° 1918 J Richmond, In Memoriam: Edgar A. M earns. 13 



Wood," its object being to "determine some feasible route to the 

 mountain, to ascend the highest peak, to secure as much data as 

 possible and to collect objects of natural history." Elmer D. 

 Merrill, botanist of the expedition, has fortunately given an account 

 of this trip, and the extracts here quoted are from his paper. 

 "Halcon the third highest peak in the Philippines, is situated in 

 the north-central part of Mindoro. With no known trails leading 

 to it, surrounded by dense forests, cut off from the coast by difficult 

 ridges and large rivers subject to enormous and appalling floods, 

 it stood seemingly inaccessible. Its location is perhaps in the most 

 humid part of the Philippines, where the rains continue for nine 

 months in the year, in a region geographically quite unknown and 

 inhabited by a sparse population of entirely wild and very timid 

 people, and on an island regarding which there is a widespread 

 and generally accepted belief as to its unhealthfulness. Although 

 within 100 miles of Manila and not more than 15 from Calapan, 

 the capital of Mindoro, so far as I have been able to determine it 

 remained unconquered up to the year 1906." John Whitehead, 

 an English collector, who reached one of the outlying spurs of 

 Halcon in the winter of 1895, wrote of this region: "I have seen a 

 good deal of the tropics, but I never encountered such deluges, 

 such incessant rain, or such thousands of leeches." 



The Mearns party, consisting of eleven whites and twenty-two 

 natives, left Calapan on Nov. 1, for Subaan, where it began its 

 journey inland. The expedition discovered several uncharted 

 rivers, which had to be forded or crossed on rude bridges con- 

 structed by the party, and progress was impeded by the almost 

 constant rains, the difficulties of trail-cutting, and the swarms of 

 leeches, the latter constituting a notorious drawback to travel in 

 the forests of that region. The privations of the journey are 

 graphically set forth by Merrill, who states that the expedition 

 reached the summit on the afternoon of Nov. 22d, but remained 

 only long enough to take aneroid readings and deposit a record 

 of the trip. The return to the coast was not without trouble, since 

 nearly fourteen days were required to reach Subaan. Carriers 

 sent down in advance for food and supplies had not returned; 

 the remaining members were obliged to carry heavy loads; a 

 bridge made by the party was washed away and had to be rebuilt ; 



