THE NAUTILUS. 137 



years in exploring and collecting. He collected such shells as 

 he saw, but did not specialize on them. 



In answer to my inquiry Mrs. Smith wrote: 



"In Brazil I only remember a few odd lots of land shells 

 until we got to Corumbii on our way home; it was rich in land 

 shells, but Mr. Smith said that the mosquitoes were ' frightful.' 

 In order to do a morning's work of collecting, he had to tie his 

 sleeves tight at the wrist, do the same thing with his ankles; tie 

 a bandana around his neck; fill his pockets with cigarettes and 

 matches; put a cigar in his mouth, 'grit his teeth,' and start. 

 All the collecting there was almost a torture, so I imagine shell 

 collecting was quite a cursory affair." 



The number of shells collected on that trip was very large, 

 although the species were not numerous; but a number of them 

 were new to science. These shells were widely distributed, 

 probably by Dr. Newcomb, and when we see the locality 

 ; ' Corumbii, Brazil," we may feel pretty sure that we are look- 

 ing at Smith's shells. 



During the time he was in the West Indies, for the Royal 

 Society, and in Mexico, for Mr. F. D. Godman, he collected 

 " everything," and naturally shells proved to be no small part 

 of his "catch." 



When he went to Colombia, in 1898, I arranged to take all 

 of his land shells, but he got so interested in collecting mam- 

 mals, birds and plants that the return in shells was not very 

 large, except in some of the larger and more conspicuous species. 

 There he again ran into the "insect pests," and at one place, 

 near the coast at Santa Marta, he said the " sand flies " poisoned 

 him so that the skin even peeled off the palms of his hands. 

 His final breakdown in 1902, he always attributed to the poison 

 of sand flies, gnats, mosquitoes, and the thousand-and-one 

 other curses of the tropics. 



In 1903 his health still being poor, he gave up the fight, and 

 resolved to go to the South to live. He settled at Wetumpka, 

 Ala., and at once started after shells. His first collecting there, 

 so different from work in the tropics, was rather disheartening, 

 and he wrote that there were no shells in that region. A little 

 later he began to get results, and then he wrote, " I didn't know 

 how to collect," and when the first lot came in, it was seen that 



