PREFACE 
This volume is the fourth narrative in book form of expedi- 
tions sent out in the interest of natural science from the State 
University of Iowa. The first of these was ‘‘Explorations in the 
Far North,’’ by Frank Russell, a narrative of a trip undertaken 
in 1892-3 to the Barren Ground of Arctic America, the main 
object being to secure a series of skins and skeletons of the 
musk-ox which had been reported as about to be exterminated 
by the Esquimos to the North and the Indians to the South. 
The collections made by Mr. Russell were mainly zoological and 
ethnological and still may be regarded as among the most valued 
treasures of the museum. 
The second was a ‘‘Narrative and Preliminary Report of the 
Bahama Expedition,’’ by C. C. Nutting, published by the Uni- 
versity in January, 1895. This relates the experiences of a 
party of twenty-one naturalists, mainly undergraduates from 
the University of Iowa, during a three months’ cruise in the 
vicinity of the Bahama Islands, Cuba, and Key West on a sail- 
ing vessel chartered for the occasion. 
The third volume of this series was the ‘‘Barbados-Antigua 
Expedition, Narrative and Preliminary Report of a Zoological 
Expedition from the University of Iowa to the Lesser Antilles 
under the auspices of the Graduate College,’’ by C. C. Nutting, 
published in 1919. The party consisted of nineteen members, 
mainly zoologists, their principal objective being marine in- 
vertebrates. 
The fourth narrative is the present work, which will speak 
for itself. 
As such publications are rather unusual, perhaps unique, 
products of modern universities, it might be well to explain that 
the idea originated in my mind after reading and profiting by 
such works as Darwin’s ‘‘ Voyage of the Beagle,’’ which always 
seemed to me to be of exceptional value to the naturalist, and 
the various narratives of Aretic and Antarctic expeditions. 
These works have been eagerly read by thousands whose inter- 
est in science is merely incidental and have given great pleasure 
and profit to specialists mainly interested in scientific objectives. 
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