SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I928 97 



with and sent specimens for identification to specialists all over the 

 world, writing all of his letters by hand. All of this work was carried 

 on in time outside of his ofificial duties at the college and many other 

 activities in w^hich he took part. 



On the morning after ni}- arrival at Los Banos the work of pre- 

 paring the collection for packing began. A brief general examination 

 showed that every ]Mn (about 300,000) would have to lie set more 

 deeply in the cork lining of the boxes, and that some specimens, 

 comparatively few in percentage of the whole but in the aggregate a 

 considerable number, would have to be cleaned of mold and verdigris. 

 Kurajigui and Fidel soon acquired the requisite skill in handling the 

 forceps and in cleaning the specimens but it required practically a 

 month for the three of us to finish this portion of the work, which 

 also involved the use of many thousands of extra pins for l)racing 

 large specimens and such as were loose on the pins. Fidel, who had 

 been sufi^ering from some e^e trouble, had stuck to the task up to this 

 time, but had to give up here and Kurajigui and I finished the job. 



In the meantime I ]ilaced an order for the requisite numl)er of 

 packing cases with the Insular Lumber Company. These were sold to 

 me at such a price that the cost of manufacture amounted to a gift 

 to the project, and this was but one instance of the attitude displayed 

 toward the matter by nearly everyone with whom I had dealings. 



The next three operations in the preparation of the Schmitt boxes 

 for packing were carried on concurrently. In order to prevent so far 

 as possible the formation of mold, which in the tropics is controlled 

 only with great difficulty, each box was opened to the full sunlight 

 for about 10 minutes. Before being closed it was given a dose of a 

 saturated solution of paradichlorobenzine and naphthalene in carbon 

 tetrachloride, closed immediately and, while still hot, wrapped in heavy 

 paraffine paper sealed with a hot flatiron. These operations could 

 be carried on only for four or five hours during the heat of the day, 

 and were further slowed up by the many cloudy days that intervened. 



Time unsuitable for sunning boxes was devoted to the nailing to- 

 gether of the packing cases, which had been delivered in the form of 

 " shooks," and providing them with rope handles. I nearly lost caste 

 in the eyes of the natives because I worked on this jolj with Kurajigui 

 instead of letting him do it alone. 



When the sunning and wrapping of the insect boxes was finished 

 they were tied into bundles of five and wrapped in another sheet of 

 parafifine paper. Three of these bundles were tied together with heavy 

 sea island cotton cord and packed in a case with about 20 pounds of 

 excelsior. After packing the first few boxes I suddenly realized with 



