. A carload of Russian officials stopped at the Pioneer Inn that night.
They were going on to Peking the next day. Kalgan was also full of Mongols. Several
hundred were seen boarding a train bound for Peking to see Panchen Lama. Bato went, as
well, as did Ioshih [319].
The topographers were off on Monday the 13th as planned, carrying their site line out
from a mark on a railway bridge near the city. 'Buckshot', a No. 2 Cook named Shah and
a cart load of baggage went with them. It was decided to send two more cart loads of
equipment to Miao Tan early on the 17th because bad roads between the top of the pass
and Miao Tan had been reported by Young who had returned two days before from his
trip 20 miles north to Chap ser to pick up Bato and a Mongol named Tserin [future CAE
caravan leader, 1928-30]. There also were reports of rampant banditry between Miao Tan
and Chap ser. Five cars, including one owned by the Williams, were held up a few days
earlier and many thousand dollars worth of furs were taken from one of them. The main
party would follow in lightened cars ready for action on Saturday the 18th.
In the meantime, Berkey had developed a temperature of 104˚ on the 17th and was
confined to his bed by Dr. Loucks, the CAE’s physician. It was decided that the balance
of the party would go on to Ula Usu with all seven cars and then Young would return to
Kalgan with one dog-wagon for Berkey and Loucks. “The Dr. feels that it will be a week
before Berkey can be moved [Conq/238].”
Mr. and Mrs. Daley of the Chicago Tribune had had tiffin with General Feng who then
extended an invitation to the expedition party to have a meal with him before they
departed. Feng was also suggesting that the CAE delay its departure for a week or so
until his soldiers could clear the trail of bandits [Conq/238]. But the seven-car fleet now
lined up in the compound with flags flying and ready to start for the plateau was quite
imposing.
Granger took a moment to a make a striking photograph of a domesticated Feng standing

with his wife and holding their newborn child in the doorway of their home. The
expedition did not think bandits would want to give them any trouble. The General would
have to wait. The advance party was to be met at Miao Tan, 35 miles out from Kalgan.
Even though the pass was bad just now and the weather unseasonably warm, making bad
going until they got beyond the Chinese cultivation, the cars would go up light and the
road beyond was excellent, so they heard [Conq/238-239].
Granger wrote his father that Anna would mail some newspapers to him, as well as “a
photograph of each of us. We took some new ones in the headquarters compound the day
before I left but I did not see them before I left.” Shackelford, he wrote, wanted to shop
around a reel of motion pictures of their start for Miao Tan. If it got to the Pathé people
“you may see it. I'm wondering if the serial story of the Expedition in 1922 issued by
Pathé ever got to Rutland. If the motion picture people there request it it probably could
be obtained.” In closing, Granger wrote,
I shall think of Vermont a good deal along about June this year. I
was mighty glad to have a look at her last June and to find her up to
expectations. And it is not so bad there in October [320].
The Expedition’s main party was off in convoy about 10 o'clock a.m. on the 18th
[Conq/238]. Berkey, better but still weak remained behind with Loucks. Granger
sketched the vehicles and seating arrangement.
“When our cars started for the Pass they made a very impressive spectacle. The huge
trucks flying American flags [U.S., Ex.Cl., AMNH], and piled high with baggage and
men, looked like battleships under full steam [Conq/238].” Indeed, the CAE’s tone was
different in 1925. With evidence of success to bolster them, the expedition’s presence
was formatted by a flotilla of gleaming new cars packed with equipment, arms and native
assistants. American, Museum and Explorers Club flags affixed to windshield uprights
flew boldly over Mongolian soil. Western men of science and military, dressed in new,
soldier-like uniforms, sat comfortably, if not a bit imperiously, in their throne-like seats
with eyes fixed forward in resolute manner.
The way up to the pass was good going since many of Feng's soldiers had been detailed
to drain and repair that portion of the road [Conq/238]. But from the top of the pass on,
the road turned bad, the expedition cars repeatedly becoming mired in mud [Conq/238].
The expedition proceeded to Chang Pei Hsien [Changpeh-hsien] arriving after dark on
April 18th in a blinding sandstorm and putting up at a large inn on the southern edge of
town [Conq/238]. Sentries had challenged them as they approached town. With a “fine
Chinese chow” for dinner, they planned to be off early the next day.
As they approached a river crossing near Miao T’an on April 19th, a Saturday, the party
encountered a number of stopped motor cars that were on their way from Urga to Kalgan
loaded with boxes of ammunition for General Feng’s army. Soldiers now lined both
banks of the river to stand guard over the halted cars because one of them had become
stuck on the far bank of the river. Boxes of ammunition were being unloaded from that
vehicle and all others to enable the cars to be taken across river empty. The boxes were
being taken across in ox carts for reloading once the vehicles had safely crossed
[Conq/239]. The expedition cars got over safely and “then we hauled the soldier truck out
and proceeded [Conq/239].”
Meanwhile, Morris had walked on up to Miao T’an to meet up with the three
topographers and 'Buckshot.' Having finished their leveling to Miao T’an earlier that
Thursday, they since had been waiting for the main party to arrive. The carts also had
arrived, the expedition laid over at Miao T’an to reload the cars. While waiting, the
topographers ran seven more miles of route mapping out of Miao T’an while a large
military presence remained to guard cars filled with ammunition for Feng’s army
continued to arrive from Urga [Conq/241].
On Monday, April 20th, the party “got off fairly early –– topographers preceeding us.”
Tiffin was by the roadside and camp was at 4 p.m. on “Wolf Creek about 5 miles south of
Chap Ser.” The road had been good most of the way. The party had also traveled through
bandit territiory that day “without seeing any signs of them.” Feng’s ammunition cars
continued to pass by daily.
We discovered very soon why Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, the so-called

“Christian General,” had objected to our going out to Mongolia. He
knew that a clash with Chang Tso-lin was inevitable in the not far
distant future, and was preparing himself with arms and ammunition
from Russia. Great quantities passed our camp daily in motor cars, and
fifteen hundred camels were reported to be south of P’ang Kiang.
Since Feng had categorically denied his Russian affiliations, he was
not anxious to have foreigners on the road who would tell the truth
[Conq/241].
Part Failure
On the 21st, after breaking camp, with everything loaded aboard the cars which were
being tuned up for the day’s run, the No. 1, Andrews’s car, would not start, even when
towed about in gear by a dog-wagon [Conq/239]. [I thought we had all new cars and no
trucks?] An examination of the timing gear (cam gear) revealed that one lug tip had
broken off causing two adjoining it to become sheared off. No repair could be made since
the gear was made of fiber instead of metal. A spare was not taken because “the Dodge
people had said that this gear never broke [Conq/240].”
Camp was re-established at Wolf Creek while Mac Young headed back in the No. 2 car
for Kalgan 90 miles away to get new gears. He would also bring back Berkey if he was
well enough. Andrews and Granger went by road north to alert the topographers and
Morris who had already gone on ahead before the trouble on the No. 1 was discovered.
While they waited, the topographers and geologists found enough work to do. But the rest
were destined to hunt ducks for a few days –– ”pleasant enough but not so profitable,”
Granger wrote. Although they were forced to remain in a bandit area, “I do not feel that
we are in much danger,” opined Granger, despite Andrews’s later claim to worrying
otherwise [Conq/240]. Nevertheless, five Mongol soldiers came into camp that morning
(April 21st) to report that they were hunting bandits who took two Chinese women for
ransom the day before.
The Wireless
A special tent was pitched near a watercourse which gave a good ground for the
expedition’s secretly brought along wireless radio. An antenna of a single wire about 150
feet long was suspended 20 feet off the ground by means of two spliced bamboo poles.
Once set up, the wireless received time signals from Peking along with a message from
Dr. Loucks saying that Charles Berkey's condition was improved. Music from Shanghai
could be heard clearly over the wireless in the evening. Numerous [Morse] code stations
could be heard [were received/detected] as well.
[After more than 150 years, the dots and dashes of Morse code are quickly fading into the
static of the past. For generations, these electric sounds were the only form of long-
distance communication. On land, they heralded the arrival of a telegram or a news
dispatch from far away. On the seas, they were a lifeline for lonely mariners. Today,
overtaken by the telephone and the Internet, Morse code is considered obsolete, and the
people who once used it are mourning its loss. - 1999
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/onceandfutureweb/database/secd/case2-artifacts/audio3.html]
Interestingly, Conquest makes mention of wireless radio at page 243 only to say that it
was not permitted to be used in Outer Mongolia. Nevertheless, for the moment, time
signals continued to be taken each morning along with messaging. On April 23rd, the
party received word from Dr. Loucks announcing Mac Young’s arrival in Kalgan along
with the continued recovery of Charles Berkey [Conq/240]. Young, they were told,
would have to send in to Tientsin for a spare timing (cam) gear. In the meantime, the
topographers initiated a contour map of the Hallong Ossu region to provide a useful
rendering of that grasslands country [Conq/240]. The rest of the party spent their third
full day of waiting sitting in camp or hunting duck.
On the 24th, Granger accompanied the topographers to Eriksson’s mission at Hallong

Ossu so that Eriksson could take him a few more miles north to J. G. Andersson's old
Olan Chorea and Ertemte localities [Conq/240]. Granger found “little of consequence”
there, Conquest later stating (p. 240) that no work was attempted because the CAE had
yet to be informed that Andersson “had abandoned his investigations” there. Regardless,
Granger finally in 1925 was able to inspect the Inner Mongolia fossil localities
Andersson had discovered in 1919.
The 25th was another day of waiting, most of the men remaining in camp. Morris
surveyed the hills nearby while the topographers continued working on the Hallong Ossu
quadrangle [Conq/240]. The 1925 Expedition was stymied. It had departed Kalgan on the
18th and proceeded 90 miles north by the 20th only to have not moved an inch since. It
was now Sunday, April 26th. The day dawned bright, calm and fairly warm with a light
skim of overnight ice [icing] still on the pools.
Oscar Mamen, one of Andrews’s old [1919] Outer Mongolia hunting buddies, and five
others came by car from Urga that day at about 10 a.m. and stopped at camp for coffee
[321]. They reported that political conditions were still bad in Urga. Larson was
expecting to leave Urga in a few weeks, perhaps for good. He was now forbidden by the
Bolsheviks to ship horses out of Outer Mongolia.
Shortly after lunch, Mac Young drove into camp in the No. 2 car with Berkey, Loucks
and 'Buckshot' aboard [Conq/241]. Berkey looked “pretty feeble but apparently able to
carry on.” Young had remained in Kalgan and ordered the new gears sent up by mail
from Tientsin. Loucks had briefly returned to Peking and from there brought back letters
and mail. There were four letters from Anna for Granger and one from his father Charles.
There were also several photos of Anna taken in the Andrews/CAE compound.
Copies of the "Peking Leader" featured an article by the [Chicago Tribune] reporter [?
John] Daley had caused some trouble in diplomatic circles. His article stated that the
expedition party had departed Kalgan despite General Feng's request that they wait for
two weeks while he cleared the country of bandits, and that they had to sign papers
releasing the Chinese government of responsibility for any consequences. Andrews “has
had to write to the Legation saying that matters were not so bad as stated.”
The No. 1 car was back to running that afternoon and sent over to Eriksson’s mission at
nightfall with a large bundle of letters. The topographers had finished the Hallong Ossu
quadrangle and were ready to go. The expedition was off to an early start on the 27th, the
topographers going on ahead to finish siting four or five miles of trail beginning about 15
miles north of Chap ser. The party was to take a cut-off trail the next day that they had
learned about from the Williams at the Pioneer Inn. It was off the main Urga trail about
21 miles north of Chap ser at the yurt village they called "Tserinville" because Tserin the
future caravan leader lived there [Conq.241]. They then took a route westward to the
lamasary of Gushih in Suma where they headed southwest on one of the numerous trails
leading out of an intersection there.
While stopped at Gushih in Suma, they learned from three lamas who were traveling east
on camels “that Merin had been held up by five soldiers at Bulli in Suma and had been
keeping him there for a month. No reason given –– this is disquieting news.” Conquest
later stated that the soldiers claimed to have found ammunition among the expedition’s
equipment.
“As a matter of fact, there were several boxes of shotgun shells in one of the cases, but
the Urga authorities had assured me that their permit covered whatever our camels would
carry, and that the caravan would be allowed to pass the frontier without examination,”
Andrews wrote in Conquest [Conq/243-244].
“Since I knew from previous experience,” he continued,
the type of insolent Buriat officials who are in charge of every

border station, there was little doubt in my mind as to why our
camels were being held. Every Chinese caravan is treated in the
same way until the merchants pay enough “squeeze” to satisfy the
greed of the Buriats [Conq/244].
[Note that Conquest/Mongolia has two voices: Andrews per Granger/Granger diary and
Andrews per Andrews.]
That day’s run was about 65 miles to a night camp at a well, Granger recorded, located in
the center of a plain west soutwest of Gushih in Suma. As he settled in for the night, he
noticed that near the camp was a horned lark’s nest with two half grown young in it. They
had also passed, he wrote, many antelope that day north of Chap ser. Of them, Andrews
had shot an old buck. Loucks had shot a female.
Departing on the 28th, another fine clear day, the expedition struck the Sair Usu trail at
about 10:00 a.m. passing across an ancient wall 3 1/2 miles north of the trail. They drove
60 miles to a campsite at a well on a large dry wash surrounded by a few yurts.
Twice that afternoon they thought they had finally reached the Bultai Urtu lamasary and
the point where the trail south from Irdin Manha joined the Sair Usu road. But that night
(28th) they found they were still east of it, although they knew where they were.
Andrews and Mac were to take one car early the next morning (29th) to Sharu Marun
lamasary and bring back a few cases of fuel out of the 42 cases which Merin was
supposed to have dropped off there. Both trucks had run out of gas a few miles east of the
new campsite that afternoon and they had to borrow some from Granger’s car after he
drove back three miles to find them.
“Thousands of Mongolian gazelles today,” Granger noted on the 28th, “especially just a
mile or so east of this camp. Nearly all does and unusually tame. One bunch of 200 or so
crossed less than 100 yards in front of me when I was on the way back to Lovell (and the
stalled trucks) and did this trick over again upon my return.” Norman Lovell, a U.S.
Marine, replaced Vance Johnson as a motorman that season. And thanks to Loucks’s,
also a U.S. Marine, skill with a weapon the men had “Antelope filet for dinner and
wonderfully fine.”
On Thursday the 30th, they drove to Ula Usu, about 71 miles away, “and found the place
little changed since our last visit in 1923 [Conq/244].” On the 1st, Granger, Andrews,
Shack, Mac, Lovell and Loucks proceeded, according to Granger, to Merin’s camp.
Andrews, on the other hand, takes 2 1/2 pages of Conquest (pp. 244-246) to portray a
daring drive straight to the nearby yamen by the six men, each heavily armed, in three
cars to take on the Buriat officials who had dared to stop and delay Merin and his
caravan.
Grabbing a Mongolian soldier as hostage, Andrews not only claims to have led the
storming of the yamen, but, once inside, he successfully slammed his fist so hard on a
sheet-iron stove that all culprits jumped with great fear before duly slumping into quiet
submission. He then launches into a somewhat nasty diatribe about dealing with Buriat
officials, to wit: “As soon as we arrived, an insolent young Buriat from the yamen
swaggered into the tent [apparently confirming Granger’s version that Merin’s tent is
where they went first]...I know of no more insolent type of human being than a Buriat in
possession of a little authority...we had to let the yamen officials understand that we
would enforce our rights, with bullets if necessary [Conq/245-246].”
Granger records nothing like this other than, as said, that the six men drove to Merin’s
camp. Beyond that, however, his diary is also intriguingly blank from May 1 through
May 5, except twice to record mileages of 46 on the 1st and 58.6 on the 5th [the latter
shows up in Conq/249].
Merin and the caravan departed Ula Usu on May 2nd. On the 6th, the expedition went
into camp at Gatun Bologai, the topographers continuing their survey line across the
plateau from camp to camp. Berkey seemed recovered, Granger thought, although he was
not allowed by Loucks to be very active.
On the 7th, they camped at Baiying Goshigo after a 57.2-mile run. The location was in a
wash with many elm trees and a well on a high mound of earth just to the east
[Conq/250]. They recognized the place as one they had passed in the fall of 1923 when
they had the lama guide with them and then turned off to the north some distance further
east. “We are therefore on the main trail to T'sagan Nor and not on a northerly road as we
had supposed.” They had passed Merin’s new camp shortly after tiffin and found that all
was well with him.
On the 8th, the party made a roughly 52-mile run on a clear day against strong
headwinds. The topos carried their line into camp ‘Khundelungi Usu’ at the bottom of a
broad sand wash with a well and a field of large tussocks along the eastern edge. This had
been a hard day for everybody [Conq/251]. “Three or four bad washes gave trouble to all
cars in both parties. In one broad sandy wash we had to make a pavement of flat granite
stones for the cars to run over and it required the assistance of all available men pushing
in addition.”
Saturday, May 9th, was different. They covered about 72 miles into camp by a well a
mile south of and considerably above the road at the southwestern end of a long rocky
range of hills Granger called “Gee Cheh Ola [‘Jichi Ola’-Conq/252].” The topographers
did 70.4 miles of the route with Chaney and Granger assisting all day. It was “wonderful
going, only one bad place about 53 miles west of camp –– a low tussocks place with
some water and a little sand. Nobody of our party stuck. (Mac reports getting stuck).”
For game, however, it was a desolate section with almost none in sight all day. They’d
seen just ten antelope, a few sand grouse and one plover. The next day was through
“much rough country and a good deal of heat waves and topography difficult.” Scouting
for the right route, Andrews went off on a southerly road for about 10 miles east of camp
and then cut across country to the northward to a camping place on the main trail and
then east to a fork where he left a note directing the party to keep on the main road. He
also reported having seen auto tracks in the road ahead. Tserin reported hearing that two
cars had passed westward. Liu learned from a Chinese trader that three cars had gone
westward and one had returned. He understood that Russians were in the cars. Mongolia
was getting crowded with auto traffic, Granger noted, and while the road had been fine
and hard most of the way, it was a bit wavy in places and that necessitated frequently
slowing down the cars.
It was a cloudy damp day with sprinkles of rain. The Gurban Saikhan mountain range
was obscured and, as if to join them, Granger made no more diary entries for the next
month. From late May to late June, 1925, he wrote nothing and left the next 28 pages of
his diary book pages as if he’d planned to fill them in later. Why? Because the party was
headed back to Shabarakh Usu.
“Return to the Flaming Cliffs”
Olsen’s original find of dinosaur eggs at Shabarakh Usu in 1923 was never filmed for
motion picture because Shackelford was not with the expedition that year. But a
Shackelford film portraying the discovery does exist. It was made in 1925. The month-
long (late-May to late-June) gap in Granger’s 1925 diary is explained by the CAE’s
return to the Flaming Cliffs to restage the discovery of dinosaur eggs for Shackelford’s
camera. Conquest takes us back at page 253, Andrews opening that chapter true to form:
On the way to Shabarakh Usu [the] next morning, we had a surprising

exhibition of the ability of a gazelle to run when badly wounded. I shot
a young buck, completely severing the hind leg at the knee. The
animal continued to run at a speed of twenty-five miles an hour for
five miles. The going was so bad that the car could not reach a greater
speed than that and we were not able to get near enough for a second
shot [Conq/253].
After a two year absence, the CAE party arrived at Shabarakh Usu on May 11. After
setting up camp, the men of the varied scientific disciplines now in the field began
making their inspections of the area. Freshly exposed after two year’s of weathering, all
kinds of new evidence seemed to lay about. Among the discoveries for the
paleontologists and archaeologist were pieces of fossil eggshell of the giant ostrich
Struthiolithus [J. G. Andersson] along with those of the dinosaur. Interesting was their
realization that a number of eggshells apparently had been handled, even worked
decoratively, by an older human culture they named the “Dune Dwellers of Shabarakh
Usu [Conq/254-255] [A. Mayor].”
Olsen prospected in the gully where he had found the original nest of eggs in 1923 and
found another within yards of it [Conq/256]. These eggs were smaller than the ones he’d
found in 1923 and were later determined to be of the dinosaur [ ] [Conq/257]. Motorman
Lovell found nested dinosaur eggs as well, and quickly deferred to Granger to handle
excavating and removing the entire block of matrix contained them [Conq/257]. Finally,
the topographers found many fragments of Struthiolithus eggs in the peneplane indicating
an apparent nesting site of that giant ostrich [Conq/258].
The next few pages of Conquest are devoted to Andrews’s return to Urga with Mac
Young and Tserin on May 24th, neither of whom would be around in 1933 to verify this
drama-filled account of that journey. The upshot was that the Urgan officials had recalled
Andrews to Urga to address their concerns about the CAE’s motives and activities and
provide greater accountability. “On June 4, the last document had been signed,” wrote
Andrews, “the last permit received and the last dollar paid... The agreement which we
finally signed with the Scientific Committee was fair and provided that certain duplicates
of our collections should be returned to Urga [Conq/262].”
Andrews also agreed to return to the expedition with two Buriats in tow: Dalai
Badmajapoff, a young boy taken along as a “guest” (as requested by T. Badmajapoff),
and John Dimschikoff, a 24-year old professor of science [Conq/263]. Things were not to
go well with Dimschikoff. Andrews and party returned to Shabarakh Usu two weeks after
they’d left. Among other things, more dinosaur eggs had been discovered, these “of very
small thin-shelled kind unlike any of the others [Conq/266].”
More news awaited: Granger’s previously noted “unidentified reptile” found in the
Cretaceous Djadochta during the 1923 expedition’s stop at Shabarakh Usu was actually
“one of the oldest known mammals [to be found]...in a hundred years of science only one
skull of a mammal from the Age of Reptiles ever had been discovered [Conq/271].” In
the days and weeks following, Granger and his men found seven more. “Those skulls
were the most precious of all the remarkable specimens that we obtained in Mongolia
[Conq/271].”
Members of classification orders known as Multituberculata and Insectivora, the latter

order now abandoned, these archaic mammals bridged the transition from the Age of
Reptiles to the Age of Mammals [Conq/273]. William K. Gregory saw them as the
“missing links in the story of mammalian evolution [Conq/273].” [First appearing in the
early Jurassic, possibly the Triassic, multituberculates survived the mass extinction in the
Cretaceous, only to become extinct in the early Oligocene epoch, some 35 million years
ago. - Wiki]
[The order Insectivora is a now-abandoned biological grouping within the class of

mammals. Some species have now been moved out leaving the remaining ones in order
Eulipotyphla, within the larger clade Laurasiatheria, which makes up one of the most
basic clades of placental Mammals. - Wiki]
Not surprisingly, Shackelford’s 1925 film version of discovering dinosaur eggs at

Shabarakh Usu wasn’t anything like the original event in 1923. Instead, it is characterized
by a clatter of men frolicking with glee while recklessly retrieving [grabbing, hoisting]
fossil eggs from in situ. Motorman Norman Lovell is in the film, even though he wasn’t
with the CAE in 1923! And, of course, Andrews is in it too, although we now know that
he didn’t become aware of Olsen’s original find for several weeks [322].
In the meantime, back in Peking, Anna had been sorting out money matters. She wrote to
the Museum’s financial officer, Mr. Smythe, to say that while she seemed to have drawn
more heavily on their letter of credit for the month of May than she should, she did so
knowing that what was drawn had to suffice for all of June. “I am trying to change the
time of taking out money on the letter on the last of the old month rather than at the
beginning of a new one because the rate of exchange seems to be higher then. Just at the
first week of a month when everybody is needing money for bills, it seems as if the
bankers manipulate to keep the exchange for their advantage.” Regardless, she asked
Smythe to
get in touch with my brother, Roger Granger at #50 Church St. N.Y.
City––Telephone Cortlandt 7656 in case you need money to cover. I
am writing to him. I found a memorandum among Walter's papers
saying I could only draw $268. gold per month. At this rate I have
exceeded the quota. There will not be the demand for funds in the
coming month as there has been up to date. I am sure I shall not
have any further difficulty in keeping within the limit [323].
The weather was wonderfully fine for this season of the year in Peking, she added. The
city had received more than the usual amount of rain and the parks were delightfully
green.
Anna also was busy, noting that “What time I have left from social functions, rickshaw
riding, browsing around in curio stores, etc., I am spending on Chinese. Have a fine
teacher and am enjoying the lessons very much.”
[ ].
June 24, 1925

Rode over to badlands and walked home. Found the pelvis of a
mastodont and the usual scrap of foot bones, tooth fragments, etc. A
dull day with summit of the mountain obscured most of the time
[324].
The CAE party left Shabarakh Usu for Tsagan Nor on June 8 and arrived two days later
on the 10th [Conq/275 & 279]. Shortly after, Granger and Olsen proceeded another
fifteen miles north of Tsagan Nor with their field and camp assistants to establish camp at
Loh where the first Baluchitherium skull had been found in 1922. Granger was interested
in finding more parts of this animal, along with whatever else the site had to offer. He
and the other collectors began finding a variety of material right away [Conq/279].
Most spectacular among the fossil discoveries was Liu’s find of evidence further
excavated by Granger that eventually revealed all four lower legs of a Baluchitherium
that apparently sank to death by suffocation in quicksand while remaining upright
[Conq/279].
After finshing their work at Loh, the paleontologists moved over to the slopes of Baga
Bogdo where they studied “an enormous” but badly preserved mastodont pelvis found by
Olsen. Because of its size, its rather bad preservation and the amount of time and material
required to collect it, Granger decided to leave it and take measurements and photographs
instead.
In the meantime, the Chinese chauffeur Wang “found a deposit of Struthiolithus

eggshells. Fine large pieces and, when fresh (newly cracked), looking for all the world
like recent eggs.”
Nothing else of much of importance was found at Hung Kureh Formation and Granger
summarized the rest of that day:
Robbie stopped in on us at the pelvis today and reported that

Chaney & Nelson were at my camp. They came in from Tiger
Cañon with three camels and are staying overnight. They report that
Loucks and Butler climbed Boga Bogdo yesterday in spite of the
rain, snow and clouds, left an Expedition letterhead in a Listerine
bottle in an obo at the top and flew the American and Explorer's
Club flags. Climb took 7 1/2 hours, from the first cañon west of
Tiger cañon. They have gone on to Tsagan Nor today.
Calm and hot [Conq/281] [325].
On the 26th, Granger began wrapping up matters at the Hung Kureh location and getting
ready to move on. His plan was to relocate camp at a lake on the 28th about 30 miles
northwest of his present location. Andrews had reported a continuation of the Hsandu Gol
beds in that direction.
Granger left the Hung Koreh Formation camp on foot just after breakfast, while the loads
were being made up for the camels, walking first to the mastodont pelvis, which he took
snaps of with his Leica. He then struck across the dunes to Andrews’ main camp,
reaching it in time for late tiffin. The rest of the party came back in from prospecting a
couple of hours later.
Andrews reported the capture of a baby ass a few days before. Young was nursing it and
the little beast was becoming quite gentle. But it had escaped the previous night and they
could not find it although they looked everywhere, including in the cars. It carried away a
dog's collar and ‘Robbie’s’ leather vest.
Granger spent the 27th in camp packing. Except a large skull of a Protoceratops found by
Shackelford which Merin said was too heavy to put on camels in hot weather, all fossils
were now boxed and turned over to the caravan. The skull would have to be taken along
in one of the trucks for present. At Andrews’s request, one of the Buriats (perhaps the
not-so-bad, but un-named Secret Service agent Granger called the ‘Controller’) marked
the fossil boxes so that they would not be opened at any of the yamens as the caravan
returned to Kalgan. Berkey, Morris, Shackelford and Lovell returned from the mountain
that night (27th) at about 11:00 p.m.
As for pets, Granger noted, Chaney had brought back from the mountains a baby black
vulture which seemed to thrive on the raw meat he was feeding it. 'Buckshot' kept four or
five young brown shrikes Liu had taken from a nest in the tamarisks. A small Mongol
dog had attached himself to the caravan. A young female dog, which seemed marooned at
a nearby spring became friendly, having followed the camels into camp the previous day
(June 26th). Per Granger’s totalling, then, the CAE party now included four dogs, a
vulture and five shrikes. Shack's hedgehog had escaped two nights before.
On June 28th, the party set off to find a large lake called Orok Nor which they had not
been to before [Conq/286]. They could see it, but could not access it because of a vast
sand-dune area that nearly encircled it. And where there wasn’t a sand-dune, the lake
abutted the base of a mountain. They camped at a river nine miles away hoping to try
again in the morning. But it was without success and they finally drove off [Conq/286].
Eventually, they linked up with “the old Uliassutai caravan trail which passes north of
Tsagan Nor, and followed it eastward [Conq/287].” As Granger records it (Conquest
following suit at p. 287), 38 miles later, they ended up at a lake called Kholobolchi Nor
and went into camp [Conq/288].
Kholobolchi Nor, about 2 1/2 by 1 1/2 miles in size and shallow with a pebbly and sandy
bottom, was alive with a species of small fish different from the lake at Tsagan Nor. The
area teemed as well with swans, gulls, terns, [curley,] ducks of several species, geese and
many wading birds including a black stork. The CAE party located camp on the south
side of the lake a mile off the road that skirted its west end. The tents were pitched on a
rather bumpy stretch of green sevard of grass thick, short and soft. But altogether the
camp was perhaps “the most delightful one we have yet had in the Gobi
[WGDiary6/28/25] [Conq/287-288].”
Chaney and Granger had assisted the topographers along the way “as usual” and had
arrived in camp late in the afternoon. By then, 'Buckshot' had a net out and was hauling in
fish. The next day, June 29th, was to be one of relaxation. Granger made no entry for that
day part of which was devoted swimming, listening to the victrola, and watching a
glorious sunset.
*
On June 30, 1925, Andrews drove off in a dog-wagon with Roberts, Young, Lovell and
Tserin. They were to inspect a road going over the Altais west of Ike Bogdo and would
be gone for three or four days [Conq/293 says July 1 and that they took an ‘automobile’].
Granger, in the meantime, set off in the No. 1 with Olsen, Dalai Badmajapoff and his
wife, and John Dimshikoff westward in search of exposures. Except for a small patch of
badlands to the northeast, probably Pleistocene Granger thought, they saw nothing
worthwhile. Among them, they found only a single, badly preserved mastodont molar
[Conq/288-89].
Shackelford, Loucks and Chaney, in the meantime, went off by dog-wagon to set up
camp near the east end of a lake called Orok Nor where Chaney hoped to find plant
fossils and Shackelford planned to take motion pictures of the waterfowl in the lagoons
about the lake. Butler and Robinson spent the day surveying the lake.
On the 1st, Berkey and Morris, with Shah as cook, started for the mountain the next day
by way of the west end of the lake. Motoring over to the base of the mountain, they then
took camels up into the valley. It rained steadily from before daylight until just past noon.
Breakfast was at 11:00 a.m., and no work followed for the rest of the day. Nelson,
'Buckshot' and the geologists had found a set of exposures south of the road the previous
day from which 'Buckshot' brought a few fragments and reported a fine skull, evidently
Eocene. But Granger decided to wait a day before taking a look so that the topographers
could continue their survey line up to it.
Butler and Robinson rode with Granger to carry the line of survey down toward the lake.
The geologists’ car assisted with the sighting as far as the Eocene exposure they had
found two days before, 7.8 miles from camp. They then, with Wang driving, struck
directly for the west end of the lake. Two caravan Mongols with nine or 10 camels
followed them. Another six camels led by Bato started early for Shackelford's camp,
which could be seen through the glasses from the Eocene exposures. Shackelford was to
use the camels going to and fro between camp and the lagoons for motion picture
purposes.
*
'Buckshot''s skull proved to be an Amblypod about the size of a Coryphodon. Olsen

found another skull of the same sort a few days later [Conq/289]. A few fragmentary
items found by Liu and Granger led Granger to conclude that the beds were Eocene
without a doubt. But they were unlike any other beds they had seen in lithology and in
preservation of fossils. The color was mostly a dirty yellow. All fossil collectors returned
to this Eocene locality the next day where 'Buckshot' finished his skull and brought it in
to camp. Nothing much else was developed. Granger walked across the [?name] Gol to a
small set of Eocene exposures to the west in which he found a good deal of bone, but
nothing worth keeping.
Wong returned to camp on July 3rd at about 1:00 p.m. with Berkey's car stopping by
Granger’s location on the way with a letter from the geologist reporting that his camp
was set at the west end of lake. He would be starting for the valleys with the camels that
morning. Andrews and his party returned at about 6:00 p.m. and reported crossing the
range over a low pass without a trail. They found many parallel ranges on the south side
with high mountain penaplanes in between and no later sediments in sight. Following
Colonel Pyotr Kuzmich Kosloff's (Koslov’s, or Kozlov’s) old camel trail through the
mountains proved impossible, he said, because of boulders in the valley through which
that trail passed [Conq/293].
The strong west wind of the past two days seems to have driven the
fish in our lake over to one side and this evening 'Buckshot' was
hauling them a hundred at a time. The Chinese are fond of these fish
but we find them too soft to be very palatable [326].
Conquest places this event late at night on the 4th, rather than in the evening of July 3rd
when Granger recorded it, causing Andrews to awaken from his sleep. Ever the drama
was Roy’s life it seems. In any event, this final paragraph concluded Granger’s 1925
Mongolia diary and we are left with Conquest to narrate the remainder of the season.
All, except Chaney, Loucks, Shackelford, Berkey and Morris were back in camp at
Kholobolchi Nor for the 4th of July [Conq/298]. On the 10th Granger, Berkey, Lovell
and Andrews left camp and headed west. Their purpose was “to get a general view of the
region at least as far as the longitude of Uliassutai, and especially the basins which lie
parallel with the Altai Mounatins on the north side [Conq/300]
But the trip produced little of interest and the recon party returned to Kholobolchi Nor on
the 13th following which it was decided to return to Shabarakh Usu and set up the main
camp [Conq/302]. From there, they planned to find a way through the Gurbun Saikhan
range to the south to inspect the area beyond [Conq/302].
The men broke camp at Kholobolchi Nor on the 16th and headed for Shabarakh Usu.
Once established at Shabarakh Usu, Olsen, Shackelford and Liu planned to hunt for
fossils at Flaming Cliffs while Granger, Berkey, Lovell and Andrews set off for the
Gurbun Saikhan, or “Three Good Ones” [Conq/304]. A few days and six hundred miles
later, the recon party would return empty-handed. In the meantime, Olsen and Liu both
discovered more [new] dinosaur eggs of different kinds than found before at Flaming
Cliffs. Nevertheless, it was decided to leave Shabarakh Usu on August 2nd and begin the
return east to Kalgan [Conq/309].
The party made it as far as the old ‘Clutch Camp’ from 1922 when a similar breakdown
again occurred to one of the dog-wagons. As a result, the party went into camp 43 miles
from Flaming Cliffs [Conq/311]. The next recorded stops were at Jichi Ola [Conq/312]
where the party hunted for a few days and then moved on to Golobai-in-Ola on August 6
and Gutul Usu on the 8th [Conq/313]. By August 9th, they were at the border with Inner
Mongolia where on the 10th they dropped off their “Secret Service official and his bags
and passed into Inner Mongolia [Conq/314].”
They “camped at Ula Usu for a few days while Berkey and Granger made a
reconnaissance to the northeast along the west side of the Shara Murun valley. They
found what they believed were very rich fossil deposits [Conq/315].” In the meantime,
with the work of the topographers finished, Shackelford anxious to return to Peking to
develop film, Chaney finished with his work, and Andrews desiring to learn more about
the political situation, this group decided to return early to Peking [Conq/315].
At some point a week or so later, Andrews and some of his Kalgan friends rejoined the
CAE men at their camp four miles north of the Baron Sog-in-Sumu monastery
[Conq/319]. “After we had eaten tiffin, Granger took us out to the fossil fields. He and
Berkey had reached the conclusion that they were dealing with a new geological horizon,
probably Lower Oligocene. Loucks had discovered [a most interesting skull which later]
proved to be a new titanothere, representing a new phylum [Conq/319].” In 1929, Osborn
named it Embolotherium loucksi after Loucks who had orignally discovered the
specimen Granger then took over and exposed [Conq/319].
The party moved their next camp, later called ‘Viper Camp,’ ten miles north of Baron
Sog-in-Sumu. “The tents were pitched on a great promontory which projectd far out into
the basin [Conq/321],” and the area proved to be quite fossiliferous in the Eocene. Skulls
of the clawed-hoofed Chalicothere and jaws and skulls of the five-toed Lophiodon were
found in great abundance [Conq/322-223]. Andrews also recounts yet another recon and
run-in with Mongolian officials he described as ‘insolent,’ a word he uses many times in
several forms while recounting the 1925 CAE-Mongolia.
End of the 1925 Expedition
When we returned from the southern trip the caravan was awaiting
us at the Baron Sog monastery. Rain and snow warned us that it was
time to leave if we were not to be caught in the bad weather of early
winter... On September 12, we drove down the slope to the basin
floor,... Another season had ended and we were well content
[Conq/323].
Granger reported to his father in a letter written from Peking on September 18th, that the
CAE had returned to Kalgan “at noon on Sept. 15th––on time as usual. I drove in the
same car which I took out on April 18th––still in good shape as were the three other
Dodges and the two trucks. One Dodge was left in Kalgan in August when Andrews
came in with a part of our crowd.”
He thanked his father for all the letters awaiting him in Peking. They and those from
other family members that were newsy of family affairs. “I feel that I am in fairly close
touch with you all once more.”
About June 1st I had a chance to send letters out and wrote to both
Anna and you. These letters along with letters from all the other
Members of the party were taken to Urga by Andrews, who had to

go up there to get our passports, and after having passed through the
politikraus (censor's office) were given by Andrews to a Russian
chauffeur who was just starting for Kalgan. This batch of mail never
got through and we do not know just what happened to it although it
was reported to have been delivered at the wrong Inn in Kalgan and
there destroyed. Another opportunity to send out mail came July
15th when the two Buriats who were with us for a time decided to
return to Urga. I wrote only one letter that time––to Anna––but
asked that she forward the news to you. That batch of letters did get
through but not until after the letters which Andrews himself
brought in to Peking in August.
Our wireless was again a failure; we succeeded in getting time

signals and one message from Anna came through early in May but
the time signals were later declared to be wrong by the operator in
Peking so all we got out of it was the one personal message.
Shackelford, who handled the wireless was preparing to get the
Japanese signals or those from Zickawei Observatory near Shanghai
when our two Buriats arrived from Urga––one as a representative of
the Gov't there––and from then on we didn't dare show the
apparatus [327].
Nothing serious, he continued, had happened the whole summer. But, upon returning,
they learned that the Urgan government “had plans well under way to send down an
armed expedition and take us up to Urga under arrest for overstepping our privileges––
especially in the matter of mapmaking [Conq/233-234].” This plan was finally
abandoned, however,
through the intervention of our good friend [T.] Badmajapoff who

has still much influence with the Urga people [Conq/235]. His
nephew [Dalai Badmajapoff], a young Japanese educated boy, was
one of the two Buriats who were with us for about two months. The
other fellow, named "John" Dimshikoff came as a representative of
the so-called "Scientific Committee" of the Urga Gov't [Conq/233].
He was supposed to come along to learn about the field methods of a

scientific party and proved a good deal of a failure both as a scientist
and everything else. It was apparently on reports which Dimshikoff
either sent back or took back to Urga, that the officials there decided
to arrest us. We understand that "John" is now in jail in Urga
because he said that he had escorted us across the frontier––which he
hadn't. We don't quite know what to make of it all but think that
"John" was sore because we joked him a good deal about shooting
three tame goats on Ikhe Bogdo, thinking they were Ibex, and
thought he would make us plenty of trouble by making adverse
reports about us and our work. Anyhow, we hope the jailer loses the
key. Another Buriat, a soldier whose name I won't attempt to write,
was detailed to be with us as observer of our actions and he did
escort us to the frontier and returned to Urga from there. He couldn't
speak English but seemed to be a pretty decent sort of a fellow and
probably did us more good than harm [328].
They were finished with Outer Mongolia for now. Working there had become
increasingly difficult since 1922. It was now at the point where it was not worth the effort
one had to make to get permission.
The Urga officials, nearly all Buriats, backed by Russian Jews, act
like a lot of extremely ill-mannered children and they cannot
understand our motives for going into their country and do
everything possible to hamper our work. The trip for next year is
planned to extend somewhat parallel to this year's trip but much to
the southward––through Inner Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan and
we will pray that Bolshevik Control does not expand in the mean
time to include that part of Asia. We may have to deal with General
Feng [Yü-hsiang] next season and he seems to be in thick with the
Bolsheviks at present so we may have our troubles even though
we've left Outer Mongolia behind us [329].
Despite Andrews’ embellishments in Conquest, all members of the party had returned
safely from the Gobi-Mongolias without a single martial incident or encounter to report,
Granger assured his father. Andrews, Berkey, Morris, Shackelford, Roberts and Chaney
were to return to the States that fall. Andrews, Shackelford and Roberts planned to be
back in the spring. Berkey, Morris and Chaney were to return to their various duties back
home.
Lieutenants Butler and Robinson returned to their military posts and Dr. Loucks returned
to his work at the Peking Union Medical College. Next year's party would be smaller,
probably not more than eight.
Nelson hoped to work the caves along the Upper Yangtze River over the winter in
conjunction with Granger who also hoped to return to that region “where I would like to
put in the winter again. No news has come from Osborn or Matthew recently and it is
barely possible that I may have to return to the Museum this winter to run the laboratory
next year while Matthew is out here.”
Olsen was to remain in Peking to establish a laboratory at CAE headquarters that fall and
run it over the winter. He would be training the Chinese in fossil preparation by working
up some of the Mongolia material that had been collected that season. Young and Lovell
also were to be based in Peking, keeping themselves busy with getting the motor cars in
shape and helping with the arrangements for next summer’s Mongolia exploit.
Though the largest in scale, albeit foreshortened in length, lighter on fossils than in
previous seasons and burdened with Buriats nearly the entire time, the 1925 Mongolia
season was successful in Granger’s view. Each scientist seemed satisfied with his own
particular branch of work:
While the fossils do not bulk up as great as the second year[,] the
collection is fully as valuable a one as either of the others. Nelson
has made a good start on the trail of primitive man in these parts and
next year should bring even more important discoveries than this
year. Robert's maps are the first ones of first-class type to be made
inside the Mongolian boundaries. Chaney's collection of plants is
almost an exhaustive one of the region we traversed and the
zoological work completed what was begun in 1922 and extended
the second season [330].
Peking was still warm and bright and green, and in such a contrast to the dry, dusty,
brown city they left in April, Granger continued. The next six weeks were to be the most
glorious of the year––fine crisp air, temperature just right and cloudless skies. The city
was quiet now, following the student troubles over the summer. There was a growing
anti-foreign feeling in China which made being there “a bit less attractive than before.
Business is hard hit and many of our old friends have had to return to the States.”
Granger enclosed some news clippings and student handbills for his father to see. The
manifestos were amusing, he wrote: “My attitude in the matter is this: on the day that the
Foreign Powers relinquish their extra-territorial rights in China, Anna and I are going to
sail for home––and the boat will be crowded too!” Nevertheless, he allowed, it still was a
pretty comfortable and interesting place to be. Local curiosity in scientific matters was
increasing, especially in Peking and Shanghai “and this is always a good sign. Our
Expedition has done much to arouse this interest here in Peking.”
In a post-script, Granger noted that “If Arthur [Granger] wishes to make published
reference to this letter [in the Rutland Herald,] be sure and omit paragraphs about
wireless and Urga affairs––these must not get into the papers, at present at least.”
A month and a half later, Granger, Nelson, their wives, 'Buckshot', Liu, Chow and Whey
[Huei] were headed to Sichuan Province for the winter.
Notes on 1925 CAE expedition to Inner and Outer Mongolia
[]
[ ].
November 6, 1925:
Diary of Winter Trip to
Szechuan––1925-'26
Walter Granger
Anna G. Granger
Chow - No. 1 Boy
“'Buckshot'” - Chinese Assistant
Whey [Huei] - Chinese Cook
(Friday). Left Peking for Hankow at 10 p.m. on the tri-weekly

express. Lovell, Mac, Olsen and Mary Smith over to the station to
see us off. Lovell, with a dog-wagon, took our baggage from hotel
and our boxes and bundles from Headquarters. Weighed at the
station at 8 p.m. and about $40. excess baggage charges paid. Mr.
and Mrs. Nelson accompany us. They are to proceed with us to
Ichang and there charter a junk and spend the winter in the gorges
examining the caves there. Anna to go with me to Wanhsien and
spend the winter there and at my camp at Yen-Ching-Kao.
A Mr. Isaac Upham, a photographer from California, is on our train

bound for the Gorges and Chungking. A free lance who plans to
present his own pictures in America [331].
They crossed the Yellow River mid afternoon of the next day, on time and with no
significant signs of military activity. At Cheng Chow one or two trains were full of
soldiers on the siding, but otherwise there seemed to be an unusual scarcity of soldiers.
Wu Pei Fu's reported advance on Suchow Fu would seem to have hardly begun. As
“boys,” Granger noted, “I have Chow, No. 1; Shah, Cook; Liu Taking, assistant,” thus
adding Shah and Liu to his list above. The train arrived at Hankow at 9:00 a.m. on time.
It had rained hard all day. The boys went to a Chinese hotel near the station taking the
Granger’s baggage with them.
The Grangers and Nelsons went over to the Christian and Missionary Alliance where
Granger and Anna had stopped in 1923. The house was designed to accommodate
missionaries passing through Hankow and “we have found it both cheap and
comfortable.” They remained indoors practically all day Sunday, only walking out on the
Bund in the evening when the rain let up. The S.S. Tung Ting was due to leave for Ichang
on Tuesday at 10:00 p.m., and Granger planned to take her. On Monday, he, Nelson and
the boys would provision up.
But the Tung Ting did not get off until nearly 5:00 a.m. on November 11th and spent all
day in the lower river reaching Ching Ling at daybreak the next morning. The captain,
Mr. Bailey, one of the oldest skippers on the Hankow to Ichang run, reported to Granger
that the Tung Wo, which was scheduled to leave Hankow the evening of the 9th was still
anchored there. Apparently this was to suggest that delay on the Yangtze at this time was
not uncommon.
The Tung Ting broke a steering chain that afternoon and had to anchor for an hour or
more while a new one was installed. Yet another steering chain was broken during the
night forcing the ship to anchor for three hours to fix it. They passed one steamer
crowded with soldiers bound downstream and reached Shasi at about 5:00 p.m. to anchor
in stream. They remained until midnight while discharging the cargo of sugar, cigarettes,
cotton, yarn, and other items. The Tung Wo, Granger noted, arrived in Shasi before they
left.
After leaving Shasi at midnight, they proceeded for about three hours into a dense fog
that had settled on the river. They sat at anchor until it dispelled around 10:00 a.m. when
they weighed anchor and proceeded to Ichang. They arrived at 10:00 p.m. and did not go
ashore. Granger, in the meantime, learned “that the Greek hotel at Ichang is closed and
we shall have to try the Mission.” The Tung Wo arrived about 9:00 a.m. with the
photographer Upham aboard. He was to proceed upriver on Tuesday. The gunboats in
port, Granger noted, were the U.S.S. Elcano, H.M.S. Cockchafer and H.M.S. Widgeon.
There also were one French and two Japanese gunboats. Many upriver steamers sat in
port and a few had been idle for some time. Cargo shipments had slowed due to the
military situation.
*
At 9:00 a.m. on Monday, November 16, Chow came alongside with a large sampan and
got the Grangers’ and Nelsons’ gear loaded while they went ashore in a smaller boat and
on to the China Inland Mission where they settled in. Their gear was stored in the cellar
of the large mission building. Mr. Squire of the mission, Granger noted, had been
stationed there for some 20 years. Just before noon, Granger called on the British Consul
and was later was invited over to his house for a cocktail. There he was introduced to the
commander of the H.M.S. Cockchafer.
In the meantime, Nelson was looking for an interpreter since James Wong was not along
for this trip. That afternoon a Mr. Feng was interviewed. He formerly was an interpreter
in the consular office and now taught in the American Church School. He was a
promising man, Granger thought, “but probably Mr. Howe of that Mission will not care
to release him.” A candidate sent over to the CIM to interview with Nelson “threw up his
hands as soon as he heard that Nelson was to go into the gorges in a junk.” In other
words, it was too dangerous. Granger then interviewed a Mr. Yen who was connected
with the St. Andrews School of the Scotch Mission and then went to call on Mr. Howe of
the American Church Mission. “Mr. Howe does not wish to relinquish Mr. Feng as a
teacher and I must take Mr. Yen on a venture although he does not offer to promise as
well.” He then engaged Mr. Yen Yun Nien at $100 per month.
Nelson was already at work, taking Liu and 'Buckshot' across the river to explore the
pyramid-like structures and the valleys beyond them. He excavated near one “pyramid”
and found what he thought to be neolithic pottery. A few days later, both Nelsons went to
inspect a glen five miles up the river. They reported an interesting day, but no results
from excavating. On the 23rd, Granger arranged for the party to sail the next afternoon on
S.S. Chi Chuen of the C.R. Cox & Co., an American shipping firm. The Nelsons were to
accompany them as far as Kwei Fu where they would stop off to survey the gorges and
then continue to Wanhsien by the next available boat. Nelson’s own huchao from the
local general to do this work had just arrived.
They did not depart until the 25th, setting off at daybreak and steaming up to Wushan to
anchor for the night and take on coal. Their steamer was shot at once along the way by
soldiers on a junk but not apparently hit. She had been heavily fired on while upriver
above Chungking earlier that summer. Some 250 hits were made upon her, Granger
learned.
They were off the next morning at the first gray of dawn, stopping at Kwei Fu at about
9:00 a.m. to disembark the Nelsons “and young Edward Bromley whose father and
mother were down on the fore shore to meet him.” At tiffin time, their steering gear
jammed while in a narrow rock-lined channel. “Only quick work of the captain and
engineer avoided a collision with the shore,” Granger wrote. When they reached Wanxian
at 6:45 p.m., they anchored across the harbor from the city and alongside the HMS
Widgeon, the only gunboat then in port. Shortly afterward
a small lighter [barge] came alongside with a card from Mr. Walter
C. Jenkins saying that it was for my use. A bit later Mr. Jackson of
the C.I.M. [China Inland Mission] came aboard to welcome us and
we asked him to dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins then boarded us and
took us all to their house for Thanksgiving dinner which was served
about 9 p.m. We're to stay here until, we go to Yen-Ching-Kuo.
Loaded equipment on lighter and boys & lighter are to stay
alongside until morning. The Jenkinses live up under the cliff to the
southwest of Wanhsien and live extremely comfortably. Jenkins is
the agent for Gillespie & Sons [Gillespie & Company, upriver
merchants] and buys wood oil here [332].
Granger made ready for his usual courtesy rounds, arranging with Jackson to call on a
General Tang, as well as the “Postmaster, M. Jounilet, the Comm. of Customs, Mr.
Watanabe and on the Commander of the ‘Widgeon,’ Mr. Simpson, and Mr. Pugsley,
Lieutenant.” There were many soldiers in Wanxian now but no disorder. Military drilling
was occuring at every available location on both sides of the river with bugles awakening
the Grangers at daybreak almost every day. It was heard that the MV Mei Lu, which had
been held at Chungking by soldiers for some time, was to start down river soon and that
the USS Palos, normally stationed at Wanxian had gone up to accompany her. There was
some confusion––General Tang had asked the captain of the Widgeon to detain the Mei
Lu when it reached Wanxian––and trouble was expected. Chinese soldiers were posted
about the harbor and two small cannons had been mounted.
As Granger and Anna made their rounds, he noticed some changes that had occurred
since their last visit. One was that the Customs house was now run by a Mr. Watanabe,
Japanese, a genial sort and a good provider, thought Granger. The living and dining
rooms were now combined into one room and seemed rather bare––Japanese-like.
After lunch with the Watanabes and their other guests, Mr. and Mrs. Kitijima, the
Grangers went to the shingle bank across the river to see the S.S. Chi Nan with her nose
rested up on shore. She had hit a rock with her bow the previous evening and the hole
was being cemented up. It was expected that she would be underway for Chungking the
next day. Later they visited the temple cave after which they went aboard the Widgeon
for tea. There, Commander [Simpson] informed that the Mei Lu was expected to arrive
after dark under escort of the Palos. “We hurried ashore and home for dinner,” not
wanting to be caught in the harbor if a battle ensued. They found that new Lau was in
from Yanjinggou.
November 30th was bright and warm as Granger went with Jackson to call on General
Tang. Tang gave him four passports and, after a short tiffin, “asked Jackson and me to
write A. B. C.'s on his blackboard. He has been trying to study English under Jackson’s
tutelage this summer and not making much headway.” The Mei Lu came through later
that day, at 3:00 p.m. with the Palos following close behind. Not a shot was fired.
All was calm and Granger made ready to go to Yen-Ching-kuo the next day. Mr. Jenkins
kindly loaned his sampan for the trip up river and Granger hired another small one “for
the boys and the baggage.” New Lau reported that all was quiet in the village and that
Chow already had the expedition set up in the Tan’s temple. The coolies would be
waiting at the Pai Shui Chi (Paishuchi) landing.
[ ].
December 2, 1925:
Warm, with sun dimly shining through Szechuan mist. Wanhsien
water level abt 12 ft. Pushed off at 9 o'clock. Anna and I in the
Jenkin's sampan with our personal baggage and 'Buckshot' and
Whey [Huei] and our camp equipment in a hired sampan. Four men
in each boat. River about 12' and fairly easy except at the lower end
of the shingle bank two miles below Pei Shui Chih [Paishuchi]. Here
the water still flows through on the left side of the shingle bank and,
being shallow and swift, makes much trouble for a short distance.
Reached Pei Shui Chih [Paishuchi] at 2:15. Lau with 11 coolies
waiting. Recognized several familiar faces among them. While
several coolies were adjusting loads Anna and I and the two boys
had tiffin at our old restaurant which is down on the fore shore now.
Mrs. Jenkins had provided a lunch for us to which we added the
usual peanuts, kaoling, and persimmons [333].
The chair provided for Anna was found to be inadequate because it was not covered. A
messenger was sent up to Yanjinggou to obtain a covered one. It had to be brought down
from Sin K'ai T'ien by "Bucktooth Tan," Inn-Keeper Tan's son. Extra coolies had to be
hired to carry the chair. But two locked expedition boxes had to be left behind until the
next morning because another four coolies necessary for carrying them could not be
found. The delays because of the chair and coolie hiring meant that the Grangers did not
reach Yanjinggou until 8:30 p.m. Whey (Huei) had gone on ahead to have dinner ready
for them by 9:00 p.m.
Anna slept in the temple with Granger that night. Chow's room and kitchen were as
before. Whey (Huei) and 'Buckshot' occupied the south balcony. Breakfast was at about
9:00 a.m. on a fine, sunny day, after which Granger made the rounds of the village to
greet old friends. "Grandma Tan" was still going strong. The beggar man next door was
dead, but his widow and two ragged children still occupied the lean-to. Wu You Er was
married. Inn-keeper Tan and his family were all alive although two of his sons were now
smoking opium “and started downhill apparently.”
Tan was asked to allow Anna to sleep in the temple that winter. But after consulting with
other elders of the family, he announced that it could not be permitted. The Grangers
would stay one more night in the temple and then move over to their old room in the Inn
the next morning.
The temple had been repaired since they were here last. Apparently the family had used
the $30 Granger gave them for rent for the two winters he was there to refurbish it. One
or two new beams had been put in one of the galleries. Some new tiles were put on the
roof and the ridge to the main building, and the south gallery was painted. The "Chancel
rail" was restored with plaster and some new panels painted on it. There had also been a
little plastering on the walls where it was most needed.
Four coolies returned later that afternoon with the two locked boxes. And so it began all
over again, as another fine bright day dawned––most unusual Szechuan weather.
'Buckshot' and New Lau set off for Chang Chia Chiao to bring back a cleaned fossil skull
and jaws of bear. They reported that many hundred catties (1 cattie=500 grams) of bone
were being taken from one pit still being worked. Old Lau's brother came by that day,
also, to say that Old Lau, who was sent for by Chow some days ago, would be along in
four or five days. The brother would help out until then.
The Grangers’ cots were moved over to the Inn. Knowing Granger was back, a man came
in that night with a carcass of a great chestnut-colored flying squirrel he’d found over
near the Hupeh border.
Taking Stock
Granger was now into his third Yangtze basin winter-long expedition having just
completed his third summer-long expedition into the Gobi basin. He had been in the field
almost constantly since the fall of 1921. But expeditions were not his only focus during
this time. He was also producing scientific papers on the CAE’s work and the list was
growing. From 1922 through to this point in 1925, Granger’s name was on twenty papers,
four of them as sole author, two with Berkey, one with William K. Gregory and the rest
with W. D. Matthew.
The titles began with “The wider significance of paleontological research in China,”
published in a bulletin issued by the Geological Society of China in 1922 in Granger’s
furtherance of the Museum’s initial denouement with the Chinese scientific community.
They also published his first report on the “Paleontological discoveries of the Third
Asiatic Expedition” in 1923. Other titles were published mainly by the Museum, such as
“Discovery of Cretaceous and older Tertiary strata in Mongolia” with Berkey in 1922,
“Protoceratops andrewsi, a preceratopsian dinosaur from Mongolia” with Gregory in
1923, “New fossil mammals from the Pliocene of Sze-Chuan, China” with Matthew in
1923, “Comments on the epidermal tubercles,” in a larger work by Osborn in 1924, “New
ungulates from the Ardyn Obo Formation of Mongolia with faunal list and remarks on
correlation,” in 1925 with Matthew, and so on.
More papers would follow, especially with Matthew, but also with Osborn and an
eventual newcomer to the Museum’s paleontology department, George Gaylord Simpson.
There were more papers yet to be issued with Berkey and Morris, and a few more with
Gregory. As he set about to work in Yanjinggou over that winter of 1925-26, Granger
had now published or contributed to a career total of 46 scientific papers, most of them in
paleontology, geology and mammalogy. In his later years, he would publish more, as
well as a few chapter-length popular accounts. However, he never wrote a book.
It was December 5th, and Old Lau's brother decided that he no longer wanted to do coolie
work for the expedition. He had been a soldier “and seems to have been spoiled for much
of anything else.” It now appeared also that Old Lau had departed the area some time ago
and had not been heard from causing Granger to have to look elsewhere for a second
man. “I miss Jim Wong,” he confided to his diary. “Things do not go quite as smoothly
about camp and I probably do not get as much information as I used to about pit
workings, etc., but most of all I miss his cheery good humor and conversation. Also in
case of threatened trouble I shall be much more apprehensive than formerly.”
Anna put one over on the Tan family the next day by rigging up a bed in her dressing
room out of a grip, a stove, a dufflebag and a rug and taking a nap on it that afternoon.
They were to have the kitchen ceiling repapered to keep in the heat and keep out the cold
draft which wafted down into the room from above. The old paper ceiling of 1922-23 was
destroyed in the recent repairs. Despite the Tan family feelings about a woman sleeping
in the temple, Anna decided to take control until the promised repairs were made.
Granger also noted that small amounts of money in Sichuan, at least this part of it, had
changed materially since the winter of 1922-23.
One sees no more single cash pieces or anything in fact short of 100
cash pieces. Things of small value, such as persimmons, are now
sold at so many (8 or 10) for 100 cash. In Ichang the 50 cash
predominates as small change now but the 100 cash pieces are not
taken. What has become of the single cash coins I do not know:
possibly collected for their value as metal and used by the military
for recoinage or for cartridge cases [334].
Granger resumed personal inspection the pits and went with 'Buckshot' and New Lau to
Chang Chia Chiao. This was a large pit some 75-feet deep and had produced a ton or so
of bone to date, mostly badly broken up. Granger took 10 Kodak snaps of the pit and then
moved on to a farm house where the bones were stored. He looked over a pile of cleaned
bone, finding parts of two pandas. Despite the overall poor condition of the material, the
presence of a panda fossil made it well worth looking over the rest of the unprocessed
material. The owners agreed to let him know when they were to clean up the remaining
piles of bone.
Jenkins’s Ma Fu (native assistant) arrived after sunset with a bundle of Shanghai papers,
a letter from Nelson and a few Peking papers forwarded by Mary Smith. But there was
“No home mail!” Nelson reported that he had engaged a boat and that everything was
ready for his start. Granger sent the Ma Fu back with a mallard he’d shot and a large
bouquet of narcissus picked from behind the temple. He sent “no letters except to Jenkins
whom I have asked to order a mountain chair for Anna.”
December 9th was another bright day––”but there is an increasing chilliness in the air.”
And now there was fog nearly every morning, though it dissipated at around ten.
Granger’s coolies were preparing a bamboo strip for the kitchen ceiling which was ready
to be papered. The strip first had to be wrapped in paper to give the paper ceiling sheets
something to hold on to. The kitchen would be sealed in a day and become quite cozy.
The Tan family cat, in the meantime, had visited the temple that previous night “and ate
up a prepared bat and also the feet from a white heron.” In the afternoon, 'Buckshot' got a
second white heron which Granger prepared. Meanwhile, Chow reported that a robbery
had occurred at a home up on the side of the mountain not far from the T'zo Ma Lin trail
and some six or seven li (500 meters, 547 yards) from camp. Three men, one with a
pistol, held up a man and took two or three catties of opium.
Granger brought his father to date on the 13th of December. He was
still without news of the family since mid-August. In fact––without

any American mail since that time. There has been serious
interruption between Peking and the Yangtze River ports and I
presume that accounts for the delay. But there should soon be some
mail direct to Wanhsien. River steamers are to run all winter now
and this will make a lot of difference both in speed and safety [335].
Anna and he found life in Sichuan much as formerly. He missed Jim Wong, he confided
yet again, but they seemed to be able to manage without him. There was no suggestion of
political or military disturbance in the area, or indeed all of China, and matters appeared
relatively tranquil.
As he finished writing that sentiment, the Wanxian magistrate passed by with an escort of
a half dozen soldiers on his way to a market place ten miles beyond. “These are the first
armed soldiers I have seen since we came out.”
Anna had been in camp 11 straight days now. Ten of those had been sunny––”a most
unheard of thing in this region in December. The reverse is the rule.” Fossil digging had
begun on the hill above them and bones were beginning to come in. More workers would
begin to work the fossil pits as soon as all the sweet potatoes were finished being dug up
and the winter crop of rice and wheat were sowed.
They had fallen into good hands in Wanxian this year. “A man named Jenkins and his
wife took us in and made us most comfortable.” Jenkins was a purchasing agent for
Gillespie & Sons of New York, he wrote, a buyer of wood oil. “This oil is one of the
principal exports from China and is used extensively in the making of paints, varnishes,
etc., at home. It is prepared from the nut of a tree growing hereabouts.” Jenkins’ wife was
a New Englander, formerly from Concord, NH, not far from Rutland, VT.
Anna and he were both well. Living out of doors as before, but with the aid of good
clothing, good food and fire baskets, they managed to keep fairly “comfortable––these
sunny days are a great help of course but I am afraid the cloudy dismal weather will settle
down upon us at any time.” The villagers seemed glad to have them back. One or two of
them had passed on since they were last here, but several newborns had taken their
places, Granger noted. “The population increases here as well as elsewhere in China
although the soil hardly takes care of them as it is. I notice that there are more cultivated
fields and fewer patches of trees on the hillsides than formerly which in itself is an
indication of increased population.”
Opium raising and smoking was common in Sichuan province now, and that had caused a
drop in the food supply from crops, which had not been completely sufficient to begin
with. A missionary at Ichang told him that seven-tenths of all land in the province, aside
from the rice paddies, was now under poppy plant cultivation. The military helped push
this business, even enforcing poppy growing in some regions. Granger had not see so
much opium smoking in Peking,
but the minute one strikes the Yangtze, the smell of it is in one's
nostrils all the time. The boats reek with it and every native hotel has
a room or two set apart for smoking. This little village has two
places and they are also sprinkled along the highways at frequent
intervals so that the carrying coolies can have their pipe about
whenever they want it. Opium derelicts are to be seen everywhere,
more now than ever before. A few smoke and live to be old but most
of them pass out early and miserably. With a weak central
government and with local military authorities looking to opium for
financial support the situation is bad [336].
Granger closed with assuring his father that he was waiting every day for a messenger
from Wanxian to bring in mail forwarded from Peking. “We're naturally getting anxious
for news from home as well as from the Museum. I hope you are all well.”
The CAE had made an incredible splash that was reverberating around the world. But, as
he now continued to advance its work, Granger’s world might just as well have been
entirely elsewhere. Even the comparative proximity of Anna and Nelson was not
sufficient to allay his need for contact from family and colleagues at the museum.
On the 14th, he found no pits working over the entire area he traveled. The principal
reason was that the wholesale buyers were not buying and when they did they did it was
at low prices, as little as 13 cents per cattie. Granger spent most of his days in camp on
taxidermy projects and writing letters. On the evening of the 17th, eleven suspicious-
looking men came in just before sunset. Eight of them took quarters at Tan's Inn. Chow
got into a conversation with one who said he was a gun repairer and was bound inland to
work. Another told Mrs. Tan that he was a merchant. Both the villagers and Granger’s
men became suspicious, thinking they were robbers. 'Buckshot' gave up his kang (brick
sleeping platform) and Granger moved his and Anna's cots over to the temple for the
night. “We will keep some sort of vigil.” Granger’s coolie men sat up on watch until 1:00
o'clock in the morning. Then Chow took watch until 5:00 a.m. when 'Buckshot' relieved
him. The lights were kept burning all night.
Mrs. Tan reported there had been much whispered conversation among the men during
the evening, and that one of them had a "piece of iron or steel eight or ten inches long".
They had practically no baggage. The night passed uneventfully, however, and the eight
men left early, heading toward T'so Ma Lin.
December 20, 1925, arrived with a thin ice for the first time on the paddy fields.
Otherwise it was another bright day. It also brought an influx of animals to Granger.
First, a local hunter from whom they had bought a gray civit, came with a small brown
civit. Then another fellow arrived with a young gray civit followed by a chap with a large
gray civit still alive and held by a rope around its middle. The rope was protected from
gnawing by a length of bamboo. Granger sketched the apparatus and bought the animals.
'Buckshot' also shot a new shrike near the temple.
Five of the so-called robbers passed through in the forenoon and went on toward the
river. Two were said to have gone through the day before. There seemed to be little doubt
now that they were robbers. Someone at T'zo Ma Lin reported having seen cartridges and
a gun on one of them. But no one was known to have been robbed.
New Lau came back from Wanxian at about 8:30 a.m. with two coolies and a new chair
for ‘Tai Tai’ (Anna). He also brought oil, cotton and food along with a bundle of papers
and a package of letters from Young. But there was none from relatives other than a letter
from Aunt Jane. And there was no word from anyone at the Museum.
A note from Jenkins forwarded news radioed in to the USS Palos that pro-Japanese
Manchurian warlord Chang Tso-Lin was being driven out of the city of Mukden
(Shenyang) in the southern part of that province [337]. Chang eventually regained control
of Mukden and resumed his attacks on Peking which he finally entered in June of 1926.
Granger followed these events as closely as he could.
As the days remained cloudless, Anna began a Christmas wreath while Granger sent
'Buckshot' and Lau off for a two-day reconnaissance along the fossil ridge. 'Buckshot'
came back early “by way of rose bush trail” after spending the first night “at the baby
elephant skull place.” He reported seeing no working pits or any collections of bones.
There were men starting up work at one pit, however.
Christmas was spent quietly in camp, as was New Year’s, without any more outside mail
or greetings.
[ ].

Yen-Ching-Kao, Sze.
Feby. 10, 1926
Dear Father:
Your letter No. 4, postmarked Dec. 30. came out today. Your
previous letters I have acknowledged. I think I have missed none of
them. Nelson and his wife have reached Kwei Chow fu safely––
having come through the gorges in about a month's time. He is now
on his way to Wanhsien and will be in camp here sometime this
month. Things are stirring somewhat in military circles along the
river just now and we do not know just what will happen––perhaps
nothing at all. Out here in my village things are dead quiet. New
Year's is three days off (Feby. 13th) and after that there is no
immediate danger of bandits or wars for a couple of weeks or more
anyhow.
Please tell Arthur Keys I just received his Christmas card and note
both of which were most welcome. Nothing special here. I expect
Andrews is on his way to England now––he has to lecture there in
Feby. and then return to China by way of Siberia. I haven't heard
from him directly since he left Peking [338].
Your affectionate son,
Walter Granger
The mail had finally come in, and Granger was busy with a pen in hand. On the 21st, he
replied to Osborn’s December 23, 1925, letter which Granger had just received. It was a
“fine letter” that included some scientific publications on his fossils and a copy of the
Museum’s November-December issue of Natural History magazine. “I am particularly
glad to have this because of the general Museum news in it. We get pretty hungry for
news out here.”
The Nelsons joined them on Friday, February 17th, “and after looking over this
immediate neighborhood may take a trip southward over the Hupeh border using this
camp as a base.” They had made the gorge trip safely and completed his survey of the
river from ten miles below Ichang to ten miles above Wanxian. Nelson reported abundant
evidence of Late Neolithic man, but nothing older. He was prepared now to swear that
Palaeolithic man had not lived in the Gorges. Perhaps, Granger observed, the Gorges
were as forbidding to ancient man as they were to present-day people.
The evidence of Neolithic Man was in the shape of stone implements––no weapons––
found mostly along the water's edge and in the cultivated fields. Nelson had obtained
many hundreds of pounds of these and they were almost entirely made of quartzite. Only
one specimen of a flint-like rock was found. If time permitted, Nelson hoped to take a
steamer up to Chung King to make a preliminary survey of that region before they all
started back for Peking.
A letter from Mac Young, dated Jan. 19, stated that, after a two-month delay, the Chinese
Customs Commission had refused to allow shipment of last summer's [the 1925
Mongolia] collection to leave Tientsin without examination, “which is a serious business
for us. It looks now as if we have to hold this shipment until Roy's arrival in Peking.
Probably the port of Tientsin is closed by ice now anyhow and we couldn't ship even if
we had permission. At any rate I'm wiring Young to hold the shipment unless conditions
have changed.”
The fossil pits at Yanjinggou, Granger continued to Osborn, were not being worked as
extensively as they had been the previous seasons. A great majority of them have proved
either entire failures or have yielded scanty and poor material. Granger had made a small
collection of a few choice things, but was hoping for better success in the coming month.
In the meantime, he thought it was fortunate that “I can, and do, turn my hand to
zoological collecting and I now have a fairly exhaustive collection of the birds and
mammals of this region as well as many of the other vertebrates.”
He reviewed the Museum’s Novitates articles up to No. 61 taking great interest in the
description of the smaller forms from the Mongolian Tertiary that had finally been
analyzed. “We shall have a splendid assemblage of forms from that region by the time we
are through with it. I'm keen now to learn just what will be made of the Cretaceous
mammals.” He told Osborn that while he had had no news from the laboratory in Peking,
he presumed that things were going forward smoothly with Olsen and that “a lot of
cleaned material may be included in our shipment when we get it off this spring.”
One of the researchers on Granger’s China and Mongolia fossil collections was Granger’s
colleague and friend DVP chair W. D. Matthew whose relationship with Osborn had
grown testier as Granger’s absence from the Museum grew longer. Matthew was a
sensitive type, not at ease with the bluster and self-confidence of a man like Osborn. And
Osborn could be particularly over-bearing if he thought he had a point to register. The
two men even sparred over Matthew’s continued Canadian citizenship.
But Matthew mainly was dissatisfied with his departmental administrative duties. He felt
chafed under Osborn and wanted to shift to fulltime research and theorizing. Osborn felt
he could not support that. There was too much at hand on all fronts to allow such special
treatment.
Granger, aware of the problem, asked that Matthew be sent to China to work with the
CAE, although he wasn’t much of a field man. Osborn seemed reluctant. Caught between
his friendships with both, Granger wrote “I'm sorry to hear of your decision regarding Dr.
Matthew's coming out, and hope that I may still greet him upon my arrival in Peking.”
Writing to his father a few days later, Granger added a twist in his thoughts about
Nelson’s work and ultimately it proved to be accurate. He recounted, as he had for
Osborn, Nelson’s finds along the river that evidenced a late prehistoric human presence
in that region. But while Nelson had found “hardly a trace of early [human] occupation as
yet ––...I feel that primitive people did live here and that positive evidence will be
forthcoming sooner or later.” It would prove to be so, but not for another seventy years.
Some military movement had been taking place in the region, Granger wrote, but he
could not quite make out what it was about. “In fact nobody knows in all probability.” A
few soldiers had been passing by the temple door recently, going both ways, and Granger
had heard that there were a few hundred camped ten miles away. But they seem to be
organized and under officers and Granger did not anticipate trouble from them.
Although this had been a fine bright day, the past week, Granger wrote his father, had
been the coldest weather of the season. There was plenty of snow still on the mountains
along with an often-enough cold drizzly rain in camp that had kept them in the temple
most of the time. Though, when dry, the cold weather was fine for climbing the hills to
the bone pits, it was less comfortable when sitting around camp. “But what with fire
baskets and extra clothing we manage to stick it out. We have quite a templeful now with
four whites, six Peking men and two local coolies. Nelson's three men came along with
him and will remain here as long as he stays which will be until just before I leave.”
By the 27th the military presence had grown to some 1,000 soldiers camped along the
fossil ridge ten miles from Granger’s location, apparently waiting for something to
happen down along the river. While he did not expect personal meddling from the
soldiers, they were stopping all pit digging nearby “and that interferes seriously with the
work I am trying to do here.” There were plenty of steamers still running, he noted, and
when they were ready to break camp they surely would be able to take one down river. “I
certainly am relieved to avoid the junk trip again although Nelson had good luck coming
up.”
The weather seemed to be breaking now as well, and they would soon abandon their
kitchen in the evening and stick it out in the gallery. It had been a cold, wet winter, “but
beyond a chilblain or two for Anna we haven't suffered.”
[ ].
March 5, 1926
Peking
Dear Granger:
At last I have managed to get the shipment off to the U.S. without
any inspection or duty. Freddie Butler is the man that managed it.
He is a personal friend of the Commissioner's. Conditions are
absolutely Hell around here. It has been absolutely impossible for
the Standard Oil Co. to get our stuff out of Tienstin so I have taken
it into my own hands to get it up, with our own trucks. The freight
that Roy sent from the States is also about four weeks late arriving
at Tientsin. It seems that everything is playing against us, but I am
managing to get it moving towards Kalgan anyway...
Sincerely,
/s/Mac. [339] [Conq/328]
He could not understand why Granger had not received his notes which he had been
“dropping you one every week or so.”
Young had had to make several trips to Tientsin and Kalgan and had not spent much time
in Peking to monitor events [Conq/328]. But he did know that passenger trains were
running intermittently between Peking and Tientsin. There were only four locomotives
left in service and they were falling to pieces. Freight trains were not running at all, and
had not for a month or so. It was impossible even to get a freight car attached to a
passenger train. So all freight was being brought up by auto road and the charges for that
were excessive.
The camel caravan was going to be quite late in setting off, he reported
[Conq/334,338&339]. But nothing less than a real war would stop the 1926 CAE from
taking to the field, he vowed. Andrews was scheduled to arrive in Shanghai on March
22nd aboard the Empress of Russia [Conq/330]. The operation on his shoulder [injured
from playing horse polo] reportedly was a success. The Expedition was getting three new
dog-wagons from the States and the Dodge people had presented Andrews with a special
touring car for his own use in Peking [Conq/329].
In other news, Olsen and his Chinese trainees were nearly finished preparing the 1925
Mongolia specimens at the new laboratory set up in Peking. And Pope seemed to have
had quite a successful winter in south China and was raring to go again in the spring.
Young inquired as to when Granger was returning “to this Hell-hole, as that is about all it
is; between the student demonstrations and Feng's Christian-like attitude towards foreign
business; it cannot be called anything better [Conq/328-338],” and parted with the hope
that Granger was having trouble-free good luck in his work.
The mail came in and Granger responded to Charles with “I'm glad my letters finally
reached you––there has been a fairly steady flow of them since that first one,” he wrote.
He noted that he had recently “received a fine greeting from the annual Christmas
luncheon crowd of my Dept. with some fourteen signatures headed by Osborn's.”
He wrote that he had just heard from Matthew that he was expecting to join the
expedition party in Peking in April for the summer trip to Mongolia. Granger hoped there
would be no hitch in the plans, since “We have not been in the field together since 1904
in the Fort Bridger country.” Andrews was to arrive in Shanghai by April 1st and had
apparently decided not to return by way of Russia. It was not stated why.
Yes, Granger assured his father, there were now two U.S. gunboats on the upper
river––”I wouldn't be here if there were not.” And since his father had also asked about
food, Granger reported that
we have chicken, pork, beef whenever we send in to town, eggs,

white and sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots and a few odd vegetables
such as bamboo sprouts, lotus root and the small bulbs of a water
lily called "water chestnuts." Plenty of peanuts, oranges and, in the
early winter, delicious persimmons. Then we have a supply of

foreign food which we bring up from Hankow [340].
It was too bad, Granger wrote, to think that the sleighs were now all gone from Vermont,
as his father had apparently reported. “It must be that some of the poorer farmers still use
them a bit but I suppose they have a hard time of it contending with motor cars on the
roads. The auto is a great thing but it is a devastating sort of machine, and is rendering
nature most unnatural in many places.”
In the meantime, it was also learned that Aunt Jane had taken quite ill. Anna wrote, also
on March 7th, to her that “We are very sorry to know that you are confined to your room,
but are happy that you have Nellie with you, and someone, too, to do what she can not.”
Anna continued that they were getting along nicely in their camp now and the Nelsons,
who came on Feb. 17th were good people to have about. “They busy themselves in their
own way, and we in ours, and at meals we have a sociable time all together.”
The weather, on the other hand, had been so very rainy for so many days that there was
nothing they could do outside. So,
we have sat and read hour after hour. Luckily we have loads of
reading matter. We brought some books from Peking, some came by
mail in January from America, Aunt Mary sends the Outlook
Magazine, and Sarah Sinclair in California sends the Ladies Home
Journal and the Christian Herald. The friends in Wanhsien have
loaned us books and always send us Shanghai newspapers whenever
a messenger comes out with mail [341].
Anna wrote that she wished Aunt Jane could see the lovely flowers that had been brought
into the temple for them by some of the village people. The most unusual among them
were bright red camelias. These were grown by somebody at a house some distance away
from Yanjingou. The Grangers had not seen them growing wild. Other flowers brought to
them were blossoms of fruit trees, possibly cherry or plum. The locals themselves did not
seem to be sure what to call them. Every time any of them went out, she wrote, they were
sure to bring back some new evidence that spring was there, though the blossoms were
not always showy. She pressed a sample of each in her letter to Aunt Jane.
While the weather was somewhat warmer and their noses and hands not cold, “we seem
to have to keep on as many layers of clothing as ever. If the sun would shine that would
make a different story. We had a chance to sample the sun's rays once last week, and
found that they hadn't lost their power. We were too warm walking in it.”
Lately some soldiers had come to occupy a pass in the mountains above their valley.
Walter did not like their near [such close] presence, “principally because they draft the
people in the village as carrying coolies and also frighten the people who are working in
the fossil bone pits. Since the pits are near trails used by the soldiers, the workmen have
all gone off to hide in other places. The result is that no bones are being brought in to add
to what has been a rather meager collection compared to other seasons.”
She thought Aunt Jane would be pleased by the wonderful cross-stitched work done by
the poor people in the neighborhood. Anna had bought a few samples to take home to
America to show those who were interested in Chinese handiwork. Almost all of the
pieces were worked in cotton on a coarse cotton cloth. A few were done in silk on a piece
of mohair. If wool was used, it was of the brightest hue possible, a brilliant scarlet, or a
vivid pink, and the stitching was done in black. This made a very striking object in
Anna’s view. The favorite use for this combination was for a set of nuptial pillows. These
were long, four sided, and stuffed hard. The square ends were sewed in permanently.
There was a detachable cover tied to a foundation pillow with tapes.
Most of the local women, Anna noted, normally went about in narrow-legged trousers
with only a bit of cross stitching extending three or four inches above the hem.
Sometimes, however, wider-legged trouser were worn and the whole leg was filled with
designs of animals and flowers. A woman brought in one of these older style wide
trousers for Anna to buy, saying that she would be glad to get the money to buy materials
for an up-to-date pair which would be much narrower. Anna also bought a jacket, an
ornamental head cloth, and had under consideration a curtain for a door which had on it
two Chinese women standing under a graceful spray of bamboo. 'Buckshot' did the
bargaining for her and “I shall give him a present for his pains.”
They had gotten no mail from Peking that day and suspected that the railroad was again
blocked y troop movements. Their Wanxian friend, Jenkins, sent more radio dispatches
received by the American gunboat stationed there. They had learned that General Feng's
army had been routed and was retreating to Peking, causing a panic there. “China is
certainly in an awful mess and will be until she can rid herself of these military war-lords
[Conq/328-338].”
Departing Yanjingou
It was March 20th. Granger’s plan was to break camp on the 24th and go in to Wanxian.
After a few days layover there, he and his party would depart downriver by steamer,
though to where he wasn’t sure. Since rail transportation was reported to be unreliable at
the moment, along with everything else, so it seemed to Granger, he figured they might
have to sail [steam] all the way to Shanghai and then on up to Tientsin. He wouldn’t
know for certain until he got downriver.
There were reports of considerable fighting in the north, Granger writing his father that
“I'm hoping that they will be fought out by April 1st and that the railway lines may be
open. Our last letter from Peking came down to camp in about two weeks––apparently by
way of Hankow-Peking Ry.” In any event, he was “mighty glad I don't have to take the
junk trip this spring.”
He planned to give his annual feast, he continued, “to the friends up the ridge––about
twenty guests and my own crowd––three square tables with eight at a table and a little
overflow besides. I invite the elders of the Tan family as well as the various people who
have given me feasts during the winter.”
In the meantime, the ill-weather of winter had moderated. Fields of jessamine, beans and
peas were in full bloom and gave a bright touch to the landscape. Nelson and 'Buckshot'
had been away for six days on a trip to Hupeh Province and were due back that night but
had not yet shown up. There had been a couple of rainy days when they could not travel,
and that had no doubt delayed them.
Granger had no notion of what would happen with the CAE’s camel caravan that spring,
he wrote his father. He presumed it was being sent off for the first rendezvous point in
Mongolia later on. But political and military conditions in north China had been so
disturbed that there was now some doubt “whether we can really get away but if possible
some way will be found to do it I'm sure.”
They broke camp on the 24th and after a few days in Wanxian took a steamer for Ichang,
making the trip between daylight and 8:00 p.m. without being fired at. It was only the
second passage through the gorges going one way or the other [going either way] that
Granger hadn’t been shot at. The Nelsons, who had proceeded down river two days
earlier, were not so lucky. After leaving Wanxian at daybreak, their steamer collided with
[one of] General Yang Sheng's gunboat[s]. Soldiers aboard the gunboat fired several
rounds at the steamer, killing a Chinese soldier who was a passenger traveling aboard the
Nelson's steamer.
The Nelsons were awaiting the Grangers at Ichang with the intent to travel on to Peking
together. But getting to Peking remained complicated by the fluidity of the military
situation. “I enclose a letter from Mac Young which gives a little Peking news,” Granger
wrote his father. “Evidently we shan't get off on April 15th this year. If we [the Grangers
and Nelsons] have to go via Shanghai we shall not reach Peking much before the 15th
and certainly the expedition will not leave without its paleontologist and archaeologist.
We're the ones who give it its advertising stuff.”
Matthew and other CAE members should be reaching Shanghai by now, he wrote
[Conq/336]. Summer had settled in at the lower Yangtze area. Sweet peas were in full
bloom at Ichang. The temperature reached 80˚ the day before.
But in Peking, it was still cold and very dusty. It was dust storm season. By the middle of
April, however, the apple blossoms would be out which was seen as a signal for the party
to start for the Gobi.
Granger noted to his father that “We also got quite a batch of Christmas cards last mail!
Sometime I may get far enough away to get one year's Christmas cards in time for the
following Christmas, and that will be better than having them come for Easter or Fourth
of July!” And, on the good news that Aunt Jane’s condition had improved and that she
was sitting up everyday, Granger wrote, “Pretty hard to kill a Granger isn't it?”
Anna wrote to Aunt Jane that same day after successfully getting the ship’s steward to
make a Chinese passenger, an Army general who was wealthy enough to be traveling
first class, stop playing his phonograph.
For three solid hours we have been obliged to listen to Chinese

theatrical songs, and if you could ever hear one of them, you would
understand how weary the mind gets with such music. Unfortunately
it is rainy and very windy out on deck, or we could have gotten
away from the sound a little. The General eats at our table. He
certainly doesn't look as if he could be a leader of anybody. We are
told that he is an opium smoker, and his complexion bears that out
[342].
They had good luck getting out of the Wanxian region this time, she wrote. The sun was
shining when they broke camp at Yanjingou, as it had for the two days before. That gave
them a good chance to do the final laundry and get it dried before stowing it away. And
when it came time to board the down-river boat from Wanhsien to Ichang, the moon
shone brightly.
Nevertheless, the current military situation at Wanxian was causing more inconvenience
than before, Anna continued. Shipping suffered because there no longer was much
produce available to be put aboard the steamers. The occupying army was requisitioning
much of it. And since telegraphic communication was in the hands of the army,
steamship companies no longer knew when to expect a ship to arrive. Steamers seemed to
come in from Chungking sometime after dark for layover until dawn the following
morning and continuation down river at daylight. For reasons Anna did not explain, one
could not get luggage loaded aboard at any time except at night. Perhaps this was to
facilitate immediate departure at first light.
This was how the scene played out while Grangers and Jenkins were dining at the home
of Japanese friends. Jenkins' coolie was posted at the harbor to keep watch for the next
steamer. When he returned to say that the Chi Lai was in, Granger sent a note to the
Captain asking whether he could accommodate the Grangers along with all camping gear
and scientific paraphernalia. It took an hour to obtain a positive reply and another hour to
get themselves and their baggage carried down to the river and then freighted over to the
steamer. “It was twelve o'clock precisely when [Jenkins] had made the last provision for
our comfort and left us.”
The Chi Lai, it turned out, was a small steamer carrying a number of Chinese passengers
whose only place to sit was on deck adjacent to the Grangers’ cabin. Since the trip down
to Ichang took only one day,
we didn't mind. What we didn't like was that the boat was so
arranged that we could neither look straight ahead or behind from
our portion of the deck. To have to view the Gorge scenery only
from the side is not very satisfactory, and if I hadn't had wonderful
opportunities before for seeing them, I would have greatly regretted
this [343].
No untoward event had taken place during their journey down, Anna assured Aunt Jane.
They avoided all rocks, and the soldiers “omitted to amuse themselves by firing on us.
Walter says this [is] only the second time out of six transits through the gorges that he has
not been fired on.”
The Grangers and Nelsons were now aboard the SS Kian en route from Ichang to
Hankow. Sun shining, they steamed along mud banks made golden with flowering
mustard. The air was sweet with the fragrance. Above the yellow, Anna could see the
tops of trees just coming into leaf in the distance. Water buffalo and their drovers
silhouetted against the sky here and there added a touch of action to the scene.
The day before, they lay at anchor opposite the town of Sha Ze for four hours while huge
lighters brought out raw cotton and cotton seeds to be loaded aboard. The cotton was to
be cleansed at Hankow and then taken to Shanghai and made into yarn. Where the oil
was pressed out of the seeds, Anna did not know.
An upriver junk made good progress passing by with sail set in a stiff breeze. Minutes
before, a motor launch sped out from shore and headed toward the SS Kian. One of the
occupants crew manned a long bamboo pole at the end of which was fastened a bundle of
letters. As the launch hove to and the tip of the pole was placed at the rail, the clutch was
deftly snatched off by one of the steamer’s crew.
Before the Grangers and Jenkins sat down for dinner at the Kitishimas on the eve of the
Grangers’ departure, they posed for a photograph in front of a cave on the river bank
opposite the city. Mrs. Kitishima, Anna wrote to Aunt Jane, was “a very dainty little lady
with lovely soft shiny eyes and dimples in her cheeks.” And when she presided over
meal-making at the coal brazier herself, she handled the chopsticks used in frying the
foods most gracefully.
The round table used for their sukiaki supper had a section in the middle that lifted out to
make room for the stove. On a low table at the side sat containers of all the foods to be
cooked, already cut in small pieces and “looking most attractive.” The hostess and guests
sat around the cooking table on flat cushions, first having taken off their shoes. A bowl
containing a raw egg was set before each, as were chopsticks, a paper napkin and two
toothpicks. The chopsticks were made of pine, sealed in paper and not completely
separated so that the diner was assured that they had not been used before.
Once the Madame, Anna called her, had cooked the first frying panful thoroughly, she
invited the guests to choose from it as they wished. But first she used her chopsticks to
beat up the raw egg sitting in the bowl making it ready to be scalded by the very hot food
to be laid in on top of it. Madame then assisted those who seemed awkward with their
chopsticks. Chicken, mushrooms, scallions, carrots, turnip sliced into extremely slender
strings, lotus seeds and cabbage were some of the eatables Anna remembered. The whole
of it was seasoned with a soya bean sauce “and the resulting odor and taste was [sic] most
delicious.”
The meal began and ended with tea served with crackers made of gluten rice and with a
touch of soya sauce for flavor. Foreign chocolate bonbons were passed around at the
conclusion. “You must be tired reading this by now. I'll say goodbye with love from us
both,” ended Anna’s letter to Aunt Jane.
Maintaining Correspondence
April 10, 1926
Dear Father:
I despatched four of our six boys by the Peking-Hankow Ry which
is running two trains of freight cars a day as far as Pao ting fu near
Peking, and am trusting to luck that they make the balance of the
journey before I reach the capital [344].
At Hankow, the Grangers and Nelsons boarded the SS Kut Wo bound for Shanghai.
There they would find a steamer to take them to Tientsin. While at Hankow, Granger
wrote his father that he had met “a missionary who came over with Andrews and
Shackelford so I know that those two are here anyhow.” But judging from Peking news,
it wasn’t clear that the expedition would be getting off on time. “We'll be playing in luck
if we get started at all,” he wrote his father. “We will have to cross military frontiers to
get from Peking to Kalgan evidently and that always is bad business.”
It had been nice, Granger wrote, to run the relatively calm lower Yangtze between
Hankow and Shanghai, “but I don't fancy the three day voyage through the choppy
Yellow Sea to Tientsin. Deuce of a note to have to be seasick traveling from Szechuan to
Peking!” A week had gone by since their arrival in Shanghai. The weather was unusually
pleasant in Shanghai as they got out and about.
They socialized. One night, the editor of the China Journal of Arts and Sciences and his
wife entertained them at dinner in their home. They then accepted the Grangers’ invite to
have lunch at one of the hotels in the city. Other visits with friends were held over tea at
four in the afternoon.
The Grangers also did a little shopping. A certain class of linens could be had in the
stores there more cheaply than in Peking because goods were taxed as they passed from
province to province and Shanghai was nearer the cities where the linens were made.
This also was the season for mangoes. The Grangers were, Anna wrote to Aunt Jane,
having our fill of them. We get them at a fine, big market by the
dollar's worth and eat them in our rooms, or rather, over the bathtub.
According to the size and ripeness, one gets 5, or 6, 7, 8 fruits for
that price. I don't know anybody who's not fond of them, once he has
had a taste [345].
Anna thought Aunt Jane would be pleased to know that she was using the Paisley scarf
Aunt Jane had sent. In their stops at the several cities they passed through on the way to
Wanxian and back, the scarf had been “in service many times and is never worn without
exciting some one's admiring comment.” “Out in the Orient,” she continued, “everybody
wears bright colors. The fashion has spread to other lands as well, now that all the world
has had its attention fixed on the East, I guess.”
On April 2nd, Andrews wrote Granger to say that conditions were bad in Peking.
Fighting was reported in the area: wire and mail service had stopped. Nonetheless, even if
the start was delayed, he hoped to get the expedition off. Beyond those already known to
Granger, he did not provide a roster for the rest of the 1926 Mongolia party.
Granger figured the trip from Shanghai to Tientsin would take three days aboard the S.S.
Tung Chow. They would sail out of Shanghai on the 17th of April, 1926, and it promised
to be an interesting journey. Not only was the Yellow Sea nasty in the springtime, that
particular steamer had been subjected to a pirate attack earlier that winter. The ship was
diverted to Hong Kong where the pirates disembarked after taking everything of value
from the Chinese passengers.
Once the Grangers and Nelsons docked at Tientsin, they would still be almost 90 miles
away from Peking by auto. Granger hoped to “slip up at first opportunity.” And he was a
bit anxious about his four native assistants, he confided to his father, nevertheless
presuming they were all right ”even if they haven't been able to get up to Peking yet.”
He also wondered about the various international concessions and what the foreign
nations with extra-territoriality rights in China (the international concessions) were
thinking about the recent developments. At Shanghai, residents were anxious about the
coming May 30th anniversary of the ‘Shooting of the Mob,’ despite assurance that
preparations were underway to cope with any outbursts [346]. “I must say,” Granger
confided, “life in China is getting to be a bit exciting.”
On the 23rd of April, Granger wrote Charles again to confirm that the party had reached
Tientsin. With luck, they would arrive in Peking that afternoon “in two of our motor cars
which Lovell has down here.” Rail service between Tientsin and Peking was still poor, he
advised. Only one train ran. Not only was it crowded, it was took from nine to 15 hours
to make the run.
The trip by auto took only five hours including a half-hour stop for lunch. Fifty of the
precisely 84 miles were “fine going, twenty miles bad and the balance fair to middlin'” on
a road specially built for automobiles by the Famine Relief Board a few years earlier. It
constituted the longest stretch of regular auto road in China.
The rest of the party were there to greet Granger and Nelson when they arrived at the
CAE headquarters in Peking. “Andrews is hoping to get off May 1st. Things are in a most
chaotic state however and you can never tell from day to day what will happen
[Conq/330].” In closing, Granger asked his father to “send by Express to Osborn at the
Museum a gallon of Spring brew and tell him it is from me. I'll send you check from
Peking.”
W. D. Matthew to Charles
At his Wagon-Lits Hotel suite in Peking, W. D. Matthew wrote Charles Granger on April
26th to bring him up to date, having postponed thanking him for his kind wishes until he
could tell him something about Walter. Relating that he himself had had an uneventful
journey from the U.S. until he reached China, like Walter, he found that he could not
proceed from Shanghai to Peking by rail. Instead, he had to take a steamer to Tientsin
and, once there, was delayed another eight days before he could get [find, secure] passage
through [stet?] to Peking.
Walter and Anna were in Peking, he wrote, and both were looking very well [Conq/336].
Granger was somewhat disappointed, however, with his fossil collection from Sichuan.
He had acquired some fine things, but it was not as much material as in previous seasons.
Andrews' plans for Mongolia remained disorganized, Matthew wrote. Fighting in that
area of China had delayed starting the trip. One warlord’s army was now in retreat along
the very route the CAE intended [was] to start out on [take]. [Reportedly] There also was
clashing [were clashes] somewhere near Nank’ou city, just 30 miles north of Peking.
The American Ministry had tried to get permission allowing [enabling] the Expedition to
pass through on May 14th. But to no avail. Young and two cars were already in Kalgan,
but the main party in Peking had further no contact with him following a cablegram he
managed to get through telling of the departure of the camel caravan on the 26th
[Conq/336].
Until the armies moved on or peace was made, Matthew continued to Charles, the
Expedition’s main party could not make a start. For now, they were hung up in Peking. “I
dare say we shall all find plenty to do; I have work laid out, and Walter is busy enough;
but it is provoking to have our start delayed.”
The fighting held no danger to foreigners, Matthew assured Charles [RCA au contraire,
Conq/336]. “It was simply a scrap between Chinese factions for the possession of the
central government and the taxes (collected by foreigners employed under treaty by the
central 'government' of China.)”
But, naturally one did not intentionally get in the way of active fighting or send out
expedition camel caravans and automobiles without proper official permits to do so.
“That would be to invite risk of accidental shooting in the one case and almost a certainty
of confiscation in the other.”
Walter to Charles
“Just now the locust trees which line the streets of Legation Quarter are in bloom,”
Walter wrote his father, “and the air is full of their fragrance.”
A rain today will put the crops in good condition and goodness
knows the farmers near Peking need all the good luck they can have
to balance the depredations of the soldiers hereabouts recently.
'Buckshot's’ family was cleared out of about all they possessed

about a week before I got here. The Shantung [provincial] and
Fengtian [warlord] soldiers which comprise the invading army are
about the worst that have visited Peking in years [347].
Granger sent along copies of the Peking Leader covering the local war news. The city
itself had been fairly quiet. But beyond, robbery was rampant as people fared badly. The
Grangers’ hotel was now a refuge for many Chinese families as it always was whenever
there was a turnover in the government. At the hotel’s breakfast room one morning,
Granger noticed the vice-chancellor of the National University and stopped to chat.
[H]e said that he was one of nine educators whose execution had
been ordered by [warlord] Chang Tso Lin. His university has been a
hot bed of Bolshevism recently and I can quite understand it. Most
of us are glad to see Bolshevism get driven out even of it becomes
necessary to make a few executions. The next war hereabouts is
likely to be between Wu Pei Fu and Chang this summer––sort of
grand finals and then the tournament will begin all over again next
year. It's a hopeless mess [348].
The new letterhead on Granger’s 1926 expedition stationery read “CENTRAL ASIATIC
EXPEDITIONS.” This was a change from “Third Asiatic Expeditions” ordered by
Osborn, Granger explained, “because the public never seemed to understand that this was
all the Third Asiatic Expedition regardless of how many years we took to do it.
Personally I much preferred to keep the old name regardless and it will still be used on
scientific labels, etc.”
In addition to Granger, Olsen, Andrews, Matthew, Nelson, Shackelford, Young, Lovell,

the 1926 CAE Mongolia party included Radcliffe H. Beckwith for geology, W. P. T. Hill
replacing Roberts for topography and Mont Reid as the Expedition’s doctor [Conq/327].
Hill was another military man, a captain in the U.S. Marines “detailed to the Expedition
through the kindness of Major-General Le Jeune and of the Honorable Curtis D. Wilbur,
Secretary of the Navy [Conq/327].” Radcliffe Beckwith was a geology professor at the
University of Wyoming in Laramie. He also played a wooden flute and was an avid
photographer who did his own developing and printing. He was familiar with Granger’s
extensive fieldwork in Wyoming and that gave them a common ground to form a fast and
lasting friendship. They especially liked to sit outside and talk.
Beckwith and his wife Terri later named their only son after Granger: Walter Granger
Beckwith.
Cut #9
Roughly thirty years younger than Granger, Radcliffe Beckwith volunteered for service
in W.W.I as a 17-year old Army infantryman. Once out of the service, he became a
Rhodes scholar at Oxford University. He also was something of a linguist. When it
became clear, because of warlord battles, that the 1926 CAE would be unable to access to
Mongolia by the regular route through Kalgan, thought was given to attempting access
via Siberia from the north. Beckwith was asked to learn Russian and went off to Shanghai
to study with the White Russian exiles living there.
Cut #10
[ ].
Grand Hotel Des Wagons-Lits

Peking.
May 25th, 1926
Dear Father:
Your letter of April 23rd (No. 16) came today; it was in answer to
mine from Yen-Ching-Kou of March 20th. A little over two months
for the round trip, which is about right considering the extra time
[above?] Hankow. You will, by this time, have had my Tientsin
letter.
The military situation hereabouts remains pretty much unchanged.

The armies still have their frontiers near Nankow [Pass] and block
completely our way to Kalgan. Fighting in northern Shansi is taking
place and if Feng's troops should be successful there they may pass
on westward to Kansu and retire from Kalgan. There is a desperate
food shortage in Kalgan and we do not feel that the Kuo Min Chun
[Kuomintang, or Guomindang] can hold on there indefinitely. And it
does not look as if they could force back the armies of Wu [Wu
Peifu, or Wu P'ei-fu] and Chang and regain Peking and this
province. Andrews will attempt within the next few days to find a
way up to the plateau through Jehol, to the northeast of Peking, but I
do not have much hope from that direction [349] [Conq/328].
Things were quiet enough in the capital even though many thousands of refugee children
and women from surrounding districts milled about. There were a number of soldiers, as
well, especially in the Chinese section. Order prevailed. Farmers and merchants
continued attending to their own affairs while probably giving as little thought as possible
to public ones. That was why, Granger opined, the various warlord generals and field
marshals were able to continue their interminable warfare. All the gates were open during
the day and fresh meat, vegetables and strawberries were available in sufficient quantities
to supply all who could afford them. Granger surmised that the beggars, on the other
hand, probably were having a rather hard time of it.
Trains were running, intermittently, to Hankow and Mukden but as yet none to Shanghai.
When the Kuo Min Chun [Kuomintang, or Guomindang] retreated to Kalgan, they took
all the rolling stock they could lay their hands on. Now the sidings beyond the great wall
were chocked with locomotives, passenger and freight cars from every railroad north of
the Yangtze, except the narrow gauge line from Tainanfu in Shansi Province to the
junction on the Kiu-Han Railway. They would have had that too except that the rail
gauge size was different, and it would not fit a regular car’s wheel span.
Most of the locomotives were out of repair. These were American-built Baldwins and had
been among the world's best. Idle railroad cars were now used as troop barracks. The
famous "blue trains" which ran from Peking to Pukow on the Yangtze River were
wrecked: paint all gone, glass broken, woodwork scarred and, in some cases, holes cut in
roofs to accommodate a stove pipe. Granger thought that the country had never been in
quite such a desolate condition––at least not since the fall of the Qing Empire.
News from Sichuan confirmed Granger’s sense that all there should be prepared for war
which was actually now there, according to reports in a Peking morning newspaper.
General Yang Sheng, driven out of Wanxian a year before, had returned before the
Grangers departed and was now fighting his way up the river toward Chung King. His
quest to again control Sichuan would only re-ignite a battle to oust him once again.
Granger now realized he had “just managed to slip in last winter between scraps.”
The idled 1926 CAE party members were trying to occupy their time. Beckwith moved
over to the Russian Mission to study the language in order to be able to read Russian
geological works. Granger finished packing all accumulated fossil and recent mammal
and bird collections at the compound. Shackelford was photographing the U.S. Marines
for a forthcoming Goldwyn movie to be called "Tell it to the Marines." Matthew was
writing a book, the motor men were attending the spring races and the surgeon was still
operating on people at the Rockefeller College. Hill, the topographer, checked his
chronometers twice a day at the American radio station in the Legation and acted as
Shackelford's “No. 1 boy” in between.
Andrews, in the meantime, continued consulting with Legation staff, Government

officials, missionaries and others in the hope of finding a way to get through various
army front lines. It was felt that they still could venture out with the entire party if they
got off by June 15th. After that they would have to alter the itinerary and personnel
considerably. The camels were already three weeks out and it was essential for at least
one car to overtake them sometime before fall either to bring them back or arrange for
them to winter in the west.
Peking was getting warm now, but not uncomfortably so. Two recent heavy rains were
quite unexpected and most welcome to the farmers. Usually the North China rains did not
come much before July. “The poor farmers certainly need all the good luck going to
make up in a measure for the devastation that has been brought about by the military
operations,” Granger wrote his father.
Osborn, in the meantime, was thanking Charles for the maple syrup just received. “I was
indeed delighted to receive your gift of the Vermont maple syrup, especially because I
appreciate your thoughtfulness and Walter's thought of me also,” he wrote on June 2,
1926. “We have very recently received word that owing to the war conditions, the party
has been greatly delayed in entering Mongolia. In fact, on May twenty-ninth, they were
still in Peking. Fortunately there is a very large bed of fossils within striking distance and
undoubtedly they will make a wonderful collection [there] instead of pushing to the Far
West as they had previously planned.”
But on June 11, the party still awaited military developments. Decisive action was being
promised later in the month. Wu and Chang were to have a conference in Peking,
Granger wrote his father, and “we may expect fireworks soon after. I don't care what
happens to any of them just so one crowd gets control of the entire Ry. line to Kalgan. As
soon as we can get out of here we're going like a singed cat.”
Granger ventured to his father that Vermont probably looked “pretty fine about now and I
should like to see it.” The spring rains in Peking had made things wonderfully green
there. But Granger also had not been outside the city walls since his return to Peking on
April 23rd. Chinese soldiers were gathered thick in numbers outside and there were
reports of unpleasant experiences when encountered.
I don't care to submit myself to indignities by Chinese uniformed

coolies unless it is a case of necessity. Something is going to happen
out in this neck of the woods before long that will put a crimp in the
growing arrogance of the Chinese military. A lot of foreigners will
probably have to suffer before it's brought about, as they did in
1900, but it's coming [350].
He sent along a photograph to Charles ”of our Scottish Rite group taken this spring out at
the Temple of Heaven where the last two degrees are conferred. Shackelford was put
through this spring. Grand Sovereign Commander Cowles of the Southern Jurisdiction is
the man at the right, next to the Chinese. He is on a tour around the world and arranged to
be here for our Spring reunion [350a].” Among these Scottish Rite Freemasons in Peking
was Commander Irwin Van Gorder Gillis, the Naval Attache in Peking to whom ‘Mr.
Reynolds’ (Andrews) had reported between June, 1918 and April 1919.
Otherwise, there is nothing much for the CAE party to do but wait. The delay had
changed everything and Granger advised Charles that, with that season's plans shot to
pieces, they would have to carry on next summer.
[A]nd so I can't be with you for Thanksgiving. There are other

Thanksgivings coming through and I feel sure I shall join you in one
of them. Something might happen, of course, which would
necessitate my going home this fall, in fact all of us might have to
return, but it looks as if I should have to stay on for next summer. I
can't do any more important work than I am doing here (when I have
a chance), things are going smoothly at the Dept. under Brown's
direction and so my duty lies here in China for another year [351].
W.D. Matthew’s time at the Museum effectively had come to a close upon his trip to
Peking. That was Osborn’s farewell gesture in gratitude for services Matthew had
provided the Museum, as well as relief that their differences would no longer be in play.
The 1926 Mongolian campaign was finally fully abandoned on June 15th, which passed
without any improvement in the situation. Gasoline and food already stored in Kalgan
were to be sold off and the camels put into winter quarters. Andrews would leave for the
States on August 29th. Shackelford had already left and Matthew would be starting for
India via the Yangtze Gorges by September 1st. Olsen hoped go to Yanjinggou for the
winter if the military situation settled enough. There were only a few fossils left for him
to work on in Peking and he needed something else to do to keep busy. He planned take
one of Granger’s Sichuan men and two others who had been to Mongolia but not to
Sichuan.
Since there was less than a year wait before the 1927 Mongolian season, Granger and
Nelson decided to spend the winter prospecting in Yunnan Province. Their wives were go
along and remain in Yunnan Fu “while Nels and I prowl about the country side looking
for fossils and artifacts. It's going to be something of a gamble but––we're gamblers
always in our work.”
Chow, Whey [Huei] the cook, and 'Buckshot' accompanied Granger to Yunnan. Chow,
now the No. 1, had spent several years in Yunnanfu and spoke the dialect which was
closer to northern Mandarin than to the Sichuan dialect, queerly enough to Granger.
The party planned to leave on August 14th. Instead of traveling through China proper,
their route would take them via Tientsin, Shanghai, HongKong and Haifong, Indo-China
and on to Yunnan Fu by rail. The trip would take nearly a month and most of that would
be “down the China coast in small steamers in the typhoon season! And I a rotten sailor
at that!”
Yunnan’s climate was splendid in fall and winter, Granger noted. Yunnanfu, the capitol,
was at 6,500 feet and much of the surrounding country was still higher. It served as quite
a summer resort for the French residing in Indo-China. And although bandits were as
abundant in Yunnan Province as elsewhere in China, they were assured of adequate

protection by the Yunnan provincial government “which probably means that we must
take along a few soldiers wherever we go, useful as a preventative but no good as a
cure––like moth balls.”
Expedition to Yunnan Province, Winter 1926-27
August 14, 1926

YUNNAN
1926
Trip to Yunnan 1926-'27
Party:
Walter Granger and Wife
N.C. Nelson and Wife
Chow - No. 1 Boy

'Buckshot' - Assistant
Whey [Huei] - Cook
To proceed via Tientsin, Shanghai, Hongkong and Haiphong. Have

5 cases of equipment plus numerous duffel bags and bundles
containing tents, saddles clothing etc. altogether about 40 pieces of
baggage. Yunnanfu the headquarters, mail c/o American Consul.
Paleontological and archaeological reconnaissance to be carried on
so far as conditions permit [352].
The party boarded the “Foreign Devil” train at 4:30 p.m., August 14th, as Olsen,
Matthew, Beckwith and Young gathered to see them off. After an hour delay to allow
three soldier trains bound north pass through, they arrived in Tientsin at 8:30 p.m. The
Nelsons went directly aboard the Tung Chow. Anna and Walter checked in to the
Imperial Hotel. The Chinese assistants went to a Chinese inn. Facing a lengthy sea
voyage, Granger wished to spend as many nights ashore as he could. All were aboard the
Tung Chow for departure the next morning after breakfast.
Upon arrival at Chefoo harbor the next day, British Consul “Fossil” Smith, formerly of
Ichang, came aboard on the first tender out to the steamer to invite them ashore for tea.
Smith was the amateur fossil collector who had informed the China Geological Society,
Andersson and then Granger that Yanjinggou region appeared to be a source for fossils.
Another Yangtze area acquaintance, C.G. Asker and his wife, were living nearby Consul
Smith and came to tea as well. They all visited the lighthouse just above the consulate
“from which a fine view of the harbor was to be had. The American fleet in port at
present.”
Reboarding at 4:00 p.m. in a driving rain, the party made Wei-Hai-Wei harbor at about
9:00 p.m. They anchored for the night to avoid a typhoon that was passing over the end
of the Shantung peninsula. “August is typhoon season along the China coast,” Granger
wrote his sister Mary. “I feel a good deal about the typhoon as the fellow did about the
purple cows. I’ve never seen one and don’t want to see one,––unless I could watch it
from shore!””
But the delay cost them a day and the paleontologist wasn’t pleased.
The sea was pretty rough most of the way down and I didn't get
much pleasure out of it. If this country would build some more
railroads and keep open the ones they already have one wouldn't
need to be seasick traveling from Peking to Hong Kong. A break of
some 200 miles is all that separates Peking from Canton by rail now
although practically all of the strips south of the Yangtze are not
usable by foreigners. The Cantonese and the Hupeh and Hunan
troops have so abused these branches of the great north-south line
that there isn't much left of them [353].
They docked at the French Concession’s wharf in Shanghai at daybreak. Sunday they
were to start down the coast on another small steamer and, after stopping at Amoy, would
reach Hong Kong on Thursday. Shanghai was suffocatingly hot with the temperature
above 90˚ and it had been over 100˚ a few days earlier. Everything was moist and sticky.
The residents were having a disagreeable time. There was an outbreak of cholera to add
to their worries. But most of the people the Grangers knew in Shanghai “were out of
town ‘for the heated spell’ so there won't be much to do but mop our streaming faces
until Sunday when we put to sea again and should get another breathing spell. It was hot
enough on the ship coming down but nothing like this place.” Peking would be cooling
down by this time, he recalled. Hopefully, the bad weather they’d been following down
the coast would not follow them into Indo-China and Yunnan which, everyone said had a
delightful climate.
In the meantime, Granger and Nelson arranged to have “a talk with Dr. Ting who used to
be the head of the Chinese Geological Survey in Peking and who is now director of this
port. Ting has done work in Yunnan and knows much about it. Nelson and I have dinner
with him tomorrow night.”
Ting called to change plans to lunch at the Majestic Hotel on the 21st. Granger and the
others relaxed in the meantime, after making final preparations for the Yunnan
expedition. They went to a band concert in the Gardens one evening. On the eve of their
departure aboard the S.S. Sinkiang, Granger and Nelson planned to give “short talks to
the assembled missionaries at their evening prayer service.” The weather in Shanghai was
still “excessive hot” compared with Peking and yet it was almost 10 degrees colder than
the week before the typhoon hit.
To his sister Mary, Granger wrote “Oh boy, but this man's town is hot just now.
Envelopes all stuck together and postage stamps stuck to everything but the envelope.
Four collars a day, unless you don't care a darn which is my state just now. In fact things
about as uncomfortable as they possibly could be.” He added he was also thinking “a
good deal about New England gardens these days. We get corn, tomatoes and a sort of
cucumber here but they are not in a class with home stuff––even from home seed the
things do not take on the home quality. Chinese soil seems to have lost its flavor-giving
qualities. Here in Shanghai there is Cholera just now and no one eats raw vegetables or
fruit except such as is protected by a good skin like bananas or oranges.“
Typhoon signal flags flew in Shanghai harbor as they sailed out at 11 o'clock the next
morning, August 22. To everyone’s relief, the air cooled when the boat reached open
waters and remained so into the night. The Sinkiang was a small freighter with
accommodations for eight passengers. The first class accommodations and officers
quarters were all amidship and a deck above the rest of the boat. There were three
staterooms, two of which were occupied by the Grangers and Nelsons. Chow, 'Buckshot'
and Huei utilized deck space on the same level as the staterooms, but well aft at the stern.
Other passengers included a Mr. Spray who, somewhat humorously, happened to be
connected with the lighthouse service.
Access at the fore and aft ends of the first class deck was heavily secured. Two iron doors
leading out from the first class section to the lower deck aft were kept locked and a Sikh
Indian stood constant guard with a Winchester rifle, a revolver and a belt full of
cartridges. There was a spiked affair along the top sides to make it difficult for anyone to
climb over up to the deck above where the bridge was located and the Captain had his
stateroom. All this was to guard against pirates.
Late the next morning, the Sinkiang received a message over its new wireless that the
typhoon reported at Shanghai was now to the south and traveling in a general northwest
direction. By this time, the weather had become thick and squally, forcing the Captain to
take the ship into refuge behind the outer islands of the Tai Chou group, northeast of
Wenchow. They dropped anchor in a great swarm of fish nets. Shortly after, other
steamers appeared also seeking shelter. As the wind blew and the rain beat down, the
protected steamers rode quietly at anchor. By nightfall there were six, all small coastal
craft like the Sinkiang. But none of the other boats had a wireless, so the captain kept the
others apprised by signaling them with updates on the typhoon’s location and direction.
The wind continued to rise. The storm was coming up the coast from the direction of
Hong Kong. It was the 15th day according to the Chinese calendar, the full moon day.
This day was called the Ghost Festival, the day the spirits of the dead make their flight to
their heavenly home. To celebrate the event, a dock nearby the Sinkiang’s anchorage was
decorated with a huge warrior and a water bird, both made of paper. A dozen or so horn
lanterns were suspended from a pole.
On August 24, the wind grew to gale force and the wireless reported the typhoon heading
inland at Wenchow, not far away. The Sinkiang’s whistle blew as flags were run up to
inform the other vessels of the news. Fishermen, who were attending their nets the day
before in spite of the rather high seas, were all in harbor now. Terrific downpours of rain
accompanied the gale most of the day with the wind reaching its maximum velocity by
afternoon. By evening the wind had shifted about 90˚, Granger noted, going from north to
east. Wireless reports indicated that the storm center had passed within 60 miles of them.
The bay, churned up by the storm, was now very muddy and the atmosphere close and
muggy.
With the storm inland, although still not far distant, the captain decided to depart at
daybreak. But a heavy squall of rain arrived as soon as the anchors were up and they were
underway. Less than a half mile, they dropped anchor again. The other ships had
remained at anchor. While a change in the wind had indicated that the typhoon was past,
they were now getting hit by a southwest monsoon. The rain was so ferocious that water
leaked in to the cabins aboard the Sinkiang. Decks were also flooding, and all were
forced to remain in their cabins.
Walter began reading H.G.W. Woodhead's 1925 book, "The Truth About the Chinese
Republic." Anna undertook translating the book "Une Jeune Fille Voyagea" also
published in 1925 by Claude Farrere. Another steamer arrived in the night to make it
seven ships at anchor. After breakfast, as the rain abated somewhat, anchors were again
raised and the Sinkiang departed. They found the open sea to be less disturbed than they
had expected. But its muddiness even at 15 fathoms attested to the severity of the
disturbance. There also was evidence of disaster. The body of one Chinese was seen
floating alongside the Sinkiang while still at anchor. Another was seen after it put out to
sea.
The air cooled at last. A blanket felt comfortable to Anna while she sat out on deck.
Peking
August 25, 1926
Dear Granger:
Enclosed are some letters from home for the Nelsons and
yourselves. I opened those for you from the Museum as you told
me. One parcel came for Mrs. Granger, some moth proof bags, so I
put them in your personal box. Tell Nels that his slides arrived this
morning and I have sent the receipt back to the Museum.
Roy got away alright on Monday morning and there has been no
word from them yet so we think that the train got through alright.
There were a good many rumors that it would not, but China is full
of those. Dr. Matthew is going to take Clifford's trunk and leave it in
Shanghai.
I have just received a letter from Larson saying that our gasoline and
camels are missing. They never reached Pangkiang and it is
impossible to get any word from them as all communications are
broken between Mongolia and Kalgan. He says "You should have
seen the Reds scoot for Urga, wild asses weren't in it. They
commandeered any and all kinds of transport to take them back.”
Ericksson is supposed to be still with our camels but they are unable
to get any word from him at all. I fear that they are gone and we are
out about 58 camels and 288 cases of gas. Larson wants me to come
up and look for them but the Legation advises against it as they say
that it would only be presenting the Reds with another motor car,
and probably I would have a much longer walk home than I had
before.
Hoping you had a pleasant trip down and that you will not encounter
any trouble. Regards to all.
Sincerely,
/s/Mac. [354].
The reference to Pope’s trunk was that Granger had forgotten to take it with him to leave
in the care of Arthur de C. Sowerby at Shanghai until Pope could pick it up. Sowerby was
a naturalist and the editor of the China Journal of Science and Arts there. Mac’s reference
to “a much longer walk” involved a considerably more serious event. As the Expedition
tried to launch another season in Mongolia that past spring, Mac Young was the point
man. He had gone up to Kalgan that April with two cars and food and gasoline supplies
needed for the Expedition. But it was just before the Kuominchun evacuated Kalgan in
the face of advancing Fengtien allied forces. The evacuation left Kalgan very short of
food and the Expedition’s supplies apparently were confiscated as a result.
Early in May, Mac decided to return to Peking and boarded a train. Shortly after
departing Kalgan, however, rail service was interrupted by warfare. So Mac decided to
walk through the war zone. It took him seven days to reach Peking and when he did, he
had not had his clothes off for five. He had slept little and was so exhausted that he was
put to bed at once. Somehow the press found out. “Expedition Motor Chief Returns From
Kalgan,” blared The Peking Leader on May 13, 1926. “Gets through war zone and
reaches Peking after week of exhausting travel: tells Andrews suicide to take expedition
through battle lines.”
The Leader also reiterated Mac’s warning to Andrews :
it would be nothing short of suicide to attempt to take the Expedition

from Peking to Kalgan through the battle lines. The war zone is thick
with snipers and it was Young’s opinion that passports or other
papers would be of little avail to save the party from death [355].
On the morning of August 27th, the Grangers, Nelsons and Chow took a sampan over to
a section of the shore at Amoy where the foreigners and more wealthy Chinese lived.
They walked through the main shopping district along a street which then led up the hill
into the residential section and to an interesting rock pile. All of the hills about the harbor
were topped by huge bare boulders, they noticed. Pumalos, bananas and papaya
flourished, and also a fruit similar to the leiche nut. Chow told them it was called in
Chinese the "Lung Yen" or dragon's eye. A coolie later brought a basket of them on
board, and the steward bought some for Anna.
The sampans about the harbor were painted most attractively. Insides were white and
outsides green with a band of red at the waterline. Sky blue was the color often used at
the prow and stern of the boat, the prow shaped like a fish's head with an eye on each side
done in black with a white ring about it. The stern resembled the back of a bird, two
planks sticking up jauntily as if they were the tips of a bird's wing. Small stools were
provided for passengers to sit on. They were kept under a cover when not in use and the
saying went “If the day is hot, your seat is cool, if it rains your seat is dry.” A crushed
strawberry-colored piece of canvas provided shelter from the elements. Sometimes a
white, supplementary canvas was arranged over the principal seat in the sampan for better
protection. If a fair wind blew, the top canvas was taken down and “a wondrous red-
brown sail run up.”
Granger and Nelson took a walk through the strictly Chinese section of town that
afternoon. They found themselves in streets so narrow that the roofs of the buildings on
either side almost overlapped. Their “tramp” finally led them up a rocky hill that was
used as a burying ground. Since coffins could not be buried in the rocks, they were set
among them and then cemented over. Bits of glass and pottery were stuck in the cement
while still wet.
Granger brought his father up-to-date. Amoy was a peculiar place, he thought. There
were many imports but few exports and the population lived largely on the labor of
coolies who go by thousands to find work in Singapore and other regions to the south.
They hire out for all sorts of labor and then remit money back to their families in Amoy
which keeps the place going. Amoy was beautifully situated up an estuary with green
clad hills on all sides. The sea apparently kept the temperature down and it was not as hot
there as in Shanghai, which from all accounts was one of the worst places along the coast.
The hundred or so foreigners that lived in Amoy occupied a small island across from the
Chinese city. “Nelson and I have prowled around the native town this afternoon finding a
variety of new sights and smells... We encountered no hostile attitude though which is a
relief after Wanhsien and some other cities I have been in.”
Clifford Pope was working in this province somewhere, probably way inland, Granger
added. That was why Granger was to have brought along his trunk. He was coming back
out in September and would return to the Museum for the winter. He had never been to
Mongolia with the main party “because his business is to collect fish and reptiles and
there are not many of either in the Gobi!”
They set sail on August 28, a “very lovely day. The temperature on deck just right on the
shady side of the boat.” A little rain shower set up “a beautiful rainbow adding a final
touch of color to a scene already very pleasing.” Anna spent most of the day reading "In
and Round Yunnan Fou" by Gabrielle Vassal. They reached Hong Kong just after tiffin
the next day and were cleared promptly by the port doctor. A police sergeant came
aboard to examine the expedition’s guns and ammunition. He allowed them to be
retained, but asked Granger to report the boat and date on which they would be sailing for
Haiphong.
A Mr. Miller escorted them to the Missionary Home in Kowloon where they would stay
for about a week. Miller and his wife maintained the Missionary Home as “a clearing
house for travelers engaged in religious and educational work in China. The house is at
No. 13 Cameron Road. It is not nearly as good as the Missionary Home in Shanghai and
almost the same prices charged.”
The expedition’s native men were put up at a Chinese inn on the Hong Kong side. Anna
and Walter later went in to Hong Kong proper, Walter taking Anna to lunch at the Hong
Kong Hotel “since we hadn't had a square meal since leaving the Sin Kiang.” That
evening they listened to a band concert “given by a group of Punjab soldiers at some
British Officers' quarters in Cameron Road. A cornetist played specially well. Between
the numbers of the program, the bagpipes were played by another set of men.” The next
day was spent letter writing. At daybreak, Anna had heard a Meuzzin chant a prayer to
Allah from a Mohammedan mosque situated at the head of their street. “It gave me a
truly oriental thrill.”
Otherwise, Granger wrote his father, Hong Kong was a water-logged town. On one day
in July they had had 21 inches of rain, most of it falling within eight hours. It had been
raining frequently since then, with 10 inches in August and an inch or so already in early
September. Fortunately, there was good drainage and the soil was disintegrated granite.
Otherwise the place “would be an awful mess.”
Hong Kong had a beautiful harbor, he informed his father. Seventy-five to 100 ships and
river boats occupied the harbor most of the time. One drawback, however, was that it lay
in the track of typhoons. Whenever one approached, all craft had to weigh anchor and go
out to sea to prevent their being blown ashore or colliding against one another.
The ‘Canton Boycott’ was an economic boycott by the Chinese against Hong Kong that
had been in force for over a year now and had become a serious threat to British shipping
and commerical concerns [355a]. The boycott, Granger believed, was fomented by the
Red Russians who actually controlled Canton. News of the last day or two, he wrote his
father, also was that the Cantonese armies had taken Wuchang and Hankow on the
Yangtze and that steamers from Hankow to Ichang had been heavily fired upon recently.
Granger wondered whether the situation on the Yangtze would interfere with W.D.
Matthew's contemplated trip up through the gorges. Matthew had planned to take the
gorge trip after Mrs. Matthew arrived from Japan before starting home, by way of India
and Europe.
Granger enclosed a few snapshots he had taken at Amoy and Hong Kong. Those of Hong
Kong harbor, he explained, were taken from the deck of their ship to show the fleet of
small junks and sampans that swarmed about incoming steamers as soon as the
quarantine flag was lowered. The steamers anchored in the roadstead instead of docking
at a wharf.
Late on the afternoon of September 4th, the Granger-Nelson party boarded the Ming
Sang of the Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., line for an 8:00 a.m. departure. There were
only two passenger staterooms on this small boat, 2,600-ton boat. Built and owned by the
Germans before the World War, it was never intended for passenger trade. The cargo was
very light. Part of it consisted of sheep penned on the forward deck, “and at present quite
happy and silent.”
The sea was perfectly calm and deep blue on the 6th. All morning the ship skirted along
the coast of Hainan where the water was very shallow and the channel marked by buoys.
There were no lights or bells on these buoys, so navigation was not possible at night or in
bad weather. Shortly after breakfast, a school of porpoises appeared to port, swam under
the steamer and reappeared to starboard. Although slate-colored, as could be seen when
they leapt out of the water, they looked pale green while swimming beneath the surface.
A pilot was taken aboard the following day at a group of islands at the mouth of the river
leading up to Haiphong. Under his guidance they followed a channel marked by buoys
and reached the city at 1:30 p.m. A doctor came aboard to innoculate all the Chinese
passengers against cholera. The westerners were not “punctured.” An officer of the law
then took all passports and said that they could get them back again by applying at the
police station. Forms had to be filled out before before leaving the ship, giving the place
and date of birth and that of parents, reason for coming to Haiphong and the date of
probable departure.
A launch took them to the customs station at the water's edge. The Chinese had to turn
everything inside out on the lawn in front of the building. Two Granger trunks and
another two valises were opened and lightly inspected. The expedition’s guns and
ammunition had been left at the Customs station until a permit was obtained from the
mayor.
The party went by rickshaw to the Hotel de l'Europe which was recommended by a Miss
Davis whom they had met in Hong Kong. They found the place to be satisfactory. The
rooms were in a building seperate from the dining rooms of which there seemed many.
The beds were large, clean and equipped with mosquito nets. A corridor fronting on a
shaded street, ran along past their doors. There they could sit to enjoy the cool of the
morning.
After dining, they strolled through the town to a public square. A refreshing breeze blew
as hey sat on the steps of a “fine building devoted to music until we were ready for bed.
The streets are wide, well passed and clean as far as we went.”
They were wakened early the next morning by babies crying in the next room as bells
clanged at a church near by. They gave up trying to get back to sleep and made ready for
a breakfast of omelette, chocolate and rolls.
Afterward, Walter went to the Chartered Bank of Australia to draw money on his letter of
credit. There he met a Mr. Barton who, it turned out, was a British astronomer and
Cambridge man who knew Granger’s friend, the British paleontologist Clive Forster-
Cooper. Barton said he had just come up from Sumatra where he had observed the sun
eclipse that past winter and “has been wandering through southeast Asia ever since.
Barton, who also was about to go on to Yunnan Fu, and advised that they would do better
take a different route to Hanoi than the one they had planned. A few days ago, a steamer
of the same shipping line for which they had engaged tickets had capsized at a dock
drowning four hundred people, all Chinese except one. Barton recommended another
steam line, one managed by an English company which likely would not be as crowded,
or as unsafe.
At suppertime the Grangers sipped their coffee on the piazza fronting the main street.
Anna took in her new surroundings. It was odd to her to see the natives going about with
their teeth all blackened from chewing the betel nut. She also noticed that the traditional
blue coolie cloth was not used there. Instead, a black, thin, shiny material colored reddish
brown like the sails on the junks was used. A hat made of palm leaves and shaped like a
round inverted tray with an inch-wide rim was also favored by the natives, Anna noticed.
Their hair was kept in a turban, black or white. Wooden sandals adorned the feet. A
leather strap at the front held only the toes, the heal lifting up at every step letting the
sandal hit the sidewalk with a clack.
Granger also noted the differences in this new place. “Going from Hongkong to
Haiphong,” he wrote his father on September 9, 1926, “is like going from London to
Paris.” Here everything was French: fine wide streets, broad sidewalks lined with trees,
open air cafes and restaurants, French shops and, above everything, the French language.
Granger could manage to get along there “with plenty of gesticulating, etc., but as both
Anna and Nelson have a sort of passing acquaintance with French I'm saved the trouble.”
The natives were different looking, as well. There were still strong suggestions of the
Mongoloids about them. But the influence of the brown people, the Malags to the South,
was noticeable. There seemed also to be plenty of mixing between the French and the
Annamites, to the advantage of both races so far as Granger could see. The women
averaged rather better looking than the Chinese and their habit of carrying loads on the
head gave them a stately carriage. But their betel-nut-blackened teeth “detracts seriously
from an otherwise good-looking race of people.” He remembered that there were a few of
these black-toothed Annamites with the French Legation Guard in Peking.
Ordinarily it was a three-hour rail trip from Haiphong to Hanoi, the capital of Tonkin.
But recent floods had destroyed that particular stretch of railroad. They had to instead
take a riverboat
for fifteen hours of winding about in the Red River delta to a place
called Nam Dihm on the railway going south from Hanoi. From
Nam Dihm it's two hours into the capital. Then we are to have
further trouble along the railway from Hanoi to Yunnan Fu. The
same rains have broken this line as well and the latest information is
that there are two breaks where baggage & passengers must be taken
across on foot and put on another train. It's trouble enough to take an
outfit like mine from Peking to Yunnan Fu if things are running
smoothly and this sort of interruption makes it a real job. It looks
now as if it would be at least the 15th before we can get to our
journey's end [356].
At Hong Kong they had heard reports of troubles at Hankow and Wanxian, such as
shooting at foreign steamers to try to confiscate them for conveying Chinese soldiers.
Granger wondered whether Olsen would be able to get into Sichuan that winter. At
Tonkin there seemed to be very little news from the outside world. In Haiphong there was
only a two-sheet daily filled with advertisements and local news. Even in Hong Kong
there was little news from central China. In Yunnan Fu, he assumed, they would have to
depend on the week-old Hong Kong papers for news of the outside world.
They left Haiphong on September 10th aboard the S.S. Saphr. It was a small stern-wheel
boat with five first-class cabins and a French captain. As they steamed upstream to Nam
Dihm, they saw kingfishers, shrikes, small white herons, sandpipers and a large stork
with pink feathers at the rump. Its body was white, with areas of black. Palms, bananas
and bamboo with several other kinds of trees whose names they did not know lined the
banks. The water was muddy. Masses of water hyacinth were often seen floating by,
having been pulled loose by the flooding.
All along the way, they took on some passengers and discharged others. Only once did
they tie up to a dock to do this. The rest of the time sampans were brought to the boat's
side. Some were made of plaited reeds like huge, flat baskets.
By 9:00 p.m., they were sleepy and thought to retire to their cabins,
but a moment's stay convinced us that the deck would be preferable

and less frequented by the enormous cock-roaches that inhabit these
southern countries. Walter brought out our mattresses & pillows and
we lay down on them without undressing, and slept as much as we
could with the ship's whistle going off at intervals, and the crew
hallooing to each other. A Frenchman and his wife adopted the same
method of spending the night. The Nelsons stuck it out in their
super-heated cabin [357].
They arose from their deck beds at 5:00 a.m. to chocolate, a roll and bananas for
breakfast at 6:00. Reaching Nam Dihm two hours later, they took rickshaws to catch the
9:20 for Hanoi at the railroad station. They arrived in Hanoi at 1:00 p.m and checked in at
the Hotel de la Gare, an establishment which Miss Davis had advised would be good
enough. “There is no vermin about and the linens clean and the double beds comfortable
enough and fitted up with good mosquito nets. Cold water and wash stand with wash
basin in our rooms.” Supper was at the Hanoi Hotel with Mr. Barton after which they all
took rickshaws up to and across the railroad bridge leading into Yunnan Fu.
On Sunday morning, Granger, Nelson and Barton visited with Jacques Fromaget of the
Geological Survey of Indochina for lunch at the Geological Museum. Afterward they
watched a procession of paraphernalia used for funerals. Barton said that these trappings
were kept in the temples and taken out occasionally for airing. To Anna’s eye, the people
carrying the umbrellas, fans, and musical instruments were dressed more neatly than
those in Peking. After the show passed, they took rickshaws to the zoological garden
where they found the trees and plants all luxuriant in growth and the park well planned.
There were red hibiscus flowering everywhere.
There were not many people in the gardens, Anna noted, though all seemed well-
behaved. The better class Annamite wore a very handsome black gauze over-jacket that
came to his knees. Big bunches of flowers were woven into the gauze. These showed up
plainly, since the coat was worn over white underthings. The sleeves of this garment were
tight fitting, not loose as in the north. More care was taken in Haiphong and Hanoi to
protect the head from the sun's rays than they had observed in other places. The native
Annamite carried an umbrella, white with pale green lining. The coolies who pulled the
rickshaws wore a broadly conical plaited rush hat tipped at the apex with a brass cap.
Others wore the broad tray type of head-gear. These latter were a nuisance in a crowd.
Babies, they noticed, were “most unpleasant to look at, their complexions being sallow,
their heads all scrofulous and their clothes somber and dirty besides.”
[ ].
Sept. 13, 1926
Dear Father:
... On the 15th we begin the last stage of this long drawn out
journey. The rail trip to Yunnanfu is three days and because of the
dangerous nature of the road the trains run only by day light and the
passengers put up at station hotels, getting routed out about 5 o'clock
in the morning to resume the journey. A series of postcards seems to
give a fair idea of the railroad. What we are interested in more than
the scenery however is getting above this heat. We get back into
China the first night after leaving here and the two following days
are in Yunnan... [358].
On the morning of the 12th, Granger went with Nelson and Barton to the Geographical
Survey of Indochina. There they met with the chief of mapping, Colonel Edel, “who
showed us through the splendid map-making plant.” Since they were to leave for
Yunnanfu the next day, Anna and Mrs. Nelson were out purchasing food for three day's
of tiffin en route. Food on the train was said to be poor. They bought fresh guavas for
lunch.
Later Barton took them to see the Annamite temple called the Big Bronze Buddha out
near the Zoological grounds. It had an interesting garden between the entrance parts and
the building containing the Buddha which made Anna think of a formal Italian garden.
They passed back along a street where all kinds of lanterns were for sale, many in the
shapes of fishes, crayfishes, turtles and butterflies. “A pretty sight,” Anna wrote.
An uneventful trip to the border with Yunnan took them to Lao Kai, the frontier station
between Nanking and Yunnan Province. The morning route took them through rice
paddies, all now inundated by the flooding. Here they spotted black herons, as well as a
small heron which looked brown when it stood still and white when it flew. Mountains
lay in the distance and by noon they had climbed to drier land. Well before reaching Lao
Kai they entered a maze of tropical foliage, bananas, bamboos, sugar cane, palms of two
sorts and other trees which were new to them. Papayas and pumalos were among the
edible fruits.
After reaching Lao Kai at 9:30 p.m., they put up at the French-run railroad hotel which
seemed quite inferior. “Room musty meal meager & toilet abominable. The only thing
1st class are the charges,” griped Granger. The room was so damp that a piece of
cheesecloth hung out in the middle did not dry before morning. But at 10:00 o'clock, the
thermometer read 79˚, a welcome change from the 95˚ degrees in Hanoi.
They made ready by candlelight at 5:00 a.m. since the electric light in their room
functioned only in the evening. The train departed at 6:30 a.m. and climbed in elevation
until late afternoon. The highest point reached that day was 5,600 feet where open grass-
covered hills began and continued on to A Mi Chu. Vegetation was not so dense, they
noticed, as the Chinese had cut down many of the hardwoods. Flowers, however, were
plentiful. Yellow hollyhocks, blue larkspur, hare bells, Kudzu vine with purple fragrant
flowers, bone set, masses of a white or pale lavender blossoming shrub which clambered
over rocky hillsides all made a great show. One flower, Anna thought, resembled a phlox.
There were many others she was unable to classify in passing. The scenery was
spectacular for the most part, she added, and the soil was red.
They traveled through tunnels and crossed over viaducts and bridges, following the
course of the Nan Shi Ho, a muddy stream. One bridge high above the stream was bound
by cliffs at both ends and could be accessed and egressed only by tunnel. Waterfalls
dashed down cliffs, sometimes so close to the track that droplets splashed into their car.
Although the air was cool, the sun was hot whenever the train stopped at a station.
That night was spent at A Mi Chu where the French-run railroad hotel was found to be
more comfortable and have better food than at Lao Kai. The building was a two-story
white stucco with an upper veranda running the whole length. An outside staircase led the
Grangers to their room. After supper, Walter and Anna took a stroll in the moonlight
through the village streets some of which were well paved with granite blocks and shaded
with trees. Most of the houses were two-stories with a balcony along the second floor.
The last lap of their journey necessitated another 5:00 a.m. wake up for a 6:30 departure.
The sky was overcast and the temperature decidedly lower. Anna put on a wrap as soon
as the train got under way only to discard it once the sun came out. The hills were grassy
and bare of trees except in occasional spots. Pines, cedars arbor-vitaes were among the
evergreens. A tree, whose branches came out in whorls, she noted as “conspicuous.” Its
leaves were glossy and palmately compound (leaflets radiating from a single point at the
end of a small stalk) of five leaflets lanceolate (lance-shaped) or umbrella pine, thick and
glossy. Some variety of tall cactus was common. High grasses grew along the railroad
tracks. Corn, buckwheat, cotton, rice sugar cane and castor beans were the principal crops
seen. A red plant among the corn was perhaps the Amaranths.
This district was not thickly populated as others. Three groups of two-storied houses were
built close together in tiers with walls made of red earth, flat roofs covered with thatch
and windows small square all looking much like some Indian villages in the U.S. They
entered a rocky gorge of yellow limestone at 10:30 a.m. remaining close to a river
between high hills which cut off the air for the best part of the day. The river was Po Ta
Ho, translated as “The Eight Big Rivers.” The highest elevation that day was 6,653 feet at
4:30 p.m. They arrived at Yunnanfu an hour later and checked into the Hotel du
Commerce.
Again they were housed in a building separate from the one containing the living and
dining rooms. It was two-storied with a gallery running along both sides. A row of
Eucalyptus trees ran along both sides as well. “These latter were a joy to behold,” wrote
Anna. They occupied an upper room which looked out “upon a pretty landscape, water in
the foreground, two four-sided pagodas in the middle distance, and a line of mountains,
ridged & furrowed as they are about Kalgan, in the distance.” But the food was almost as
bad as at Lao Kai. They would have to find another place to eat.
They began to settle in. After a “meager” breakfast of coffee, roll and omelette served in
their room the next morning,
Walter & I called at the American consulate. Got some mail and met
Mrs. Myers and their two little daughters. They are nice poeple,
have shown their friendliness at once by inviting us to come to tea
on Monday and to dinner on Tuesday. They are breaking up their
home because they are to leave for America on Oct. 12. It happened
that Mrs. Myers was one of the hostesses at the French Club to-day.
She asked the Nelsons and us to come around, so we did. A
children's party was on when we arrived at 5 o'clock. They had their
tea first, and later we had many kinds of cakes, but scanty rations of
tea, the little tea we got not being put into our cups until long after
we had finished with the food. Mrs. Myers introduced us to many of
the club members, among them Mademoiselle Gerber,
Mademoiselle Ebeles' friend. A dance followed the so-called tea
party. Men came in from the tennis grounds. From a woman who sat
next to me, I learned that all the French women here have lovers as
well as husbands, and that they are jealous if either of their men
dances with the wives of any of the other foreigners here. They do
not object to accepting the foreign husbands as partners though!
While Mrs. Nelson & I sat with the women indoors, Walter & Mr.
Nelson were on the verandah talking with men whom Mr. Myers
introduced. The British Consul, Mr. Combs was in the group. The
club is not far from the r.r. station at the end of a dirty ally. Nothing
attractive about the building [359].
Walter and Anna slept in the next morning. It was the first chance Walter had to nurse a
cold he had caught in Hanoi. They only had time for a short walk “before the dejeuner
served at 12 o'clock. Meal no good.” Anna made them some tea over a Sterno heater later
that afternoon and drank it with some crackers, cheese and chocolate they had left over
from the three lunches made for the train ride up from Hanoi. Although it was quite cool
now at night, the mosquitoes were active as soon as the sun set. They took another walk
at 5:00 p.m. to the west and south along a canal and saw some sights worth
photographing. “We do not find ourselves stared at as badly here as at Wanhsien in
Szechuan.”
They moved themselves to Mr. Mylne's compound outside the East gate of the Chinese
City on September 30th. He and his wife, along with a Mr. Bell and his wife, maintained
a place where English Methodist missionaries traveling in and out of the interior could
stop over. They ran a provision store as well. The building was of Chinese design, two
stories high, with three sections arranged around a square stone-paved court and a
covered gallery that ran around all the rooms both upstairs and down. The upper north
section was divided into two rooms. The Nelsons situated themselves in one of these and
the Grangers the other. Anna was not pleased. There was a wash bowl and pitcher in each
room. The water was frightfully hard; there was no bell to summon a servant; meals were
plain if substantial; tea was at 4:00 p.m.; the place felt very cramped; the electricity came
on only after dark and the mosquitoes were active; and, so, consequently they would have
to sleep under nets at night. Worst, when Anna opened up their trunks to give their things
an airing, she found some clothes mildewed. ('Buckshot' and Chow, in the meantime,
were airing the expedition’s gear and equipment.)
However, a window in the back wall gave a pretty view of cultivated garden patches,
groups of tall cedars, and mountains.
A hard rain fell during the evening while they were out. Fortunately, there were only a
few drops left as they made their way back by rickshaw. Rickshaws there were dreadful
things, Anna thought, and the streets in some sections were so badly paved that one ran a
danger of striking a boulder and being thrown out at any moment. Some streets however
had good pavement of granite blocks and provided safe enough travel. A chair was
considered the most secure method of getting about.
On the 24th, Granger, Nelson and 'Buckshot' took a day-long, warm-up hike to a place in
the hills known as Tieh Fen An. The idea was to limber up and get back in shape. That
night the Grangers and Nelsons dined with Mr. Hsieh, Yunnan’s secretary of foreign
affairs, and a number of other foreign residents and diplomats including the British,
American and Japanese consuls. The next day they were off to a tiffin party given by the
British consul, Mr. Combe, at the English gardens outside the city’s north gate [360].
Some fine trees had been planted in the enclosure along with some flowers “which grew
rankly without much attention being given them. With a little care,” wrote Anna, “it
would really merit the name of garden.” Mr. Combe had erected a tent under which his
guests sat for the luncheon. Tables were decorated with circles of red dahlia blossoms
laid flat. The menu was soup, a mushroom omelette, snipe, chicken, French fried
potatoes, salad, pudding, cheese, bananas, persimmons, coffee and bonbons. Some of this
had been brought out from Combe’s residence in the city to be reheated or cooked in clay
stoves by his servants.
Granger and Nelson made ready to move out. It had rained a good deal since their arrival.
But that was about to end and fine fall weather lay ahead. The usual round of
entertainment continued––dinners and tiffin by the Chinese officials, consuls and others.
Granger had not yet met the provincial Governor General Ta'n; however, arrangements
would be made for that shortly.
This province was more or less at peace with the rest of China, although there was some
internal trouble over toward Tali fu in the western part. Few travelers took that route at
present, though Granger thought he might make that trip later in the winter if conditions
permitted. It was Wanxian that seemed to be the center of hostilities at present. News had
come of the “Wanhsien Incident”:
It seems that General Yang Sheng thought he would commandeer a

couple of British steamers to carry some of his troops in. The British
boarded the seized steamers and later bombarded the town. It is also
stated that three China Inland Mission people are being held as
hostages of Yang Sheng [361].
Olsen would not be able to make that trip that winter after all. Nor would Matthew and
his wife be able to make the Gorge trip.
Granger purchased provisions and was now arranging for horses to start their trip around
the lakes to the south of Yunnanfu. Anna and Mrs. Nelson would stay in town at the
Central Missionary Agency which would also serve as a headquarters while Granger and
Nelson were away. Well, not entirely.
For two or three weeks in October though the ladies will be holding
down the living quarters of the U.S. Consulate. Mr. Meyers, the
present Consul, leaves on furlough about Oct. 11th and his
successor, Mr. Jacobs, does not arrive until nearly Nov. 14, and Mr.
Meyers asked us to hold the fort for him during the interim. The
Consulate servants and sufficient-home-keeping things are left so
our wives ought to have a comfortable time of it [362].
October 1, 1926
(A dull day.) From my window I look out on many Chinese garden
plots. Onions are now being bedded down for the winter. In the p.m.
went with the Nelsons and Walter to Mrs. Parker's (Y.M.C.A.) for
tea. Mrs. Myers, Mr. and Mrs. Evans, Mrs. Arnold, Mr. Bishop,
Miss Ludbrook and Mr. Clarke. Had very good "eats," coffee, nut
bread, sandwiches, chocolate cake, cookies, salted peanuts, walnuts
and bon-bons. The Parkers go to America very soon [363].
The next day, they all went with 'Buckshot' and Liu to visit the ‘Copper Temple,’ as
Anna called it, which actually was the Golden Temple at Mengfing Hill. All walked
except Anna who rode in a carrying chair with three bearers. Anna noted many new
flowers on the way, describing those she’d brought back wrapped in newspaper.
[E]delweiss, a shrimp-pink orchid, a flower belonging to the

huckleberry group, a showy yellow flower which may have been a
loosestrife or a St. John's wort having opposite, plain, rather leathery
leaves, a royal purple fire-petals flower, 6"-8" high with round
smooth stem, alternate lanceolate leaves, stem turning whenever the
plant touches anything that can be encircled, all of which suggests
clematis except the alternate leaf arrangement [364].
Four ‘Heavenly Gates’ stood on the stone-paved avenue approaching the temple. The
first was at the bottom of the hill followed by the others at intervals as one moved up the
slope. Groves of trees bordered each side of the way. The temple was in the center of an
upper terrace elevated a few feet above a court. It was made entirely of copper––walls,
roof, and doors. Hanging from the roof of the front portico was a bronze bell and a
triangle of the same metal which gave out most pleasing tones. Anna sketched these in
her diary. “This would make a fine dinner gong,” she decided. Inside was an altar with
carved figures. The most unique was a turtle with a serpent on its back. The turtle's head
was twisted back toward the serpent's body.
Each side of the temple faced two buildings with a series of painted panels on a blue
background that ran along the entire face of each building half way between the first and
second floors. The subjects were birds, flowers and emblems. On the sides of the first
Heavenly Gate stood two square buildings, each with balconies. One contained a stove
for the preparation of food. The other had tables and benches arranged for drinking tea.
Inscriptions written on the wall with one including a list of names of those who had
contributed money for the upkeep of the temple.
On an adjacent metal pole was a metal flag with an impressed border with the Chinese
characters ‘Tien Hsia Ping An’ meaning ‘Under the heaven, peace’ cut out and suspended
ingeniously from other metal portions of the flag. The letters were silhouetted against the
sky and easily read.
There were three other courts, each well paved, having rooms devoted to gods. Other
rooms were set aside for picnics and showed signs of having been used recently.
The Granger party attended a farewell dinner on October 6 given by Provincial Governor
Tang for the American Consul, Mr. Myers and his wife. All the Americans in town were
invited. Many uniformed Chinese officers replete with medals also attended. The guests
were received in a large audience room on one side of a court and served in a much less
elegant apartment on the opposite side. Pine needles strewn on the dining room floor
gave out a pleasant odor. The ceiling was hung with flags of many nations, and on the
tables lay rows of stemless red roses, dahlias, cosmos, and zinnia.
The menu was shark's fin soup, fish, cold meat with vegetable salad, hot chicken, canned
asparagus, roast pork, raw onions, chocolate pudding, ice cream, coffee, bananas and
pears, candied walnuts and stuffed glazed prunes. Wines served were white, red and
champagne. At the close of the meal the Governor proposed a toast in Chinese to Mr.
Myers who read a prepared response in English. A Chinese translation of Myers’
response was then delivered by a Chinese translator immediately afterward. The guests
then returned to the reception room where tea was served in covered cups. As at first, the
women were directed to sit together on one side of the room while the men gathered with
the Chinese guests on the other.
The next day the Grangers and Nelsons had lunch at the consulate with Mrs. Myers who
afterward showed them “all the things in the house she was leaving for us to use when we
go to occupy the premises next Tuesday, and which are to go to other people.” In the
afternoon they “had Chinese chow at the Mylne's, Mr. Bishop and Miss Rudd coming in
to join us,” and “after supper Mr. & Mrs. Evans came in and we had a sing-song of
college tunes and ditties from various sources.”
The day following was tea with a Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, “missionaries who have been
down on the Red River at a town where Walter will be when he gets to the point furthest
south on his exploration trip. They say that the valley of the Red River is full of malaria.”
They attended another good-bye dinner at 8:00 p.m. for the Myers given by Hsieh, the
Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, facetiously known, according to Anna, “as the Fat
Pig.” Various courses of “Chinese chow” were served in small metal bowls. Others, such
as fish and roast pork, were brought out on china plates. Chop-sticks and knives and forks
and a soup spoon were at each place. One could use whichever one preferred. This was
not a meal, however, that appealed to the Grangers.
Anna sat between Consul Combe and Nels Nelson. The other guests were Mr. and Mrs.
Myers, the French Consul and his wife, the Japanese Consul and his wife, Mr.
Vanderworker and a number of Chinese, among them the Minister of Education. Mr.
Vanderworker, Anna noted, who had been to Mr. Combe's for tiffin,
had drunk a good deal there and was unable to stand any more
liquor. The Chinese deliberately tried to see how many times they
could get him to drink his glass "Kau-hei." He himself proposed a
number of Kau-hei's to others with the result that about the time the
dessert came on he was unable to talk straight or hardly to sit in his
chair. Mr. Combe felt somewhat responsible for his condition so he
offered to take him home. While going up the steps to Mr. Combe's
home he fell down and cut himself on the head. Mr. Combe sent a
chit for Mr. Myers to come to his aid in getting him quieted down
and his head seen to by a physician. Mr. Myers was gone so long
that Mrs. Myers became worried. As soon as Mr. Myers returned to
Mr. Hsieh's, the party broke up. To while away the time when Mr.
Myers was gone from the company Mademoiselle Gerber played
some things on the piano and one of the Chinese gave us a Chinese
tune on the same instrument. Later Mr. Hsieh brought out some
albums of photographs of Yunnan Fu to divert our attention from the
disaster of the evening [365].
It now was Sunday and a Chinese national holiday celebrating the 14th year of the
Republic. All male foreign residents called on the Governor between 11 and noon to
drink champagne and have a group photograph taken. That evening, the Grangers and
Nelsons went to yet another farewell dinner for the Myers given by Mr. Tang of the
Commissariat Department. The weather was dull and cold. Mrs. Myers was having an
attack of malaria and had to absent herself. The wife of the French consul, Madam
Lepicier and his sister, Mademoiselle Gerber, the French Commandant and his wife, and
the Japanese Consul were among the other guests. Among the Chinese, Anna had met
only two before. She sat next to the Japanese Consul
who went to sleep almost as soon as the dinner began. Later on he

excused himself and went home. The reception room was at one end
of a narrow garden, and the rather small dining room at the other
end. In the reception hall at one end was a Chinese kang [brick
sleeping platform] covered with white cloth crosstitched in red. One
of the subjects chosen for the needlework was a bust of Napoleon!
The dinner served was foreign. Roast pigeons were the best thing on
the menu, ham and eggs, the most odd! After dinner Mademoiselle
Gerber was asked to give some piano music which she did
gracefully and creditably. She was followed by our host who
thumbed some very simple Chinese ditty [366].
*
Finally, with the Myers gone and expedition plans, arrangements and provisions
finalized, Granger could inform his father on October 14, that
[t]omorrow my thirteen horses leave with the equipment and go to a

temple around the north end of the lake [Lake Dianchi] and the next
morning Nelson and I go over by boat and join them and the
expedition will be started. Anna and Mrs. Nelson will probably go
across the lake with us and return in the afternoon. The American
Consul got off on the 12th and the new man, Mr. Jacobs, should be
here by Nov. 1st. In the meantime the ladies will occupy the
premises. We moved over the morning the Consul left. It has been a
bit inconvenient for me because the compound where we were and
where our equipment still is is some three-quarters of a mile away
and I have to go back and forth twice a day. There are a few
rickshaws in town but the streets are pretty bumpy. Carrying chairs
with three men are used for all official occasions and for going out
at night but they are rather expensive, in fact living in general in this
province is more expensive than elsewhere in China at present. It
seems to be fairly safe however––I have seen no evidence on the
streets of anti-foreign feeling. There is banditry of course but it is
limited to certain districts. We're to have an escort of soldiers––not
more than ten I'm told. They are of no use except to give an official
air to the party. We're reading of very nasty times along the
Yangtze––especially at Wanhsien and Chung King and are thankful
that we are not there [367].
Shortly after 8:00 a.m., all proceeded to the canal outside the west gate to hire a
houseboat to Hsi Shan. Propelled by two men and a woman, they slowly made their way
through the quiet water. On a chance that 'Buckshot' might not have made it all the way
down to Hsi Shan, they put in at Kao Chiao at noon where the Tali' fu trail met the lake.
He was camped just above the village in a rather comfortable old temple with a fine
balcony overlooking the lake and Yunnanfu. Six soldiers had arrived the evening before.
Granger gave them $3 total for that day’s food allowance. But they seemed dissatisfied
saying they were spending $2 each per day for food. The leader talked about returning to
town to get money from the foreign office and then left. Granger wasn’t sure whether it
was a bluff.
The party lunched in the upper part of one of the buildings in a group where the rooms
were built with balconies facing the lake and they’d set up a table to enjoy the view. After
the meal, they decided to visit a temple near the water at the base of Hsi Shan to see
whether it would be a better place for Walter's camp. It rained all the way over but
cleared just as they landed. After a brief inspection of that site, good-byes were said as
the ladies pushed off and the men started their two-mile walk back to camp. Granger had
decided that there seemed to be no advantage in camping at Hsi Shan, and they would
remain at the temple until they started down the lake.
It rained again, continuously. Anna recorded that “If only our men had known such a wet
time was coming, they could have delayed getting into camp until it was over.”
Meanwhile, the expedition party trapped and shot specimens to stuff. The head mafu
(guide and/or groom of horses) came by that afternoon for his $13 fee, but they saw or
heard nothing of the soldiers. They spent the following day making up squirrels and tree
shrews but did little else. There were two species of squirrels, a large red-bellied form
common and a smaller white-bellied species not so common. The tree shrews lived
directly in front of the temple and fed on the "elbow" fruits which grew on three or four
trees there. By that morning, some of the soldiers had returned and Granger was led to
understand that one or more of them had gone in to town the previous day.
The rain continued into the 19th. There was nothing to do but wait until it ceased since
the trails were now quagmires and there was no use going anywhere in the rain. Nelson
busied himself studying Chinese architecture while Granger and his men continued to put
out traps and kept busy with taxidermy. The rest of the soldiers returned at tiffin time
with letters from the wives, newspapers, two copies of Asia magazine and some peanuts.
They would be content, the soldiers said, with Granger’s original offer of 50¢ per day
food allowance each.
In the meantime, Whey [Huei], seriously gashed with his butcher knife two dogs roaming
about the temple. It was a ”rather bad business.” Granger wrote. “Fortunately the No. 1
priest is away or there might be unpleasantness. 'Buckshot' doctored up one of the dogs
which had a slash across the head.”
The weather cleared on October 21. To Anna it was “a very fine day which we know our
husbands are welcoming as well as we.” Granger and Nelson broke camp at 9:00 a.m.
and headed for the village of Feng Yang. Their soldier escort was reduced to four. Chow
walked the entire distance. Whey [Huei] started to, but showed such unmistakable signs
of serious illness that Granger put him on his horse for the greater part of the journey.
After tiffin, Whey [Huei] tried riding on a pack horse, but the horse fell down an
embankment and threw him off. He then rode Granger’s horse. The trail was both good
and bad in spots. Sometimes it merely was a narrow bank between paddy fields, and in
other places a stone causeway circled around the cliffs and in places it came to the water's
edge.
They stopped to set up camp at an ancestral hall near the lake, the village proper being up
a valley. This was said to be 20 li from the outlet of the lake. Granger and Nelson were
quartered upstairs above a classroom which was closed because the children were needed
for the rice harvest.
The next day, Nelson found a shell heap along the shore of the lake, but no pottery or
implements. It began to rain again that night and continued intermittently for another day.
Granger had intended to move on, but the weather wouldn’t permit it. Instead, he rode
with Nelson and 'Buckshot' over a ridge to the west some 15 li to hunt for a cave from
which a local schoolteacher said some bones had been taken out years ago. But they
could not find it and didn’t have time for further search.
Whey [Huei] was a sick man now. Granger decided to send him back to Yunnanfu
(Kunming) by the little steamer which stopped there night and morning. He took him
down for the afternoon run on the 24th while it continued to rain at intervals throughout.
Nelson prospected.
Chow and 'Buckshot' were to carry on with the cooking for the rest of the trip. Granger
felt “relieved at not having to take Whey [Huei] down into the malarial Red River
Valley.“ He planned to move on the next day unless there was heavy rain. “My funds will
be getting low if I tarry much longer,” he wrote. “Brought $300 paper dollars and the
equivalent of $200 in Yunnan silver half-dollars, @$1.60.”
It also rained sporadically in Yunnanfu that day. Anna and Ethelyn spent it sending out
invitations for tea to all the people who had entertained them. Later that afternoon, they
went to Mr. and Mrs. Chu's for tea and chiao tzus. The tea, the kind that is grown in
Hangchow, was mixed with chrysanthemum petals to give it a slightly peppery taste. The
chiao tzus were very tender but did not seem as flavored or seasoned as well as by
northern cooks.
The Chu's living room was a bare and uninviting. There was no carpet over floor boards
spotted with grease. Some of the scrolls on the walls were the only things of beauty to
Anna. But some of them badly needed remounting. The bedroom was better furnished,
but not artistically she thought. There was a photograph of Mr. Chu, a geologist, in his
cap and gown. Another was “of the wedding party which included Mr. Chu's grandfather,
a nice-looking old man who is said to be very much "up" in the classics and a beautiful
writer of the Chinese characters. The Chus have not been married a year yet.”
Huei came back later that evening with a letter from Walter explaining that Huei needed
to go to the hospital to be treated for jaundice. He had consulted Dr. Watson who said he
should stay in the hospital for a week.
“[This has been the] worst day since we started,” wrote Granger. “Rain continuously
during the night and all day. 'Buckshot' rode down the trail in the evening to look at its
condition and reported muddy but that we could proceed tomorrow if it didn’t rain again.
Nelson and I kept in camp practically all day by the rain. Collected a few shells but
nothing much else.”
Matters improved the following day when the sun shone bright. The expedition broke
camp and set off at around 9:00 a.m. despite trouble with the pack horses. “[A]s usual
and one bolted into a wall with two food boxes & upset them.”
Chow rode Granger’s horse until tiffin time. Afterward, he rode a pack-horse fitted up
with a blanket. Nelson had gone on ahead to prospect and was not seen again until an
hour after they’d set up camp in a temple at a small village just beyond the lake. Granger
had been told that, after crossing the bridge over the lake outlet, there were no more
temples for some distance, “which necessitated our stopping in this rather small village
with no inn accommodations.” Horses, mafus and soldiers were all quartered in the same
temple.
There had been more trouble with the pack horses at the entrance to the bridge over the
lake outlet. A square structure had been erected with doors too narrow for the horses with
packs to pass through. So they had to be unloaded and carried through by hand. Then a
horse fell down the stone steps leading up onto the bridge as they tried to walk it through.
The soldiers were also having trouble. Finding food and fuel had been difficult for them.
One resorted to beating up the village head until he consented to furnish some eggs and
vegetables. Later, Granger stopped a soldier from breaking up poles stored in the temple,
although he allowed Chow one pole because there was no brush or charcoal with which
to keep a fire.
Nelson and Granger occupied the platform of the shrine room which was separated from
the court by a wooden railing. Nevertheless they had to tolerate villagers flocking in to
see them “until the pressure gets too great and we have to shoo them back into the court.”
Four of the six mafus smoked opium, Granger noted. Only a boy and a young man among
them did not.
There was to be no luck with the weather the next day as they departed in a misty rain
which later developed into a driving rain with a strong northeast wind. It was a miserable
trip, over a high hill on a bad, slippery trail. The hills were of a red, disintegrating
limestone and almost entirely treeless. There was no cultivation except in the valleys. The
rain continued as they went into camp at a temple in the mid afternoon. It was a regular
temple with gallery rooms on three sides. Nelson and Granger settled in on the gallery
level on the entrance as a great crowd of men and children gathered. Apparently few
foreigners had stopped there.
This was the most miserable and frustrating expedition Granger had ever experienced to
date, as he and Nelson nevertheless prepared to push on the next day, October 28. It
dawned
[c]loudy early in a.m. Later breaking away into a fine bright day.
Drying out in a.m. After tiffin to call on magistrate Yang with Chow
and was received by his secretary, who later returned the call at the
temple. Nels out a.m. & p.m. along the shore––reported nothing but
a shell heap or two.
Fourth soldier turned up this a.m. and all were given fare back to
Yunnanfu & kissed good-bye. We're to have six soldiers tomorrow
I'm told.
Fire wood & charcoal are frightfully expensive here. Chow paid 15¢
per g'iu for the latter last evening. Chow is coming on fairly well
with the cooking––he will not ride a pack-horse however even with
the wooden pack off and and the saddle padded out with blankets
etc. He walked the entire trip yesterday in rain and mud.
The mud is drying up rapidly today and the road should be good
tomorrow [368].
Anna, in the meantime, was having a much more lively time than she had had at Wanxian
and perhaps even Peking. She and Ethelyn were invited to a supper that night. Dessert
was a wonderful mixture of canned fruits, served with whipped

canned cream. Pineapple, apricots, peaches, cherries, (both canned
and bottled with mareschino) and pears. Chocolate bon-bons and
coffee followed. After supper we played a game which kept us all
laughing until after 11 o'clock. One person went out of the room.
While gone, the rest of the company chooses some object in the
room. When the person returns, various ones in the company say "I
have a bright idea, it reminds me of you"––and gives some attribute
common to the article chosen and to the person guessing of possible
whomever so describes the object so as to make its identity clear to
the guesser, has to take his turn in going outside, while a new object
is being chosen [369].
Granger and Nelson were off early the next morning and with a new guard of six soldiers.
It was another fine, clear day. Tiffin was at a fine large temple by a stream. The temple
seemed to be in pretty constant use, Granger judged by its condition. Yunnan temples in
general seemed to be much better patronized than those he had seen in the north. Camp
was in the early afternoon in a temple on the southern edge of a horse station called Hsiu
Kai. This temple had a large, spacious court, but it was pretty well flooded from recent
rains, as many temple courts now were. In the kitchen were eight port holes for guarding
the gate to the temple. Bandit raids in the past had caused the villagers to build a mud
wall about the place and close the gate at night.
'Buckshot' and Granger hunted in a patch of woods nearby and got a squirrel and tree
shrew. Two snakes and many fish of three kinds were caught by the other men. The
expedition was beginning to get into country with small forests, mostly of second growth,
Granger noticed. Apparently an attempt was being made to reforest in places. It was quite
a relief from the bare hills he had just been through.
The next day opened clear as well and Granger noted he still had his six soldiers. The
party was off early. They entered the west river drainage three miles from Hsiu Kai and
descended abruptly by stone stairway into a narrow deep valley. This broadened out into
a fine flat-bottomed valley with the river running through a narrow banked channel some
15 feet above the bottom of the valley. There was evidence of an earlier river channel in
various places along the valley floor.
They covered 30 li that day. Chow and a coolie had gone on ahead on foot. Granger saw
them a half-mile or so ahead after they had gone about three miles out of town and then
saw them no more. At noon they began making inquiry of oncoming passersby. But none
reported having seen them. They stopped for tiffin in a graveyard by the side of the trail
and waited an hour and a quarter thinking that Chow might have been in one of the three
small villages they had passed through that morning. They then went into camp in a
temple on the edge of a small village one mile north of Pei Chung while 'Buckshot' and a
soldier were sent back on trail to try to get news of Chow.
But it was the horsemen and soldiers who had gone on into the town beyond where camp
was made who found Chow and coolie waiting there. They sent a coolie back to Granger
who sent him back with orders to bring Chow back to camp. The entire matter, in
Granger’s view,
lay in the fact that the various people of whom we inquired would
not acknowledge having seen Chow on ahead. Yet some of them
must have seen him. 'Buckshot' went back through two villages but
could get no information regarding Chow. Residents apparently
afraid to give information. Some country [370]!
Camp was a fine large temple being used for drying and winnowing rice. School was held
there as well. That evening a dozen or more armed soldiers came and camped inside the
outer door. “Whether to guard us or guard against us I could not find out. The next
morning (31st) they all disappeared early.”
On the 31st, another fine day, the expedition traveled across the flat valley floor to Hsiu
Hsing (Chow Chung) arriving there about tiffin time. Granger halted the caravan just
outside town and went in with Chow to call on the magistrate. Because of bandit
conditions, the magistrate was against their plan to camp in a temple between there and
Hsu-O-Hsien. So they located a temple just off the main street in town and stopped there
for the rest of the day. It was market day and the streets were crowded as the party dried
out specimens, bought the local fish and otherwise occupied themselves.
Cut #11
The following day, Granger and his party proceeded over a high barren mountain and
then down into a large river valley. On the south bank was the town of Hsi-O-Hsien.
After setting up camp in a vacant industrial building said to be devoted at times to cloth
weaving, Granger discovered that the “position of this town on Davis' map wrong. It is
directly on river bank at south end of bridge.”
The town magistrate sent over six soldiers to guard the expedition’s boxes that night. “A
courteous but useless business.” There were intermittent showers the next morning and
then the day turned bright and fine. The party took a hard 60 li trip up a narrow valley on
a “miserable trail” to P'o Chou. They then proceeded over a high divide and down into
the West River drainage to the horse station. Yang Mow Chung was “a small group of
buildings devoted to caravan service, dirty and altogether unattractive. The retiring
Commissioner of Customs at Sze Mao with his retinue of Annamite servants was there on
his way to Yunnanfu, and we camped under some large trees just below the village.” Two
rather broad sandy washes came together at this point, but there was not much water in
either except in flood times. The hills they passed through that day were well covered
with second growth trees, both conifers and deciduous, Granger observed.
“[T]he expedition jinx couldn't miss the opportunity” and so it started to rain at 4:00 a.m.
They dressed, rolled beds and ate breakfast in a slow drizzle and then got off at about
8:00 a.m. Traveling down a stream bed most of the morning they crossed bridges over
two large streams coming in from the west. These were suspension bridges with iron
cables. They took tiffin at the second and largest. The entire afternoon was then spent
going up another stream bed which narrowed as they proceeded until the walls closed in
to thirty feet in places and the vegetation created a canopy overhead.
It was beautiful but extremely difficult traveling. Chow and Granger alternated between
riding his gray horse and walking. With plenty of stream jumping in store, both got wet to
their knees. It rained intermittently all day. Finally, toward sunset and after a final wallow
through a half-mile of mud, they reached Yang-Wu-Pa. Passing through the one large
street of the town, they made camp in a small temple a few hundred yards beyond. There
were no real rooms except the shrine room. But the place was quite comfortable and the
party decided to remain there for a day. Granger made a list of what he had seen along
the way:
Sugar cane a big crop hereabouts.

Saw cat-tail rushes today, and have seen a few small oranges.
Pomegranates growing wild or semi-wild at the second bridge––
small fruits.
Much small timber all day––practically no bare hills.
The past two days we have passed many women dressed unlike
Chinese––much silver about the head & neck––possibly Nosu. They
all have decided Chinese types of faces though.
Most houses for past two days are flat-roofed.
Have passed through one region, about Kuu Yang, of normal feet,
but we are again in a region of bound feet on Chinese women [371].
November 3rd passed into November 4th and the rain went with it until dawn. As it
remained overcast, Granger’s plan was to stop over for a day to dry out and set some
traps. But, at daybreak, Chow had developed a violent bowel pain which kept him in bed
and groaning. When the town magistrate called in the early afternoon, Chow interpreted
between vomiting spells. Granger tried castor oil with no effect, and later cascara.
'Buckshot' thought the trouble was that Chow had not gotten in his smoke of opium the
previous night. This was news to Granger. Apparently Chow had been smoking “pretty
regularly––even last winter in Yen-Ching-Kuo.” By evening Chow groaned “more gently
but seems to still be unhappy.”
Granger put out 11 traps that evening. Nelson had scoured the countryside in the
afternoon and found pottery which he thought was old, but found no stone tools or
implements. 'Buckshot' and Liu were doing the cooking now. “Mosquitoes annoying at
night. The jinx still pursues!”
[ ].
November 5, 1926
Fair––foggy in a.m. Chow groaned through most of the night and
most all day. Tried more purgatives but without result. I think he has
been slipping in an opium pill on me now and then which would
counteract any effect of castor oil or cascara [373].
That morning Granger and 'Buckshot' called on the Magistrate who later sent them two
chickens as a present. It was market day in town and many Nosu women with normal feet
and large silver ear rings were in with their produce. The differences in features between
the Nosu and the Chinese women, Granger thought, were “noticeable but not very great
so far as I can see. Nosu decidedly more attractive in general though, as to costume
posture and features. All Chinese women I have seen here have bound feet.” Yang-Wu-
Pa was a poor town, he observed. There was no temple or residence of any size or quality
and the magistrate lived in a rather miserable compound for an official of his class. There
were mud walls around the town and only one important street.
Nelson prospected in the afternoon while Granger stayed in camp. There was nothing in
his trap that morning, but two temple rats were caught later in the day. They were now 40
miles from Yuen Kiang. They could reach it in two days but would take two and a half
days so as to arrive at noon on the third day. “That is, if we can ever get away from here.”
After dinner that night Granger got out the metal syringe used for injecting specimens
and fastened on to the end of it the small bulb Chow used to apply permanganete
(manganese) solution to wounds. With this device he “managed to give Chow a fair
enema but here again there was no satisfactory result. Cannot leave tomorrow because of
Chow's condition. Shall try and rig up some sort of chair for him when we do go.”
Chow moaned through another night and day and was growing weaker. Granger tried
various bowel-loosening methods again but to no avail. Chow had been taking, Granger
judged by indications from Liu and 'Buckshot', an occasional opium pill which
counteracted all Granger was doing for him. Granger cautioned him “against this but
cannot watch over him night & day continuously. He also has a trick of thrusting a
chopstick down his throat at times to cause vomiting. Tried enemas again night and
morning. Have given malted milk and chicken broth as food.”
A mafu's son came down that morning with his right thumb nearly cut off by a straw
clipper. But the bone seemed to be intact, although everything else on the top side was
cut. Granger dressed it that morning and again in the evening. Nelson continued making
his daily reconnoiter, while 'Buckshot' killed two squirrels, one in the morning and one in
the afternoon. Granger, in the meantime, was trying to make arrangements for a chair for
Chow and hoped to leave camp in another two days.
[November 7th, 1926:] In the morning of the 7th, Granger gave Chow thirteen Brandreets
pills in two doses and finally got his bowels loosened up. He seemed to be still in pain by
evening, however. The magistrate came into camp at about sunset followed by two Nosu
men with a chair. The men would carry Chow to Yuen Kiang and were to be paid $3.00
per day each––silver. Paper money there was worth about 80 copper to the dollar. Silver
was 1/30. Granger had only $20 silver left to see them through to Yuan Kiang and had to
ask the mafu to accept half pay until they reached the river where he could get funds. He
wrote to Anna that day. Letters could be posted with the magistrate but, since there were
no regular runners on that route, they were forwarded by any means available. This one
had made it to Anna.
Yang-Wu-Pa (about half-way between Hsi-O and Yuen Kiang)

Nov. 7, 1926
Dearest:
Arrived here late on evening of 3rd after a miserable 20 miles down
one stream bed and up another. Camped in a small mud-wall temple
just outside this small town and prepared to stay over the morrow &
sort of dry out. The next morning I awoke to find Chow groaning in
bed. He had gotten up early and started for the town and was taken
with violent bowel pains. Since then he has been in bed almost
constantly and groaning & moaning most of the time. I first
administered castor oil––without effect, then cascara, then more oil
and finally an enema and yesterday several more injections. Still no
result. This a.m., I gave 8 Brandretts pills which produced at least a
desire to stool and encouraged by this I gave 5 more pills. This a.m.
he has had the first stool but still groans. I think he begins to have a
good deal of sympathy with himself. At any rate the case seems not
hopeless now and if all goes well I shall start out tomorrow with
Chow in a sort of litter with two bearers. I'll post this in the a.m. if
we actually start.
You'd laugh to see the apparatus we rigged for the injections. Took
the metal syringe we use for injecting alcoholic specimens and
fastened on to it that little rubber bulb which Chow used to use to
wash wounds with in Szechuan. Cut the bulb in half and tied it on
the syringe. There was a hard rubber nipple 2 inches long on the
bulb which gave the penetration [373].
What he was fighting, Granger finally realized, was not an ordinary sickness but opium.
The night they arrived there he could not get his smoke because the mafus, whose
“peyote” he used, went into the city and then the gates were closed. That forced Chow to
take
a pill or two and this caused the stoppage. Also I am sure he has
taken more pills since. I watched him pretty carefully today and
think he has stopped it now. Have talked with him about it also of
course. 'Buckshot' gave me all this information yesterday. This
opium has, of course, counteracted the effect of the various
purgatives I've given him [374].
They were 40 miles from Yuen Kiang, two days hard traveling, “and I'm hoping I can get
him in there safely. It's a poor place to take a sick man but the shaking up he will get may
do him good.” They simply had to go on to Yuen Kiang because Granger was “getting
desperately short of funds.” Whether Chow would be able to function again soon he
could not say. He did not look bad, Granger thought, and might come around in a few
days. Granger was feeding him malted milk and chicken broth which he took with
reluctance. While Chow apparently had been pretty uncomfortable, Granger had not
much sympathy “with opium people.” 'Buckshot' was now the cook and “carrying on
finely with the help of the coolie Li, also a good boy.”
But Granger wondered now about Whey, the cook and how he was coming along. He
smoked a little too, so 'Buckshot' said, but apparently not enough to seriously interfere
with his work or health. It was not, after all, Chow's smoking that had been so bad for
him, it was the swallowing of the opium that laid him up. Granger hoped this episode
would be something of a lesson to Chow. “If it isn't he is probably done for as far as his
future with the expedition is concerned.”
I've put in birthdays in a good many different places and under a

variety of conditions but this is the most worrisome one I remember
of having. I shall be happy to get your letter, or letters, at the
Mission. Nels and I are both fine and the weather has at last turned
and we've had three beautiful days in succession. Dense fog in the
early morning but clearing about 9 o'clock. I'd like to know what's
going on in the rest of China and above all I want to know how you
are, dear. My best love to you. Please write Father [375].
The party broke camp the next day, which was a clear one, and set off with the two Nosu
bearers into a tropical valley to lunch at the junction of two brooks flowing eastward. At
about 3:00 p.m. they reached a dirty village on top of a hill overlooking a great valley to
the southwest with a notch some 10 miles away through which they would pass the next
day. They were at a village called Ma-Lu-Hsing. There was no horse station there, but
there was a restaurant where the soldiers could get a meal and sleep. Two temples just
south of the village would shelter the horsemen and the expedition party. Chow, who had
withstood the day fairly well, would sleep on the platform used by the teacher of the tiny
school established in the temple. 'Buckshot' and Li would sleep on the desks.
[straighten out “Li” the coolie vs. “Liu” the assistant, who may not have been along this
trip]
After leaving Yang-Wu-Pa they had passed through the finest pine forest Granger had yet
seen in Yunnan. The trees were apparently 50 or 60 years old. They had seen no truly
primeval forests, although an occasional deciduous tree showed great age. Granger
wondered whether the country was deforested before the Mohammedan rebellion and the
present forest which covered most of the slopes thereabouts had grown up since then. He
and Nelson also found much evidence of a much greater cultivation there than at present.
Terraced slopes, for example, were now overgrown.
While the next morning cleared and breakfast was being prepared, “the head mafu came
in with the cheerful news that our two Nosu bearers had run away during the night
leaving the bamboo chair in our care.” Granger told the soldiers to acquire two more
carriers. First they succeeded in chasing all able bodied men from the village without
catching any of them. Finally they got hold of two husky fellows who were said to be on
their way back to a place beyond Yuen Kiang. Granger agreed to give them each one
dollar silver per day to take Chow on to the river.
They finally got off at 11:00 a.m. and at 2:00 p.m. arrived at Ching-Lung-Cha'ng. There
they were told there were no more temples before their destination, a mission run by Dr.
C. E. Park near Yuen Kiang. “And so we took tiffin on the steps of the large temple at the
south end of the town and then moved in.” It was a large rambling temple housing a few
local soldiers. Chow seemed then to improve enough to walk about some, Granger
thought, probably to take a pipe with the soldiers in their room.
Off again at 8:00 a.m., the party stopped for tiffin in a grassy meadow just before going
down into another tropical valley beyond which was the last great climb. From there the
Red River could be seen. The soldiers and Chow with his carriers went on up to a tiny
village at the top of the hill, Ehr Tung, which had a restaurant. The main caravan caught
up with them at about two o'clock and all began the descent. Finally crossing the river, on
a wobbly suspension bridge two horses at a time, they went into camp on the south side
of the river at sunset. Camp was in a large, dilapidated Confucian temple a quarter mile
outside the north gate of Yuen Kiang. It had a fine large court surrounded by splendid
trees. But the building itself was in very poor condition. Dr. Park's mission was four
miles west of town.
It was November 11th, a clear and hot day. In the broad daylight, Granger noticed that
the slopes on both sides of the valley were denuded of trees to the crests and the bottom
was given over mostly to rice and sugar cane. It looked decidedly unlike a tropical valley,
he thought, though it was to become uncomfortably hot in the middle of the day.
Fortunately, there was a mango tree in their courtyard to provide refreshment.
Granger rode with 'Buckshot' to call on the Parks. He found them living in a bamboo
house while awaiting completion of two new brick dwellings nearby. Two letters from
Anna awaited. After tiffin the men rode back to camp. Granger then went with Chow into
town by horseback to call on the magistrate, Chow again serving as interpreter. Nelson,
in the meantime, prospected along the river edge, finding evidence of an early, possibly
pre-Chinese culture––pottery and shells, although no stone implements.
Formerly wary and now becoming solicitious of the expedition party, the local constable
insisted upon keeping guard of “two opium-smoking, sugar cane-chewing soldiers out by
the front door night and day. They are inoffensive however, now that we've taught them
to keep off our platform.”
Yuen Kiang was a most forlorn, dilapidated town, Granger thought. There was at present
no outlet except by trail to the north; the river below was bandit infested. There was a
general listlessness and apathy on the part of the inhabitants. Temples were falling into
decay with walls down in many places. Opium, bandit raids, malaria and intestinal fevers
all were probably behind this condition.
An effort was being made to restore the wall on the river side of town where it was most
badly damaged. Evidently the town feared raids from the hills people and was making an
effort to become a bit more secure. The hills people, according to Park, were saying "Go
ahead and build your wall, we are coming down some day and clean you out anyhow."
And probably they would. The Parks already were headed a few miles down the valley to
console some villagers who were recently burned out and robbed by bandits from the
hills.
[ ].
Central Missionary Agency,

Yunnan Fu
Nov. 12, 1926
Dear Uncle Charles:
Yesterday the enclosed letter came from Walter. From it, you can
see he's had a good bit to think about besides letter-writing. It is too
mean of "Chow" to act as he is doing! The conditions under which
this trip is being made are hard enough at the best. I'm thankful the
weather has become settled at last in that locality. Here at Yunnan
Fu it seems to have decided to live up to its reputation for winter,
i.e., sunny and warm during the day, cool nights and early mornings.
Mr. Jacobs, the new consul (American) arrived on Nov. 9, so Mrs.
Nelson and I are again living at the Missionary Agency. There are
many people here, and it is bedlam from early until late. I go to the
French Club in the mornings to escape some of the noise. There is
no one there until late afternoon when the tennis games begin.
Hoping that you are well,

Anna [376]
November 13, 1926, was clear and hot just “[l]ike a July day at home.” Nelson and
'Buckshot' crossed the river to check on some caves in the hill opposite the expedition’s
temple headquarters. Granger went with them as far as the ferry and then returned to
camp. The ferry was a long, ramshackle boat propelled by two men and capable of
carrying horses and men. The boat was dragged back up along the bank after crossing,
Granger noticed, to make up for the down stream loss from the current each trip. Nelson
later reported the caves yielded nothing.
There was a memorial service in the temple that lasted most of the day. For over five
hours, a priest recited joss before the figure of Confucius. This was accompanied by
constant and rapid tapping of a wooden fist and an occasional tapping of the small altar
bell. In the meantime, the family, headed by an elderly woman, prepared a pig’s head, a
rooster and various vegetables. Finally the ceremony closed and a meal was had in front
of the shrine. The old woman and male members ate while sitting on bricks arranged in a
circle. The other women ate in the kitchen.
*
It was the American Thanksgiving Day, and Nelson and Granger went to the Parks for a
mid-day dinner of goose and canned cranberries. They went back again for supper to pick
over the bones. Since their arrival two weeks before, Chow had remained decidedly ill.
Park was somewhat puzzled about his symptoms despite determining definitely that
Chow had a diseased left kidney. If Chow survived, which was not at all certain, Granger
planned to move north as soon as he was well enough to be carried in a chair. But he had
eaten almost nothing since their arrival, had grown thin and groaned almost constantly
during waking hours. Granger already had had to give up plans for a trip to Mo Sha.
Granger did however make a trip with Park and Nelson 10 miles down river to a locality
reported to contain fossils. They acquired a Tai guide from the village who took them to a
gulch where a 20-foot, or so, thickness of valley drift had been deeply dissected by
erosion. They found the distal end of what Granger thought might be an Artiodactyl
radius and a vertebra that had washed out. A few fragments were still in place. They were
undoubtedly old, he concluded, and probably Pleistocene.
Meanwhile, the party essentially remained in limbo. The expedition’s horse men were
camped in a temporary shelter of iron roofing near the temple. The small mafu slept in
the kitchen. The horses ranged on the smooth grass-covered hills. And the coolie, Li,
came down with severe bronchitis, leaving 'Buckshot' to bear all the servant work.
Granger had news from Peking; Mac Young had written him on November 22nd that he
had just returned from Mongolia. He had a letter from Eriksson saying that the camels
and gasoline had been confiscated again, this time by the Mongol prince in charge of the
province of Sunnit. Despite attempts through the Foreign Office in Kalgan to get them
released, the Chinese authorities were not able to do very much since they had poor
relations with this particular Mongol prince. Although he was supposed to be allied with
pro-Chinese warlord Chang Tso Lin, he did not like to be dictated to by the Chinese.
Since the American Consul had been unable to get a permit authorizing Mac to enter
Mongolia via Kalgan, Mac began “snooping around some of the military in Peking and
found out that they were anxious to get some motorcars up to Kalgan but owing to the
lack of railroad cars were unable to.” Mac offered to take the cars up to Kalgan by road
through the Nankou pass, if the military gave him a permit through Kalgan and into
Mongolia. They agreed. So he and a fellow named McCann took up two new cars the
military had bought from Frazer & Co. It was a terrible trip according to Mac, but he and
McCann made it in a day and a half. The fenders and running boards of both cars were
pretty badly bent and some of the tires were torn up. But otherwise everything arrived in
good condition. “I have never tried to take a car over such places, Mongolia is like a
billiard table compared to most of that trip.”
After they arrived at Kalgan and waited four days, the permits were finally granted.
Larson and Mac went up, picked up Eriksson, and then went 40 miles west of Pangkiang
to the prince's residence. They were received with all the pomp and ceremony befitting
Mongol royalty. After they presented their case, the prince promised that all CAE
property he’d confiscated would be returned and would be kept safe until the CAE was
ready to go out the following spring. He also gave “a very cordial invitation to the whole
Expedition to stop over at his place and he will do all in his power to help us.” The
gasoline was now in terrible condition, Mac reported. Ninety-five cases of it were almost
empty. However, the camels, he reported, were in very good condition.
Prospects for going out in the spring looked better now than they had for months, Mac
wrote,” but everybody here and in Kalgan are very pessimistic as they all seem to think
that the Kuominchun are coming back very shortly.” Olsen, he confirmed in closing, had
not been able to go down to Sichuan since conditions there had not improved at all.
Now rain and cold continued for the Granger-Nelson parties in Yunnan Province. In
Yunnanfu, Anna often had to “hug the sitting room fire”––the fire being some charcoal in
a "huo pen"––while dressed in her leather jacket with her big coat wrapped about the
lower part of her body. While she shivered, she continued to read the French books she
had brought along to fill the winter hours. One was titled “La Hutte d'Acajou par
Germaine Acremant, a pretty story written in an easy simple style.”
Despite a few breaks, the rain continued and by November 24th, Anna noted, had put
a stop to the harvesting operations going on under my window. For

two days women have been busy beating off the rice grains from the
stems which have been stored up to now in two huge stacks in the
driest corner of the pig pen. Rain continued all day. I caught some
water and washed out silk stockings, etc. Finished the book, "La
Hutte d'Acajou," a sad story [377].
The 26th brought an end to three days of rain upon the Granger-Nelson expedition camp.
“Everything is swimming. The lake, which was recently drained by the Tai villagers in
order to get the fish, is again full, and we can hear the roar of the small rivers which pass
on either side of us––some two miles away.”
The mafus had moved into town the morning, before the rain finally swamped their hut.
They took horses with them. Dr. Park, in the meantime, had learned of dissension among
the native workers at Mo Sha and decided to go there with his family around the 1st of
December and remain over Christmas. Nelson planned go up with him to look around,
while Granger remained in camp to look after Chow. His condition had improved a little,
but not enough to be encouraging.
Dr. Park with his wife, son and daughter left for Mo Sha on the morning of December
1st. Nelson went along with two pack horses and two mafus. He planned to be gone for
five or six days. Chow's stomach had improved so that he could retain food––”and his
eruptions due probably to the euremic poisoning have been less annoying, but now there
has developed a stoppage of urine which gives him trouble.”
The weather had turned fine again and the mafus came back to camp. Nelson returned, on
the 6th, reporting an interesting trip but nothing in the way of old culture evidence. There
was considerable trouble and some danger in crossing streams going up, due to the rains,
but these same streams were much lower when he returned a few days later. On the 9th,
Granger and Nelson finally decided it was time to return to Yunnanfu. The yield in
fieldwork had been thin, Nelson’s scouting about all over the countryside seemed
consistently to be without result, the weather had been difficult throughout, and Chow
now seemed well enough to make the trip back.
[ ].
December 17, 1926
Fair. Hsiu Kai to a village about two miles northwest of Chin-Ming-

Chou called Tien-Cheng-Men. Camped for tiffin outside Kun Yang
& called on magistrate who gave us 4 soldiers for the afternoon.
Camp for the night in a Buddhist temple on the northeast edge of the
village. At sunset. Chow left us at Kun Yang to take the boat to
Yunnanfu in the p.m. Also the one-eyed mafu who has been
dragging along for two days––possibly malaria. Nelson found large
shell mound not far from Kun Yang. Mafus & soldiers in to Chin-
Ming for the night. Will stop over here tomorrow to permit Nelson
to examine a series of hills which extend out into the lake at this
point [378].
The 18th brought yet more rain. Nelson finally went out scouting that afternoon. The
weather improved the next day and both Granger and Nelson prospected the foothills
running out into the lake. Coolie Li, in the meantime, came down for the second time
with chills, fever and cold sores in his mouth.
Anna had been to another delightful dinner that evening before which consisted of “lots
of frills that we never get at other homes here. Fresh celery and a frozen mousse were the
items of the menu that appealed to me most. Lobster cocktail, tomato soup, celery,
casserole chicken, sweet potatoes candied, beets from the garden, fruit salad on lettuce,
mousse, cake, fresh fruit and Laichi nuts, coffee, salted peanuts, bonbons!”
Walter’s letter, delivered by Chow, said he expected to be back on the 20th, but that
traveling with escort through the bandit country was delaying him. In the meantime,
Anna entertained herself in conversing with a
Mr. Hudspeth [who] is much versed in Chinese lore and delights to

talk about such things to anyone who is interested. To-day he told
me the story of the bird that we often used to see hopping from stone
to stone in the stream which flowed past our camp at Yen-Ching-
Kuo. The bird has a white cap on his head, has a slaty-colored body
and a reddish-brown tail. According to the story, a man married the
daughter of the river god. After a while he tired of her and went out
to seek more amusing ladies. His wife took her goods and chattels
and returned to her father's home under the river. The husband not
finding her at home after some nights spent away from her, heard
from the neighbors of her flight and went in pursuit. He got to the
stream just in time to see her disappearing under the water with her
flocks of pigs, goats, etc. He plunged in after her, but was only able
to seize the turban of white which she had on her head. He still
wears it in memory of her [379]!
Granger and Nelson returned from their two-month fieldtrip the next day at about 1:00
p.m., “just in time to get the worst tiffin that has been served here since we came.”
Fortunately they had an invitation to a Christmas tea where the “eats were fine. Ice-cream
with chocolate sauce followed delicious sandwiches, nuts & figs.” Huei was now sick.
Walter took him to the hospital and was told that Huei would never be able to go in the
field again. He should be sent back to Peking as soon as possible.
The Grangers and Nelsons attended another Christmas tea party on the afternoon of the
24th. Dressed up as Santa Claus, the host distributed presents to all the children. A long-
leaved pine was decorated with “tinsel, red-snappers, candles in glass shades and a
number of glass birds. The room was made gay with paper bells and bandings of paper.
In the evening we played the game of twenty-questions.”
Walter wrote to his father on Christmas Day to say that he had returned from the Red
River trip and found letters Nos. 22 through 30 inclusive awaiting him. He found Anna
well, but the expedition had suffered. While Chow had recovered sufficiently to be
carried in a chair as far as the south end of the lake to be sent on to Yunnanfu aboard the
small steamer which plied the lake daily, he was now in a hospital. In addition, the
expedition’s “coolies played out a day later––while we were coming up the east shore
and also two of the horsemen and all then had to be left behind temporarily. We certainly
left a lot of human wreckage behind us on that trip.”
The cook, Huei, who was sent in from the west shore of the lake after the party had been
out only a week, was apparently done in and no longer capable of any field work. “I'll
feel lucky if I get him back to Peking alive.” Chow was coming along, however, and
would probably be able to make the next trip. That would be to the Yangtze River along
the Hueih trail north and a bit west of Yunnanfu. He would start late the next week.
Yunnufu was a bit colder than when they left it. But that province was a pretty place, he
wrote. The second crop of rice had been harvested and the fields were now green with
beans or young poppies. The latter would be in bloom in February, so he was told. “I've
seen a good many poppy fields in China but never get a single blossom.” Much of the
province’s operation was run on the tax on opium, so poppies were an important crop.
“It's a disastrous thing in the long run but the Chinese are not good at looking ahead.”
The small English and American Community in Yunnanfu had been busy celebrating
Christmas. The French did not do much with that holiday. New Years was their day, it
seemed. There was a tree at the Mission––”a long-leaved pine tree decorated after the
usual fashion with fixin's from Montgomery & Ward.” Nearly all small children of the
community were there yesterday afternoon and the grown-ups had their music in the
evening. Outside of Granger’s party, there were not more than ten adult Americans in the
city. Of the English, there are probably 40 or 50, mostly missionaries.
It was not much like a homeside Christmas with no snow in sight and flowers still
blooming in the gardens. Last year Anna and Walter were in their temple at Yanjinggou
and the Nelsons were in Ichang. He enclosed a Chinese New Year card to his father. The
characters illustrated the "Four Happinesses" used so extensively on Chinese cards of
greeting.
Arrangements were made to start out on January 1, 1927. Anna and Walter saw the new
year in at a party given by the Standard Oil man, Mr. Page. The American and British
Consuls and a postal official and his wife were the other guests. Turkey was the main
course “for dinner with a variety of drinks to float it,” Granger wrote.
The Missionary agency, where we are stopping, has a pretty liberal

English Methodist Minister (Scotchman) as proprietor but still a
mission is a mission and we enjoy getting out among the official and
business people of the town and throw off the restraint for an
evening. There are quite a few French in this place but the Amer.
and British community, aside from the missionaries, is small [380].
Missionaries interested Granger who, in the main, thought their work was futile and often
quite arduous. Some missionaries were posted at stations on the border with Tibet, nearly
two months travel time from Yunnanfu. One such had just arrived from his Tibetan
border station after 54 days of traveling. He was on his way to Hong Kong just to have
some dental work done and would then return to his station for another four or five years.
But Granger obviously appreciated the missionary presence nevertheless. “We are
dependent on mission stations for many things and it's an advantage to meet as many of
them as we can.”
The turn of the New Year.
January 1, 1927
Off directly after tiffin. The guarantor's [outfitter’s] brother, who

gave us some trouble on the southern trip because of his
quarrelsome habits and who we asked not to have on the trip, is
along in spite of protests. Also they have thrown in the pinto horse
which we had to push into town when we arrived from the south.
This is a thirteenth horse however and carries the mafu's outfit and is
not charged to me––also the horse seems much better. We have the
old head mafu, the boy, the ugly fellow and a new boy––4 men
altogether. The old mafu's son [381].
Granger and Nelson got started at about 2:00 p.m. It had rained that morning. The
weather was still gloomy, but it was not raining as they left. They would go north to Huei
li and probably stay camped at the Yangtze River until returning to Yunnanfu in a month.
They would travel eight or ten miles this first day and then find a suitable temple in
which to camp. During their Red River trip, they did not once stop in an inn, he noted.
They always stayed in temples except at one place, where there was no temple and so
they camped under the trees. Missionaries, for some reason, he wrote, take to “the dirty
noisy inns. Possibly they feel that, being here to teach Christianity, they should not
patronize a Buddhist temple.”
Granger made no entries for this trip. He and Nelson returned on the 31st, Anna recorded,
“looking very tired but not ill at all. Mr. Nelson found stone implements at the Yangtze at
Lung Kai and Walter located some tertiary fossils at Ma Kai, horse, rhinoceros,
Proboscidea, deer, being among the animals noticed.”
Anna received a letter from Walter that day saying he had been on a side trip to Shi Pu
Shan where a Mr. Fleishman and his wife were running a mission station, but Walter was
about to continue north. In the meantime, Huei’s condition worsened. On the 10th, Anna
went with Ethlyn to see him and “[h]e hardly recognized us. We took him a bouquet of
flowers, some oranges and some pictures to look at, but realized as soon as we saw him
that he was not able to take pleasure in much of anything.” When the two went in again
the next morning, Huei seemed brighter. “I took him some crackers and some malted
milk.”
As she continued her visits to Huei, however, she noted that “He seems to fail between
each visit and may be gone before Walter returns.” Indeed, on the 21st, a nurse reported
to Anna that Huei was “very low.” Two days later, he was dead. “Dr. Watson will take
care of his burial arrangements,” Anna wrote, “and have the grave marked in such a way
that 'Buckshot' and Chow can find it if they want to see it on their return.”
Huei was the first CAE member to die in the field, symbolizing perhaps what had been a
very difficult and rather fruitless season in Yunnan. Anna received a letter from Walter
on the night of Huei’s death, written two-days distance from the Yangtze River. “No
fossils seen. In five days from the date of writing (Jan. 15) the party expects to begin the
return trip to Yunnan Fu.”
Outside Anna’s window a few days later began preparations for a wedding feast. Canvas
was erected on tall poles over a pig and hen yard. Tables, eight in number, were set under
it. A small boy was kept busy driving off dogs and the usual livestock that swarmed over
the place. Most of the guests who were fed the first day were men. The next day was to
be the wedding day. The music and feasting continued until the bride arrived at a little
after noon. For people who were market gardeners and cultivators of rice, Anna thought,
this crowd of women and children who had come to make merry were very well dressed.
“The children were particularly gay in their fancy bonnets of satin, embroidered and
trimmed with fur, silver or gold or jade ornaments.”
Anna went shopping the following morning “to complete my collection of door-gods.”
She went off again the next day to buy a silver bracelet and two pieces of cross-stitch
worked on white muslin. The streets were full of the yellow fruits known as Buddha's
hand, and a melon-shaped fruit of the same nature, fragrant but non-edible. Great crowds
of people were in the city. They had come in from the surrounding countryside to buy
paper emblems to decorate their homes for the New Year festival beginning February
2nd.
Granger came in shortly after Anna returned. Nelson had found a Yangtze river site once
occupied by a stone-age people. This was the southernmost point reached by the Yangtze
river at a latitude of about 26˚ north. The river site was occupied by the same people who
had lived in the gorges. What he found were the rather crude stone implements with
which they had worked wood and probably the soil. They were a true stone-age people,
but not ancient. They lived probably 5,000 years ago and were almost surely pre-Chinese
and apparently the ancestors of the various tribes who lived there now. “This is the first
positive evidence of these stone-age people we have found in Yunnan,” Granger wrote,
“and we came up to the river with the especial idea that we might find traces of these
people, who probably followed the river up from below the gorges.”
Granger and Nelson had been on the main trail between Yunnanfu and Huili, Sichuan.
There was considerable traffic in both directions. The Chinese, they noted, lived in
villages in the valleys and tribes people, Nosu, Miao, Liso and others, inhabited villages
in the hills. The men of the various races were not so easy to distinguish. But the women
all wore a costume distinctive of their tribe. When they all put on their 'Sunday best' for
market day, the gathering was of unusual interest to the stranger such as Granger.
Ordinarily the village was dead with not even a store where one can buy cigarettes. But
every six days people came in from far and near and the single street of the village
became so crowded that one could hardly pass through with the caravan.
Some people brought cloth––the blue cotton of China––while others brought various
trinkets for the women. Farmers brought vegetables, rice, and fowl. The salt merchants
were always prominent and the hills people brought firewood, charcoal and fat pine
‘fagots’ (bundles of kindling) to sell. Some set up temporary restaurants or improvised
shelters. Altogether, with the extraordinary mixture of peoples and costumes, it was a
fascinating sight.
Even though the site was many hundred miles above Wanxian, the Yangtze was still a
considerable river to behold. The water was clear and quite cold. The immediate region
thereabouts was arid, with cactus, resurrection plants and other desert forms. The
Yangtze seemed not to belong to the countryside at all, but to come instead from a region
of snow and ice and simply passing through in something of a hurry. The region was too
hot at midday, Granger thought, and a bit chilly in the morning. Probably no frost ever
came to that area.
Poppy fields were in full bloom along the small stream which flowed into the Yangtze at
this point and the farmers were out all day incising the pods and gathering the exuding
gum. People soon will begin smoking the new crop. Nine out of every ten men in
Yunnan, Granger wrote, smoked opium. The general effect upon the population was quite
evident.
Nelson and Granger concluded that their Yangtze trip had been well worthwhile. On the
way back from the Yangtze, Granger found a fossil deposit from which he obtained a
small collection. The deposit, he thought, could stand further investigation. But just now
the valley had a bandit scare and it was unlikely that the magistrate would have allowed
him to remain for any length of time. "Things pretty quiet in Yunnan at present,” Granger
wrote, “but the conscription and training of soldiers is going on at a rapid pace and
evidently Gov. Tang is feeling less secure than formerly, with Szechwan, Kweichow and
Kwangsi provinces going over to the Canton party. We may be invaded yet. If the
railway line should be cut we certainly would be high and dry for a while. They have a
pretty good army here, however, and Yunnan is a difficult place to invade on account of
the topography.”
While it appeared that a little revolution had broken out in Yunnan among the military
commanders and there may have been some fighting between factions, there was no
especially anti-foreign feeling. They were, Granger thought, safer there than elsewhere in
China. The Cantonese influence had not yet reached Yunnan, and he hoped it would not.
[ ].
The day after Granger and Nelson returned to Yunnanfu, Nels and Ethelyn took the
expedition’s horses and spent the day back at a cave he and Granger had passed coming
in. Walter and Anna went off to the French Club to read the papers and then took a short
walk to view final preparations for the Chinese New Year. Some shops were already
shuttered. Peddlers were on the side walks selling pictures; toys, face masks ornamented
with pheasant tails, candy, and jade ornaments for hats and hair. Firecrackers sounded all
that night.
Granger took time to write to his brother-in-law Frank, Mary’s husband and a stamp
collector. Granger, always hungry for mail, had told Mary that if she wrote him again at
Yunnan, he’d send Frank another set of the Yunnan surcharged stamps. She didn’t, but
Frank did and Granger decided he “would take your letter as coming from her and
enclose the stamps. The Chinese characters read from right to left, he wrote, were as
follows: Hsien meant “limit”; Tien Seng was the classical name for Yunnan; Tieh meant
“to stick”; and Yong meant “to use”. “Freely translated = To be affixed only in Yunnan
province.”
The news from Peking as to political conditions was not at all that reassuring. But if they
did have a chance to go to Mongolia that summer, Granger would have to leave Yunnan
by March 1st. He could not say when he would be returning to the States.
[B]ut if the Chinese keep up their present policy I shall surely be

with you all then. At present this is the quietest spot in all China and
things are liable to liven up even here [in Yunnan]. Elsewhere in the
country things are almost impossible. We're always willing to take a
chance––and do––but we cannot carry this to the point of
foolishness. I'd hate to see the Expedition work closed because it
would probably never begin again. There is still several year's work
here for us but it must be carried on now or not at all. [The thinking
is] that things will go from bad to worse until there is another such
affair as they had in 1900 and it certainly looks as if things are
drifting that way. For two years past we've been picking out the
more quiet places in which to carry on our work but these places are
becoming scarce now and there may be none left soon [382].
Among the latest news from Hong Kong was that acts of piracy were increasing. The
most recent incident involved the S.S. Siam Bee bound for Hong Kong from Singapore.
Although the 700 foreign passengers were not harmed, they were relieved of their
valuables. The captain was taken from the ship, but released a few hours later. And now
in Yunnan recently, a couple of regiments of General Tang's [T'ang Chi-yao?] troops
were said to have mutinied.
On the 5th, the Grangers went with the Mylnes to the Temple of the Five Hundred
Buddhas. Walter rode a horse and Anna traveled in a carrying chair. Five hundred
buddhas were distributed about in various rooms, the majority being in three tiers in the
two rooms on each side of the entrance to the court. They were made of plaster and
painted realistically, representing men in all sorts of attitudes and occupations. Mrs.
Mylne put up lunch which they ate in one of the rooms on the big court, “the one facing
the entrance, containing no gods, evidently a refectory as there were two long tables,
chairs, benches, and a big kang [brick sleeping platform].” For dessert, the priests there
donated melon rind preserved in honey. Afterward the party strolled up in the hill behind
the temple to get a view. It was warm in the sun. As if writing for a travel or hiking
guide, Anna later wrote that “One gets to this temple by going out of the most northerly
of the west gates, following across the plains on the new Ta li fu road, and then branching
off to the right through a village at the foot of an ascent to the woods. Time 2 1/2 hrs.”
On the 10th, the Grangers and Nelsons crossed the lake to camp for a week. Cloudy and
windy as they set off, it lasted late into the afternoon. They arrived at the temple at Kao
chiao or high bridge at Pu Hsien Tze at noon and ate lunch on a house boat near by.
There were a number of fishing boats with cormorants on board, “and [we] saw some
birds really catching fish.” The moon was half full that night and cast a light that made
the courtyards [grounds] appear very lovely. Granger and 'Buckshot' set out traps. They
all then went to bed early. At 9:30 p.m., however, they had to get up and move their cots
to another room because of the loud talking and scuffling of students who were spending
the night in the quarters above them.
“Walter was tired and slept long & heavily,” arising at 9:00 a.m. Breakfast was on a
portico facing the plum garden. Afterward, he and Anna checked the traps following
which he helped 'Buckshot' prepare the rodents caught. Anna made up their beds and put
up nails and hanger lines in their dressing room. Then she toured the different shrine
rooms in the temple precinct. In the lowest entrance pavilion, incense was kept burning
constantly.
Arranged on a flat surface, the incense looked like chocolate icing laid on in a fancy
pattern. Sometimes the figure was the character for happiness. In that case the lines were
quite simple, and she sketched them.
An altar in the second pavilion presented a female idol dressed in a gold gown riding a
white elephant. She wore a crown of gold and carried a symbol of power in her right
hand. Behind the altar, a colored plaster landscape rose vertically toward heaven. Perched
in various grottoes and shelving places representing clouds were plaster models of fruits,
flowers, birds and other animals, two people riding, one on an elephant, “the other on a
lion of grotesque mien,” other people on foot, and on the top-most cloud a man dressed
all in black appears to be looking down on the world below. Four white cranes with red
top knots and green bills stood with alert attitudes at conspicuous points in the scene.
The building containing this colorful scene fronted on an oblong court filled with
blossoming magnolias and fruit trees. The rear faced a square court entirely surrounded
by other buildings. The shrine room elevated on a platform seven steps above the level of
the other buildings in the court contained eight seated gold figures. The eighth figure was
placed on a long table in front of the other seven On each side of it was a vase of fresh
flowers. A "Buddha's hand" rested on a stand in back of an incense jar. The most
conspicuous thing to Anna about this last court was the covered stage in which stood a
statue of Juan Yui, with gold body and brightly painted robes. Her shirt was red, dotted
with black characters. Her overdress was white edged with black, sleeves and lining of
pale pink. Black bats ornamented the white parts of the gown. Her head dress was mostly
a deep blue that matched the blue of the lotus flower on which she stood. On either side
of the stage were two deep red Camellia bushes. A fine old evergreen tree stood a little
distance away.
It was in this court that the Grangers and Nelsons had their bedrooms, dining room, and
Walter's zoological workshop. It afforded an impressive view of the lake, the hills and the
garden below.
The Nelsons were off each day to dig in old shell heaps. Walter and 'Buckshot' kept busy
with trapping and skinning the animals caught. One of the priest care-takers gave Walter
and Anna a "huo pan" [?warming stove] to sit around after dark. It made their room very
comfortable. 'Buckshot' had brought down twelve pigeons and they had six of them for
dinner one night. The priest and the boys were given the remaining three. Walter and
Anna often took evening walks along the lakeside, the half full moon lighting their way
as the sun set.
Walter and Anna set off one day for the temples at Hsi Shan. It was a windy day. They
walked part of the way to get warm before crossing the lake by boat. The climb was a
thousand feet. They lunched at tables set out on a covered porch overlooking the lake. By
this time, the heavier clouds had disappeared and the sun shown brightly at intervals. To
Anna’s eye, the lake had more the appearance of a coastal region than of an inland body
of water. It was said to be about 25 miles long. But it remained shallow for some distance
from shore, and lengthy spits of land extended out into it.
After lunch they examined the top-most cave shrines. These were reached by tunnels cut
in the face of a cliff. The images in the top cave were carved out of the native rock in situ
and then painted. The ceiling was also carved in relief. Outside and above the entrance to
the cave, a Buddha was cut in the mountainside. The prettiest sight of all to Anna were
the multitudes of primrose growing in every crevice.
Valentine’s Day was damp and rainy. Anna stayed in camp reading Outlook magazines
and writing letters. In the afternoon, she showed Chow how to make a dropped biscuit
batter. Walter and 'Buckshot' remained busy all day stuffing the animals caught in their
traps the night before. The living area now had bouquets of three kinds of azaleas which
Anna had gathered on the hill back of the temple. Its blossoms were more bell-shaped
than the wild American sort, she noticed. The tube was wider and the border narrower
and less indented in the Chinese flower. Color varied from scarlet, to rose pink, and pale
magenta, but there was no fragrance.
On the 15th, they made ready to break camp and return to Yunnanfu. Ethlyn and Anna
spent the morning walking to a temple in the hills about a third of the distance between
the camp and the Hsi Shan temple. A good trail had been built leading to it, and extensive
alterations and additions were being made to the buildings. An immense pool of water
surrounded by young trees, eucalyptus and palms, and shrubs made up the landscape
scheme immediately in front of the temple. When completed there would probably be
gardens in the courts as well. The remains of an old garden containing old camellia trees
was still to be seen at the back of the property against the mountain side. They returned to
help break camp and start back to Yunnanfu at 2:00 p.m.
News upon their return was unchanged. The Hongkong papers did not yet report any
settlement between the British and the Chinese Nationals at Hankow. It was rumored that
General Tang [T'ang Chi-yao?], governor of Yunnan, would probably be deposed by
some zealous factions, though it might take some fighting to accomplish it.
On the 24th, the Tang rumor intensified when Anna’s French lesson was shortened due to
a rumor that a rival general was supposed to enter the city at 3:00 p.m. Mademoiselle
Letu had arrived to give the lesson, but then cut it short because her sister feared to have
her on the street at that hour. General Hu [Ku P'ing-cheng?] did not enter the city that
day. Nevertheless, a few days later Anna received a note from Mademoiselle Letu saying
she could not come again to give lessons. “Her excuse is the tension in the city due to the
fall of General Tang [T'ang Chi-yao?] from office of Governor, and the desire of some
other man to rise to power.” In the interim, it was learned that a foreigner, Mr. Metcalf,
had been abducted by brigands not far from Lung Kai where Granger and Nelson had just
been.
On March 6, Walter and Anna visited Huei’s grave to watch workmen set up his stone.
On the 13th of March, they went back so that Walter could take a photograph of the stone
to show to Huei’s family in Peking. There had been no word from Peking as to whether a
Mongolia trip was on and when the Granger-Nelson party should return. The party
essentially had been biding their time since the Yangtze River trip. But now they made
ready to return. As they began packing, they had their passes renewed and took in some
last-minute sightseeing.
An earthquake shock hit just after midnight on the morning of the 15th. “The windows
rattled and the boards in the ceiling cracked.” Another followed twenty minutes later.
They got only another hour's sleep before it was time to get up for the train to Haiphong.
Mr. Jacobs, American Consul, and M. Simone, the vice French Consul, were to travel
with them. They would have a car all to themselves and their men. Cloudy and cold when
they left the capitol, the weather warmed as they neared the coast. When they arrived at
Ami Chou at 6:30 p.m., it was spring.
[ ].
March 19 and 20, 1927

Our accommodations on the SS Teal are good. No other white
passengers. The steamer has 6 first class cabins. On the stern deck
we carry about 50 water buffaloes, on the front deck, some chickens,
ducks, and live fish plus a lot of Chinese passengers who got on
board at Hoi Hou the port for Hainan. On the evening of the 19th we
ran into some bad weather, and were all glad to tumble into bed
immediately after supper [383].
Granger remained in bed until they got within the quiet waters of Hong Kong harbor at
about 3:00 p.m. on the 21st. There they were to stay at the Jordan House until Walter
could pack and ship his scientific collections.
While she waited, Anna sent off two postcards to her brother Roger. Card No. 1 was a
photograph taken from Hong Kong peak showing the point of land known as Kowloon
jutting into the bay opposite. The same place could be viewed from one of the steep
streets on the peak as shown on card No. 2. Small ferry boats ran frequently between the
two settlements. Kowloon was filled with half-castes, Eurasians, who were not very
agreeable to look at, Anna wrote. “They all have an unhappy, woebegone look, and of
course are dark-skinned. Our landlady is one of them.”
They were to start for Peking on March 25th aboard the Kuei Chou she added. It sailed
directly to Tientsin and would take at least take six days. Shanghai was a good place to
keep away from just now, she wrote. Four days before, another coastal steamer was
pirated. The British navy went after the pirate’s stronghold at Bias Bay three days later
“and smoked up the place, and sank a lot of the pirates' junks. I hope that if any were
thinking to take passage on our boat they will take warning instead.”
They boarded the Kuei Chou at 2:30 p.m. and were underway at 5:30 p.m. There were
five cabins. All the other passengers were English. This boat did not carry the quantities
of Chinese deck passengers as had the other coastal boats. There also were no iron
barricades or armed Indian police. They expected to reach Peking by about April 2nd or
3rd. Only then, Granger wrote his sister Daisy, would they find out “definitely what we
are to do––whether to Mongolia or back to Yunnan or what. Things are in a much

disturbed condition in China and may not get better soon.”
The 27th brought in a heavy headwind. As ocean spray dashed all over the ship’s bow
and foredeck, the portholes had to remain shut. Walter remained in bed all day. And so it
went until the seas calmed. They reached the mouth of the river leading up to Tientsin on
April 2, 1927. But there was no hope getting in to Tientsin that next day. Instead, the
party took a tug to the railway depot at Tang ku and boarded a train to Peking direct from
there. As they boarded, Andrews stepped into view. He had just come from the States by
way of Mukden. All arrived in Peking at 7:30 that night.
[].
April 4, 1927
Had tea with Captain & Mrs. Hill and Mr. & Mrs. Beckwith. Dinner with
Dr. & Mrs. Dunlap. Everybody talking of clearing out of China. All women
& children in the P.U.M.C. staff and those in the various missions are being
evacuated. 400 American tourists arrived this p.m. [384].
Over the next two weeks, Granger resumed his usual round of debriefings and
socializing. Lunches with J. G. Andersson, S. G. King, and V. K. Ting and dinners with
the Hills, the Loucks, Mac Young and the Beckwiths filled his days. For their wedding
anniversary that April 7th, the Grangers watched a movie.
The year 1927 was to be a travel year of a different sort. On the 14th, Granger wrote his
father that he, Anna and the Nelsons were booked to sail from Kobe on May 24th aboard
the USS President Grant bound for Seattle. They would not arrive in time for the Granger
family holiday in Vermont on June 6th, so he planned to send his father a wire for the
occasion. There was no particular excitement in Peking at the moment, Granger wrote.
But most women and children were getting out out of China, either going home or to
Korea or to Japanese-controlled areas of China.
Granger did not find himself able “to scare up much apprehension over the situation and
if we did not have so much baggage to take along I should feel entirely comfortable. A
sudden congestion of traffic might make it difficult for people without much baggage
even and still more so for those with a great deal. I do not believe though that there is or
will be actual danger to the persons themselves.”
Spring had arrived in Peking, Granger wrote, and the apple blossoms would be out in a
few days. The next day, April 15th, was “our usual day for starting for Kalgan––I wonder
if we shall ever make the trip again.” Andrews had given a big dinner for the Swedish
explorer Sven Hedin at the CAE compound the previous night
which was a fine affair. Hedin is still here waiting to get the final
permission from the Chinese authorities to proceed on his trip to
Turkestan. He is to take over our 97 camels which are now about
100 miles out of Kalgan. We shall be obliged to buy new ones if the
expedition is to get out next year but we will be rid of the expense of
maintaining them between now and then and also rid of the danger
of their being confiscated, at any time. Two cars in Kalgan will also
be sold because we cannot get them either up or down at present and
they too might be seized at any time by the military.
In closing, Granger reminded his father to send a gallon of maple syrup down to Henry
Osborn at the Museum. The Professor always seemed so pleased to be remembered in
this way, he added.
More gatherings and sight-seeing followed while they awaited departure. There was a
Peking Circle gathering at Grabau’s one evening and, on the 25th, a farewell dinner for
J.G. Andersson hosted by V.K. Ting at the Hotel du Nord Peking. Andersson was
returning to Sweden after more than ten accomplished and pioneering years in China. His
company that night was a select group of scientists and explorers in Peking. Ting,
Granger, Davidson Black, J. S. Lee, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, W. H. Wong, S. G. King,
Amadeus Grabau, George Barbour and Sven Hedin. [i.d. Solgeir?] Andrews was not
among them.
The dinner menu was decidedly eclectic. “Diner cénoroique” that evening included:
Hors d’oeuvre - Meletta sardinites

Soupe - Testuvio insolitus var. anderssoni
Poisson - Capitodus ertemtei avec sel sur Corbicula
wheileiensis
Viande - Chilotherium anderssoni avec Cunopsis et Quadrula
Volaille - Struthiolitus juvenelis avec Sequoia langsdorfii
Glace loessique - sur Ostrea denselamellosa var.
tientsinensis
Gateau stratigraphique
Fruits paléolitiques assortis
Cafe néolitique
Liquers préhitoriques
Several copies of this menu were autographed by the eleven scientists. Granger sent one
”To Dr. H.F. Osborn to remind him of Peking,” and, perhaps of Andersson.
The tribute was bittersweet for Andersson. His work in China and Mongolia had left him
exhausted emotionally and depleted financially. It had been a difficult passage. He had
been upstaged by Andrews in the Gobi, undermined by Zdansky at Zhoukoudian and was
now leaving his work. He would go to a sanitoruim in Italy for a while to rest and rebuild
before assuming a post created expecially for him at the Museum of Far Eastern
Antiquities on the island of Skeppsholmen in Stockholm.
The Grangers departed Peking for Mukden in the morning on the 16th of May and
arrived the next morning. At lunch with American Consuls Jacobin and Myers, it was
arranged for the Grangers to become travelmates for a few days
with Mr. & Mrs. [John Q.] Tilson. He is Republican whip [Majority
Leader] in the [U.S.] House of Representatives. Had an automobile
ride about the city and out to the Northern tomb before lunch in
company with Mr. Jacobin, Mr. Arnold (Commercial Attache of the
American legation in Peking), Mr. Tilson. City looks prosperous.
Streets are wide, planted to trees. Much building going on. Left for
Seoul at 3:30 p.m.
The party arrived in Seoul on the 17th, checked in to the Chosen Hotel and then set about
sightseeing almost immediately with a rickshaw ride in the morning and an automobile
ride in the afternoon. Anna recorded their itinerary:
Kei fuku Palace, home of the Regent Tai-in-kun. Shotoku Palace.

Residence of the late Prince Yi. Museum, Zoological Gardens and
Botanical gardens in the precinct. Shoro Dori––a Korean quarter
and a belfry containing the largest bell in the peninsula. Pagoda Park
contains a marble pagoda of eleven stories, gift of the Mongol
emperor to his daughter. Chosen Shrine on the slope of Nansan.
Fine view of the City. Queen's Tomb outside the city reached by a
road called Wilton Avenue.
A Miss Hilda Gordon, the British artist [Hilda May Gordon (1874-1972)], Anna noted,
who had come along on the same steamer as they from Hong Kong, went along with
them on the motor ride. Art was as important to Anna was were foreign languages,
botany and the study of native cultures.
As they left Seoul for Japan, Anna noted that there were signs of prosperity everywhere.
“No beggars at any of the stations as in China.” They arrived in Kobe on the 19th in the
rain and spent the next day getting their luggage through customs and making ready for
the next leg of their journey on to Kyoto later that afternoon. Checking in to the Kyoto
Hotel, they found that the Nelsons were staying there as well. Anna did not like the
building which was made of wood and had no fire escapes. “A new one is in process of
building––with steel framework.”
The Nelsons left for Tokyo the next day, while Walter and Anna spent the day at Nara, a
nature park tourist attraction two hours away by train. Tame deer from the park walked
down the main street of the city to meet tourists. The Grangers visited the museum where
they saw wooden statues, scroll paintings, ancient armor and some pottery. They also saw
the bronze daibutsu (Large Buddha) in a room said to be the largest constructed of wood
only in the world––”all very impressive.” Nearby was a big bronze bell of wonderful
tone. They lunched at the Nara Hotel in the park and then rested for an hour “sitting on a
veranda facing the park, a very peaceful spot.” Strolling up an avenue flanked on either
side with stone lanterns to a temple where all kinds of lanterns also hung, outside and in,
[t]his completed our tour, though there was more to see. One of the
finest things about the park are the cr[y]ptomeria trees, some of
them very old. It being Saturday crowds of children were being
given a holiday in the park, all under guidance & all very orderly.
They left Tokyo at about 10:00 a.m. Mr. and Mrs. Tilson were on the same train. Anna
thought it was a lovely ride through a well-wooded district. At 4:30 p.m. they came in
sight of Mount Fiji. It was partially enveloped in clouds so they kept getting only
glimpses of it over the next two hours. But these finally lifted, and it was “a wonderful
sight.” They reached Tokyo at 8:30 p.m. and went to the Imperial Hotel. The Nelsons
were there also.
The sightseeing continued as the Grangers, Nelsons and Tilsons seemingly leapfrogged
about the sights occasionally bumping into one another coming in or going out of the
same place. They also bumped into a Miss Ludbrook while at Nikko to which they had
traveled from Tokyo for a two-day stay. They had met her while in Yunnanfu. She now
reported that she and all other British had just been driven out of Yunnan on orders from
Peking.
On May 26, 1927, the Grangers took the electric tram from Tokyo to Yokohama to reach
their liner, the SS President Lincoln. They were to have sailed on the SS President Grant.
But fortunately, wrote Anna, the Grant made an early departure for the States. People
who had traveled aboard her right after a contingent of U.S. Marines had been shipped
over said that it had not been properly cleaned. The Grangers situated themselves in cabin
#111 of the Lincoln and then went shopping. Silk lounging robes were bought for Arthur
Granger and Dean Granger, and a challis coat for Mary Smith. Then it was lunch aboard
and sailing off at 3:00 o'clock. The ship’s Captain Jones invited them to his table for
dinner. Mr. & Mrs. Tilson were there as well.
The Sports Committee was organized the next day. Walter served as its secretary. He and
Anna were also getting acquainted with a Mr. and Mrs. Brian Patterson of New York
City. He and his wife were just getting back from their fourth trip around the world.
Patterson had been a graduate student under Charles Berkey. Though never completing
his PhD, he became well-regarded in geology and paleontology.
The ship’s movie that evening was "The Gay Deceiver." "Broadway Lights" was next.
Anna and Walter teamed up to win a game of deck golf that next morning. Anna then
“practiced with Walter afterward to get ready for later games.” That evening, she read
"’Le Mariage de Chiffon,’ par Gyp.” After Sunday church service, Anna again played
deck golf with Walter. The sea, she noted, was getting a trifle rougher. She also tried her
hand at shuffle board doubles, “[o]ur side won,” and then after dinner danced a two-step
with a Captain Corbett of the [?U.S.] Marines.
Teaming with Mrs. Munk at shuffleboard the next day, Anna lost. Walter also was in the
game, but his went unfinished because one of the players became ill. At the costume ball
that evening, Anna dressed in her Sichuanese jacket and trousers. Ethelyn Nelson wore
her Tai costume. But Mrs. Tilson won the woman’s prize with her Italian peasant dress.
First prize for the men went to Captain Corbett who dressed as a nurse maid and wheeled
about two dolls in a perambulator while carrying a Japanese parasol.
The next day, June 3rd, in rougher seas and some rain, Anna played another game in the
shuffleboard contest. [?U.S.] Navy Lieutenant Freseman and she went up against a Mr.
and Mrs. Meinke, and won. This was followed in the evening with a variety show.
Miss Franklin gave a little drama, acting herself the parts of four
people. It was all improvised for the occasion, and showed that she
has considerable talent. Five men took part in a fashion show for the
last number, causing considerable amusement.
The games and entertainment continued as the Lincoln headed for Vancouver [Island] in
calm seas. Anna and Lieutenant Freseman won another game of shuffleboard from Mr.
and Mrs. Meinke. But she lost in deck golf to Mr. Padovani. Walter won a prize, a
fountain pen, for placing both in deck golf and shuffleboard.
On June 5th, they sighted snow-capped mountains to the north. The Lincoln docked at
Victoria at about 7:00 a.m. and the Grangers disembarked to walk about on shore for a
few hours. It was a pretty city, Anna thought, that lay in the lap of snow-capped
mountains, tall timber, and the waters of the bay. Seattle was next at 3:00 p.m. and they
checked into the Hotel Gowman after going through customs. The convulsions in China
were now far behind them.
[Notes]
[ ].
February the ninth

Nineteen hundred twenty-eight
Dr. Friedrich von Huene

Eberhard Karls-Universitat
Tübingen, Germany
Dear Dr. von Huene:

Thank you for your letter of January 24th. I got home in June and
now I am ready to start out again; leaving New York on February
24th. I hope that this time I may be able to return to the Museum by
way of Europe, in which case I would expect to see you. It is
eighteen years now since I was in Europe. Mr. Brown has your
"Natural History" article and will be writing you concerning it. Mrs.
Granger joins me in best regards to you and your family.
Always sincerely yours,
Walter Granger
Significant change within the Museum’s Department of Vertebrate Paleontology marked

the year 1927. After 32 years in the department, W.D. Matthew resigned to take up
residence at the University of California. While his new posting seemed to present
opportunity, it was, in fact, a significant and somewhat difficult uprooting and transition
for him and his family. It also was difficult for Granger who had maintained a good
relationship with Matthew and his family. Matthew’s children even regarded Granger as
an uncle, and he always brought them back presents from Asia.
Matthew and Granger published only two papers together after 1925, “Two new
perissodactyls from the Arshanto Eocene of Mongolia” and “The most significant fossil
finds of the Mongolian expeditions.” Granger’s next publication was in 1927 ”On the
resignation of W. D. Matthew.” Following that he published a short report “On the
activities of the Central Asiatic Expeditions,” and an announcement that George Gaylord
Simpson was joining the DVP staff. George Simpson was a PhD graduate from Yale
University. Clearly a bright intellectual, he had been working on CAE material with
Matthew and Granger while still at Yale. Osborn saw the potential: Simpson easily would
fit Matthew’s shoes and then some.
Granger and Barnum Brown now shared responsibility for running the DVP. But, of the
two, Granger remained the senior and was so until his death. Granger had earned much
acclaim and respect by now, as an academic, as well as a collector. In its November 8,
1927, edition, the N.Y. World heralded him as the holder of one of “New York's
Strangest Jobs––Bone Picker on Gigantic Scale His Job as He Probes Far Past––Builds
Dinosaurs From Few Bones He Searches World For––XXXII.––The Dinosaur Man.” It
was written by William M. Myers.
Finding prehistoric mammals and reptiles by searching the world

over and then assembling the bones and mounting them is the work
of Walter Granger... “They apparently became extinct on all
continents at the same time, great ones and small ones. There is
some reason for the theory on the extinction of the large ones,
because they had reached such massive size and because vegetation
upon which they lived may have changed, thus taking from them
their food existence, but in the case of the smaller ones, which fed
on other living creatures, their end remains a puzzle. I have found
traces of dinosaurs in almost every part of the world, with the
possible exception of Australia. There have been plenty of evidences
in North America, particularly in the Rockies, in the Gobi Desert,
Asia, and in all parts of Europe, including England. In Mongolia I
recently found the bones of many egg-laying dinosaurs. Some of the
eggs are from two to three pounds in weight and run from four to
eight inches in size."
1928
But no sooner had the Grangers settled into their daily routines back in New York City,
than they were off for China again. Their departure aboard the SS President Cleveland
from San Francisco was scheduled for 4 p.m. on March 2, 1928. “[A]nd the crowd is
gathered here at this hotel, including Dr. Berkey's daughter who is going to Peking to be
married.” Before departing [sailing out], Granger spent parts of two days on the other
side of the bay, “where I have seen Chaney, Matthew and others. Matthew apparently is
doing well in his new job and the whole family has stood the transplanting in good shape.
The Matthew's are coming across for a farewell dinner with us tonight.”
Shackelford was up from Hollywood that morning to join Granger leaving his wife and
young son behind for the summer. Alonzo Pond, the new archaeologist whom Granger
had met on his way through Chicago, was to depart from Seattle on the 12th. Albert
“Bill” Thomson, Granger’s old American West collecting buddy, was along to replace
George Olsen. His wife Lill was with him.
Bill Thomson, Granger wrote, “will get the thrill of his life tomorrow––having had no sea
experience and no foreign travel of any sort.” And Granger assured his father that this
would be a safe trip all around.
I do hope that you will not worry about us––Andrews will not take
any long chances and apparently things are quiet enough in North
China now. The Amer. Minister would not permit us to go if he
thought we [were] going to get into trouble. I have no apprehension
myself. There will surely be nine of us this season and if a doctor
goes this will be ten––a fairly good crowd.
I shall write you from Honolulu––Yokohama––Kobi and Peking.
As the Cleveland neared Honolulu on March 7, Granger wrote his father that it must have
been a fine voyage so far because he had missed no meals. Lill and Berkey’s daughter,
however, had been a bit under the weather. “Even in the absence of storms there is a
ground swell always––sometimes enough to annoy the most susceptible.” And he again
reminded his father to send a gallon of the spring Vermont maple brew to Henry Osborn.
Granger wrote his father again on March 18th to report that they had seen the first
Japanese fishing boat that morning. “[A]nd so we feel that we are across once more. Are
due to anchor at midnight and should sight land by sunset.” Reflecting on Honolulu, he
remembered as a boy in Middletown “going on one or two occasions to evening parties to
witness a night blooming Cereus in bloom. It was quite an event when one of these plants
put out its one-night blossom. In Honolulu they have whole hedges of them––but white
instead of red blooms.”
They arrived in Kobe on the 20th and departed for Tientsin on the 29th hoping to reach
Peking later that same day. Spring had arrived in southern Japan. The early fruit trees
were in bloom, but it was about 10 days too early for the cherry trees. The Thomsons
were having the time of their lives.
Reports from Peking were that things were quiet. Rumors were that the Nanking crowd
did not have enough funds for a great drive on Peking and that Chang Tso Lin would
hold out in the north with a strong force facing the southerners. Granger had no direct
news from Andrews except perhaps to know that Yvette and the children were no longer
with him.
The journey down from Kobe was pleasant in good weather on a nice clean steamer with
“agreeable Japanese officers.” The most interesting part of the trip, which went along a
route Granger had never taken, was sailing the eight or 10 hours through the numerous
islands off the end of the Korean peninsula. Granger had never been on a Japanese-run
boat before. It was not too bad, he thought, if this was a fair sample. Some of his friends
were now using the Japanese transpacific steamers instead of the ‘Dollar Line’ boats.
The party reached Peking in the evening on March 29th. Archaeologist Alonzo W. Pond,
who came via Seattle, Kobe and then by rail, followed two days later. All gathered and
ready for the summer's task, there were to be ten westerners in the party including a
doctor, J. A. Perez, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He was assigned courtesy of U.S.
Secretary of the Navy Curtis Dwight Wilbur and Brigadier General Smedley Butler,
commander of the Third Brigade of U.S. Marines at Tientsin.
Reports of renewed fighting between north and south armies now reached Peking. But
there was no great excitement about it there, and the expedition party anticipated getting
off for Kalgan without difficulty. Eight cars were already in Kalgan. Out on the plateau
were 130 camels, presumably past the bandit area. Most of the party were going up to
Kalgan on the 12th. Andrews would follow with the arms and ammunition as soon as the
permits arrived. The American Minister planned to go up with Andrews to see the party
off. “This may give us some face and help us to get off smoothly,” Granger wrote. “There
are all sorts of annoying taxes and restrictions nowadays and getting an outfit like ours
started is something of a task.”
In the meantime, there were another 400 tourists from the S.S. Resolute milling about in
Peking for the Easter holiday. It was “one of these Round-the-World tours,” the whole
town was cluttered up with them, Granger chuckled. Prices were doubled on Chinese
gowns, jewelry, and other gift items. “The dealers reap a great harvest when these tourists
come to town,” he wrote, also noting that the crabapple trees were now in bloom.
[ ].
Kalgan, China
April 15, 1928
Dear Father:
Unless I add a postscript to this letter you will know that we got off
on the 16th. We are all gathered with our equipment and if the
necessary passes are forthcoming this afternoon we see no reason
why we should not leave in the morning. The American Minister
&[?] Mr. [John V. A.] MacMurray came up with Andrews & Hill
yesterday and are planning to go as far as the top of the pass with us
tomorrow. MacMurray has never been in Kalgan before and so he
took this occasion to make the trip. I have written you that our
caravan has gone through safely and we do not anticipate trouble for
ourselves. It's going to be a rough-looking crowd when we get strung
out with our eight cars and plenty of guns. Andrews plans to send a
wire from our first night's camp and this will undoubtedly be
published in American papers and news given out by the Museum
people. The one thing which we feared most––student antagonism––
has not occurred because we have kept matters so quiet. I'm pretty
sure you will hear from us in May when we reach the Kalgan-Urga
trail at Iren Dabasu (Erhlien) [385].
They were having the usual ‘false spring’ in Kalgan. It came at about that time every
year. In a week or two more they would be back into late winter. The coldest weather
they had recorded from previous trips was on May 17th near Urga and snow on June
20th. July and August was all they could count on as summer. The British American
Tobacco Co.’s gardener was busy planting corn and tomatoes. The expedition men hoped
to be back in time to help him reap the harvest, as they had done in past years.
The party arrived at Joel Eriksson’s Swedish Mission in Hatt-in-Sumu on April 19th.
Although they twice encountered two bandit groups the day before, ”one small one and
one large one––our eight motorcars with flags flying and rifles showing made an
imposing array and they evidently were glad enough to have us pass on without
stopping.” Now they were beyond bandit range and would have no further apprehension
on that score for the rest of the summer.
Tents went up for the first time that season and the party settled in.
We have a good lot of men again and I look forward to an enjoyable

summer. Tomorrow we start westward for Shara Murun [river] and
should go into permanent camp on the 21st. and our camels, which
left here ten days ago, should just about be there then [386].
Westerners consisted of Andrews, Granger, Thomson in paleontology, L. Erskine Spock

in geology, Alonzo W. Pond in archaeology, W. P. T. Hill in topography, Shackelford in
cinematography, J. A. Perez as surgeon, Mac Young as chief of motor transport and G.
Horwath as Young’s assistant.
There were [] Chinese and Mongolian assistants.
Granger and a small group with Ericksson as interpreter paid a call on that district’s
Mongol Prince. He lived about 40 miles west of Eriksson’s mission in a compound
composed of both Chinese houses and Mongol yurts. This part of Inner Mongolia was
supposed to be under Chinese jurisdiction. But the Prince was still the real ruler. “He had
better make the best of it however while he can,” Granger wrote. The Chinese farmers
were crowding northward. It would not be many years before there would be more
Chinese than Mongols in his territory “and then he is done for.” In fact, Eriksson’s
present mission was another 40 miles up the Urga trail from the old one at Hallong Ossu.
He had to move the summer before because of encroaching Chinese and increased
banditry. Eriksson’s mission work for the Mongols was, to Granger’s mind––”a hopeless
task, but the people think they have the call and they are fine courageous folk. They are
useful to us anyhow––so we're glad they are here.”
Granger summarized the latest events for his father in his letter of May 25.:
109˚ E. Longitude
41˚-40' N. Latitude
May 25, 1928
Dear Father:
Anna will write you more fully about me but I have a few minutes
before starting west this morning and I thought you might like just a
word from the heart of the Gobi. Some of Sven Hedin's camel men,
on their way back from Hami, stopped with us last night and they
will take letters back to Kweihuating [Kweihwating] for us.
Everything with us goes well. We have already had good success
with the fossils and will without much doubt have a good collection
by fall. The other work goes on satisfactorily.
Andrews shot himself in the left leg on May 5th as he was

attempting to draw his pistol from the holster & despatch a wounded
antelope. He is limping about now without a crutch and Dr. Perez
expects a complete recovery. I am well as usual and some lighter––
thank goodness. We are now headed for Etsin Gol [river in the
Black Gobi, Inner Mongolia]––400 miles to the west [387].
But Anna followed with a letter to Charles on June 19th and the surprising news she had
received by telegram from Walter in Erhlien stating that the Western trip had been
abandoned about 150 miles west of the Shara Murun. At about 50 miles beyond On Gong
Gol, and after a short side trip to the south, the party turned around to return to Pailing
M’iao on the Shara Murun. From there they headed north to Ula Usu and on to Iren
Dabasu (Ehrlien). The remainder of the season would be spent to the east of the Kalgan-
Urga Trail.
Granger gave no mailing address for their new location -- there was no postal service to
that part of Mongolia. But he indicated that he might be able to receive something by
some off-road traveler. On the other hand, up to then they had not anticipated remaining
within sufficient postal service range to send letters frequently, and the allocated supply
of writing paper, envelopes and stamps had nearly given out. Yet there also soon would
be no address to which those in Peking could send letters and writing supplies out to the
party. Telegrams were to be the only means of communication.
He was well, Granger advised, and Andrews was recovering from his self-inflicted
gunshot wound. Peking, Anna also informed Charles, was now in the hands of the
southerners. The change was accomplished without any disturbance except for 13 days
when there was no train service between Peking and Tientsin.
[explain the change in plans, if you can -- Thomson letters?]
One of the cars that Andrews had used on a reconnoitering trip was broken down. The
vehicle had been left with a couple of Chinese assistants in charge until Young and his
assistant could rescue it. That would take about five days. Since Young had to pass
through Ehrlien to reach it, Granger prepared a letter for Anna to to be left at the station
there until it could be given to someone passing south by auto to post it in Kalgan. Fossils
seemed to be plentiful in the neighborhood, Granger reported. He had just found the best
specimen of the season, a skull of Titanotherium and was well-satisfied in general with
the fossil collection to date.
The party would remain there 10 days more or until the camels came in from the west.
Then the camp would be moved to a place somewhat east of Erhlien and the Kalgan-Urga
trail. By June 23rd, the CAE was not more than five days out of Kalgan.
Granger appreciated enjoyed the beauty of the present camp. It was high enough to
overlook a charming valley. In the opposite direction, the top of the plateau was flat and
grassy. Wonderful mirages could be seen -- camels wading in water, villages of yurts on
islands where none could possibly have existed.
On July 15th, they headed to the east side of the Kalgan-Urga trail for a location where
they hoped to spend the balance of the summer. In the meantime, in light of the military
and political shifts in north China they were hearing of, they had begun wondering
whether the passports and motorcar and camel permits issued by now defeated warlord
Chang Tso Lin's administration were still good. “Expect they will have to let us back to
town anyhow,” Granger mused.
Nevertheless, they still had two months of collecting to look forward to and, for the most
part, they were in entirely new territory. Though it was not quite as interesting as the
region further west, Granger thought, it was new country and that is what collectors
craved. Granger had felt he now knew the area bounded by the Kalgan-Urga trail and the
Sair Usu road just about as well as he knew any country. Therefore, a new field was
welcome.
The men generally were in good shape and Andrews was almost back to normal. He was
expected to return to Peking ahead of the party again, on about September 1st while
Granger hoped to remain in the field through September. He expected to leave for Peking
by October 1st.
Anna, in the meantime, relished in Granger’s details of camp life sufficiently to write to
Charles that
I was interested to hear how the menus had been varied a trifle while
at the camp near Erhlien. Once the telegraph man had donated
enough fresh eggs to give each man one for breakfast. Again the
same man had received some kind of onion or scallions from
Kalgan, and he gave the men enough for one mess. Walter said they
were smelly but appetizing. The final bit of variety was a salad made
of a dandelion-like plant which grew in the neighborhood and which
the Chinese boys tried out first [388].
On the other hand, Anna wrote, she was now down with another case of dysentery and
feeling very weak because of the minimal diet she had been put on. “The trouble is
checked now, and I'm expecting to mend up gradually. This is supposed to be the season
of the very hottest weather in Peking, but it has been much cooler than ordinarily thus far,
for which I am thankful.”
[ ].
Peking
August 10, 1928
Dear Uncle Charles:

Have just this moment been handed a letter from Walter a point east
of Erhlien dated July 22d. It was very cheery. The camp was in a
sightly position, and the weather was cool and fossil hunting
successful. The gasoline supply is running very low. This is forcing
an earlier return to Peking than was first planned. Walter spoke of a
heavy rainfall the heaviest he has ever encountered in Mongolia. It
filled up their good spring with mud and after that the water for
drinking had to be brought from a distance of eight miles and then
what they got was alkaline enough to make several of the men ill.
Walter is keeping well.
Anna Granger [389].
The greatest heat was over now in Peking. A nice rain ushered in autumn weather. From
now on, the residents could count on cool nights with heat only in the mid-day. Anna’s
condition had improved, though her diet remained limited to meat and potato, soft-boiled
vegetables, egg yokes, milk, and simple desserts which were not frozen. Whenever there
was ice cream on the hotel menu, the manager had the cook make her a tapioca pudding.
She was also given a helping of oatmeal gruel in the middle of the morning, “so I don't go
empty any more. I sleep better here than at the hospital.”
Walter returned with the entire party five days later, on the 15th. The 1928 expedition
was foreshortened by an extreme heat which wore on the men and evaporated gasoline
supplies at a far higher rate than expected. Six of their eight cars were driven down from
Kalgan over the worst roads they had ever encountered. It took three days to make the
125-mile trip over a narrow cart trail that negotiated mountain passes strewn with
boulders and over other sections which mired the cars in sand and mud. In some places,
the trail was so worn down to hard rock that it resembled a narrow railroad bed sunken
twenty feet below its surroundings. Despite the influx of vehicle use in Peking and other
cities, China had yet to modernize this road. Everything still moved mainly by carts
drawn by donkeys, small mules, horses, cows, oxen or humans, as for centuries.
The CAE’s camel caravan was due in Kalgan on the 20th. Young and Granger met it.
Things seemed quiet enough, but conditions remained unsettled. It was rumored that the
Chinese were a bit ‘sore,’ Granger wrote,
because we have made another successful expedition and they may

try and block us in shipping our collections. It is planned to work
most of the fossils out in our headquarters laboratory this winter and
we may be obliged to ship the stuff home in small lots so as not to
attract the attention of the Customs people. Thomson, Mac Young
and I are to be here during the winter if present plans are carried out.
Andrews goes to America in a month or so via Siberia & England
[390].
Pond and Spock, Granger added, were to sail for home the following week. Perez and
Hill were to return to active duty with the U.S. Marines. Horvath was to return to his job
with Dodge Motors, and Shackelford to Hollywood. The CAE’s 1928 Mongolia
expedition was over and no more China expeditions were planned. Pope had finished his
in 1926.
Granger’s last letter to his father that year was written on September 7.
Dear Father:
I've been back from Kalgan about ten days. Mac Young is still up
there and so are our fossils. A group of troublemakers here in Peking
are still blocking shipment. Doubtless we shall be getting them
sometime but it is extremely annoying to have them held up in this
way.
...
Enclosed are some snaps of the cars on the way down from Kalgan.
You cannot take photographs which really show the true conditions
of the road but these will at least suggest some of the difficulties.
I shall be writing you each fortnight or oftener. Had a rotten trip

down from Kalgan––sat for 21 hours on that old green grip of mine
in a closed freight car with barely room enough to put my feet down
in. When things get too bad they become amusing which is what
saves the day in a case like that [391].
The plan was for the paleontologists to stay the winter in Peking and work on the fossils
brought in that year. The number of specimens collected by the CAE “grew immensely
after reaching the newspapers”, as Thomson put it. The expectation was that the party
would be going back out to Mongolia the following season. China work, on the other
hand, was finished. Andrews, in the meantime, planned to spend the winter abroad
delivering lectures and raising money. His lecture circuit was generally a great success,
though some, Thomson wrote, thought he tooted his own horn just a bit too much giving
him yet another nickname, “Roaring Roy.” He expected to return to China late the
following March.
Preparing the Mongolia fossils was a new experience to Thomson. It was the most
difficult preparation work he’d encountered. Not only were some of the specimens new
and unique to him, most often the fossil material was softer than the unusually hard
matrix it was embedded in. It was a struggle to work a specimen out intact. The Chinese
assistants trained by Olsen, however, had become quite proficient, and even rather clever
at it. So, it was that winter’s work the fossil men settled into while they awaited word on
whether and how the next season would proceed.
By late May, 1930, the matter was still unresolved, as Granger wrote his father.
Our expedition is still stuck in the same old mudhole. But something
has got to happen pretty soon now. MacMurray has gone to Nanking
to attend the funeral of Sun Yat Sheng [Sun Yat-sen] and he will see
the Minister of Foreign Affairs and find out definitely whether or
not the Chinese Gov't. is willing to interfere with the Commission
here in Peking which is the group that is really blocking us. I'm not
too hopeful myself and Anna and I have already begun to debate
whether we will go home via the Pacific or via Europe [392].
The ‘Commission’ was the Chinese Cultural Society which now ruled in Peking. The
CAE’s first awareness of the Society “was in the spring of 1927,” Granger wrote, “when
it suddenly appeared out of the blue and proceeded to block Dr. Sven Hedin, who was
just ready to leave Peking on his campaign of establishing a line of meteorological
stations across Central Asia and conducting various other scientific investigations on the
side.” After two months of negotiation with the Society, Hedin was allowed to proceed.
But only after the nature of his expedition was entirely altered.
The CAE had gone into Mongolia for the 1928 season without consulting the Society. It
proceeded under permission from warlord Chang-Tso-Lin, who was then in command of
Peking, which the American Minister, MacMurray, had facilitated. Contact with the
Society first occurred when the CAE returned from Mongolia that season and attempted
to bring its collections back to Peking.
The Society argued that the CAE’s 1928 fossil collection was confiscatable because it
was obtained inappropriately with ‘hunting permits.’ The CAE countered that its three
previous ventures and collections in 1922, 1923 and 1925 also were undertaken with
hunting permits which, they argued, were commonly given to foreigners traveling with
arms into the interior. The fact that the CAE was also conducting scientific fieldwork was
fully known to every one concerned, they claimed. Their purpose and intent certainly had
been made public enough. And, they continued, the Chinese officials who issued the
permits then had understood the situation perfectly -- that the hunting permit was to cover
the entire scope of the CAE venture.
Unfortunately for the CAE, what prevailed when Chang-Tso-Lin and his predecessors
were in charge at Peking no longer stood. The so-called “Nanking crowd” was in charge
now [393]. The Chinese were asserting their right to control science and monitor the
destiny of whatever was taken from its soils. No longer would fossils and artefacts be so
freely removed and taken elsewhere. Two months of negotiation followed and, after a
ransom paid of a portion of the fossils collected that season, the CAE was finally to
transport its 1928 collection from Kalgan to Peking.
The planned 1929 expedition, on the other hand, was aborted. It was, Granger wrote,
“prevented from taking the field because of the preposterous demands of the Society and
our inability to meet those demands.” [discuss demands.] Peking was quite hot and dry as
Granger prepared to ship home. Thomson had already gone. [?Andrews’s whereabouts].
[Notes]
[]
Anna and Walter landed in San Francisco on the 18th of February, 1930. They arrived in
New York City on Sunday, March 1, and a large welcoming luncheon was held to honor
his return. All who had taken part on any of the CAE expeditions were invited. Granger
had been away from the US for most of the decade, dedicating himself to a near-
marathon of CAE expeditions interspersed with only two brief returns stateside for about
twelve months in 1924 and roughly six months in 1927. It now looked as if the CAE was
finished and this was his final return to New York from China.
But within the month, Granger, Thomson and others were making hasty arrangements to
return to China. The Chinese Cultural Society’s “demands were modified to such an
extent,” wrote Granger, “that the Expedition found it possible to accept them.” A fifth
Gobi exploration would be carried out after all. But it was also understood that this would
be the CAE’s last and that the makeup and scope of this expedition party would be
different.
The 1930 expedition was to be limited entirely to vertebrate paleontology and conducted
mainly from a camp on the Kalgan-Urga trail near the Inner-Outer Mongolia border. The
party of eleven scientists would include, for the first time, three non-American
paleontologists -- two Chinese and a Frenchman -- representing the Chinese Geological
Survey. They were Chang Xiti (Zhang Xi-Ti) and Chung-Chien Young (Yang Zhong-
jian) or ‘C. C. Young,’ as he later became known, and Pére Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Dr. Chang Xiti headed the Chinese contingent and would serve as 1930 CAE co-leader
with Andrews.
In the meantime, Granger had added six new papers to his publications –– two with
Berkey and Morris in 1928 and 1929, two with Matthew and Simpson in 1928 and 1929,
and two with Simpson alone in 1928 and 1929. The transition from teaming with
Matthew to Simpson had been made. The latter paper with Simpson –– ”A revision of the
Tertiary Multituberculata” –– was an especially ambitious one at a time when available
cranial multituberculate material was limited and poorly preserved.
Granger’s 1921-1926 Yanjingou fossil work was not published until after his death, by
Edwin H. Colbert and Dirk A. Hoojier in 1953. They began with this:
The mammalian faunas of southern China are especially important in the

study of the Asiatic Pleistocene, because they are intermediate,
geographically, between the famous Choukoudien fauna of North China
and Trinil fauna of Java, both of which are associated with remains of early
man. Of the South Chinese faunas, none is so rich either in number of
forms represented or in the material belonging to each species as the
assemblage collected by Granger at Yenchingkou.
Because of the importance of this large collection and the additional

knowledge regarding Asiatic Pleistocene faunas that has been obtained
since the preliminary report by Matthew and Granger, it has been thought
advisable to make a thorough study of the fossils from Yenchingkou. The
results of this investigation are set down in the following pages. In doing
this work, the present authors are merely following the intentions of
Matthew and Granger, which because of a varied set of circumstances were
never carried to actual realization [394].
The Grangers headed back to China on April 14, 1930. Leaving New York City by rail
aboard the Lake Shore Limited from Grand Central Station at 5:30 p.m., Bill Thomson
accompanied them. He was traveling without Lill this time. They arrived in Chicago at
about 3:00 p.m. and made a short visit to paleontologist Elmer Riggs and others at the
Field Museum. Granger and Thomson, of course, were acquainted with Riggs since their
1896 expedition to New Mexico.
Then it was supper at the LaSalle Hotel, movies afterward and back aboard the train for
Seattle at 10:15 p.m. Their departure from New York had been so hasty that “Walter & I
visited the station drugstore, well equipped with travelers requisites. He bought a case for
toilet articles. I got some powder compacts.”
By the 17th, they were in sight of mountains all day. Plenty of snow remained on the
peaks. The ride was especially spectacular as evening started to fall, and the highest
mountains of the trip had yet to be crossed.
We shot in & out of tunnels, jumped over streams on trestles and

made repeated loops at the head of narrow valleys to get to other
levels. The sad part of the scene was the widely spread devastation
by forest fires. On the Milwaukee road, the oldtime locomotive had
been exchanged for an electricity operated one. This will do away
with one cause of fires in the woods [395].
Anna arose at 6:00 a.m. the next morning so as not to miss any of the mountain scenery.
Despite evidence of terrible fires, there were still tracts of very fine timber trees, much of
it over a 100 feet in height.
They arrived at Seattle at about 10:00 a.m. on the 18th and stayed at the Hungerford
Hotel. Walter went at once over to the Dollar Line to arrange passage aboard the SS
President Jackson. It left the next morning at 11:00 a.m. with only 21 passengers listed.
As they steamed out of Puget Sound with the snow-capped mountains of the coast range
presenting a lovely sight, the dining-room steward invited them to sit at the Captain's
table the next night. Easter Day was colder and somewhat misty. Anna began reading
“The Whiteoaks of Jalna” by Mazo de la Roche. After dinner, she and Walter attended
the movies. “It seemed odd having the action stopped to read captions after having been
accustomed to the talkies.” Afterward, she “took a hot seawater bath and slept very
soundly afterwards.”
Captain Griffith was the Jackson’s skipper. The Grangers liked him very much. He had
“met Prof. & Mrs. Osborn and Mr. Andrews on their trips to China on board this boat.”
As a result, apparently, all hands were particularly solicitous of the Grangers’ comfort.
They even were served specially cooked Japanese food for supper.
As the Jackson neared the Aleutian Islands, the Grangers alternated walking about to
keep warm with sitting in deck chairs while muffled in great coats and heavy blankets
over and under them. Anna also began reading Henry Bordeaux’s "La Peur de Vivre."
The seas ran high on the 25th and Walter began his routiune of staying in bed. The
Captain, who had been confined to his quarters with a cold, finally came down for
breakfast that morning. The ship had crossed the 180˚ meridian and so ‘tomorrow’ was
crossed off the calendar. By the next day, Walter was up for supper, but the sea remained
the roughest they had encountered so far, and Walter was “again flat” shortly after his
meal. The winds coming down from Okhotsk were said to be responsible for the
conditions and the temperature hovered only in the mid-30s. Even the pianist succumbed
to seasickness, and the orchestra was no longer providing music for dinner.
April 29, 1930, brought bright sun and a calm sea. Though it was still cold, Anna moved
a deckchair into the sunshine and read her French book all morning. After lunch the
captain invited her, Walter and Thomson to the bridge to see how the ship was run. A
radio apparatus, Anna learned, helped with determining the ship’s bearings; the double-
action ruler used on the chart seemed a strange invention to her. They were shown how
the motors worked in the Sperry gyroscope steering wheels, and how the course was set.
A contrivance for detecting fires in the hold and another for locating a flame in the
staterooms were interesting features to her. Air tubes led up from every section in the
boat. If any smoke was present it would be shown on the bridge at once.
After their "lesson" in navigation and the use of the sextant, the captain took them to the
deluxe suite he was occupying while his own quarters were being done over. “While the
men smoked, he told stories, mostly Scotch or Irish. He himself comes from the north of
Ireland.” A special Chinese meal was cooked for the three of them that night.
They began sighting fishing boats off the Japanese coast and arrived in Yokohama by
morning. Walter and Thomson watched whales while Anna wrote letters. They docked in
a pouring rain, took the electric train for Tokyo and went directly to the Imperial Hotel
for a short rest. Shopping on the way, Anna found,
a child's doll's bureau. It is made of the wood of trees grown in the

vicinity of Miyanoshita [with] three little drawers and the cabinet
above which opens by means of sliding doors. The wood in this
piece is rather dark. I'd rather had one in lighter color, but had no
choice. In the shop where I got the bureau, Walter got a small
wooden house to hold cigarettes. There is no apparent way to get
anything out of it, but by lifting up the whole roof, one cigarette at a
time will be pushed out of a hole under the gabel. You lift and shut
down the roof every time you want a cigarette, the cigarette coming
out on the downward thrust [396].
They returned to ship at 5:00 p.m. only to find out that departure had been delayed until
the next morning. A shipment of flour aboard could not be landed until the rain stopped.
Anchor was raised at 7:00 a.m. on a fine, sunny day. Anna’s morning began by writing
last messages to friends at home on cards she had bought at the Imperial Hotel newstand.
They spent the afternoon packing their trunks. “We shall live in our bags the rest of the
way to Peking.” They then arrived the next day and checked in to the Oriental Hotel in [?
Kobe].
After our luggage arrived Walter, Mr. T. and I went to Motomashi

Street to do shopping. I got a challis kimona for Martha, a purse for
Miss Taylor and a wicker bucket grip for myself. Walter tried to get
slippers such as he bought in a Japanese shop in Honolulu but found
none. He did buy a red agate elephant at Koshi Ishi's. After lunch at
the hotel, we all had naps, then Walter and I went out again to visit a
different kimona store on a street running parallel to the one leading
to the Toe Hotel. There I found me a silk and a challis kimonas and
a writing tablet covered with Indian cotton print. Very pretty (price
3.50 yen). Kimonos silk - 13.50 yen, challis – 9 yen. Bought in
another store a blue silk scarf for Janet Murphy. Before returning to
our hotel we went again to Motomashi Street to get twelve boxes of
incense "Scent of Dreams," for Mr. Andrews. He sent an express
letter asking Walter to do him this favor. At seven o'clock Dr. &
Mrs. Meerkirk took us all three to Kikusui's for Sukiaki food. We
had the kind prepared with beef, very good. A cold dish of jellied
fish & a cup of tea preceeded the main part of the meal. In the
mixture besides beef, was bean-curd rice noodles, onions, a folded
up leaf of some kind, and some green sprigs with pungent flavor,
and some round white sections, which had the consistency of
marrow but weren't. As a finishing touch, Mrs. M. ordered some
fresh pine apple & strawberries. We had hot saki and tea during the
meal. Home at 10:30 and to bed [397].
Boarding the SS Cho Ko Maru at 11:00 a.m. on the 5th of May, the Grangers took a
cabin on the top deck which Anna appreciated. At noon “we...assembled in our cabin and
had dessert from Mrs. Parmentier's box of goodies and a glass of liquer which Mr. T.
acquired for this purpose at an English store in Kobe.” They went out on deck and
enjoyed the scenery until dark, the setting sun on fishing boats adding to loveliness of the
view [398].
The SS Cho Ko Maru arrived at Moji (Korea) at 7:30 a.m. on May 6th. The weather was
so bad that the party did not go ashore as planned while their boat took on a cargo of bees
bound for Tientsin. They lifted anchor at 3 p.m. and were in rough seas as soon as they
got out of the bay. “At supper,” Anna recorded, “I was the only woman in sight. I lay
down directly afterwards and did not attempt to undress until ten o'clock when we got
into the shelter of the Corean peninsula which always flattens the waves out considerably.
Everything in the cabin which could fall over did so.”
There were many islands on both sides of the ship as it proceeded. Anna was out on deck
long before breakfast the next day in order not to miss any of that charm. “We are very
near to the shore frequently. A lovely iridescent [sic] kingfisher just now came hovering
over the foamy wake at the side of our boat, and then took a straight course, low to the
water, back to land.” They left the Korean peninsula at about 2:00 p.m and the sea began
to lose its deep blue color. As they crossed the Yellow Sea all the next day, the wind
remained strong and there was not much sun. They spent most of the day sleeping, “a
little tired from our long journey.”
[ ].
May 11, 1930

We are established at the Peking Hotel in our old room 418. Walter
went to a Peking-Tientsin polo match at the Polo Field at 10 a.m. I
remained indoors all day until 4 o'clock. Mr. & Mrs. Howard called.
We four went to the depot to see Dr. Paul Stevenson off to America.
Went back to the Wagons-Lits with the Howards & Dr. Loucks and
had tea. The Howards are transferred to Tientsin for the summer––
will leave here tomorrow. Walter & I got back to the Peking Hotel in
time to greet Mary Mullikin. She remained to dinner with us [399].
The next few days in Peking were filled with the usual rounds of shopping, socializing,
dinners, teas and sightseeing almost causing one to wonder what the hurry to leave
America had been. It was a very busy time for the Grangers in the city. This next CAE
venture was to be a co-led American-Chinese expedition. All were anxious to have it go
well, especially those in the Chinese community. The Grangers were quite prominent
now and kept eminent company.
The Loucks were still in Peking and invited them for dinner, as did the Blacks, Jung Lieh
King, the S.T. Wangs. Mary Mullikin and Mrs. Eliason, both artists of some note, called
to take them to hear a Chinese speaker at the Art Instutute on a booklet of Street Calls of
Peking painted by Zhou Pei Chun. Anna shopped for gifts and also went outside Chien
Men gate to purchase a piece of camel's hair cloth for Walter to use on his camp bed. She
also decided to have a new down sleeping bag made for Walter at the Methodist Mission.
Lunch was had with Dr. and Mrs. Carl Whiting Bishop of the Smithsonian. “Walter
called on Dr. Sven Hedin in the afternoon, Dr. George Barbour called on Walter at 6:30
p.m. At 8:15 p.m. Walter and I called on Dr. and Mrs. Gee and Mary Smith.”
It went on and on daily through the 25th [400]. The CAE party finally got off on May 26,
1930.
Notes
Chang pei Hsien––May 27, 1930
The outfit is under way––and the whole party camped here for the
night at our old Chinese inn. Party is as follows:
R. C. Andrews
W. Granger
Mac. Young
Albert Thomson
Pere Teilhard
Dr. Garber. Yuang Fu.
Lieutenant Wyman, U.S.A.
Chinese:
Dr. Chang
Dr. Young
For servants we have:
No. 1 - Shu
No. 2 - Wong
Cook - Sha
" - Liu
Our Chinese chauffeur
Technicians:
'Buckshot'. Liu Hsi Ka. Chih
Liu Ta Ling. K'ang
Pére Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the French priest-philosopher-paleontologist, had begun

working in China and the Ordos Desert south of the Gobi during the 1920s. Granger
probably first met him in 1923 when he visited with Teilhard and Pére Emile Licent to
look over their collection from Ordos. Teilhard and Licent also were members of the
Peking Circle, the group of scientists and intellectuals that occasionally gathered at
Amadeus Grabau’s Peking home. Licent had been in China for nearly a decade when
Granger first arrived.
Dr. Garber was [add]. Lieutenant Wyman was W. G. Wyman, a topographer with the
United States Army.
Drs. Chang and Young both were western-educated members of the Chinese Geological
Society and rising stars in Chinese earth sciences. The latter eventually became known in
the West as ‘C.C. Young.’ His senior, Chang, was a co-leader with Andrews of this joint
American-Chinese venture.
Fifteen cart loads of gasoline, food and supplies were sent up ahead to Hatt-in-Sumu with
Chih, K’ang and Liu Ta Ling. The other assistants remained with the main party. Three
of the old Dodge trucks and Andrews’s touring car comprised the vehicles which had
occupied Larson’s compound in Kalgan since Young had brought them up from Peking.
A camel caravan was also included this time.
The main party went up by train. Along the way, Garber accidentally dropped a photo
plate holder from the train while it was under way. He offered $5.00 to a Chinese boy to
jump off and get it. This he did and returned the holder to Garber at the next station. One
of the train men then took one dollar away from the boy as “squeeze.” Squeeze was a
bribe or extortion money––the boy could not get back near the trains without paying off
the train man.
Now in their four-vehicle convoy, the party left Kalgan at about noon and headed for the
pass. The road up and through the pass was the best they had ever seen it. The weather
was fine, if a bit too warm. It was warm in Peking, too, such that the mosquitoes were
keeping Anna awake most of the night. They were on hand early that year, she wrote. She
would have to have a mosquito net installed on her bed. Her social life swirled on.
Hatt-in-Sumu was reached on the 28th. Driving were Andrews, Young, Granger and the
Chinese chauffeur. They “met no brigands but five mounted soldiers waved a flag at us to
stop but we did not.” The road, again, was the best they had ever seen it –– there was not
a trace of mud. Along the way, near Tabool, they spotted four antelope which was the
furthest south they had ever seen them. Andrews fired and broke a hind leg on one, but
failed to kill it. Later, near where they turned off from the main Urga road to Ericksson’s
mission, they encountered a herd of seven; Andrews shot a pregnant female and two
yearlings.
At the Hatt-in-Sumu mission, they found Eriksson and his family getting ready to set off
for Sweden on June 3. The Expedition’s 50 camels were in a camp 10 miles away. A
Mongol guide, “Hal-Chin-hu [?ku], [[Conquest has it as Halchin Hu in index, BUT at p.
424 he’s id’d as one of JGA’s former assistants and that would be Haldjinko]] [Halchin
Hu aka Haldjinko] the man who is to show us the ‘bone lake’” was waiting at his home
another 30 miles away. They established camp on their old 1928 site. On the 29th, Mac
Young and Granger drove with a Mongol guide to a western mission called Attaka
Bologai 30 miles southeast to fetch Hal-Chin-hu (Halchin Hu aka Haldjinko).
They learned, however, that he had become so restless that he had started out on
horseback for Hatt-in-Sumu that morning. Granger and Young visited at the Attaka
Bologai mission anyway and “were entertained by Mr. & Mrs. Olsen. Also present at the
mission the two ladies who run a mission to the eastward. One of whom is returning to
Sweden with the Erikssons.”
The camels came in that evening. Bato turned up earlier that morning and was engaged
for the season. His mate was a middle-aged Mongol nicknamed Turgot. The tenting and
car arrangements per Granger were:
Mess Tent - Roy, myself

2 - Thomson, Young
3 - Garber, Wyman
4 - Two Chinese
5 - Pere Teilhard
Cook tent - Two cooks
7 - 'Buckshot', & two Liu's
8 - Ka'ng, Chih
9 - Shu, Wong, Chauffeur
10 - Mongols
No. 1 Touring Car – Roy, Wyman, Drs. Chang & Young

2 Truck - Granger, Thomson
3 " - Chinese Chauffeur, Teilhard
4 " - Mac, Garber
The 30th was almost continuously rainy with a strong southeast wind which pounded
through that side of the tents. Hal-Chin-hu (Halchin Hu or Haldjinko) came over to the
camp early with Eriksson and reported that the lake from which he had obtained the
bones the previous year was 150 li to the northeast. Granger planned to go there with him
the next day with two cars and prospect if weather permitted.
It did. The next day was clear with a strong wind that dried the ground rapidly. After an
early tiffin, Granger drove off with Teilhard, Wyman, Garber, Chang, C. C. Young and
let Hal-chin-hu (Halchin Hu aka Haldjinko) guide them to his fossil locality. It was 10
miles northeast of Attaka Bologai. At that locality, they found fossils in a broad sandy
wash deposit in a narrow valley between hard rock hills. A few recognizable fragments of
a rhinoceros and a cervid were picked up. These fossils evidently came from a 30- to 40-
foot loess deposit (silt laid down by wind action) further up through which a stream had
cut its way. But no fossils were found there.
They returned to camp, driving in a severe sandstorm for most of the 30 miles. Several
times, they had to stop at yurts to inquire for directions. The last time was at Old Merin’s
yurt 20 li to the east of camp. Once back in camp, all had trouble keeping tents up for the
rest of the evening. The wind did not die until about 10:00 p.m. With the cold, everybody
wore a sheep-skin coat.
The next morning, June 1st, Andrews, Mac Young, Teilhard, Chang, Granger (and
presumably C. C. Young) headed for an overnight at the fossil lake [Tukhum Nor].
Taking the touring car and one truck with Hal-Chin-ku (Halchin Hu aka Haldjinko) as
guide and Shu, Liu and Turgot as assistants, they drove 10 miles east when the truck
developed trouble. After several attempts to fix it, they finally got it back to camp well
after lunch. Dust in the vacuum tank and a broken feed pipe were the diagnoses. They
planned a fresh start the next day.
While they had sat stalled that day, they watched a gray wolf kill a sheep in plain sight of
their car. “He managed to get a good feed before the herder appeared and drove him off.”
With their early start the next morning, the same outfit as the day before traveled
eastward on the Tsagan Gol trail for 25 miles before turning northward. After another 10
miles, they encountered sand which made it difficult for the truck. The No. 1 touring car
handled it easily. When they finally reached the fossil lake [Tukhum Nor] at about 4:00
p.m., it was entirely dry. The exposures lay along the eastern end. Perhaps a half of a
square mile of exposures was overlain by barren loess deposits. Fossil bones were
numerous enough but badly broken. Even fossil teeth, the hardest fossil material, were
nearly all shattered. An hour of prospecting yielded one good lower jaw of a mustelid and
a few recognizable foot bones and tooth fragments which Granger labeled ‘No. 813.’ [fn:
Granger rarely put catalog numbers in his personal diaries. But whenever he did, we have
included them here.]
No well or Mongol yurts were near the dry lake causing them to retrace their steps to a
good well about eight or 10 miles south of the lake where they made camp. They
prospected some exposures of Pliocene beds a mile north of camp the next morning,
Granger labeling the finds ‘No. 814.’ They next drove to the top of a ridge a few miles to
the west. There they found exposures facing south with pinkish colored deposits similar
to those at the camp. However, the area was rather barren of fossils. There were just a
few antler fragments of a common species of deer.
From this ridge they returned southward through the sand on the same trail as the
previous day to tiffen at some yurts a few miles south. Next, they went southeast to the
Tsagan Gol trail and examined a small exposure of Pliocene outcrop in an open basin. A
few fragments were found –– ’No. 815.’ After returning to camp at about 5:00 p.m.,
Wyman started a small contour map of the Hatt-in-Sumu region on which Pere Teilhard
could place the geology. In the meantime, it was decided to move the entire outfit to
begin exploration north of the sand which was probably coming in from the Tairum Nor
region.
Back in Peking, Anna was making ready for an artist’s retreat and camping trip with
Mary Mullikin and a Mrs. Eliason. “Mary M.” had called on her the day before to talk
over the “ways & means” of the trip. Anna went to the tailor the next morning, and then
shopped for the various things she would need for this venture.
The fossil hunters’ plans were dashed on the morning of June 4th when trouble developed
with the engine on the No. 4 truck. Two connecting rod bearings were burned out. Since
it would take two days to repair the damage, they decided to send the camels together
with the five native fossil men off for "Elephant Camp" the next day. All bags were to go
on the camels because there was no longer room for them in the cars. But that plan, too,
was stalled when the next day broke miserable, cold, windy and rainy. The wind was
from the northwest into which the caravan would have to face, and prevented its start.
Mac Young worked on No. 4 all day, between gusts of rain; the task was nearly done.
Teilhard and the two Chinese paleontologists ventured off to a hard rock ridge to the
northward while Andrews shot a female bustard with slightly developed ovaries and a
crop full of grasshoppers.
June 6, 1930, began bright, warmer and quieter although the wind picked up in the
afternoon and there even was a gust of hail. The camel caravan set off at breakfast time.
Granger welcomed that there was very little confusion for the first loading of the season.
Only one load was thrown off and that was because of an improperly adjusted camel
saddle. The caravan took a road considerably to the east of Pa'n Kiang. Five native fossil
assistants and Bato accompanied it, the latter assistant because he knew the road. None of
the other Mongols had apparently been over this trail. “The caravan leader was with us in
1928 but was kept with a detachment of camels which was sent from Urlyn Obo to Hatt-
in-Sumu with fossils and never got to the north,” Granger wrote as the last entry in his
CAE chronicle.
[]
Granger’s reconnaissance of the Mongolian guide’s promised rich finds of Pliocene

fossils at a lake near a sand hill had been a disappointment. Difficult to get in to, the lake
was dried up and there was no vegetation and almost no fossils. As a result, he decided to
revisit a locality to the north where, in 1928, they had found a Platybeledon, the shovel-
tusked mastodon and ancient relative of the elephant. They called their 1928 camp at the
bog ‘Elephant Camp.’ The fossil was located in a bog pit which Granger had had little
time to investigate.
“The bog holes which contained these mammals,” Granger later explained,
were very similar in nature to the bogs in the western American

cattle country. There it is not an unusual occurrence for cattle to
wade out in these swampy holes to eat grass which starts here
earliest in the spring. The cattle become mired and die, then are
swallowed up in the muck. The same thing apparently happened in
the Gobi bog holes [401].
After returning to the old Elephant Camp site, they moved on to establish a new camp 10
miles distant on a promising-looking escarpment. The new camp was called ‘Wolf Camp’
and was an area that brought immediate and good results. Many beasts had become mired
in this bog-hole. It was Pliocene and became known as the ‘Tung-Gur Formation.’
Among the fauna found were perissodactyls, artiodactyls, rodents, carnivores, and mostly
young Platybelodon. The teeth of these, Granger had noted, were well-preserved,
although the bone was not.
Then, five miles south of that fossil bog, Teilhard found another fossil-rich bog which
contained almost nothing but adult Platybelodon. The area was small, but had about six
vertical feet of fossiliferous sediments. Parts of about 25 individual specimens were
found, including 16 almost perfect jaws, some more than five feet in length, along with
several skulls and various skeletal parts. All of these were disorganized. Very few of the
bones lay horizontally and some were found in near vertical position. There was no
stratification in the pit itself although there was plenty around it. It apparently had been a
seepage or drainage bog-hole into which the bones were swept.
The unusual fact about Teilhard’s bog site was that there seemed to be no other smaller
animals. It then became a question of whether adult-type only animals frequented these
spots or whether the lighter animals were able to pull themselves loose and escape.
In the other bog site, not a great distance away, between the pelvis bones of the one adult
skeleton were found the skull and lower jaw of an unborn infant mastodon. That finding
would enable a complete collection of the shovel-tusked mastodon from unborn infant to
the adult and aged creature. That became the particular purpose of the 1930 expedition,
and the collection they were to ship, Granger had guessed, was probably the largest from
the Gobi of any of the five Mongolia expeditions. Eighty-four cases of specimens were
finally sent out from China in January, 1931, to arrive in New York in April.
Twenty-five or 30 miles north of Wolf Camp they found another deposit of Platybelodon
bones similar to the first discovery. Exactly the same conditions seemed to have prevailed
at various drainage places along the shores of a fresh water Pliocene lake. Many
fossilized fresh water shells were found along with the Mastodons. Numerous deer
antlers of an unusual shape, like the palm of a hand with fingers upturned, along with
large dogs, hyaenas, mustelids, rhinoceros, bovids, rodents, as well as three types of
Mastodonts made this fauna very rich.
This Tung Gur fauna seemed to be different from the other Pliocene localities in North
China and Mongolia. Teilhard was working on the theory that it was Miocene. Granger
wasn’t so sure. In any event, the next camp was at a place about 25 miles southwest of
Iren Dabasu. It was the final camp of the season. Named ‘Camp Margetts,’ it was located
at a series of three distinct horizons where a good deal of fossil material was found,
including Baluchitherium, Titanothere and Embolotherium.
Much knowledge had been gained by these Mongolia trips, Granger had concluded.
Because of them, the number of pages in the history of life were being increased
enormously. Routes of migration were becoming clearer and indicated that at some point,
while there had been land bridges between North America and Asia, Europe been isolated
from Asia by inland waters.
Bandits
On one occasion in 1930, two CAE cars returning to camp were fired upon by bandits.
The party had been sending two cars back to Kalgan for supplies and mail on several
occasions. It was as these cars were returning to camp for the last time that bandits, who
had made their headquarters in a mud inn, shot at the them. The bandits were rifling
through a cart train they had stopped when the CAE cars first appeared and then
proceeded to drive by. Although the bandits shouted for the cars to stop, the drivers, Mac
Young and one of the Chinese assistants, continued anyway. Several shots were
exchanged, but neither car or driver was hit. However, some of the shots from the CAE
drivers wounded one of the bandits and killed one of their horses. This discouraged any
further aggression.
Andrews was not present for this encounter and despite his tales of bandit run-ins, it was
only infrequently that bandits attacked western scientific expeditions. For they had
learned that these often were comprised of large numbers of men armed with a variety of
weapons and who knew how to handle them. Furthermore, motorcars were nearly
impossible to outrun and the slower trucks were rarely taken out alone. As a result, the
bandits much preferred attacking Chinese cart trains which gave them no real opposition.
Nevertheless, because of that run-in and Young’s shooting at bandits, the 1930
Expedition was especially alert for trouble on the return trip. There was none. Granger
and his Yangtze Basin parties and Mac Young and the unnamed Chinese driver were the
only members of the CAE ever to be shot at. The only CAE member to be hit with a
bullet was Andrews, when he shot himself in the thigh.
Notes
In a letter from Peking to Harold Cook on October 10, 1930, Bill Thomson claimed that
he may have found some interesting archaeological material, though not of primitive
man, that the CAE’s earlier archaeologists had missed. But, since a new requirement was
that anything found must be shared with the Chinese, and they were in his vicinity at the
time, Thomson reburied the material in the hope that he or some other westerner would
return to it another day.
Leaving China, 1931
Central Asiatic Expeditions

Peking
Nov. 13, 1930
Dear Dr. Young:
I enclose a list of the small collection of pasted specimens which we

took over to the Chinese Geological Survey the other day. The typed
copy of my field records will be made shortly and forwarded to you.
The dates for the specimens sent over can be obtained from the field
record copy. Please tell Dr. Chang Zhang Xi-Ti that I hope to see
him before he starts for Canton.
Always sincerely yours,
Walter Granger [402].
Again, Granger remained behind to tidy up following the Expedition’s return from
Mongolia. Most of that season’s party had already dispersed. By agreement with the
Chinese, the CAE was over despite the important Pliocene deposits just discovered along
with other good material from the Eocene and Oligocene. These discoveries had reignited
American desire to conduct another one or two seasons of exploration and the hope of
finally achieving one of the CAE’s chief and much-heralded aims, discovery of ancient
man.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. While Andrews, now in the States, would return to
Peking hoping to make another Mongolia trip, the Central Asiatic Expeditions were
effectively over. Granger was back on US soil in mid-February, 1931. A welcoming
luncheon at the Museum was his fourth in a decade. This time it was truly bittersweet.
His father had passed away on December 26, 1930.
Now, in addition to resuming his Museum work and departmental duties, Granger was
giving interviews and lectures. Lecturing was not something he particularly relished,
although once he got started he seemed to enjoy it as much as did his audiences.
Thomson thought he gave “a corking good lecture, he has an excellent voice, he scarcely
raises it, yet it carries so well he can be heard distinctly in our Museum lecture hall which
is a difficult hall to talk in.”
But things had changed. The Great Depression was taking a heavy toll on Museum
membership and resources and that had dampened morale. Field trips were curtailed as
Museum activities in general were tightened up. Osborn was in decline, opting to spend
increasingly more of his time at his estate at Castle Rock, NY. His absence was
characterized as "scientific leave," but it was understood he probably wouldn’t be coming
back. His wife's death in 1930 had affected him greatly. His own great energy for life and
work had begun to lag. As political chaos and anti-west sentiments heightened in China,
the Museum finally lost hope of resuming work there. Andrews finally gave up and
returned to the US. China’s own earth scientists soon would be on the run from Japanese
forces followed by the Cultural Revolution.
In 1932, Granger was awarded an honorary doctorate of science from Middlebury

College. Now “Walter Granger, Sc.D.” to Clive Forster-Cooper, he quipped “If you will
glance at this letterhead you will notice that I now have some letters after my name. I
shall keep on friendly relations with you but you will pardon an increased austerity of
manner.”
Also in 1932, a review of the Museum's finances and expenditures also challenged
Osborn’s ability to cope with changing financial conditions in the future. Fresh leadership
would be needed in these difficult times. Osborn resigned in early January, 1933. He was
succeeded by F. Trubee Davison who was not a scientific man, but was thought to be a
good businessman with the skills needed to keep the Museum afloat.
In the meantime, other changes were taking place. Granger’s friend, colleague and
publishing associate, William K. Gregory, moved from DVP into the position of Curator
of Living and Extinct Fishes and Comparative and Human Anatomy. Granger’s old
friend and field companion from the American West, James W. Gidley, died in
September, 1931. Longtime field companions George Olsen and Peter Kaisen were
approaching their scheduled retirements from the Museum in the mid-1930s. Fellow
Wyoming field man O.P. Hay was dead by 1930. Faithful friend and Central Asiatic
expeditioner Mac Young died suspiciously by gunshot in California. V. K. Ting was

accidentally asphyxiated in 1935.
Granger had assumed the weight of increased administrative duties upon his return. Not
long after becoming acting head of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology in 1927,
he also accepted the responsibilities of Curator of Paleontology in the newly created
Department of Asiatic Exploration and Research. In addition, he was deeply engaged in
writing up the extensive Asian fossil collections as well as ghost-authoring for Andrews
Volume I of the CAE’s stridently titled multi-volume series “The New Conquest of
Central Asia [403].”
Now, also was Barnum Brown, who had been in and out of the Museum between stints in
the private sector, back in the department competing with Granger for standing.
Granger’s name would forever lead Brown’s on department letterhead which did nothing
to settle Brown’s contentiousness. With his father, Osborn, Matthew and others gone, the
hope for more fieldwork in China and Mongolia wholly dashed, and professional
pressure mounting, Granger was finding it hard to cope with office and Museum
challenges.
The post-Osborn Museum had become rudder-less. Trubee Davison was quickly
succeeded as director by George Sherwood who by March, 1934, fell under a physician's
care for heart troubles and was unable to begin work for some months. Andrews was
designated as the acting director, but the museum’s actual day-to-day operations were
managed collectively by department curators. Little unified their approach. Leadership by
a masterful, charismatic and arch operator such as Osborn was nowhere to be seen. There
was no one to follow in his footsteps. Andrews was made director.
Andrews’s appointment to directorship was, of course, to capitalize on the fame brought

by the CAE. Andrews basked in singular credit for the CAE’s success and achievements.
However, it soon was clear that he was ill-suited to run the museum. He itched openly to
get out of the office and back on the trail, even anywhere. Not long after his appointment,
he took an extended honeymoon cruise from New York City through the Panama Canal
to California. When he finally returned, the Museum’s struggles had not changed. Soon
the nature and temperament of his tenure fomented additional discontent. Andrews,
already a hard drinker, was now thought by some to be an alcoholic. The CAE’s top two
men were experiencing a sudden and dramatic let-down from the soaring success of their
mid-life adventure in Asia. Both had spent most of the past decade in Asia.
Granger tried to cover for Andrews by trying to manage the Museum from offstage while
also attending to his duties as a scientist and curator. Clearly, the ‘glory days’ were over.
While Andrews drank; others dealt with change differently, even creatively. “Tomorrow
my friend Mr. Granger is coming up to take dinner with us,” Bill Thomson wrote to
Harold Cook in 1934, “and we are going to have roast saddle of lamb and play it is
venison, of course we will have the old dough biscuits and fixins. We manage to get
together two or three times a year just to tell one and other about when we were just
‘pups’ in the game nigh onto 40 years ago.”
Granger moved on with his projects. He had issued seven publications in 1931 including
two with Osborn on the coryphodonts and shoveltuskers from Mongolia. He also
completed a work begun by Matthew on a new species of ground sloth from the
Pleistocene of Cuba and contributed a note to it. He soon would turn to completing a
massive work by Osborn on Proboscidea and another by Matthew on the San Juan Basin.
While Granger and Matthew had begun the latter together as joint authors, Granger
decided to publish it under Matthew’s name alone as a tribute to his old friend. In
reference to Osborn’s work on Proboscidea, Granger confided to Clive Forster-Cooper
that
[s]ince Osborn's passing things have speeded up a good deal, and

while they may not be as perfect as they should have been, yet they
will get done more promptly because the Professor always found it
difficult to write the last word [404].
Granger produced another six publications in 1932, four of his own and two with Osborn
and would publish many times again over that decade. One of Granger’s junior
colleagues and new co-authors, George Gaylord Simpson, later addressed Granger’s
association with colleagues such as William Sinclair, Henry Osborn, William Gregory,
William Matthew and Simpson himself.
One of the results of that association was a long series of joint

papers by Matthew and Granger, a series that is one of the most
remarkable accomplishments of the history of paleontology,
bringing out new principles, also bringing out the first descriptions
of many new and strange fossil animals. Dr. Matthew is not here to
speak regarding that so I would like to repeat what I heard him say
over and over again during his lifetime, which was that he
considered Walter very much underrated as a scientist; that, as a
matter of fact, in the writing of this series of joint papers with him --
and I certainly can add to this from my own experience -- as
Matthew wrote this series of joint papers with Walter, he got an
enormous amount in the way of sound judgment, in the way of
breadth and knowledge of the field, from Walter, and that really of
the two authors, Walter contributed more than his nominal senior
author [405].
Granger’s writing was, thought Simpson,
a model that I think everyone should strive to follow. He starts out

with the chaos that his predecessors had left, he plods through that
as one must, and then he very neatly shows how it all fits together
and does begin to make sense, and then in a final very brief section,
he uses these materials to point out general principles and to point
out what the broader meaning of such research may be [406].
There had been few writers at the department who could also collect. Osborn, Matthew
and Gregory were writers. Brown was a collector of limited scope and published very
little. Simpson was skilled in both as was Granger. But Granger had come to the
American Museum at a time when building a fossil collection was a priority for the
Museum. It was to that end that he devoted himself primarily to collecting dinosaurs and
mammals throughout his career. Fieldwork was his passion.
Yet, Simpson also believed that

[i]f anyone could have taken a complete stenographic account of

[Granger’s] conversations about research in paleontology, we would
now have not only a charming and complete history of vertebrate
paleontology during the period of his career, but we would also have
a beautifully expressed summary of the results of paleontology and
the scientific significance of most of the work that was being done in
the field of fossil mammals, particularly during that period [407].
Simpson later said “he learned more science from Walter Granger than from anyone
else,” intoned Malcolm C. McKenna, an American Museum paleontologist and student of
the times [408]. This was quite a tribute to his old mentor considering that Simpson is
now regarded as the greatest paleontologist of the 20th century.
[]
In 1935, Granger was elected to a two-year term as President of the Explorer's Club in
New York City, succeeding Andrews. Thereafter, he served its board of directors and
various committees until his death. This era at the club was not without rancor and that
may have contributed to Granger’s increasing melancholy and growing depression. A
major issue within the Club during this time was the direction it would take regarding
qualification for membership. To many, the choice would affect the Club’s destiny, as
well as its image.
The U.S. Economic Depression was affecting membership and the Explorers Club was
encountering financial trouble as a result. Its survival was of concern, and the question
was how to solve the problem. Some argued that it needed to expand membership
qualification beyond those who explored purely for science and discovery to include
wealthy adventurers and entrepreneurs. Others argued, Granger among them, that the
Club could and should get by without such broadened membership qualification. Granger
felt the Club should remain oriented to pure science and exploration, and that its current
financial trouble could be ridden out and resolved in time. Perhaps because of his
personality, the erudite, if field proficient, Simpson was mentioned as an example of why
a turn toward the AMNH scientific types would not be good. Some non-AMNH-
connected members had been arguing that Granger’s position was elitist and possibly
even foreshadowed a takeover of the Club by the American Museum. In the end, the
Explorers Club as he knew it for so many years began to change.
Changing events in China also wore on Granger. He found affairs more and more
distressing as there seemed to be a reversal of the great scientific progress he and others
had helped initiate. He was doing his best to maintain contact with at least one of the
Chinese members of the 1930 Expedition, C. C. Young. But by 1938, Young was finding
it difficult to remain in Peking and took a position in Yunnan Province. In November,
1938, Granger wrote to him at the Kunming (old Yunnanfu) Office of the National
Geological Survey of China:
I am writing to thank you for the three papers received this morning
and also to express my admiration, and that of my colleagues, for the
courageous manner in which the Geological Survey of China is

carrying on in the face of this terrible calamity [409].
Granger was referring to Japan’s invasion of China. “I hardly need to tell you,” he
continued, “that the great majority of Americans are back of China, and those who have
lived in China for any length of time there could hardly be a single dissenting vote. All
power to you!” Granger brought the Chinese paleontologist up-to-date informing him that
Teilhard had visited the Museum recently while on his way to France and had described
affairs in China and Peking in great detail. They hoped see Teilhard again in the spring
when he made his way back to China.
Granger continued his correspondence with C. C. Young into 1939, sending copies of
scientific papers that might be of use to him. He also offered to find journals in which to
publish Young’s research. The Museum only published papers by its own staff or those
that concerned a Museum collection. It had been determined that Young’s new discovery
of associated mammals and dinosaurs, remarkable as it was, as well as his continuing
study of multituberculata could not be granted an exception.
Teilhard and Granger, also great friends, engaged in regular correspondence as well.
Teilhard had succeeded Davidson Black as co-leader with the Chinese at Zhoukoudian,
since the ongoing work was funded mostly with western (Rockefeller Foundation)
resources. Granger’s and Teilhard’s gentle personalities and unassuming nature made
their searches for answers about life seem a perfect match. They were, of course, at the
core of the Peking Circle that had gathered over the years at Amadeus Grabau’s house in
Peking during the 1920s. Now, as war clouds hung over China, the whereabouts and
condition of their friend Grabau was unknown.
Beginning in 1933, Granger began returning to the American West for a few weeks at a
time. He focused mainly on South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana and used an auto to
get into the badlands wherever he could. In 1935, he and Thomson were guests on
George Simpson’s Scarritt Expedition to Montana. “We just played boys once more,”
Thomson wrote. “It was was 41 years since we camped together the first time. Granger's
first trip out West.” That was in 1894.
Olsen had to be let go from the Museum in 1935, because of costs and because he was ill
with lung cancer. Now Thomson was likely to be the next to go––the Museum was still
struggling with a severe curtailment of income. Granger apparently had been holding off
on the decision for as long as he could. Fieldtrips seemed to be a way of holding off the
final ‘goodbye.’
At times the trips were merely to recollect rather than do any hard work. Granger was
now in his early 60s and had put on quite a bit of weight. Even so, his wry, trapper-from-
Vermont humor remained at the ready as he admired his past accomplishments. To
Forster-Cooper in 1937 he wrote:
I had a little run around in September in the West -- visiting old

scenes and old friends. Found several holes there which I made as
much as forty years ago. You can't dig a Brontosaurus out without
leaving quite a scar [410].
Anna was not going along on these ventures, despite her wishes. As she wrote to Harold
Cook’s wife, Margaret, in 1938,
I have been meaning to tell you that I had asked Walter twice to let
me go on the trip to Agate with him. He said each time that that trip
was for Mr. Thomson and, besides, there wasn't enough room for
four people plus their baggage! As nobody had to take more than
overnight things and a top coat, in case of cold weather, I didn't take
much stock in that excuse. Well, as it turned out, it was probably just
as well, since you were not really fit to have any company at all! I
hope you can manage to come to New York so I can see you here.
The city is full of interesting entertainments. I haven't been to as
many as usual this winter. Don't seem to have as much staying
power as did last year. I am trying to keep up with my French. There
is a troupe of French Actors here now and they put on a varied
assortment of classic and modern plays. Then there are about seven
movie houses which show French language films from time to time.
I go as often as I can for I don't like to think of losing all that I
gained by going to the Middlebury College Summer School of
French for two summers (1936 and 1937). My radio does not let me
catch French broadcasts from Canada [411].
Nevertheless, affairs at the Museum, the Explorers Club and in China-Mongolia, along
with the loss of friends and acquaintances continued to weigh on Granger. They seemed
to overshadow the promise of his many achievements. His early ascension and steady rise
throughout a long, successful career had, until now, always held the promise of one more
interesting turn - somehow, somewhere. Now he was at his peak and should have been
reflecting comfortably, picking and choosing among his projects and planning his next
expedition, or next publication.
Instead, he was faced with endless problems of a troubled, exhausted Museum. There was
no one else to take charge. The in-fighting was intense. He was a mainspring under great
strain. To this aging and gentle man who had spent his life much as he wished and risen
to levels likely never imagined, the dread of daily management and administration,
problem-solving, trouble-shooting and office politics finally invaded his story-book
journey and wore him down. By the late 1930s, as Simpson advised in a letter to his own
family, the toll had been taken. On February 7, 1937, Simpson wrote:
Work at the Museum proceeds, but I get a little less done than
formerly, partly because of my decreasing ambition and increasing
weariness, partly because of the more rigid hours which no longer
permit the most practical system, for me, of working more when I
am good and less when I am not, and partly because of the internal
stresses and strains of our department are now so great that there is
no esprit de corps and no cooperation. I love the place, it worries me
to see our department, once incomparably the best in the world,
going steadily down hill, and it will be a dreadful wrench to leave,
but if things continue as they are it will also be a relief to get away
from there. Granger is a broken man, [Barnum] Brown is a jealous
egomaniac, [Childs] Frick rides roughshod over us all, and no one
even tries to guide the rudderless ship and simply snipes at anyone
who tries to. We have lost about a quarter of our staff in the last
couple of years, and not a single person has been replaced [412].
The effect on Granger was obvious. His face bore the look of great weariness and
depression. It had been a baffling and tragic turn after 40 thrilling years of achievement.
“Things did not go well for him” after 1930, confirmed his youngest sister Mary in her
later years. She and others also thought that an increasingly aloof, somewhat self-
centered Anna had not been a source of comfort for Walter, instead becoming one of his
problems [413].
Cut #13
Last Ride, 1941
My Dear Anna:
Yesterday was a rather strenuous day -- 154 miles with many stops
and much talking about the various formations, etc. Interesting but a
bit wearying except to the younger fellows. Weather wonderful now
-- that lovely fall coolness has set in and should continue. My love to
you dear. I'm hoping to get accumulated mail at Lusk [414]?
In 1939, Granger and Thomson began making a series of Pliocene and Oligocene
expeditions to the badlands of South Dakota. In 1941, they tied this work to a summer
field meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology that was to commence in
Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
Granger and Thomson, along with their young associate, Ned Colbert, arrived in Scenic,
South Dakota, and met up with Harold Cook and his wife Margaret. Scenic was now a
trashed relic of the town that Granger and Thomson knew from their early collecting
days. But it was still inhabited. After collecting in the badlands for part of a day, the men
headed down to Scottsbluff to meet up with Charles Berkey. It was hot, Granger wrote
Anna, but he was feeling fine. He soon would be off as well to visit Radcliffe Beckwith
for a few days at his camp in northeastern Colorado.
Granger parted with Beckwith around the 10th of August and made ready to travel up to
Lusk, Wyoming, and then Rapid City, South Dakota, by bus and train. He planned to
meet up with Colbert in Rapid City and then Thomson in Scenic. Then, after a few days
of fieldwork, they all planned go back down to Scottsbluff on the 1st of September to join
the Paleontology Society crowd. He thought he and Thomson would do part of the field
trip with them but not go all the way to Lincoln, Nebraska. That aspect of the trip seemed
a little strenuous for Granger and Thomson though Colbert, a younger man, thought he
would make the trip.
Until they left for Scottsbluff, they camped in Scenic, meaning quartering at the rather
threadbare Scenic Hotel, and worked the badlands. The weather was still hot, but not
unbearable, Granger wrote Anna, and he was in good shape physically. The only thing he
was pondering was where was the mail from her? It must have been accumulating and
waiting for him somewhere. “I find myself anxious to get your letters and learn how you
are enjoying the life in Abingdon.” Abingdon was a resort town in Virginia just west of
the Blue Ridge Mountains that celebrated a rich history in the arts. He added in a
postscript that he also had not heard from the Museum since he had been in the field.
After a few delays and chance encounters with old colleagues, Granger made it to Rapid
City on August 15th and settled in at the Alex Johnson Hotel. Colbert was already there.
Since it was raining in that vicinity, Granger expected Thomson would be driving out of
the badlands and into Scenic fairly soon. He and Colbert made plans to head down there
to meet him. The weather had cooled, he noted, and was “not so bad.”
Anna’s air mail of the 16th reached Granger by the 19th. He decided to respond by
regular mail “to see if there is much difference in time of transit.” He, Thomson and
Colbert would be taking a break in Rapid City in a couple of days to avoid the rodeo in
Scenic over the weekend. They would return once that dust had settled. The following
Friday, they planned to go over to Lusk to link up with some colleagues and then drive
down to Scottsbluff. Terry Beckwith, Radcliffe’s wife, their two children and her mother
were to join them. Terry was an amateur collector now, and she looked forward to
attending the society meeting.
Granger confirmed that Colbert would go on to Lincoln with the Society while he,
Thomson and the Beckwiths returned to Scenic. Colbert would rejoin them there later.
The weather had remained “not too bad,” Granger added, and the party had made a fairly
good collection of fossils. Granger was glad to know that Anna had a congenial rooming
place and good meals. “Here we have the same old unimaginative meals, but this is a job
and we can stand it,” he wrote. He was happy to still be on the payroll.
His next letter to Anna was dated August 20th and sent by air mail. He wanted to
determine whether it would catch the one he had sent her the day before by regular mail.
All about Scenic, he wrote, there were signs of “the Rodeo on Friday. A hot dog stand on
the street is the most conspicuous [evidence] so far. Also there are a lot of horses in the
corral waiting for their riders––or faller-offers.”
The nights were now getting cool enough for adding a blanket by morning. And he
looked forward to meeting Anna in Abingdon long enough to “see what their early fall
weather is like.” On the 23rd he wrote that, as they departed Scenic for the weekend, the
participants and spectators “were gathering in force and that amplifying wagon that
occasionally goes through the streets here in town was standing in the middle of the street
and making announcements interspersed with band music. They will probably all have
sobered up by Sunday noon.”
On Tuesday, August 26th, Granger wrote from Scenic to say that it had been the second
rainy day in succession. They had been out for a while the previous day and made a fair
collection before having to hasten out of the badlands flats in time to beat an oncoming
storm. Now it was foggy, misty and cold. Granger was wearing a sweater for the first
time. They were sitting in camp, he wrote: “Thomson is making a new handle for his
pick, Colbert is reading and I’m writing this letter.” The post-rodeo town of Scenic was
quiet again, but the wind had not blown hard enough to take away much of the rubbish.
While they were riding out the storm at the Scenic Hotel, Colbert suggested driving to
Rapid City to see a movie. But Granger did not feel up to it. Traveling “100 miles over a
rough road seems a bit too much,” Granger wrote to Anna on the 26th. “We’ve got plenty
of reading matter anyhow––Time, Life, National Geographic and some books, so we’ll
survive until tomorrow.”
The morning of August 27th in Scenic, South Dakota, broke damp with more rain. “This
town is bad enough in good weather,” Granger wrote to Anna that day. As he had done
before, he sent this one by airmail to see whether it would catch up to the one he had sent
by regular delivery the day before. The sun started to poke through at around 10:30 a.m.
as Thomson finished his new pick handle and started to repair some old ones. “Hope we
have a chance to use these picks before the summer is over,” Granger wrote. The wind
picked up some as well and started to dry things out.
Granger also updated Anna on the local Scenic news. A fellow known as Jack Rabbit,
who was
Anne’s brother, has been drunk ever since the Rodeo––and probably
during also. Night before last he came in and presented us with those
fossil ammonites which have been lying on Gene’s table in the

barber shop for the last five years. We’ve been waiting to see if he
shows up and wants them back. Poor Anne would never miss them
anyhow. This morning we found her in the restaurant with her hat &
coat on. Said she had started for church and found it too muddy and
had given up. I told her it was Wednesday not Sunday. She thanked
me for telling her and went home [415].
Poor Anne resided at the Scenic Hotel and Gene, the local barber, was keeping an eye on
her. Aging and losing her senses, Granger wrote, “I don’t know what will eventually
happen to her or to this dump of a hotel.”
Granger continued with news from Thomson that Lill had been in and out of the hospital
with a bladder tumor that was caught just in time. She was home now and reporting in to
the doctor weekly. Also, “the restaurant woman at the Alex Johnson greeted me when we
were up there for dinner Sat. evening and asked especially to have her regards sent to
you.”
He also had listened to the Brooklyn-Saint Louis ball game the previous day––”...the B’s
are still ahead,” he wrote. And in another hour, he added, it would be time for lunch at the
restaurant. “Roast beef, roast pork or hamburger, and that will break up the monotony a
bit––like on board ship––and then we may be able to get out this afternoon.”
On the 28th, a Museum photographer named Coles showed up in Scenic wanting to go

out into the badlands with the party to get some movies and stills “for a story the
Photographic Dept. is trying to make.” They finished up that afternoon and Coles headed
back east and the three departed Scenic for Rapid City via Lusk, Wyoming.
The fieldwork had brought mixed results, in Granger’s view, because of time lost to the
rodeo and the weather. “So we’ve had plenty of time to hear Scenic gossip and study the
Scenic down-and-outs. One fellow “was coaxed into having a shave and a haircut” then
proceeded to get drunk immediately afterward by way of celebration. Some day, Granger
surmised, someone was going to coax the fellow into a bath “and then there will be a real
celebration.”
“Jack Rabbit” of the “Clean Beds” Hotel, Granger continued, had been intermittently
drunk since the Rodeo and the sober interludes were growing shorter. Drunken stupors
were “getting common in this town” and rapidly changing its tone so that “in a few years,
all that will be left of our town will be the empty grain elevator and the coal chute.”
Granger’s prediction was right on. As of the late 1990’s, other than the grain elevator and
the coal chute, Anne’s church, some other dilapidated structures, a post office,
convenience store, and a couple of town drunks, little else was left standing.
Granger next wrote to Anna on Labor Day from the Paleontology Society meeting in
Scottsbluff. The group was busy caravanning to various field localities. Granger and
Thomson soon dropped out and spent their time poking around western Nebraska on their
own. The weather had settled down and it was much warmer. “Everybody speaks of how
well I look,” Granger wrote Anna, “so I must be in pretty good shape.” Granger was also
grateful that Anna was keeping well––”thank goodness neither of us is old yet.”
Thomson, however, was not so well and he was worried about Lill. He thought he might
have to leave Granger in Nebraska and return east early. Granger hoped to remain there
with Colbert until November.
On Friday, August 29th, Granger and Thomson drove to Lusk to connect with Robert G.
Chaffee and spent a few days at his camp at Hat Creek. Sunday the three moved on to
Scottsbluff and spent a few days visiting exposures in that part of Nebraska, eventually
winding up in Crawford. Thomson and Granger then returned to Agate with the Beckwith
family on September 2nd to stay with the Harold Cooks and await Colbert. He wrote
again from there.
The day spent with the paleontology group had been “a rather strenuous” one for
Granger. “154 miles with many stops and much talking about the various formations, etc.
Interesting but a bit wearying except to the younger fellows.” He planned to send Anna a
fuller account of that field meeting later: it had been a first-time experiment for that
Society and seemed to have been a success.
The weather was “wonderful now––that lovely fall coolness has set in and should
continue,” Granger wrote to Anna. He hoped to pick up the mail that had accumulated at
Lusk soon. Thomson also was particularly anxious to receive news from Lill.
Harold and Margaret Cook thought Granger seemed happy. But something seemed odd.
A Look in His Eyes
“On Saturday I recall that I subconsciously noticed an unusual flush and a rather
extraordinary brightness in his eyes,” Margaret Cook wrote to Anna on September 8,
1941.
I realize that I should have spoken of it -- but I did not know if he

would have considered it necessary to see a physician. Dr. Granger
seemed as happy as a boy and my last picture of him, which I shall
always remember -- was of his driving out of the yard, waving
goodbye with high spirits and happiness in that gesture and voice
[416].
And Death
Sept. 8, 1941
Dear Dr. Andrews–

I am writing to you because I am the last person Walter Granger
talked to before he died. At the time I listened to him I had no idea it
would be the last time but it seems to me now that he must have had
some premonition of his death. He spoke of many things, his great
and deep affection for you, the history of his life at the Museum, of
George Simpson whom he wished to take his place when he was
gone. He said the last week had been the happiest he could
remember. I had taken him and Mr. Thomson up to Como Bluff and
the old Bone Cabin Quarry where they had worked together for so
many years. He seemed so very happy, and as I told you over the
telephone, the doctor said he looked happy when he died. My mother
and my two children and Mr. Thomson were here also. You may or
may not know that my small boy was named Walter Granger
Beckwith. I shall devote the rest of my life in trying to make him
worthy of his name. His body was sent to Denver this morning and
was cremated at eleven a.m. Mr. Thomson has been very hard hit by
his going and we have tried to do things to ease him. Dr. Colbert
arrived yesterday afternoon and he and Mr. Thomson are leaving for
Rapid City in the morning.
Sincerely,
Marie Beckwith [417].
At 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 6, 1941, Granger was pronounced dead by heart
failure at the Ranger Hotel in Lusk, Wyoming. Following a big dinner with Granger and
the Beckwiths, Bill Thomson had retired early. While her mother put her two children to
bed, Terry Beckwith and Granger sat to chat in the hotel lobby. They then retired,
Granger stopping by Thomson’s door to say goodnight. Not long after, Thomson heard a
moan from Granger’s room. He went into the room and found his old friend now lifeless.
“It was all very quick, so Thomson says,” wrote Margaret, “only a few minutes between
the time he said ‘good night’ complaining a little of his ‘chest hurting,’ until Thomson
heard [moaning] and went in to him, and his heart had already failed. The doctor, a very
able man, was called immediately -- and Harold, who was by chance, at another hotel,
was called.”
It was Sunday. Terry took her family back to Laramie. No one knew how to reach Anna
and the Museum offices were closed. They finally located Andrews at his home in
Connecticut. He then contacted Granger’s brother Arthur in Rutland, Vermont, and
Arthur knew how to contact Anna. Granger’s body was to be taken to Denver on Monday
for cremation, and the ashes returned to Thomson the following day. He carried them
back to New York by train leaving from Rapid City on Wednesday. Colbert went with
him.
On Monday, Cook, Thomson and Colbert crossed the street first to one of Lusk’s two
newspapers, the Lusk Free Lance, and then the other, The Lusk Herald. “Walter Granger,
68, Internationally Famous Authority on Natural History Dies Here Saturday of Heart
Failure,” ran the Lusk Free Lance on September 11th. The Herald more quietly that same
day declared “Dr. Walter Granger, World Renowned Natural History Scientist, Died Here
Sept. 6.” Granger was regarded by all who knew him in all parts of the world, wrote the
Free Lance “as a gentleman of highest character and one of the greatest scientists of all
time. He leaves a horde of valuable data on prehistoric eras and has thus enlightened his
fellow men perhaps more than any other single person in all history.” The Herald
conveyed a similar sentiment stating that W. D. Matthew had once said that "any
statement made by Dr. Granger could be checked and found more nearly perfect than of
any person he had ever met" and that Granger held the esteem and regard of those with
whom he worked and came in contact, whether it was a Chinese coolie, an Egyptian
native or Granger’s associates and friends.
The trio also contacted another regional paper, The Rapid City Daily Journal. It ran an
editorial September 11, 1941:
A Scientist Passes
With deep regret the Journal notes the death of Dr. Walter Granger,
curator of fossil mammals for the American Museum of Natural
History in New York City, whose years of collecting fossils in the
South Dakota Badlands endeared him to many in this area. He was
one of that small but select body of men known as scientists whose
researches have contributed much to man's knowledge. One of the
most famed fossil hunters of all time, Dr. Granger helped decipher
the thrilling story of evolution as written in the rocks. His life was
one of adventure, for he traveled far over the earth's surface in his
quest for fragments of life from the past which throw light on the
riddles of today. He was second in command on Roy Chapman
Andrews' expeditions into the Gobi desert during the late '20's––
explorations which wrote new chapters in paleontology, the science
that deals with the life of past geological periods. Largely because of
his efforts, the American Museum of Natural History in New York
City became one of the leading scientific institutions of the world.
To the general public, perhaps, his name was unfamiliar. To
scholars, it was known the world over. His death is a distinct loss to
science.
Word spread. The New York Times wrote
Thousands of persons to whom Dr. Walter Granger was at most a

name nevertheless have been thrilled by his handiwork, for he
largely was responsible for the towering skeletons of dinosaurs that
awe visitors at the American Museum of Natural History. Not only
was his work known to museum-goers in New York, but he had
also, through models, photographs, and his aid in preparing exhibits
for other museums, made the ordinary American possibly more
familiar with the skeleton of the great prehistoric lizard than with
that of the cow, with resulting gain in popular interest in
paleontology. His many expeditions in the United States were less
thoroughly publicized [than those in Egypt, China and Mongolia],
but they, too, were of outstanding scientific interest and produced a
number of rare fossils.
A somber and shocked Andrews stood on the platform with Museum and Explorers Club
representatives to meet Thomson. Granger’s ashes were carried to the Museum for safe-
keeping until Anna could pick them up. She waited until the following spring. Then she
and other family members scattered Walter’s ashes on his mother's and father’s grave at
the Pleasant View cemetery in Middletown Springs, Vermont. A small stone engraved
with his name was placed next to theirs. An identical marker for Anna now sits next to
Walter’s.
Epilogue
Cut #14
11/11/41
Dear Harold,
Am enclosing clippings from this mornings' New York Times and
Herald Tribune as you may see for yourself what is happening at the
Museum these days. Heavens knows what may come next. Gee,
Harold, I would love to have a chat with you. Last Friday evening
Nov. 7th was Dr. Granger's 69th birthday. As he had planned all
summer he was to have had a real birthday party here at our house
this year. So, we had a small dinner party, his friends and ours
though Walter was not with us in person we all felt he was with us in
spirit.
––Bill Thomson
“All of us here in the Museum have been badly broken up by Walter’s death,” wrote
Andrews to Arthur Granger on September 12, 1941.
Three days before, Andrews had written to American Museum trustee Trubee Davis that
I don’t know when anything has given me such a knockout blow.

Walter was more than just a friend and I just can’t believe that he is
gone. Certainly I have reason to grieve. The success of the Central
Asiatic Expeditions was due just as much to Walter as it was to me.
Surely, Andrews sensed the trouble that came soon enough. On the evening of November
10, 1941, two months after Granger’s death, Andrews was terminated as director of the
museum. Not only was he not invited to the board meeting, he first learned of its decision
from a newspaper he was reading during breakfast. The curtain finally had fallen on his
days in the spotlight.
Andrews’s death 20 years later in 1960 passed without notice by the American Museum.
Nine years after his death, one book published under the Museum’s auspices, Bankers,
Bones & Beetles by Geoffrey Hellman, contained the following:
The eggs were identified as dinosaurian by Dr. Walter Granger,

Andrews’s second-in-command, chief paleontologist, and, in fact,
the scientific backbone of the expedition. (Andrews never had much
idea of what he was looking at, scientifically speaking.)
In the wake of the turmoil left behind by Granger’s death and Andrews’s departure, the
Museum appeared to wrestle with its image as it had been shiningly represented by these
two men. In simple terms, Granger represented science, Andrews represented spectacle,
and, ultimately, it was science that then mattered to those left behind at the Museum.
Scientific achievement had elevated the status of the American Museum of Natural
History and earned it international recognition and respect during Granger’s era under
Osborn’s leadership.
George Gaylord Simpson later addressed that distinction when he wrote on December 12,
1970, :
[Andrews] did none of the scientific work. All of the fossil

discoveries were made by Granger and his assistants under his sole
command. Just once Andrews tried to collect a fossil, and he
destroyed it.
Matters at the Museum in the immediate aftermath of Granger’s death became “jumbled”
as Thomson put it to Cook in January, 1942. George Simpson and Barnum Brown
clashed repeatedly in the power struggle left by Granger’s vacancy. After Brown was
handed an early departure, the struggles became Colbert versus Simpson. Colbert not
only had inherited Brown’s position, but a taste for office politics. But Simpson had had
enough of politics. So, he joined General Patton’s tank corps in Europe and went to war.
Thomson walked away as well and without much regret. In May of 1943, he wrote to
Cook that “They tell me things at the Museum are very quiet. The pep of 35 years ago is
gone. Only three workers left in our laboratory. Things seemed to begin to go downhill
after Granger passed away." In November, 1944, he wrote again to say “ I have not been
down to the Museum since last spring and now I am sure I'll not get down there in some
months. Well I guess they will get along without me––I was there too long as it was.”
Granger’s death had confirmed the end of his era. As the Museum floundered, World
War II broke out and preoccupied the entire world for the next five years. Within a period
of less than six months, the scene had changed completely. Familiar people at the
Museum were gone. Office doors were closed. Collections were boxed up and whisked
away to warehouses in New Jersey for safe-keeping in case of enemy attack. Papers and
files were stored and forgotten. Memories started to fade. In seemed but an instant that
the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology and all it had meant to the Museum literally
disappeared.
Other threads of continuity also unraveled. C.C. Young and his colleagues were shut off
by the Chinese revolution. Teilhard spent the next 10 years fighting illness while
struggling to complete his own work. Andersson remained secluded in Sweden. Zdansky
went off to Egypt. Anna became painfully estranged from the Museum. Before his
departure, Andrews had urged her to take what she wanted from Walter’s office. It is not
known what she removed.
Ten years later, after Anna’s death in 1952, Anna’s CAE diaries along with Walter’s and
a number of other expedition documentation were in the possession of Walter’s sister
Daisy. Daisy began to transcribe Walter’s letters to their father apparently in the hope
that something would come of her efforts. I, Vincent L. Morgan, Walter’s and Daisy’s
grandnephew remember this from my visits as a young boy to my grandmother Mary
Granger Morgan’s home where Daisy, riddled with cancer, spent her final years. On
occasion, she would come downstairs to chat and I was told that she was working on her
brother’s papers. I had no idea then what that meant, but I sensed a aura of devotion.
What I did not know until a visit there in August of 1997 was that, after Daisy’s death,
everything was carefully stored in the attic where I had the good fortune to find it. It was
then, with my Grandmother’s urging, that I assumed Daisy’s unfinished work, though it
would be years before I could turn to it.
*
Within days of his death, the American Museum’s Executive Committee resolved that
Granger had "contributed much in the rise of the institution to an international position."
A few months later, on January 29, 1942, the Trustees unanimously approved “the
designation of the present Asiatic Hall of Fossils in the southeast pavilion on the fourth
floor as the Walter Granger Memorial Hall and of the installation in this hall of a suitable
and permanent memorial to Dr. Granger.” A bronze plaque with his name engraved was
thereafter affixed to north wall of the newly named Granger Memorial Hall.
As it entered the 1990’s seeking to regain center stage and international prominence with
renewed expeditions to Mongolia, the American Museum underwent a change of heart
and began promoting Roy Andrews. This despite an affirmation to me by one senior
Museum official in 1990 that “Andrews was a fraud.” In 1993, as Andrews was beng
refurbished, Walter Granger Memorial Hall was renamed and the plaque honoring him
removed. Shortly after, I located and photographed the four screw holes that fastened it to
the wall. And here I have brought to light the history, as recorded in the personal diary
and letters of Walter Granger, his wife Anna and others who were there.
End
Granger and religion? Higher order/mason thing? Lao Tzu?

TIMELINE
1890
- Walter Granger and Henry F. Osborn join the AMNH. Granger goes into part-time
positions in the taxidemy and maintenance departments. The taxidermy department is
associated with the birds and mammals department. Osborn establishes and heads the
vertebrate paleontology department.
1894
- Granger makes his first mammalogy expedition to the American West in the company
of a fossil hunting party led by Jacob Wortman.
1895
- Granger makes his second mammalogy expedition to the American West with Wortman
and party. Spends spare time collecting fossils.
1896
- Granger transfers into Osborn’s department of vertebrate paleontology and becomes
Wortman’s first assistant (replacing Olaf A. Peterson).
1897
- Granger discovers a promising dinosaur fossil locality in southeastern Wyoming late in
the field season. It will become known as Bone Cabin Quarry and be worked each season
for the next six years.
- Professor Eduard Suess reports on a fossil rhinoceros jaw containing several broken
teeth found by Vladimir A. Obruchev along the Kalgan-Urga caravan route in Outer
Mongolia.
1900
- Henry Osborn publishes his [ ] theory in [Science] shortly after publication of similar
theories by Tycho Tullberg and [ ].
1901-1903
- Swedish geologist Johan G. Andersson accompanies a multi-disciplinary scientific
expedition to the Antarctic led by Otto Nordenskjöld. Other members of the scientific
party include a fossil collector, two zoologists, a cartographer, a hydrographologist and

meterologist, a bacteriologist, a botanist, a landscape painter and an equipment
technician/assistant.
1901-1904
- British geologist Hartley T. Ferrar accompanies Robert F. Scott’s 1901-1904 Discovery
expedition to the Antarctic. There, he witnesses Ernest Shackleton’s experiment with the
windpowered go-cart as a way to cover greater ground for scientific research and
exploration.
1903
- Granger turns from dinosaur hunting to collecting fossil mammals from the Eocene,
Paleocene and Oligocene.
1906
- Roy C. Andrews joins the AMNH’s mammaology department as a clerk.
1907
- January 5: Osborn, Granger and George Olsen set sail for the Fayum of Egypt. They
will use camel caravans to support and sustain their camp life and work. Osborn leaves
after two weeks in the field. Granger and Olsen remain for six months. They head back to
New York City on June 15.
- On June 10, Prince Borghese, with crew and competitors, start the Peking to Paris race
at Peking and head north to Kalgan (Zhangjiakou) and then northwest across Inner and
Outer Mongolia (and the Gobi) into Siberia and on to Europe, finally finishing in Paris on
August 10.
- On June 21-22, Borghese et al. stop for a brief rest-over at Urga (Ulanbaator), the
capital of Outer Mongolia. While there, Borghese gives the living buddha a ride in his
Itala 35/45. Franz A. Larson, later a guide for the Central Asiatic Expeditions in
Mongolia, is living in Urga at the time.
1907-1909
- Ernest Shackleton pioneers the use of an Arrol-Johnston motor car for fieldwork during
his Nimrod expedition to the Antarctic.
1910
- In Urga, Franz Larson sells a Ford Model T to the living buddha.
1910-1913
- For his ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic, Robert Scott employs two
motorized frames on tracks and calls them ‘motor sledges’. Each motor sledge carries one
person, the driver who is positioned at the rear on a seat framed over a fuel tank at the
end of a cargo deck. Both are equipped to tow another non-motorized, fully loaded sled
since one of the objects of Scott’s expedition is to collect fossils and other geological
samples. Sledges are needed to haul these collections out in sufficient quantity. Scott’s
use of motorized sledges is also “to show their possibilities, their ability to revolutionize
Polar transport.” Although his version eventually broke down after proving to be slow
and fitful, his larger point about its desirability in fieldwork was made.
1911-1912
- Over the winter, Granger tours major Eurpoean paleontology museums and universities
and visits with a number of prominent paleontologists, including the elderly Richard
Lydekker, Clive Forster-Cooper, Eberhard Fraas, Max Schlosser, Friederich von Heune,
Charles Déperet.
1912
- DVP’s Albert ‘Bill’ Thomson writes to Harold J. Cook in Agate, Nebraska, about using
an automobile for fossil fieldwork that season. Funding for a car, however, does not come
through until the following season, 1913, and Thomson deploys the car into the field. He
calls it ‘Automobilly’ after his workhorse, now deceased.
Appendix []
1921 - Zhoukoudian
Near Peking: for a few days in August
1921-22 - First Yangtze Basin expedition
Peking-Sichuan-Peking: 8/24/21-3/13/22
1922 - First Gobi Basin expedition
Peking-Outer Mongolia-Peking: 4/18/22-?/?/22
1922-23 - Second Yangtze Basin expedition
Peking-Sichuan-Peking: ?/?/22-?/?/23
1923 - Second Gobi Basin expedition
Peking-Outer Mongolia-Peking: 4/17/23-9/?/23
1925 - Third Gobi Basin expedition
Peking-Outer Mongolia-Peking: 4/15/25-?/?/25
1925-26 - Third Yangtze Basin expedition
Peking-Sichuan-Peking: 11/6/25-?/?/26
1926-27 - Fourth Yangtze Basin expedition
Peking-Yunnan-Peking: 8/4/26-?/?/27
1928 - Fourth Gobi Basin expedition
Peking-?Outer Mongolia-Peking: ?/?/28-?/?/28
1930 - Fifth Gobi Basin expedition
Peking-?Inner Mongolia-Peking: 5/26/30-?/?/30
----------------------
Morden-Clark Expedition
Glossary
huchao - Chinese-issued vouchsafe

prospecting -
Wanhsien - Wanxian
Yen Ching Kou (Yenchingkou) - Yanjinggou
Yunnanfu -
Endnotes
to Anatomy of an Expedition…
a - In addition to regretting his failure to access this unique and extensive collection of
Walter and Anna Granger CAE papers, Andrews’ hagiographer Charles Gallenkamp
professed that “It should also be noted that many individuals associated with the Central
Asiatic Expeditions did not keep journals other than scientific notes, and their
correspondence to relatives and friends has become hopelessly scattered or lost
[Gallenkamp, p. xv].” While this is largely true, there is wonderful CAE material held in
the Harold J. Cook archives both at the federal archives in Agate, Nebraska, and the
American Heritage Center in Laramie, Wyoming.
b - cite to Bull 22.
c - See, Children of the Yellow Earth, page [ ].
d - The assumption by one author that “most of the expedition’s scientists and their
families lived in Beijing year-round throughout most of the expeditions’ duration [and]
were quartered in the house of the recently deceased Britisher, Dr. G. E. Morrison” is
incorrect (see Lucas, Spencer G., 2001, Chinese Fossil Vertebrates, Columbia University
Press, pp. 23-24). Only Andrews and his family resided at the Morrison home, which also
served as CAE headquarters. No member other than Andrews is known to have brought
along family other than spouses. Walter and Anna Granger stayed at a Peking hotel,
usually the Wagons-Lits, when they were not in the field. This is also true of Nels and
Ethlyn Nelson, Clifford Pope and George Olsen. Frederick Morris lived in Tientsin where
he’d been a professor when joining the CAE. Furthermore, except for 1922 and 1923, the
Mongolia expeditions were not yearly and, except for the principals, the party makeup
varied from season to season. Composition of each CAE expedition party may be found
at Appendix A. A chart comparing the number of expeditions attended and length of time
spent in the field by each CAE member may be found at Appendix B.
1 - [Cite to Nelson’s chapter in Conquest volume. Then mention Fairservis, Walter A.,
1993, The Archaeology of the Southern Gobi–Mongolia: an exploration of an ancient
civilization in Mongolia (Carolina Academic Press: Durham, NC).]
2 - J. Spielmann, Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science (2004), pp. 26-27.
3 – American paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson to Polish paleontologist and Gobi-

Mongolia explorer Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska in a letter dated December 14, 1970.
4 - Hellman, G., Bankers, Bones and Beetles, p. [ ].

5 - Barzini, 1908.
6 - Borghese in Barzini, 1908.
7 - v. 1 (St. Petersbourg), at pp. 88-89.
8 - Science (April 13), p. 567.
9 - old [13].
10 - Recreational dry surface or land sailing, as it is now called, typically takes place on
beaches, airfields and dry lakebeds or playas in desert regions.
11 - RCA to Meyer, 1/9/13.
12 - Edwin B. Pettet letter, AMNH, Department of Mammalogy archive.
13 - AMNH, Department of Mammalogy archive.
14 - cite Jinkinson
15 - cite Jinkinson
16 - product description of Neil Smith, [ ], “American Empire: Roosevelt’s Geographer

and the Prelude to Globalization”
17 - Barton, Walter Granger bio., p. 173
18 - Id.
19 - Id.
20 - Morgan/Lucas, Bull 22, p. 13.
20a - Andrews, R. C., April 19, 1920, Report to F. A. Lucas, Director, AMNH, on
Second Asiatic Zoological Expedition.
- “Itinerary”:
I returned to Peking just before Christmas and spent some three weeks in Peking
packing my specimens and preparing them for shipment. After a delay of twenty days,
due to an accident to the ship, we embarked from Shanghai on the 30th of January,
arriving in Vancouver, February 20. We then came directly to New York for a visit of a
few days to my home in Wisconsin.”
- “Notes”:
“Besides our daily journals, complete field records were kept, and interesting
observations were also made on the young antelope. These I hope to incorporate in a
separate paper.”[mine]
20b -
20c -
21 - EHColbert, Science, 7/1/60, p. 21.
22 - 3/10/16 contract.
23 - n. see fn 103, Bull 19.
24 - CG, p. 60.
25 - RCA to MT-11/27/17. In Under A Lucky Star, Andrews refers to Heller as "an

excellent small mammal collector, although hardly as successful a field companion."
26 - 3/10/16 contract.
27 - RCA to Eds, 12/15/1914.
28 - V. Block to RCA, 1/8/1915.
29 - RCA to The Vital Issue, 1/11/1915.
30 - Fukien is on the southeast coast of China and bounded by the East China Sea and
Taiwan Strait and Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang provinces. Yuan Shikai (September
16, 1859 – June 6, 1916) was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his
influence during the late Qing Dynasty. Provincial rebellion began with Yunnan in
December, 1915, soon followed by other provinces along with defections by a number of
Yuan Shikai’s subordinates and associates as well as his ally Japan that undermined his
rule until his death from uremia in June 5, 1916. (Wiki)
31 - RCA to HVH, 12/17/17.
32 - RCA to HFO, 6/7/17.

33 - RCA to HVH, 12/17/17.
34 - Id.
35 - RCA getting others to do his 1st AE zoology writeups.
36 - RCA to HFO, 6/7/1918.
37 - RCA to HVH, 12/12/17.
37a - http://odh.trevizo.org/oni.html#DNI
38 - ‘Gorder’ has also been spelled ‘Korder.’ One source cites him as follows: “East Asia
was under the watch of the naval attache in Peking, Navy Commander Irving Gillis, who
had failed to create a spy network for ONI back in 1908 and now failed to coordinate
intelligence operations during the Allied occupation of Siberia. (The ONI had originally
sent Lieutenant Irving Gillis to China in 1904 as naval attache for East Asia. Gillis was
expected to create a spy network, but little intelligence was gathered after much traveling
and socializing and Gillis was recalled in 1908.) Gillis was obsessed with Japanese plots
to conquer China, Manchuria, and Siberia, and, although he requested much money from
ONI, he rarely received it due to spurious reports by his sources that failed to recognize
the seriousness of the situation there, such as that the Bolsheviks were mere terrorist
bands run by ‘Jews and former convicts.’ Gillis' incompetence may explain how the
Skoptsi were so easily able to emigrate through Siberia and into the United States without
raising the suspicion of domestic intelligence networks. Also, White Russians were a
prime resource as spies against the Communists for Japanese, British, American, and
other intelligence agencies throughout emigre communities in Europe, Asia, and the
United States. It is therefore quite possible that the spy network set up by Gillis included
White Russians, and maybe even fleeing members of the Skoptsi." -
http://odh.trevizo.org/oni.html#DNI
38a - http://manybooks.net/pages/andrewsr2902429024-8/2.html
39 - cite for: Entering the fray offered an opportunity to implement a global plan of
Americanization––“to establish a new world order, to establish principles of democracy.”
[39].
40 - The China Quarterly, 1/8/21 p. 307.
41 - See fn 103, Bull 19.
42 - 2nd AE K, AMNH, Mammalogy archive.

43 - RCA to W. Smith, 3/1/16; RCA to E. V. Stoddard, 12/14/15. AMNH, Mammalogy.
44 - RCA to W. Smith, 3/1/16.
45 - cite for: Caldwell also collected some of the mammals attributed to Second Asiatic
Zoological Expedition and wrote up a description of life in China for Andrews to use in
his own book, unattributed. [47].
45a - [id. Mamen, etc.] Larson briefly (playfully, I think) puzzles over whether he first
met Andrews at his home in Urga in the summer of 1918 or 1919 and then quickly settles
on 1918 [p.280, Duke]. Everything else points to that as the year as well. Larson’s slight
waffle may have been to ‘cover’ for Andrews, it may have related to when it was that he
first met Yvette, or it may have been something entirely. But since it appears that Yvette
did not go to Mongolia until after Andrews’ ONI work ceased in 1919, it is more likely
that Larson met her then after meeting Andrews in 1918. Andrews’ report on the Second
Asiatic Expedition, dated April 19, 1920, states that after establishing headquarters in
Peking in June, 1918, his time was “entirely occupied by work of the Bureau of Naval
Intelligence, and field operations on behalf of the Museum did not begin until the first of
April 1919.” While in service of the ONI, he went on, “I made one trip to Mongolia,
several journeys to Japan and, with my wife, one exceedingly interesting trip directly
through the center of China in the Provinces of Honan and Hupeh. Although these travels
did not show any tangible natural history results in the way of specimens, nevertheless
they were of a great deal of value from the Museum’s standpoint for I was able to see
much country which I would not otherwise have been able to visit.” When he
commenced active fieldwork for Museum in April, 1919, he “made a short expedition to
a great hunting park about 150 miles from Peking, which is the burial place of the
Manchu emperors. Especial facilities were obtained for work here through the assistance
of the American Minister, and the trip was entirely successful.” Then on May 17, 1919,
“I left with my wife and three Chinese assistants to cross Mongolia by motor car to Urga,
the capital. This was selected as the base of operations for work in northern Urga,
because it is at the junction of the Siberian and Central Asian life zones. At Urga, we
obtained horses and carts and prepared for our work on the plains. From the first of June
until the middle of July, we carried on investigations on the plains’ fauna, and during this
time covered over 1,600 miles on horseback. We then returned to Urga and spent until
the middle of September working in the forests to the north of the city; here, of course,
we obtained a totally different fauna from that on the plains (emphasis added).” Finally,
“We dispatched our specimens to Peking by camel caravans we, ourselves, following in
motor cars... [emphasis added].” This chronology comports with F. A. Larson having first
met Roy Andrews in 1918 and the Yvette Andrews in 1919. It imputes Andrews’ Sain
Noin trip to 1918 since Sain Noin is located southwest of Urga, not north where Andrews
did his Museum work. Also, since Andrews was terminated by the ONI by April, 1919,
and we know he was in Peking meeting with J. G. Andersson on January 18 and 19 of
that year, and then terminated in March. So it is unlikely he would have traveled into
Mongolia in February if for no other reason than it was the dead of winter.
46 - see Bull. 19, n. 103 for this and following description.
47 - RCA fieldbook, Mammalogy archive, AMNH.
48 - cite for: Indeed, just six months later, Andrews wrote to his friend Henry Van
Hoevenberg:
We have planned a big expedition; one which will be more

important than any other scientific expedition which has been sent
out from America so far. It will cost close on to a quarter of a
million dollars and will continue for five years...We are going on a
hunt for primitive man as well as zoology. [48].
49 - Wallin, Ann, 1986, “Portrait of China - 1923,” Dan River Anthology, Dan River
Press (South Thomaston, Maine, USA).
50 - Howell generally and p. 156. See also, pp. 154-158.
51 - Pers. Comm., MCMcKenna to VLM.
52 - Brinkman, Osborn ms, p 13.
53 - Williamson, p. 2.
54 - Williamson, p. 1.
55 - Id. The honorific ‘grangeri’ is a measure of the profession’s appreciation for a

person’s contribution to the field. Granger received this honor a number of times, both
during and after his career.
55a - DVP, AMNH.
55b - DVP, AMNH.
56 - Brinkman.
57 - Brinkman.
58 - Brinkman, Osborn ms, p.2, n. 2.

59 - Brinkman, Osborn ms, p. 2.
60 - Brinkman.
61 - DVP, AMNH.
64 - Joseph Leidy is regarded as the Charles C. Granger of North American paleontology.
65 - It was said that, as a result of this competitive and somewhat haphazard lust for
fame, Leidy quit paleontology in disgust.
66 - Based on Granger’s innovative fieldwork in the Bridger from 1902 to 1906, Matthew
published a classic stratigraphic work entitled “The Carnivora and Insectivora of the
Bridger Basin” in 1909.
67 - See Bulletin 22, p. 12.
69a - See Bulletin 22, p. [].
70 - For example:
75 East 81st St.

Jan 25, 1911
My Dear Mr. Andrews
We are asking a few friends to tea on Sunday afternoon, to meet
Baron de Nagell, a Dutch friend who has just arrived from China,
and Mother asks me to send you this line with the wish that you may
not be too busy to spend that afternoon with us of the Far East.
Most cordially,
Joan Ohl
70a - [archive, Mammalogy]
71 - Jinkinson, 2009.
72 - Annals of the New York Academy of Science, v. 24, pp. 171-318.
72a - [archive, DVP]
73 - Bulletin 19, p. 14.
73a - [archive, Library-DVP]
74 - Bulletin 19, p. 15-16.
75 - Bulletin 19, p. 16.
76 - Pers. comm., Malcolm C. McKenna to author.
77 - Lavas, p. 40.
78 - Id.
79 - old drft 10.
79a - [Matsumoto, ancient man].
80 - old drft-13-a.
81 - Spence, p. 271-272.
82 - “Pursuit of Western-style earth science took a dramatic new turn in post-Qing China.
Until then, there had been no interest in science of that nature. Only Western
businessmen, missionaries and foreign diplomats there and in Mongolia had been
collecting and studying fossils on an amateur, quasi-scientific level for years and passing
along their discoveries and knowledge along to anyone interested.”
83 - old drft 8-e.
84 - Pers. comm., Olivia Milburn to author, 1-6-04.
85 - M/L, Bull. 19, fn 94.
86 - Id.
87 - old drft 9-a.
88 - Ingersoll, p. ‘2’.
89 - JGA, 1919, p. 4-5.
90 - M/L, [?], p. 2-3 [?].
91 - 11.
92 - 12.
93 - 13.
94 - Ingersoll, Ch. 8.
95 - old drft 13-b.
96 - Furth, p. 18.
97 - old drft 14.
98 - Pers. Comm., Grace Shen to author (VLM), 8-3-02.
99 - 14-a.
100 - [?] old drft 14-b or Pers. Comm., Grace Shen to author, 8-3-02.
101 - old drft 14-b; Pers. Comm., Grace Shen to author, 8-3-02.
102 - old draft 14-c.
103 - old drft 15; or Shen to VLM, 8-3-02.
104 - Shen to VLM, 8-3-02.
105 - old drft 15-a & b.
106 - Pers. comm. Krister Linde (e-mails) to author, 8/02. Shen, on the other hand,
discounted Nystrom’s work to this author and entirely omitted reference to Nystrom from
her PhD thesis.
107 - Furth, p. 79.
108 - 16
109 - Andersson. [“Walter Granger confirmed Zdansky's analysis in 1921.”]
110 - Andersson. [“The Russians collected there successfully up to 1917, finding "three
or four species representing widely different groups of dinosaurs.””]
111 - Andersson. [“He and an assistant spent long periods conducting their fieldwork
while living “alternately in country farms and small village temples.””]
112 - Andersson. [“Presumably, Andersson surmised, it would be in the any of the

Tertiary deposits found in China.”]
113 - Shapiro, p. 35.
114 - Id.
115 - JGA ltr to RCA, 1-19-19.
116 - DeFrancis, p. 65.
117 - Hedin, p. 30.
117a - Lasron, in his autobiography ‘Duke of Mongolia’ could not recall whether he met
Andrews in the summer of 1918 or 1919. Andrews returned to Peking from the U.S. at
the end of June, 1918, and, after establishing a headquarters, made one trip to Mongolia
(?with Harry Caldwell). It is possible, therefore, that this is when he first met Larson, if
perhaps only incidentally. Andrews claims [ ] that he first met Larson in the summer of
1919, well after his intensive two-day meeting with Andersson that previous January.
However, in his expedition Report to F. A. Lucas, Andrews also suggests that the
Museum’s endeavors in Outer Mongolia were quite significant by then:
May 17, 1919, - ..., I left with my wife and three Chinese assistants
to cross Mongolia by motor car to Urga, the capital. This was selected
as the base of operations for work in northern Urga, because it is at the
junction of the Siberian and Central Asian life zones. At Urga, we
obtained horses and carts and prepared for our work on the plains.
From the first of June until the middle of July, we carried on
investigations on the plains’ fauna, and during this time covered over
1,600 miles on horseback. We then returned to Urga and spent until
the middle of September working in the forests to the north of the city;
here, of course, we obtained a totally different fauna from that on the
plains.
118 - JGA ltr to RCA, [?1-19-19].

119 - JGA to RCA, 1-?19-19.
120 - JGA to RCA, 1-19-19.
121 - JGA to RCA, 1-19-19.
122 - JGA, Plan 1919, trans. frm the Swed. by A. O.
123 - Id.
124 - Id.
125 - Id.
126 - Id.
127 - Bull 22, p. 12-13.
128 - JGA, 19[], “Essays on the Cenozoic of Northern China”: Memoirs of the
Geological Survey of China, S.A., n. 3, p. 36-37.] [Note: FALarson has JGA limited
mainly to human artifact-collecting, but this wasn’t the case at all. JGA clearly was
hunting fossils in a big way.][Note: SO!, Eriksson got this award by publication time,
1923--that was very fast!]; and, 35 li equals 267 kilometers or 166 miles (1 li=500 meters
or 1/3 of a mile). In one of his papers, Johan G. Andersson associates F. A. Larson with
two Mongol fossil-collectors, as follows: "Haldjinko, was consequently engaged for the
purpose, through the mediation of Mr. Larson, and this Mongol soon became a very good
fossil hunter.... On my arrival in the Hallong-Osso region (115 km NNW of Kalgan), in
July 1919, Haldjinko took me to a number of localities, where bones had been found by
him... After a period of small progress, another Mongol collector named Jensen..." The
name ‘Haldjinko’ has not been encountered elsewhere as such. But in Granger’s field
diary on May 28, 1930, he begins by making reference to a fossil hunting guide named
Hal-chin-h[k?]u who lived near Joel Eriksson’s mission at Hatt-in-Sumu. Conquest later
has it as Halchin Hu in the index and, at page 424 of same, he’s identified as one of
J.G. Andersson’s former assistants. That would be Haldjinko. The man Andersson
called ‘Jensen’ was known to be a wealthy Mongol aristocrat, lama and a good friend of
Larson. There are photos of him in Larson’s "Duke of Mongolia" where his name is
spelled Lob-tsen Yen-tsen. Larson writes about him in the 2nd chapter about the
aristocracy (Axel Odelberg to VLM, 4/3/05, as to ‘Jensen’).” While to many, it would
seem that the Mongol worldview in 1919 didn't include fossil collecting, it appears from
this that that’s too much of a generalization. Clearly there was some interest in fossils
perhaps because there was a lot of interest in archaeology. Fossils may have just
happened to be included because they were out there. That doesn't mean they were being
studied scientifically or even collected coherently. But jaws, ribs, skulls and limbs were
often discernible and apparently of greater interest than simple curiosity. Furthermore,
any westerner (or Russian) in the area -- missionary, businessman, commercial geologist,
amateur paleontologist, western- or foreign-educated Mongolian and the like, -- would
have had a pretty good idea what these things signified. There were a number of such
people who travelled about Mongolia. Kalgan at the threshold of Inner Mongolia and
Urga in Outer Mongolia were fairly sophisticated cities by 1919. Plus, J.G. Andersson
had put out the word throughout China and Inner Mongolia in 1915? that fossils were of
scientific interest. He put it out via written notice. Larson, Haldjinko and Jensen, at least,
apparently were aware.””
129 - JGA, 19[], “Essays on the Cenozoic of Northern China”: Memoirs of the
Geological Survey of China, S. A., n. 3, p. 38.
130 - 70.
131 - 71.
132 - 72.
133 - 73.
134 - 58.
135 - Magnus, p. 34.
136 - Id.
137 - cite for “They were especially offended by a publicized statement by Andrews that
science in China was so undeveloped that a western effort was needed to “jump start” the
study of earth science and natural history in the region and bring it into the 20th century.”
138 - Magnus, p. 34.
139 - cite for quote ending with “Until their time came, China would have no true unity
and the revolution no enduring mandate to carry on.”
140 - cite for “Osborn had brushed aside Andrews’ proposal that Barnum Brown handle
the CAE’s paleontology.”
141 - GO to HJC, 4/2/1921.

142 - This description of Chicken Bone Hill and the ensuing location and opening of
Locality 1 at Zhoukoudian comes from JGA’s “Children of the Yellow Earth.”
143 - Col/Hoo, 1953, p. 7.
144 - Walter Granger, 1932, p. 528.
145 - Tolley.
146 - ?Tolley.
147 - ?Tolley.
148 - ?Tolley.
149 - Tolley, p. 303.
150 - Walter Granger to Charles C. Granger.
151 - cite for quote ending in “That sort of thing had been going on for ten years--ever
since the establishment of the Republic--and was one of the hazards which any up-river
traveler expected to take.”
152 - Sha Kuo T’un was a cave deposit located 400 kilometers northwest of Peking near
the harbor at Chine Hsie on the way to Mukden and a site searched by Andersson “for the
remains of Ancient Man--an investigation commenced two years earlier.” JGA, 1923,
“The Cave Deposit at Sha Kuo T’un.” This places Andersson after Matsumoto, but
before Andrews on the trail for ‘ancient man.’
153 - Walter Granger diary.
154 - Id.
155 - Id.
156 - Id.
157 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated November 16, 1921.
158 - Id.
159 - Walter Granger Diary.

160 - Id.
161 - RCA ltr to Walter Granger (1921).
162 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated November 29, 1921.
163 - Walter Granger letter to Daisy dated December 31, 1921.
164a - Late in December, Wong adopted a seven-year old girl from the lower village at
Yanjinggou. The next day she appeared at expedition headquarters togged out in a new
outfit of clothes loaned by the drug wholesaler Chang in Wanxian. Wong planned to take
her to Peking and have her educated along medical lines. It is not known whether these
plans were fulfilled.
165 - Id.
167 - Id.
168 - Andrews to Granger, November 5th, 1921.
169 - Worcester.
170 - Id.
172 - Id.
173 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated April 1, 1922. [To prepare the
Mongolia sections of the CAE, this author compared the relevant Walter Granger’s diary
entries with the Andrews’ text in Conquest. As a result, I have concluded that, other than
Andrews’ diversions to hunting, populace, etc., Granger’s diaries were the basis for
“Andrews’ text.” This is beyond Andrews’s admission that for the geology and
paleontology portions he relied on previously published material by CAE scientists.]
173a - Cuts: “with “Third Asiatic Expedition” lettering already painted on them” and
“Cavalry-like uniforms were fitted. Flags were made ready––the American, the
Museum’s and the Explorers Club’s. Big, bulky wool cardigans with TAE patches sewn
on were handed out. Actually, the uniforms, Explorers Club flag and Third Asiatic
Expedition car door panel lettering and cardigan sweater patches wouldn’t be the case
until the 1923 trip.”
174 - “Herbert Hoover was the 31st US President. Born August 10, 1874, he was one of
the first students to attend Stanford University and graduated as a mining engineer. He
was probably the most accomplished and almost certainly the best-travelled mining
engineer of his time. His engineering practice extended over the US, Canada, Mexico,
Chile, China, Russia, Mongolia, Burma, New Zealand and Australia. Hoover’s Mongolia
work took him to Urga, the capital of Mongolia. On February 10, 1899, Hoover and Lou
Henry were married and the very next day they sailed for China. They arrived in the city
of Tientsien on March 20, 1899, and he started working in mining in Chihli. Less than a
fortnight after reaching Tientsien, Hoover embarked on a two-month tour of inspection of
the gol. [His wife went with him.]”
See also: “Kalgan lies about 140 miles northwest of Beijing, and was an important
junction for caravan traffic westward to Sianking and northward to Mongolia and Russia.
People who had business in those regions passed through Kalgan, and many visited the
Larson family. One such person was Sven Hedin the world-famous Swedish explorer.
This was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Another guest to the Larson household
was Herbert Hoover, an engineer working on the task of staking out a railroad
between Peking and the Inner Mongolia border. Later, Hoover served as president of
the United States from 1928 to 1932.” Note: Charles P. Berkey also practiced
commercial geology, in addition to teaching at Columbia University, and was a member
of the Explorers Club.
174a - Andrews, R. C., April 19, 1920, Report to F. A. Lucas, Director, AMNH, on
Second Asiatic Zoological Expedition.
174b - RCA’s correspondence to [ ] credits Yvette with helping envision and plan a third
Asiatic expedition.
178 - AT to HC, 8/26/28.
179 - Walter Granger diary. Brief mention is made of this incident at p. 64 of Conquest.
There, Andrews’ refers to Brandhauer as a friend of his. Granger’s diary identifies him as
a friend of Coltman’s.
179a - There were several excellent .22 repeaters on the market at the time. Along with
thousands of rounds of ammunition, the expedition had several of these. But that was not
all. There is no treatment of firearms in "Conquest." But, according to one expert, TGPP
images of CAE weapons reveal: a Moisin-Nagant infantry rifle (whether of Chinese or
Russian make is unknown); a Colt double action Police Positive .38 Special, 6" barrel; a
Savage Model 20 (apparently three of these were shipped directly to AMNH and one
directly to Andrews. At least three were caliber .250. One may have been a caliber .300);
a Civilian Colt Double action; a Savage Automatic Pistol in bayonet frog type holster
(trigger, barrel and grip are exposed); a US M-1911 .45 automatic pistol; a Colt Pocket
Automatic; a US M-1903 Springfield Rifle; a double-barrel shotgun [R. Schermer comm.
to VLM, 2000). Granger makes clear there were a number of weapons lying around, so
one can presume multiples of the above, as well as other weapons such as Andrews’ 6.5 x
54mm Model 1903 Mannlicher-Schoenauer. Also, there were U.S. and British military
men [personnel] with weapons that accompanied the various parties.
180 - This raid apparently was conducted by the mercenary Baron Roman Nicolaus von
Ungern-Sternberg of the White Guard, to whom Granger makes reference subsequently
in his diary. The Baron died young, at age 36 on September 15, 1921.
182 - Id.
183 - Id.
184 - Id.
185 - Id.
186 - n. on Akeley camera.
188 - Id.
189 - Id.
190 - A seine is a large fishing net that hangs vertically in the water by attaching weights
along the bottom edge and floats along the top. Boats equipped for seine fishing are
called seiners.
192 - Id.
193 - Id.
194 - Id.
195 - Id.
196 - Id.
197 - Walter Granger, [], Story of the Dinosaur Eggs.
198 - HFO, Science (1907).
200 - Id.
201 - Id.
202 - Mazur, p. [ ].
203 - Walter Granger to Charles C. Granger [].
204 - Id.
205 - Id.
206 - One suggestion is that this last minute change in the expedition’s return route was
to avoid bandits.
207 - Jinkinson?
208 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated October 26, 1922. Charles had
reported on a Grand Army of the Republic gathering in Des Moines, Iowa.
209 - Granger notes that Lau Heng Cheng purchased and packed provisions for the
expedition.
211 - Id.
212 - Anna Granger diary.
213 - Id.
214 - Id.
215 - Id.
218 - Id.
219 - Id.
220 - Walter Granger appears to have been the first American paleontologist to dwell
with a local population while conducting fieldwork.
223 - See NYT [] for the referenced news account.
225 - Id.
225a- Nichols was Associate Curator of Recent Fishes [put following in App. with other
such?] who had helped send the Grangers off to China with:
To Walter and Mrs. Granger:––Greetings
Let poets sing

In dulcet tones
To Spring
You’re after dragon bones.
Our ladies sigh -

“She had her wish
To fry
Some Oriental fish.”
A dry persuit [sic]

This seems to be
Of fruit
Long buried oversea.
Let who will scoff,

Why should you fret,
You’re off!
And the Pacific’s wet.
226 - Walter Granger letter to J. T. Nichols dated [].
228 - This practice was reminiscent of Granger’s experiences in the American West when
the party would camp at a ranch whenever possible.
230 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated February 8, 1923.
231a - W. D. Matthew’s take on Johnson was somewhat more positive. Two years later,
to Elmer Riggs of the Field Museum in Chicago who was seeking field and museum
assistant, Matthew proposed several candidates including Albert Johnson who was a
“First class expert collector for dinosaurs; not much experience in mammal collecting.
Capable, reliable, resourceful. Not scientifically trained, but a man of [Peter] Kaisen's
type. Has a farm or small ranch, but can probably arrange to leave it. [Barnum] Brown
considers him exceptionally capable.” WDM to ESR, 4/29/25.
232 - Walter Granger ltr to WDM dtd Feb. 15, 1923.
233 - Walter Granger ltr to Charles C. Granger dtd February 27, 1923.
235 - Id.
238 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated March 10, 1923.

240 - Id.
241 - Walter Granger ltr to HFO, March 18, 1923.
242 - RCA solic. ltr, 1920 [see cite for in Bull 19].
243 - HFO solic. ltr, 1920 [see cite for in Bull 19].
244 - Walter Granger ltr to HFO, March 18, 1923.
245 - Id.
245a - Walter Granger diary.
245b - Anna Granger diary.
247 - Glenn Howell, Gunboat on the Yangtze, p. 38.
250 - Id.
251 - Walter Granger ltr to Charles C. Granger, [].
253 - Id.
254 - Walter Granger ltr to Mary Morgan dtd April 8, 1923 (TGPP).
255 - Walter Granger ltr to Charles C. Granger, [], 1923 (TGPP).
256 - Although an explanation for the Andrews omission is not given and could have
been for any number of reasons, it also appears that Andersson and Andrews never
repaired their rift.
257 - Walter Granger diary (TGPP).

258 - Id.
260-a - See Conquest, p. 27, which places the distance of Chinese cultivation out from
Kalgan at 110 miles. Otherwise the read is consistent with the WG Diary.
260-b - Andrews’ mentions in Conquest only that he and V. Johnson returned to Kalgan.
He says they took cars. Granger says they took trucks. Andrews makes no mention of
going on to Peking. Both Walter and Anna have him doing so. Andrews does not supply
a timeframe for his absence from the field. The Grangers do. Despite implying his
presence with the party for all but a short return to Kalgan (see Conquest, p. 188-192),
Andrews and V. Johnson were gone seventeen days, most of them spent in Peking.
Andrews also claims he encountered bandits while driving more than a mile ahead of V.
Johnson on the way to Kalgan (see Conquest, p. 192). Part of his story utilizes the speed
and agility of his car. This makes no sense if he was driving a truck as Granger says he
was. Granger used the word ‘trucks’ both as when they left camp and when they returned.
Moreover, Andrews justified his return to Kalgan as having to pick up ‘considerable
equipment’ that didn’t make it aboard the camel caravan. This points to trucks, not cars.
Nor does it make sense, in dangerous territory, to get more than a mile ahead of one’s
companion vehicle. As usual, there were no known witnesses on regarding this event.
Neither Granger makes mention of Andrews or Vance Johnson reporting it.
262 - Jane Addams (1860–1935) was a founder of the Settlement House movement in the
U.S., and one of the first women to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. While Hull House
and the Peace Movement are widely recognized as the pillars of the legacy left by
Addams, her life’s work spans a spectrum that ranges from the development of
individuals and the subcultures that harbor them, to the social, political and economic
reforms inspired by her sociological ideas. Her social theories influenced future writers
and theorists who continue to grope for an understanding of how individuals are
fashioned by their subcultures and/or are forged by forces beyond our ability to measure
and comprehend.
265 - Id.
266 - Id.
267 - Id.
270 - By this time, YA was partying and affairing.
271 - Andrews later fictionalized this incident to say it was found in his and Granger’s
tent and, oddly, that Granger lunged at it with a pipe stem cleaner. [This suggests Granger
in a rather futile, inept or impotent light, a transference or projection that may have
salved or assuaged Andrews’ own inadequacies). (cite Harvard guy’s paper about
‘expedition macho.’)
272 - Per A. M. Pozdneyev.
275 - In 199[], this find was ‘rediscovered’ in an AMNH storeroom and named
Mononykus.
276 - Walter Granger diary. It was learned years later that some had nicknamed Andrews
‘Chipmunk,’ as in “Roy ‘Chipmunk’ Andrews” because of his tendency to chatter
(Walter Granger Beckwith, pers. comm. to author).
278 - On the Trail, p. 228. [Put following and other such in an App.?] Adding to the mix
is this rather curious typed item, ca., 1924-25, found among Granger’s papers (this
author’s translation follows):
THE BOY REPORTUR

HE SAIVZA FREND N FOYLS A FO
By Jimmie Dugan.
Awl rites rissurvd.
-------0000-------
Thare wuz a bloke cawled Dock Cy Ballyhoo witch wuz on 1 ov tha

Wurst papers n rote sumthin feers. An Hizzoner sez to him "u go owt n
c wot this Mungolyin xpedishn is upta, i bet thare trine 2 put won ovur
on tha peepul n in leeg ith tha hatud capped lists. Go getum" sezee.
"Doncha wurry, ol been" sez Dock Si "ile git thare stuf n grab ther
fossles n Godelp tha syents wot i doktur" sezee "its owen muther
woodent no it wen i git threw." So he lit owt efter um inter Mungolyer
and deskised isself as a cammle an went n jined em. Noboddy didunt
sispecked im, noteevn Andy, anny went erlongen spide onum.
Now Walltur wuz a pokin rown lookin fur things n he wuz a speshul
frend uv tha Boy Reportur n al uv a sudint he hollers hear wuz a hole
krait uv egs line rown luce n how abowt a omlet, but tha Boy Reportur
hez a hunch as how trubbel is bruin n he yells "Doant u tutchem, Walt"
n ut that verry minit tharz a horybul kinder skreetchin cro n a big
dinysore cums a wadlen efterem. Wen thay skoots she skwalks a bit n
sitzon them egs n boy! tawker omlets, thay wuz 1 holey mess. N jess
then a cammle thet hed bean foolin rown pertendin to eet rox n things,
dropsiz skin n wawks owtavisself nd sezee in a voys uv thunnedur
"Look atchew a pussykutin tha dum broots. Jess wate til I kabal
Hizzoner. Thair e iz atome ovurflown ith tendur felines 4 tha poar
appressed toed grownd undatha heal uv tha contemshus jellyfish, n hear
r u arakkin tha nurvs uv them jentel dinysores n givenum hissterrix" n
he sitz n rites a caybul 2 Hizzoner abowt how that tha syentissts r bitrain
tha grate ammurrikun peepul n sezee sick tha s.p.c.a. onum an awl the
Wurst papurs n makum taik tha job away frummem n givitta me. An rite
thare he pulza litul rayjo owtaviz pokit n startstuh fone ta Hizzoner.
Walltur growns in agny n sezee "thissel kiltha Mewsium" n tha Boy

Reportur nose his frend izinna tite plaice awl rite. Wile tha nufferius
Ballyhoo izza fonin he gitza ideer n he bowns 2 wear them egs r n grabs
1 n brakes it on Dock Size hed. Tha dinysore missizur egs n spice emon
Size hed n she got anoid sumthin feers n seshy "ime gonna put my foot
down" n she putiton Dock Si n that setild him. N tha Boy Reportur
maiks a jump fur tha rayjo n keeps on fonin. "u enfurnle yung imp" sez
Wallt "wotcha upta now?" "doant buttin ya big boob" sez tha Boy
Repoarter "ive jess tolled em that we gotta peetchareeno ovvanoo
dinysore n ov how u Mewsium boice hev naimed it "Hizzonerryer glory
eye". Walltur sobd ith releaf uppunniz manly nek n tha Bot Reportur -
pail but prowd - new azziyad saived iz frend.
Jess then tha rayjo startud fonin n tha Boy Reportur hollers "Yess,
speekin, watchasay? Yea, bo! Sure!" Thenny terns ta Wallt, iz is
gleemin n sezee "Hey, Wallt, watchathink? Thay giv me ol Dock Cys

plaice & now ime repoartir 4 awl tha Wurst papurs on tha Mungoalyin
xpedishn. Gosh! jess wawtch me maik wun good litel pubblissity ajint 4
tha Mewsium!"
----------------------------
N.B. My necks efewshin wil b cawled "Tha Boy Publisty Ajint". I aint
kwite maid up my mine abowt it buttytwil b 1 humdinger. doant fale 2
getit. J.D.
*
[This author’s translation of the above]
THE BOY REPORTER

HE SAVES A FRIEND AND FOILS A FOE
By Jimmie Dugan.
All rights reserved.
-------0000-------
There was a bloke called Doc Sy Ballyhoo which was on one of the
Hearst papers and wrote something fierce. And His Honor says to him
“you go out and see what this Mongolian expedition is up to, I bet they
are trying to put one over on the people in league with the hated
capitalists. Go get ‘em,” says he. “Don’t you worry, old bean,” says Doc
Sy “ I’ll get there stuff and grab their fossils and God help the scientists
what I doctor” says he “its own mother wouldn’t know it when I get
through.” So he lit out after them into Mongolia and disquised himself
as a camel and went and joined them. Nobody didn’t suspect him, not
even Andy, and he went along in spite of them.
Now Walter was poking around looking for things and he was a
special friend of the Boy Reporter and all of a sudden he hollers here
was a whole crate of eggs lying around loose and how about an omelet,
but the Boy Reporter has a hunch as how trouble is brewing and he yells
“Don’t you touch them, Walt” and at that very minute there’s a horrible
kind of screeching crow[s] and a big dinosaur comes a-waddling after
them. When they scoots she squawks a bit and sits on them eggs and
boy! talk about omelets, they were one holy mess. And just then a camel
that had been fooling around pretending to eat rocks and things, drops
his skin and walks out of himself and say he in a voice of thunder “Look
at you a-persecuting the dumb broots. Just wait until I cable His Honor.
There he is at home overflowing with tender feelings for the poor
oppressed toad ground under the heel of the contemptuous jellyfish, and
here are you a-wrecking the nerves of them gentle dinosaurs and giving
them hysterics” and he sits and writes a cable to His Honor about how
that the scientists are betraying the great American people and says he
[will] sic the SPCA on them in all the Hearst papers and make them take
the job away from them and give it to me. And right there he pulls a
little radio out of his pocket and starts to phone to His Honor.
Walter groans in agony and says he “this will kill the Museum” and
the Boy Reporter knows his friend is in a tight place all right. While the
nefarious Ballyhoo is phoning he gets an idea and he bounds [over] to
where the eggs are and grabs one and breaks it on Doc Sy’s head. The
dinosaur misses her egg and spies it on Sy’s head and she got annoyed
something fierce and says she “I’m going to put my foot down” and she
put it on Doc Sy and that settled him. And the Boy Reporter makes a
jump for the radio and keeps on phoning. “you infernal young imp” says
Walt “what are you up to now?” “don’t butt in you big boob” says the
Boy Reporter “I’ve just told them that we’ve got a peacherino of a
dinosaur and of how you Museum boys have named it ‘Hizzoner
gloryi.’” Walter sobbed with relief upon his manly neck and the Boy
Reporter - pale but proud - knew as he had saved his friend.
Just then the radio started phoning and the Boy Reporter hollers
“Yes, speaking, what did you say? Yea, bo! Sure!” Then he turns to
Walt, eyes are gleaming and says he “Hey, Walt, what do you think?
They gave me old Doc Cy’s place and now I’m reporter for all the
Hearst papers on the Mongolian expedition. Gosh! just watch me make
one good little publicity agent for the Museum!”
--------------------
N.B. My necks effusion will be called “The Boy Publicity Agent.” I
haven’t quite made up my mind about it but it will be one humdinger.
don’t fail to get it. J.D.
278a - This whole episode was so confusing that when the AMNH made a video of the
CAE using segment’s of Shackelford’s original film, it misstated Olsen’s discovery of the
eggs as occurring in 1925, not 1923.
280 - Id.
281 - Id.
282 - Id. The early 20th century 6.5 x 54 mm Model 1903 Mannlicher-Schoenauer with
an 18” barrel and stocked to the muzzle took a long 160 grain round-nose bullet that, by
virtue of its high sectional density, penetrated deep into any game shot with it making the
weapon exceptionally lethal. Hunters praised the lightness, accuracy and slick operation
of this trim rifle but many considered the British- and American-made cartridges made
for it superior to the Austrian-made. What Andrews was using is not known.
[http://www.google.ca/search?
client=opera&rls=en&q=Andrews+Mannlicher&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8]
283 - Id.
284 - The "Eocene beds" referred to by Granger were the Gashato Formation, which
Matthew, Granger and Simpson (1929) actually regarded as Palaeocene. The 1923
collection from the Gashato was described by Matthew and Granger (1925), and included
a sizeable mammal with broad cheek teeth (Phenacolophus) that might represent
Granger's "perissodactyl". The other described specimens from the site all represented
small mammals, and were limited to tooth and jaw fragments. Archaeomeryx (pub 1905)
was a mouse-sized artiodactyl deer ancestor.
Andrews in "The New Conquest of Central Asia" at p. 218 describes how Olsen and
Buckshot, with the geologist Morris, spent some time searching for fossils there in July
1923, while the expedition was based at the nearby Flaming Cliffs. But we now know
that Andrews wasn’t there and that the description actually came from Granger.
286 - Id.
287 - Id.
288 - Id.
289 - Id.
290 - Id.
291 - Id.
292 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger, [ ].
293 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger, [ ].

295 - Id.
296 - WDM letter to CG dated September 19, 1923.
298 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger. [].
299 - Id.
300 - Id.
301 - ?
302 -
303 -
304 - Walter Granger to RCA November 27, 1923.
305 - S. Syoh letter to JGA, 1/10/1926.
306 - Walter Granger letter to RCA, [ ].
307 -
309 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger, [].
310 - Id.
312 - archive, TGPP
314 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger, February 1, 1924.

315 - Olive was Olive Decker Morgan, Frank Morgan’s sister and Mary Granger
Morgan’s sister-in-law. She resided in Brooklyn. Millet was Millet Granger Morgan, the
eldest son of Frank and Mary Morgan and therefore Walter Granger’s nephew.
316 - Uncle Jim was Walter Granger’s uncle James Granger.
316a - Walter Granger to [ ]. [Granger as an Artist - interest in photography,

exhibits/displays]
316b - Walter Granger diary.
317 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger, April 8/12, 1925.
318 - Walter Granger diary, TGPP archive. [radio matter]
319 - The Panchen Lama is the second highest ranking Lama after the Dalai Lama.
320 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger, [], TGPP archive.
321 - Mamen, etc.
322 - Shackleford’s 1925 filming of the event confused the AMNH itself: a 1988
treatment of his, film entitled “To the Ends of the Earth,” produced and narrated by
AMNH staff, incorrectly intones that the eggs were discovered by George Olsen in 1925!
See, AMNH, 1988, “To the Ends of the Earth,” TGPP archive and, presumably, there is
also still a copy at the AMNH. [Find TGR report dealing with issue of when eggs were
found.]
323 - Excerpt, Anna Granger letter to [Frederick] Smythe dated May 26, 1925, TGPP
archive.
324 - Walter Granger diary entry for June 24, 1925, TGPP archive.
325 - Excerpt, Walter Granger diary entry for June 25, 1925, TGPP archive. “Robbie”
probably refers to [Major] L. B. Roberts of the [ ] [Army], the chief topographer for the
1925 CAE Mongolia expedition.
326 - Excerpt, Walter Granger diary entry for July 3, 1925, TGPP archive.
327 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated September 18, 1925,
TGPP archive; and “The 'Siccawei' (or Zi-ca-wei) astronomical observatory was built in
1912 and at that time considered one of the first three on the world.” - http://vcea.ish-
lyon.cnrs.fr/Digital_Library/Images_en.php?ID=283. Or “Not very well known is the
fact that in the 19th century the French Jesuits also built an observatory there (as well as
orphanages, monasteries, schools and libraries). The Zi-ka-wei Observatory was set up in
1872 to carry out meteorological observations of the South China Sea. In its earlier years,
it made astronomical and meteorological observations, as well as geomagnetic
measurements, and operated a time service. It was an important base for Europeans to
obtain meteorological information during the late 19th century. A recent paper on the
Weather magazine made reference to instrumental and observation accounts of typhoons
it collected for the years 1880, 1881 and 1882.
The functions of the Zi-ka-wei Observatory closely resembled those of the Hong Kong
Observatory (HKO) established in 1883 by the Hong Kong government to meet the needs
of the time and focussing on time service and meteorological observations. For this
reason, Professor Ho Pui-yin, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, considered it most
likely that HKO's Chinese name, tianventai (astronomical observatory), and not
qixiangtai (meteorological institute), was adopted from its Shanghai counterpart.
From the late 19th century to before the World War II, staff at the Zi-ka-wei Observatory
studied and analyzed the meteorological records and observations taken at the customs
stations and lighthouses set up along the coast and rivers of China. In respect of typhoon
warnings, flag signals were used since the late 19th century. Since these flag signals
could not be easily identified from a distance, geometric symbols were subsequently
devised to replace them. The warning system, known as the China Coast Code, was
adopted by HKO in 1903. Then in 1917, the staff at Zi-ka-wei Observatory replaced the
Code with a new warning system, known as the China Seas Storm Signal Code, which
was later adopted in 1920 by HKO (granted the title Royal Observatory in 1912, which
was used until Hong Kong's return to China in 1997).
Connecting the Zi-ka-wei Observatory and HKO during most of the early part of the 20th
century was a colourful character, Father Ernesto Gherzi (1886-1973), Director of the Zi-
ka-wei Observatory from 1930 to 1949. He operated an efficient typhoon warning service
from Shanghai and was instrumental in starting a short-wave broadcast service in 1927
providing 6-hourly observations from seven stations in Yangtze and north China.” -
http://www.hko.gov.hk/blog/en/archives/00000047.htm
TGPP archive.
TGPP archive.
TGPP archive.
331 - Walter Granger diary entry for November 6, 1926, TGPP archive. Granger shared
Isaac Upham’s interest in documentary photography, but never exhibited his own work.
332 - Excerpt, Walter Granger diary entry for November 26, 1926, TGPP archive.
333 - Excerpt, Walter Granger diary entry for December 2, 1926, TGPP archive.
334 - Excerpt, Walter Granger diary entry for December 7, 1926, TGPP archive.
335 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated December 13, 1925,
TGPP archive.
336 - Id.
337 - Warlord Chang Tso-lin (Zha¯ng Zuòlín) was variously nicknamed the "Old
Marshal", "Rain Marshal" or "Mukden Tiger." [Wiki]
338 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated February 10, 1926, TGPP
archive.
339 - J. McKenzie Young letter to Walter Granger dated March 5, 1926, TGPP archive.
F. B. ‘Freddie’ Butler of the U.S. Army was a CAE assistant topographer.
340 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated March 7, 1926, TGPP
archive.
341 - Excerpt, Anna Granger letter to Aunt Jane dated March 7, 1926, TGPP archive.
344 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated April 10, 1926, TGPP
archive.
345 - Excerpt, Anna Granger to Aunt Jane dated April 15, 1926, TGPP archive.
346 - [explain the Shooting of the Mob.]
347 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated May 9, 1926, TGPP
archive.
348 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated May 9, 1926, TGPP
archive.
349 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated May 25, 1926, TGPP archive.
350 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated June 11, 1926, TGPP
archive.
350a - Granger was a 32˚ Scottish Rite Mason. He was not a Christian, but he did believe
in a higher power [per Walter Granger Beckwith, also a Mason]. Granger’s father also
was a Mason [as was Radcliffe Beckwith, a friend and colleague of Granger’s]; [A
complex of Taoist buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing, in
Xuanwu District. The temple complex was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the
reign of the Yongle Emperor, who was also responsible for the construction of the
Forbidden City in Beijing. The complex was extended and renamed Temple of Heaven
during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor in the 16th century. The complex was visited by
the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven
for good harvest. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship,
especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism. From Wiki.]; and, John
Henry Cowles served as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of the
Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Southern
Jurisdiction of the United States of America (Mother Council of the World) from 1921 to
1952. As noted, he visited Peking in 1926.
351 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated June 11, 1926, TGPP
archive.
352 - Excerpt, Walter Granger diary entry for August 15, 1926, TGPP archive.
353 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated August 19, 1926, TGPP
archive.
354 - J. McKenzie Young letter to Walter Granger dated August 25, 1926, TGPP archive.
355 - source for: ”The Leader also reiterated Mac’s warning to Andrews:
it would be nothing short of suicide to attempt to take the Expedition

from Peking to Kalgan through the battle lines. The war zone is thick
with snipers and it was Young’s opinion that passports or other
papers would be of little avail to save the party from death.
355a - This economic boycott of 1925-1926, part of general Chinese challenge to British
imperialism in China, focussed on British trade between Hong Kong and South China.
(See, Clark, Peter Gaffney, 1973, “Britain and the Chinese Revolution, 1925-1927”,
Doctoral Thesis, University of California at Berkeley, 654 p., in: Doctoral dissertations
on Hong Kong, 1900-1997, 2001, by Frank Joseph Shulman and Anna See Ping Leon
Shulman, University of Hong Kong, University Libraries, p.289.)
TGPP archive.
357 - Excerpt, Anna Granger diary entry for September 10, 1926, TGPP archive.
TGPP archive.
359 - Anna Granger diary entry for September 18, 1926, TGPP archive.
360 - This was a plot of land acquired by the British at a time when a railroad was
projected from Burma to Yunnanfu. The terminal station was to be located there and it
was planned that the British stationed in Yunnanfu would all have homes in that enclave.
[Source?]
361 - Excerpt, Anna Granger diary entry for September 30, 1926, TGPP archive.
[Describe the Wanhsien Incident, p. 140 et, Tolley.]
362 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated September 28, 1926.
363 - Anna Granger diary entry for October 1, 1926, TGPP archive.
364 - Excerpt, Anna Granger diary entry for October 2, 1926, TGPP archive.
367 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated October 14, 1926,
TGPP archive.
368 - Walter Granger diary entry for October 28, 1926, TGPP archive.
370 - Excerpt, Walter Granger diary entry for October 30, 1926, TGPP archive.
373 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Anna Granger dated November 7, 1926, TGPP
archive.
archive.
archive.
376 - AG letter to CG, November 12, 1926.
377 - Excerpt, Anna Granger diary entry for November 24, 1926, TGPP archive.
378 - Walter Granger diary entry for December 17, 1926, TGPP archive.
379 - Excerpt, Anna Granger diary entry for December 20, 1926, TGPP archive.
380 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated January 1, 1927, TGPP
archive.
381 - Walter Granger diary entry for January 1, 1927, TGPP archive.
382 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Frank M. Morgan dated February 4, 1927.
383 - Anna Granger diary entry for March 19 and 20, 1927, TGPP archive.
384 - Anna Granger diary entry for April 4, 1927, TGPP archive.
385 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated April 15, 1928. [need
anything viz MacMurray or student antagonism?]
386 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated April 18, 1928.
387 - Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated May 25, 1928.
388 - Excerpt, Anna Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated July 25, 1928, TGPP
archive.
389 - Anna Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated August 10, 1928, TGPP archive.
390 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated August 19, 1928.
391 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated September 7, 1928.
392 - Excerpt, Walter Granger letter to Charles C. Granger dated May 28, 1929.
393 - [‘Nanking crowd’ and ‘Chinese Cultural Society.’]
394 - [Col/Hoo, 1953, p. 7-8] EColbert wrote to HJC on 4/15/41 that:
At the present time I am working on the fauna from Szechwan

(Yenchingkou) collected by Granger and barely scratched by
Matthew and Granger in their preliminary description of 1923. There
is a wonderful lot of Stegodon orientalis in this material, showing
growth stages from newly born infant to adult. . . . I hope to bring
out quite an extended study of the Yenchingkou fauna –– it is a large
collection of extraordinarily fine material. This is an important fauna
in its bearing on the Pleistocene succession of Asia.].
395 - Excerpt, Anna Granger diary entry for April 17, 1930, TGPP archive.
396 - Excerpt, Anna Granger diary entry for May 2, 1930, TGPP archive.
397 - Excerpt, Anna Granger diary entry for May 4, 1930, TGPP archive.
398 - Mrs. Parmentier was a wealthy New York socialite and paleontology enthusiast
who had asked Granger to arrange a fossil hunting expedition for her and her children to
experience. [This apparently was ‘Beryzleheimer’, not Parmentier] Granger did so, with
the assistance of his longtime Agate, Nebraska, friend, Harold J. Cook. Harold was the
son of the rather colorful James H. Cook, a proud friend of Chief Red Cloud. Harold was
an amateur paleontologist who resided at the family ranch at Agate, Nebraska. It was
while fossils were being hunted and found on this property, that Thomson suggested
prospecting by automobile back in 1912. A year later, he brought out AutoBilly to do just
that.
On 2/3/43 H. J. Cook wrote to paleontologist G. Jepsen that
Because of war conditions, we saw less field and research men here,
this past year, than in any year in more than thirty-five years past, at
Agate, –– which our good friend Walter Granger, at my father's last
birthday party here two years ago, –– called Agate "The
Paleontological Cross-road of America, –– where all scientists came,
sooner or later!"
Agate is now a federal monument. The final fate of AutoBilly is unknown.
399 - Anna Granger diary entry for May 11, 1930, TGPP archive.
400 - To wit:
May 19, 1930

Had lunch at Mrs. S.T. Wang[']s to meet Mrs. Auchinloss and Mrs.
Goss. Other guests were Mrs. Calhoun, Dr. Yami Kui, Mrs. Newell,
Mrs. Davidson Black, Mrs. Jewett. In p.m. attended reception for
visiting magazine writers at Mrs. Perkin[']s[;] met Dr. Adler's son.
To Mrs. Calhoun's for dinner. Other guests were Dr. & Mrs. Biello,
Eric Clarke, Mr. Newhall, Mrs. Dempster, Mr. & Mrs. Burton [L.H.
Dudley Buxton who wrote The Eastern Road, London and New
York, 1924.?] and Mr. & Mrs. Campbell, of the Standard Oil of
Indiana, Col. Love, Mr. & Mrs. Seaholm.
May 20, 1930

Lunched at Jung Lieh King[']s. Others guests were Mr. & Mrs. S.T.
Wang, Dr. & Mrs. S.P. Chen. Mr. L.T. Yuan. There was a garden
party at the Palace Museum for the visiting journalists at 3 o'clock.
We did not receive an invitation. At 5:30 I went to tea at Mrs. Carl
Janish's. Mary Smith, Mrs. Dunlop, Mrs. Wyman & Mrs. Gee were
the other guests. To Mrs. Dr. Biello's for dinner. Met at the Peking
Club first for cocktails. The guests were all British, Mr. & Mrs.
Greenfield, Major & Mrs. Hall, Mr. & Mrs. Parks. Went to Coal Hill
with Walter & Mr. Thomson. Had lunch at Mr. Titus. Mrs. Payne &
Mrs. Tison were there. I came home in their car. At 5 I called on
Mrs. Carl. 6:30 Walter & I went to Mrs. Calhoun's. Met a Mr. Duff
Robinson there who is going to establish himself here for a year. At
8:30 we dined at Mrs. Wyman's. Mary Mullikin was there. She had
some of her paintings at Mrs. Dunlap[']s. We went there to see them
after dinner.
May 22, 1930

To Mrs. Capt. Tenney's to dinner. Met Mrs. Owen Lattimore. The
other guests were Lieutenant & Mrs. Wyman, Mr. Demaree Bess.
M. Bardac gave a tea party in p.m. He asked us to come. His
compound very large, north of Cheng Juan theater street. A
performing bear entertained the guests in one of the courts. Nearly
everybody in Peking was there. Dancing in one room for those who
wanted it. Good eats & much liquor. Weather perfect for the
occasion. M. Bardac is brother of the Countess de Martell, French

Minister.
May 23, 1930

To Mrs. Campbell Brown's for lunch. No other guests. To Mrs.
Payne[']s for dinner. Miss Burton took us in her car. Judge Purdy
and Mr. Vincent, lawyer from Shanghai, two other men and Miss
Arguillo, Mrs. Tison, a house guest (Standard Oil) Canton formed
the party. Mrs. Payne[']s compound is very spacious and was turned
into fairy land by generous use of small lanterns. We had cocktails
around a table in the courtyard and returned to the same place after
dinner for a shadow picture. The acting was the best we had ever
seen. Dinner was a delicious one and beautifully served in a lovely
room. The drawing room is very large but broken up into inviting
places for chatting by long tables and sofas.
May 24, 1930

Went to Chung Hai with Walter in a.m. Place recently opened to the
public. A nice black-tiled roof temple is one of the points of interest.
At home all afternoon & evening.
May 25, 1930

Sunday. Had breakfast at Mrs. Stevenson's in North Compound.
Mary Smith came too. Walked with her on the wall afterwards.
Spent afternoon and evening at home, sewing on Walter's clothes for
camp. Dr. Sven Hedin called.
May 26, 1930

Went to Hsi Chih Meu to see Walter off to Mongolia. Met Dr.
Garber for the first time. At 5 p.m. went to art exhibit at the Art
Institute. A Miss Herlbutt is showing the work of four American
etchers. Mrs. Paul Stevenson and Miss Walker came for dinner.
401 -
402 - Walter Granger letter to C. C. Young dated November 13, 1930, TGPP archive.
403 - cite to T. Mylan Stout, Hellman, etc.
404 - Walter Granger letter to Clive Forster-Cooper dated [], TGPP archives.
405 - GGS eulogy (joint service).

406 - Id.
407 - Id.
408 - [MCM phone call to this author one mid-November evening in 1993.]
409 - Walter Granger letter to C. C. Young dated November [ ], 1938, TGPP archive.
410 - Walter Granger letter to Clive Forster-Cooper dated [ ], TGPP archives.
411 - Anna Granger letter to Margaret Cook date [ ], 1938, [?copy TGPP archive].
412 - cie to Laporte book.
413 - MGM to VLM, August, 1977. Others expressing this sentiment were Thomson,
Colbert, Beckwith.
414 - wg ltr to ag
415 - wg ltr to ag
416 - MC ltr to AG
417 - MB ltr to RCA

ANATOMY OF AN EXPEDITION: Dinosaurs, Central Asiatic Expeditions and Diaries of Walter Granger - or - WALTER GRANGER AND THE CENTRAL ASIATIC EXPEDITIONS: A Quiet Legend (Working MS.)

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VLM-Anat/Ex., 2009, ‘Read C’ p.

Re: Walter Granger and the Central Asiatic Expeditions, 1921-1930

I am posting this working draft of “ANATOMY OF AN EXPEDITION: Dinosaurs,

My manuscript (“ANATOMY OF AN EXPEDITION: Dinosaurs, Central Asiatic

For the moment, I am reachable via yanjingou@yahoo.com or morganvl60@gmail.com

THE CENTRAL ASIATIC EXPEDITIONS AND WALTER GRANGER:

Working Draft, 2010

Copyright © 2010 by Vincent L. Morgan

For Caroline Granger Morgan

For Joan Shelby Piper

List of illustrations [@xi]

1 PAVING THE WAY 1

3 [etc. = @ 12 chapters total]

Chronological synopsis of the Grangers’ CAE papers (a la p. 19 of Bulletin 22...chron

"Granger was so modest regarding his intellectual achievements and

"He is underappreciated as one of the great fossil collectors and

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

AMNH American Museum of Natural History

AMNH ASIATIC EXPEDITIONS

19[] First Asiatic Zoological Expedition

19[] Second Asiatic Zoological Expedition

1921-1930 Third Asiatic Expedition/Central Asiatic

[Fossil preparation: “[I]n preparation we generally recognize three functions:

Brown, Chief Preparator Vertebrate Paleontology, University of Nebraska State

In addition, CAE herpetologist Clifford H. Pope (1899-1974) and a few Chinese

The situation about Roy Andrews and Walter Granger is a little

Dr. Walter Granger [was] in fact, the scientific backbone of the

Despite Simpson’s clarification to Kielan-Jaworowska and much obvious information to

to grind––quantity of pubs., WDM son-in-law, and being passed over by Granger)

Geography and place names

PAVING THE WAY

In Mongolia, and in the desert of Gobi, we were to find ourselves able

Dash Across Mongolia

. . . the paradox is literally accurate . . . it would not be financially sound

Suess’s identification of Obruchev’s discovery enabled Granger’s AMNH boss, Osborn,

We now turn to the northern hemisphere, to the Arctogea or

they are separated by ten thousand miles of intervening land in

Working With Camels

party [would] only succeed through thorough, systematic and prolonged

In the meantime, Shackleton had already pioneered use of an Arrol-Johnston motorcar

The time was right––Americans coveted ‘American-style’ exploit. By 1911, Andrews’s

Roy Chapman Andrews was a more controversial figure than his

The Museum’s Department of Taxidermy was organized by Jenness Richardson in 1886.

Into the Field

burgeoning the prestige of American paleontologists around the world, it was a

Referring to himself as “Associate Curator of Mammals, Eastern Hemisphere,” Andrews

The report continues:

From the first of June until the middle of July, we carried on

We dispatched our specimens to Peking by camel caravans we,

Andrews and Caldwell returned to Peking on November 19th whereupon Caldwell

[S]pecial observations [were] made upon the speed of the Mongolian

[Roy Chapman Andrews] published two monographs and several short

Heller had accompanied Theodore Roosevelt on expediton to Africa in 1909-1910 and

Doing the Sidestep

The normally hard to access Andrews replied:

Your letter of January 8 is at hand. I am in my office almost every

(First) Asiatic Zoological Expedition

I am much interested in the war, but at present I cannot enlist, much

officer’s commission without requisite military experience. But by June of 1918, he

I am trying to do my bit [for the war effort] by endeavoring to get

Andrews’s purported endeavor to put Americans on whale meat notwithstanding, the

I have just returned from Washington where I have examined the

‘Reynolds’ and the ONI