Panama 203 



Conte, near Penonome in the Province of Code. Dr. Ed- 

 ward Reynolds, then Director of the Peabody Museum 

 in Cambridge, persuaded Professor Tozzer and Professor 

 Hooton to go to Panama, to visit the Conte family and to 

 draw up a contract allowing the Peabody Museum to carry 

 on explorations. These excavations produced vast stores 

 of pre-Columbian objects in pottery, stone, gold, and even 

 emeralds — and the whole discovery was the result of not 

 taking my advice about Panama City and the influenza 

 epidemic. I may add, also, that no one got influenza. 



I wish I had my daughter Mary's ability to paint a pic- 

 ture in words. If I had, I could make it possible for you to 

 see with me the loveHness of the coming of day on Barro 

 Colorado Island. I have a mind to try. I will assume that 

 you, my gentle reader, are another mere man, of course. 

 Otherwise I could hardly say what I am going to say with 

 propriety. How would you like to come and spend the 

 night with me? I have a spare Gold Medal cot which can 

 be set up in a moment, and the Spaniards taught us genera- 

 tions ago that canvas drawn taut was the ideal substratum 

 on which to sleep in the tropics. Anyone who camps in the 

 North knows that you get colder from below and must 

 sleep on blankets more than under blankets. But not down 

 here. You can have a thin sheet to pull up just before dawn, 

 but otherwise we won't have to bother about bedding. 



I have insomnia and awake with ease, so that if I hear 

 any footsteps on our roof I will call you and we will step 

 out with my big electric flashlight. It is likely that you 

 will get a glimpse of one of our several species of pretty 

 little opossums, or a night monkey, brown and furry, with 



