Florida and Some Snakes 227 



A fishing trip to Everglades has been an annual feature 

 of my visits with the Fairchilds at Coconut Grove. We have 

 had the same boatman for years and, by planning far enough 

 ahead, I have usually been able to get the same cottage for 

 a few days' stay. The chance to visit this strange labyrinth 

 of waterways, which comprises the deltas of half a dozen 

 rivers emptying into the Bay of Ten Thousand Islands, has 

 been fascinating because there have always been botanists 

 involved. First, of course, there has been David Fairchild 

 himself, though he was not present the day John Phillips 

 was with me and we saw a big panther walk across an 

 open glade in the mangrove forest. 



Of our Museum crowd, Ted White and Barbara and 

 William Schevill know this country and helped to get an 

 interesting lot of mammals, particularly raccoons. Years 

 ago, E. W. Nelson showed that the raccoons of south 

 Florida broke up into a lot of races, which he named. I was 

 doubtful whether these races would stand up when long 

 series of the animals were compared. As raccoons are ex- 

 tremely abundant in the forests around Everglades, we 

 made up a test series to see how much variation was shown 

 among the individuals and found there was practically none. 

 Nelson was right. 



My friends Harold and Sis Loomis with their Margie 

 and Jim have often been most delightful and co-operative 

 companions. They love to fish and they do not think I am 

 crazy because I frequently sit back for hours at a time and 

 just look into the woods as we troll slowly by. Last year 

 Professor Elmer D. Merrill, the distinguished Director of 

 the Arnold Arboretum — Elmira to me, though I do not 

 know exactly why — was along, and I felt a patriotic thrill 



