SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I929 7I 



previous, and the gale continued five more days. Fortunately it 

 rained very hard for several days, supplying us with an abun- 

 dance of fresh water. It was not until Sunday morning, February 3, 

 that our crew managed to get out to our island. They had been sail- 

 ing for two days and nights trying to reach us, and when they finally 

 managed to make a landing, they were completely exhausted. 



After visiting three more of the islands, we returned to Fort 

 Liberte, and from February 6 to 20 our entire time was given to the 

 collecting of birds. We made several short trips out of Fort Liberte 

 in the same little sail boat we used on our island trip, with excellent 

 results. During this period we made a collection of 163 bird skins 

 and 39 bird skeletons, together with a number of bats, lizards, fish, 

 mollusks, and miscellaneous material. Our next objective was the 

 Island of La Gonave. 



At 9 p. m., February 27, we left St. Marc in a sail boat, somewhat 

 larger and of much better build than the one we had in the north, 

 with a crew of two men. About midnight the moon rose and at this 

 time we were but a few miles out from land. The wind had ceased 

 entirely, and the crew had stopped sculling, stating that it would soon 

 blow again. About i a. m. our attention was attracted by a peculiar 

 sound, like the " blowing " of porpoises. We paid little attention to 

 it, believing it to be a school of porpoises going by, but we soon heard 

 it again, this time but a short distance away, and much to our surprise, 

 we saw plainly in the moonlight, a large whale not more than 500 

 feet from our boat. The next " blow " came from the opposite side 

 of our ship, about the same distance as the one we had previously 

 seen on our right. The tactics of appearing, blowing, and then dis- 

 appearing, continued for a few minutes, when to our amazement, one 

 appeared on each side of our boat. The crew paid little attention to 

 them, but the rest of us began to feel somewhat uneasy, having a 

 whale bobbing up and down so close to us on each side. A few 

 minutes later we could see and hear three whales, apparently playing 

 or feeding near the same spot. This continued for about a half hour, 

 when they all seemed to make a deep dive at the same time, their 

 tails being high out of the water as they went down, and this was the 

 last we saw of them. 



At 6 p. m., 21 hours after leaving St. Marc, a distance of 22 miles, 

 we arrived at Anse a Galet, the Gendarmerie Headquarters for the 

 Island, where the only American, an officer of the Marine Corps, was 

 stationed. From Anse a Galet we traveled overland to En Cafe, and 

 on March 4 investigations were begun in a group of caves that we 

 located about a mile from our camp. The first one to be worked was 



