250 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
ernment House. Dr. Van Horn, the ship’s surgeon, who had 
been on the ‘‘Korona’’ when I returned on her the year before, 
was at the head of our table and added much to our pleasure 
by his courtesy and genial friendliness. 
We reached St. Croix about 11 a. m., Tuesday, July 23d; but 
no one went ashore. At no place that we visited were the port 
regulations so needlessly aggravating and apparently without 
rhyme or reason as at the first American port visited on our 
return voyage. That a party of United States citizens, consti- 
tuting a scientific expedition accredited by the State University 
of Iowa, our Secretary of State, the British Ambassador, the 
American Consul at Barbados, with passports in proper form 
and no bombs about their persons should be refused permission 
to take a short stroll ashore by the exceedingly self-important 
young officers who came board at Basse Terre, St. Croix, is 
but one additional illustration of the disastrous psychological 
effect of a little brief authority. 
After leaving St. Croix we had our first life-boat drill and 
were impressed with the necessity of this - precaution, which 
should be enforced on every vessel going to sea, even in times of 
peace. A comparison of our first drill with one of our last 
ones shows how great the saving of life would be if it were 
universally practiced. We were all given tickets assigning us 
to the boats which were swung out-board. At the sounding of 
the alarm, which was the rapid striking of the ship’s bell, all 
were supposed to get their life-belts and take their positions as 
quickly as possible beside the boats. There were three occu- 
pants of the stateroom in which I was quartered, and there were 
but two life-belts and one of these had broken straps and would 
have been almost useless in actual service. There was a good 
deal of confusion, a number of people not understanding how 
to put on the belts or what they were expected to do. When all 
were assembled each officer in charge of a boat saw that every- 
one was in his place and that each had a life belt properly in- 
spected and fitted before he was allowed to leave for his state- 
room. In one of the later drills, the alarm was entirely unex- 
pected and every person was at his place beside his boat with 
life-belt on and properly adjusted, inside of one minute! There 
