48 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



The botanist, Dr. E. L. Ekman, had collected plants in this region 

 but to our knowledge we were the first to make zoological collections 

 on this mountain, so that our enthusiasm for the new and unknown 

 repaid the hardships of scrambling up and down muddy trails, of 

 cutting passages through the jungle across the mountain slopes, and. 

 of the continual rain. 



Trogons, hummingbirds, brilliant-colored tanagers and other birds 

 abounded, but the most attractive form was the solitaire, found 

 throughout the forest and at this season in full song. Its marvellously 

 clear, flutelike notes were constantly in our ears and we never tired 

 of the music of these gifted performers. At our cam]) interesting 

 birds were continually under observation at our very door. 



The country Haitians came in groups, interested in a friendly fash- 

 ion in the strange customs of the white man, and marveled at our 

 little tent with its compact cam]) equipment. Each morning at dawn 

 Monsieur Godet, whose real name was Plaisimond Gelin, climbed up 

 from the huts below to drink a cup of coffee, with an abundance of 

 sugar, and to discourse on food, the coffee crop, and kindred subjects. 

 His family brought us vegetables, including excellent white potatoes, 

 profiting thriftily through our purchases. On occasion the local 

 Societe came at dusk and to the throbbing beat of drums danced and 

 sang for hours before our tent. 



With our cases filled with specimens we came finally out of 

 this mountain area, moving slowly over the wretched trails and finally 

 descended again to Aux Caves on the coast. From here through the 

 kindness of Lieut. Charles Klein of the Garde d'Haiti we crossed in 

 a launch to He a Vache a few miles distant, and in a short time had 

 our camp once more established, this time back of the sandy beach of 

 the little land-locked harbor of Feret Bay. After the muddy trails 

 of La Hotte it was a welcome sensation to be clean and dry and to 

 walk about on level ground. Collecting went on apace supplementing 

 the material obtained here last year by the Parish-Smithsonian Ex- 

 pedition led by Lee H. Parish. By the beginning of May our work 

 here was finished and we were again in Port-au-Prince. 



Abandoning mules as a means of transport we obtained a Ford and 

 with our equipment crossed through the mountain highways into the 

 Dominican Republic, where, thanks to the interest of the President, 

 Gen. Rafael Trujillo, we were received at the border with every 

 courtesy. We continued to San Juan and from there to Barahona 

 through an area of desert with giant cacti and mesquite growing over 

 hills cut by dry arroyos that were reminiscent of Arizona. 



