20 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
shape. But it is manifest that copper tanks such as are used by 
the Bureau of Fisheries are the best and safest. For the smaller 
things preserved in fluid we used square bottles packed in the 
chest devised by Dr. Paul Bartsch of the National Museum. Each 
chest contained 108 bottles. We also took along a number of the 
square tin pans described in my narrative of the Bahama Expedi- 
tion and found them very useful for laboratory purposes such as 
sorting and killing specimens. 
Because the party was smaller than on previous occasions, and 
because of the omission of dredging equipment and large glass 
containers, we found the number of packages reduced to twenty- 
two and the weight to 1915 pounds. This was exclusive of three 
twelve gallon drums, containing alcohol, which were sent by ex- 
press. We were allowed 350 pounds per person, or 2100 pounds 
in all, on our railroad tickets which were accompanied by an 
equal number of Trans-Pacific tickets. In this way our entire 
equipment was transported from Iowa City to Fiji, and later to 
New Zealand, free of charge. Coming back was another story, so 
far as railroad transportation was concerned, as will appear later. 
The time from September, 1921, to May, 1922, was none too 
long to attend to the details of preparation, innumerable details 
it seemed to us. Indeed, much more time could have been used 
to advantage, and my experience goes to show that a full year 
should be allowed to actually attend to the preliminary arrange- 
ments for such an expedition. 
We left Iowa City on the evening of May 14. At 5:30 in the 
morning of Tuesday, May 16, we reached Portal, on the Canadian 
border, and saw our equipment and personal luggage, except hand 
luggage, bonded through to Vancouver. 
Wednesday, May 17, was a glorious, bright day in the Canadian 
Rockies. There was more snow on the mountains, through which 
the Canadian Pacific wends its way coastwards, than I had ever 
seen there before, and the great white masses stood out sharply 
against the intense blue of the sky. Most of onr party tried out 
their cameras with satisfactory results, but I refrained until after 
we left Vancouver which I regarded as our real point of depart- 
ure. At times the road ran above the snow line and the tem- 
perature fell to a wintry chill. Although the Canadian Pacific 
Railroad route is familiar to me, there is always a thrill in the 
stupendous scenery of majestic mountains, and many a new pic- 
ture was hung on memory’s walls that day. 
