A Collecting Trip to Coloaibia 7 



the green color. The hospitahty of the United Fruit Company was extended 

 to us through the kindness of the local manager, Mr. Sinners, and we made 

 the bachelor apartments our headquarters while at Santa Marta. December 

 13 to 19 were spent collecting in the vicinity, one day being spent with Mr. 

 James Ryan on a gasoline motor locating favorable points along the rail- 

 road between Santa Marta and Aracataca. The railroad is in operation 

 from Santa Marta to Fundacion, a few miles beyond Aracataca. There is 

 a distinct change from the semi-arid conditions about Santa Marta to a more 

 humid condition about Aracataca and Fundacion. Near the residential prop- 

 erty of the United Fruit Company in Santa Marta is the Manzanares River, 

 which about a mile above here has a left affluent, the Tamacal. These streams 

 can also be reached by following the railroad track. Along the railroad 

 track, before reaching the Manzanares, there were some good pools, and 

 just beyond the bridge over the Manzanares was a pond, on the upper side 

 of the track, of possibly two or three acres. At the lower end of this pond 

 were large areas of a three-parted leaved plant which, in habit, much re- 

 sembled spatterdock, and near the upper end were areas of cat-tails. Fol- 

 lowing the railroad track beyond the Manzanares we came to a low forest 

 of large trees with many small muddy streams, and, near the farther edge 

 of this forest, to the Tamacal River. 



The gullies leading back from the Manzanares and Tamacal were dry. 

 Near the coast were extensive shallow salt marshes, known as salinas, where 

 Ischnuras abounded and where the coastal libellulines flew by thousands. 

 The days at Santa Marta were sunshiny, rarely hazy, with but one after- 

 noon's rain. It was generally windy and at night blew so hard that ,we had 

 to close the doors and windows in order to paper our dragonflies. We spent 

 one day on the Rio Donjaca, a small, clear rocky stream ten to fifteen feet 

 wide about twenty-five kilometers from Santa Marta. We found little of 

 mterest here, and walked back to a small sandy stream between kilometers 

 17 and 18. This also we found disappointing. The seven days about Santa 

 Marta yielded 60 species of dragonflies and 1,208 specimens. 



Bolivar, located about five miles out of Santa Marta, was a residence 

 of Mr. O. L. Flye, general manager of the Cincinnati Coffee Company. 

 Through the hospitality of Mr. Flye and his secretary, Mr. Robert Sargent, 

 we were entertained there from December 20 to 26. The road from Santa 

 Marta to Bolivar had been extended beyond Bolivar five miles to La Tigrera, 

 following the Tamacal most of the way. Along the Tamacal and its few 

 tributaries were medium growth forests ; the hills were covered with grasses 

 except where thickets or rank herbaceous growths predominated. Ipomoeas 

 or related plants were not so conspicuous as they were about Santa Marta 

 and along the railroad, where they frequently formed beautiful curtains of 

 bloom. About Bolivar the country was largely pasture land of guinea 

 grass with extensive areas of native xerophytic plants. The altitude of 

 Bolivar is probably about fifteen metres, that of La Tigrera about ninety- 

 one metres. 



The Tamacal and its fe\v permanent tributaries between Bolivar and 

 La Tigrera were clear, rapid and rocky, and for the most part in shade. 



