The Roosevelts

Last week the brothers Roosevelt (Theodore Jr. and Kermit) called down from "the roof tree of the world" that they had got what they clambered up for. Their cable from Turkestan began: "Have had good success with the Ovis poli [Marco Polo sheep]. Have excellent group of four rams, besides several other specimens for the Field Museum. Are going straight to Srinagar;" that is, starting home.

Thus ended a sporting trip in the name of Natural Science which has had many kinds of publicity (TIME, March 16). When the brothers were trekking through perilous snowy passes in Kashmir and Thian Shan, losing ponies and porters, and living off the land with their trusty rifles as they dashed back into the Pamirs after one fruitless visit, their vicissitudes were followed as though they had been hunting the north pole instead of a species of mountain sheep unknown to our museums.

But the spirit of true science was with these politico-sportsman-adventurers. venturers. On first penetrating the Pamirs, they found the Ovis poli looking rather seedy, his winter coat not yet grown. They held their fire, descended the crags, and went over into the Thian Shan mountains for the ibex, Thian Shan sheep, bear, roe, goitered gazelle and a variety of birds and small mammals. Their ornithologist and curator, George K. Cherrie, set off for civilization via the Caspian Sea with these politico sportsman ad-to the Pamirs put the Roosevelts to finish their work.