SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I929 IO7 



ward toward St. Pierre up and up around many a hairpin curve, wind- 

 ing in and out and twisting about an endless number of turns which 

 taxed the splendid driving capacities of our chauffeur to their limit. 

 Our drive to St. Pierre was magnificent, every turn a picture ; the 

 mountains so steep that on a rainy day like this it is almost impossible 

 to get a foothold. But even on these steeps agriculture is being pur- 

 sued which leaves little of the native fauna. The extreme tops of the 

 mountains are treeless, Init covered with brush and grass and that 

 awful pest the staghorn fern which ever and anon comes down to the 

 road. The timljer creeps up the gullies, and splendid tree ferns and 

 slender palms lend an unusual charm to these mountain vistas. In 

 sight of St. Pierre we turned eastward and in a roundabout way com- 

 pleted our swing back to the capital by night. 



On our way to Santa Lucia August 9, we stopped off Diamond Hill, 

 Martinique, and made a collection of shells on its timbered summit. 

 After exploring parts of Santa Lucia and St. X'inccnt islands, we 

 then set sail for the Grenadines. Between St. Vincent and Grenada 

 there are scattered quite a number of islands and islets and rocks 

 which are collectively called the Grenadines. These are of course of 

 interest because they too have served as stepping stones in the north- 

 ward migration of the flora and fauna. I visited and collected on 

 the following islands : Bequia, Quatres, Petit Nevis, Mustique, 

 Baliceaux, Little Mustique, Cannouan, Mayero, Union, Petit Mar- 

 tinique, Petit San Vincent, Carriacou, Salina, Frigate, Ronde, Dia- 

 mond, and Caille. On each of these islands all possilile eft'orts were 

 made to secure a representative lot of mollusks. Our labors were 

 crowned with varying degrees of success this being largely in inverse 

 proportion to the amount of cultivation and deforestation to which 

 these islands have been subjected. One very interesting and instruc- 

 tive feature was the finding of a half-grown Physa in a pool near the 

 summit of North Hill, Carriacou, in a grass-grown depression filled 

 by recent rains, evidently carried here by some wader. A spotted 

 sand-piper was fishing in the same place. The study of the distribu- 

 tion of fresh water mollusks must take the migrating shore birds 

 under consideration as factors for they undoubtedly play an impor- 

 tant role in their distribution. 



We arrived in St. George Harbor, Grenada, Sunday evening, 

 August 25, and remained here until August 28. The splendid automo- 

 bile roads everywhere and the kind helpfulness of the officials enabled 

 us to obtain a fine collection of land shells from many stations. The 

 most startling find however, was in a small stream at Mineral Springs 

 in the northeast part of the island, where a little stream rich in lime 



