430 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1958 
The inclined plateau forming most of the top of the island is covered by 
coarse grasses, sedges, a slender narrow-leafed agave, several cacti in great 
abundance, lantana, and several other scrubby shrubs. The whole island pre- 
sents an unfavorable aspect, and one must be constantly alert lest he fall in brush- 
covered holes or fall with a rock slide. On the upper reaches of the island the 
sea birds share their precarious retreat with goats and a large, swift, black 
lizard. The latter are curious reptiles. While dismembering a dead agave, in 
search of beetles or cockroaches, my scratching attracted 20 or 30 of these 
black fellows, whose curiosity brought them within easy range—but I had no 
shotgun. Two very recent rockfalls attest to the insecurity of the Redonda 
sanctuary, rock falls no doubt caused by the several slight earthquakes such as 
we experienced during our recent visit. 
Best of all, I got to the very top of Redonda, something I wanted to do ever 
since I set foot ashore here 2 years ago, and I sampled the night crawlers and 
fliers which I did not have the opportunity to do before, and may never have 
again. 
Coming down the gully up which I had climbed was likewise easier than in 
1956. I did not have to ride a rock avalanche down this time, but getting off 
was a wetter performance. After putting my gear safely aboard the dinghy in . 
which Danny and Joe came to get me, in the rise and fall of the surf on the 
boulder-heaped shore, I stepped unwittingly into the sea instead of the boat, 
which did not rise in time to meet me, as I thought it would. Hither my timing 
or that of the unaccommodating 5-foot-high surf was poor, but anyway the dip 
was as refreshing as a shower after a hot and dirty day and a not too 
comfortable night ashore. 
IN CONCLUSION 
This year’s trip to the Virgin Islands covered less ground—and less 
water—than the previous Smithsonian-Bredin expedition to the Carib- 
bean—500 miles as compared with 1,000, and 18 islands as compared 
with 28. This time, however, we got underground, inside the islands, 
a thing we had never done before in this area, and got to the very top 
of Redonda. The collecting was good in most places, excellent in 
some, but this narrative is following too soon upon our return for an 
evaluation of the size and value of our collections. As a single in- 
stance, however, there may be mentioned the nearly 250 cockroaches 
that Dr. Clarke hewed from a large dead agave’s imbricated leaves on 
the slopes of Peter Island above Little Bay. These roaches are not 
our usual North American household kind, but one of the wild, out- 
door, tropic species, Hemiblabera brunneri, of which Dr. Ashley Gur- 
ney, of the United States Department of Agriculture, tells me the 
Museum had but four specimens, while not more than a dozen are 
known in museums generally. Dr. Gurney is devoting serious study 
to the distribution of the cockroaches through the West Indies and was 
very pleased with the material the expedition brought back from 13 
different localities, totaling more than 2,000 specimens. 
Again the thanks of the Smithsonian Institution go to Mr. and 
Mrs. Bredin for another memorable, noteworthy, and scientifically 
profitable expedition. 
