DECAPOD AND OTHER CRUSTACEA COLLECTED ON 

 THE PRESIDENTIAL CRUISE OF 1938 



(WITH INTRODUCTION AND STATION DATA 1 ) 



By WALDO L. SCHMITT 

 Curator, Division of Marine Invertebrates, U. S. National Museum 



(With Three Plates) 

 INTRODUCTION 



In July and August of 1938 the President of the United States, the 

 Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt, undertook an inspection cruise and 

 fishing expedition from San Diego, Calif., to Pensacola, Fla., by way 

 of the Panama Canal aboard the U.S.S. Houston. The Smithsonian 

 Institution was honored with an invitation to participate, and it was 

 a great privilege and my good fortune to be the Naturalist selected to 

 accompany the expedition. 



The cruise, which began on July 16 and ended on August 9, covered 

 a total of 5,888 miles in the brief space of 24 days, during which 14 

 different collecting stops were made. These were distributed among 

 the possessions of five different nations: Mexico (Lower California 

 and Socorro Island), France (Clipperton Island), Ecuador (the 

 Galapagos Islands), Costa Rica (Cocos Island), and Colombia (Old 

 Providence Island in the Caribbean). No collecting was done in the 

 Canal Zone or in the Republic of Panama. 



All manner of collecting was undertaken, fishing, bird hunting, and 

 botanizing, dredging, tide-pool and shore collecting — indeed, all kinds 

 of endeavor that might yield something of interest to the Smithsonian 

 Institution and our National Collections. The ichthyological collection, 

 which perhaps took first place in the President's interest, is one of 

 the most important that has ever come to the United States National 

 Museum from that section of the Pacific. 



In obtaining fish as scientific specimens, as well as for sport, the 

 President was ably assisted by members of his personal party: Mr. 



1 For additional notes and illustrations, see "The Presidential Cruise of 1938" 

 in: Explorations and Field-work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1938, pp. 

 I-I4. 1939. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 98, No. 6 



