The Transvaal Museum has for some time been interested in the creation of a Station in or near the Namib Desert for enabling biologists and other scientists to study desert conditions. During the last 25 years this Museum, more than any other institution in South Africa, has conducted numerous expeditions to the semi-arid western coastal region ranging from Southern Namaqualand to Angola in the North; as a result, the semi-desert regions of South and South West Africa are very well known, especially in such groups as mammals, birds, reptiles and the Tenebrionid beetles, all of which have been intensively studied by various members of the Transvaal Museum staff.