CARIBBEAN EXPEDITION, 1956 — SCHMITT 445 



The Freelance herself, a twin diesel schooner, measured 86 feet over- 

 all. She had a 19-foot beam and 11-foot draft and was equipped with 

 motorboat, sailing dinghy, electric generator, electric fans and refrig- 

 eration, with hot and cold running water in each stateroom. Two 

 single and two double cabins provided ample accommodation for our 

 party. 



To keep our rendezvous with the Freelance in Trinidad we obtained 

 passage for ourselves and our bulky outfit and collecting gear aboard 

 the cruise ship lie de France to Port-of-Spain. A one-day's stop in 

 Barbados made it possible to visit the Bellairs Research Institute of 

 McGill University and the Barbados Museum. 



The Institute, at St. James, a short distance out of Bridgetown, is 

 being set up primarily as a marine laboratory. The director, Dr. John 

 B. Lewis, had visited us previously at the National Museum, and we 

 were anxious to learn more of the scientific work of his laboratory. 

 He showed us through the Institute's newly acquired quarters, a for- 

 mer private residence located on a lovely beach with a variety of ma- 

 rine habitats, including a flourishing coral reef close at hand. At the 

 time of our visit the residence was in the throes of renovation and con- 

 version into a well-appointed laboratory for marine study, with all fa- 

 cilities, including, of course, aquaria and running salt water. 



The Museum, under the directorship of Neville C. Connell, is main- 

 tained by the Barbados Museum and Historical Society. Of marine 

 invertebrates, in which two of our party were especially interested, 

 there is a fair display of the commoner species of Crustacea and coel- 

 enterates, a habitat group showing a section of a local coral reef with 

 associated fauna, and a rather comprehensive and well-prepared series 

 of colored casts of the commoner fishes as found or taken about the 

 island. Most of the exhibits in the Museum, however, pertain to the 

 early history of the island, its inhabitants, their lives, local manufac- 

 tures, and importations. Very pertinent and of most interest were 

 the objects and the models relating to the early days and development 

 of the sugar industry in Barbados. 



In Trinidad, the following day, March 7, we were met at the Cus- 

 toms House dock by Jocelyn Crane and Henry Fleming of the New 

 York Zoological Society's staff working with Dr. William Beebe at the 

 Society's Tropical Research Station at Simla. Miss Crane, well- 

 known authority on fiddler crabs, is associate director of the station. 

 Her cordial invitation to Simla was accepted forthwith by Dr. Smith 

 who wished to botanize the area and by the rest of us for several days 

 later, as we wished first to undertake shore collecting at Maracas Bay, 

 one of the island's many beauty spots. We went to Simla on March 11, 

 it so happened in time for the dedication of the station's new butterfly 

 flight cage. This was erected so that the species then under investiga- 



