264 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
lessly in debt to Stoner, the right-hand man of the director and 
general utility man for the expedition at large. His was the 
most vexatious and thankless job of all, that of treasurer to 
the party. He it was who attended to the paying of commissary 
bills and collecting assessments from the party. We know 
that he saved us many a dollar by his painstaking and method- 
ical care in keeping the accounts straight and securing justice 
for all with whom he dealt, whether the great commercial con- 
cerns at Barbados or the natives who brought their produce to 
our door. No man could discharge the trying and often irritat- 
ing duties more conscientiously than did he. He also saved 
himself from the superman class by exploding just once, and, 
as Mark Twain said of the unsuspecting spider that stepped on — 
a red-hot stove lid, ‘‘ First a moment of awful surprise and then 
he [we] shrivelled up!”’ 
Fisher was the most expert and thoroughly equipped collector 
of marine invertebrates in the party and much of the complete- 
ness and excellent condition of the collection is due to his sug- 
gestions and industry. As our advance agent at Barbados he 
performed a service that saved us much valuable time and pro- 
vided well for the comfort of the party. 
To the married ladies fell the greater part of the burden of 
our domestic comfort and dealing with the servants of which 
they, like the ghost of Hamlet’s father ‘‘could many a tale un- 
fold.’’ To Mrs. Nutting, Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Stoner, and Mrs. 
Job we are indebted for three meals a day and an adequate 
food supply to keep up the health and strength of the expedi- 
tion. 
None of us can ever forget the loyalty and energy with which 
Dr. Job worked at his laboratory and in collecting material of 
all sorts, both for immediate study and for shipment home; nor 
the enthusiasm with which Ricker pursued us and the natives 
with his various cameras and took movies of everything from 
the ceremonies in celebration of the King’s birthday at Barba- 
dos to the antics of holothurians and land-crabs; nor of the skill 
with which Greenlaw managed the launch in dredging or con- 
eocted soursop drinks or crayfish salads. 
Neither will we forget Miss Sykes, the irrepressible advocate 
of woman’s rights and coxswain of the launch, the most fearless 
