i6 Alexander G. Ruthven 



done at Bonda, although it holds good also for many specimens labelled 

 "Valparaiso" and "El Libano." The Valparaiso of Smith is today the 

 hacienda Cincinnati, and El Libano is the mountain ridge lying between 

 Cincinnati and the adjoining coffee estate of La Victoria, which descends 

 from the Cerro Quemado of San Lorenzo. There is no doubt that Mr. 

 Smith took every precaution to label his specimens correctly, but when 

 native hunters are employed it is not possible for a person who is unfamiliar 

 with the local topography to tell from a hunter's description just where 

 each specimen was secured. Also, the hunters themselves do not always 

 remember and are very apt to give fictitious localities for specimens when 

 they have forgotten the true one. In those days the importance of altitude 

 in determining the distribution of species was not appreciated and most 

 collectors paid little attention to it, so that they might be working on the 

 slope of a mountain, with headquarters at 4,000 feet, and make collections 

 from 2,000 to 6,000 feet or more, and give all specimens the locality of the 

 base of operations. 



•Mr. Smith later spent some time at Don Diego, w^iere Mrs. Smith was 

 very ill, and while a great amount of material was collected there much of 

 it was lost, and no detailed report was ever made on the remainder by any 

 institution. Mr. Smith's work in the Santa Marta region was confined to 

 the following roughly outlined sections : The valley of the Rio Manzanares 

 from Mamatoco upwards, covering the lower slopes of the Horqueta and 

 extending northward over the Matagiro Valley and the median part of the 

 valley of the Jordan, at Cacagualito and Calabaso ; the northwest slopes of 

 San Lorenzo, between 2,000 and 7,000 feet, between Minca and the upper 

 slopes of the Cerro Quemado; the vicinity of the town of Cienega (some- 

 times called San Juan de Cordoba) and southward as far as the Rio Ori- 

 hueca, and lastly at Don Diego. 



It is a pity that his specimens could not have been more carefully 

 labelled as to altitude, because a great quantity of skins were made which 

 would now be of inestimable value in plotting the local distribution of 

 species in the regions above enumerated. He deserves, nevertheless, great 

 credit for what he did accomplish, as does Mrs. Smith, because she super- 

 intended all the bird and mammal work and did much of the taxidermy 

 herself. They worked in the region at a most difficult time, as it was during 

 the late revolution, which caused them no end of annoyance. Also, the 

 country around Santa Marta was much more of a wilderness then than 

 now, with almost no roads or trails and very few settlements in the 

 mountains. 



Mr. W. W. Brown arrived at Santa Marta shortly before Mr. Smith 

 and almost at once made his headquarters at Bonda, staying with Mr.. 

 Orlando L. Flye, who was in charge of the electric power plant at Bonda. 

 All the material collected by Mr. Brown in the vicinity of Bonda and Santa 

 Marta was labelled "Santa Marta," and is, as a consequence, worse than 

 useless for plotting distribution, since it is actually misleading in many cases. 

 After working at Bonda he went to the Sierra Nevada, where I have little 

 knowledge of his work except what was given me by two men living in 



