﻿90 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 78 



custodian of the laboratory at Barro Colorado Island, who in the 

 past has sent many valuable specimens to the National Museum. 

 The ship left Balboa on August 26, and reached Salaverry, Peru, 

 August 30. As hotel accommodations were not to be had there, Dr. 

 Schmitt was obliged to move a short distance up the coast to Tru- 

 jillo, where Mr. Sears, the agent for the Grace Twines, generously 

 offered to take him into his own residence. The offer was accepted, 

 and during his stay at Trujillo Dr. Schmitt enjoyed the most gen- 

 erous hospitality of a delightful private home. In regard to the 

 climate he remarks, " You will not believe it, but it is like a cold 

 California night. I am sitting here with my hat and overcoat on so 

 as to keep warm enough to write. What will working in the water 

 be like? I'm told the Humboldt current off the coast of Peru is 

 way out of its course ; that while it usually turns out to sea off Talara, 

 it is now running way up into the Gulf of Panama ; that it affects 

 (kills) the supply of fish and has driven the pelicans up off the 

 California coast in the vicinity of the Catalina Islands where as it 

 is said here, they were never known to occur before. The heavier 

 rains resulting from the shift of the Humboldt current have washed 

 out a lot of land and killed off much of the marine life. The hotel 

 at Salaverry was washed half full of sand by the last wet season's 

 rains, thus the lack of accommodations." 



Dr. Schmitt left Salaverry September i for Guayaquil, where he 

 arrived September 4. He states that there is much more English 

 spoken on this coast of South America than upon the east coast 

 where he visited last year, and that there is a great deal of Ameri- 

 can machinery used everywhere. At three places along the route while 

 the boat stopped to take on cargoes of sugar, he succeeded by means 

 of his bottom sampler in getting mud samples. Guayaquil has but 

 one fairly paved street, the main one running from the water front 

 to the main Plaza. Dr. Schmitt finds that great quantities of 

 shrimps and two species of crabs are sold in the markets of Guaya- 

 quil. A species of CaJlincctcs much like our blue crab of the 

 Chesapeake, and a red Ucidcs, a land crab, appear to be the only 

 two species used as food. He says, " Oysters are very plentiful, 

 but with all the hundreds of thousands that must have been shucked 

 by the men with whom we had converse, none had ever seen a 

 crab in an oyster." 



After a week's unavoidable delay, Dr. Schmitt finally reached 

 Santa Elena, which is on the coast directly west of Guayaquil. Col- 

 lecting here was excellent, but dredging was impossible as the only 

 two motor boats of the place were laid up, and the only other avail- 



