28 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



and throws so much light upon the conditions under which his work 

 was done, that we propose to quote it here with but little alteration and 

 excision, reserving comment until later. 



" On my arrival in Santa Marta in December, 1879, I went to Bonda, 

 a small village in the foothills about eight or nine miles to the east- 

 ward of the city, where I spent between two and three months collect- 

 ing. From this point we worked up the mountain slopes [of La 

 Horqueta] to about 6,000 feet. At Bonda I met with a severe acci- 

 dent, burning my hands quite badly, so that I was obliged to depend 

 on a native collector to help me— that is, shoot specimens ; I did not 

 allow my sore hands to keep me from skinning. In addition to my 

 burns, I was suffering from about a hundred insect-bites, which 

 festered in that hot climate; some of the sores were about the size 

 of a quarter and I bear the scars on my body to this day. Bonda, 

 as I remember it, is in a valley, well wooded and with a fine stream 

 [the Rio Manzanares] flowing through it. Along this stream is where 

 I did the most of my collecting. My native collector was reliable and 

 obtained many fine specimens for me while my burns and sores were 

 healing up. Bird-life was plentiful and I succeeded in making a fine 

 collection. Upon completing my work here I returned to Santa Marta 

 and shipped my collection of birds and mammals from there. 



" After a few days at Santa Marta, where I collected some speci- 

 mens within a short distance of the town, I embarked on a small 

 schooner bound for Rio Hacha, which we finally reached after being 

 at sea about ten days. Rio Hacha is an Indian trading town or port 

 over near the Venezuela frontier, and has a population of about eight 

 thousand. The country around Rio Hacha is low, flat, and dry, and 

 covered mostly with bush. I did no collecting here, but outfitted and 

 provisioned for my coming trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains, into 

 a different region from that where I had already worked. Finally, 

 when my plans were completed, I embarked in a big " dugout " canoe, 

 and after four days' working along the coast reached Dibulla, a small 

 village convenient to the mountains. I did not do any collecting at 

 Dibulla, but it looked like a good collecting ground for lowland birds. 

 The country around Dibulla is low, flat, and mostly covered with 

 brush, but with woods along the river. There is a population of about 

 five hundred, who live by farming and fishing. I spent several days 

 here and managed finally to obtain pack-animals for my trip into the 



