88 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



to me ; and of the remainder — the bulk of the material — a pair or two 

 of each species has been selected and will be presented to the United 

 States National Museum; the remainder is given to the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology. 



An annotated list of the fishes collected by Mr. Brown, and identified 

 by Mr. Samuel Garman will be given in the paper on the Panamic 

 vertebrates. 



II. Physical Aspect and Climate; Fauna. By Wilmot W. 



Brown, Jr. 



Gorgona Island was probably discovered and named by Pizarro, as 

 history tells us that he and his hardy band of followers, after leaving 

 Gallo Island, retreated to Gorgona Island, where they fortified them- 

 selves and lived for five months, enduring great hardship. Finally the 

 ship sent from Panama to their aid reached Gorgona, and Pizarro and 

 his companions sailed for Tumbez Bay on the coast of Peru. 



Gorgona Island, politically a part of the Eepublic of Colombia, is the 

 private property of Don Pyan Cuevas, of Buenaventura. It is uninhab- 

 ited ; fishermen occasionally visit it for a few days at a time. It is five 

 miles long by about half a mile wide, and lies N. N. E. by S. S. W., 

 about twenty miles off Punta las Reys, the nearest point on the Colom- 

 bian coast. The rise and fall of the tide is ten feet, and the current of 

 the island sets off to the northeast. The water between the island and 

 the coast of Colombia is said to be deep. 



Gorgona, apparently of volcanic formation, consists of three peaks ; 

 the highest, and central one, is some 800 feet in altitude. The three hills 

 make the island very conspicuous from the ocean, and form a pleasant 

 contrast to the low, swampy mainland opposite. In clear Aveather the 

 high peaks of the distant Andes can be seen. It is completely wooded 

 with a dense tropical forest without trails or open places, and is well 

 watered by numerous streams. 



Rain falls continuously throughout the year, there being no dry season, 

 and heavy electric storms are of daily occurrence. The excessive mois- 

 ture entailed much personal inconvenience and hardship, and the collec- 

 tions made were preserved by artificial heat and constant vigilance. In 

 my attempts to preserve botanical specimens I wholly failed. 



Collecting was done under great difficulties ; at low tide one could 

 walk along the beaches, but high Avater reaches to the very forest, and 

 every step inland had to be cut with machetes through the dense, satu- 

 rated jungle. 



