A WILDERNESS LABORATORY 147 



and an unhesitating use of the three words 

 which should be ready for instant use in the 

 vocabulary of every honest scientist, " I don't 

 know." 



My object in founding the research station 

 was to destroy the bogie of danger and difficulty 

 supposed to attend all tropical investigation, 

 and to show that scientists from north temperate 

 regions could accomplish keen, intensive, pro- 

 tracted scientific work in tropical jungles with- 

 out injury to health or detriment to the facility 

 of mental activity, and at extremely moderate 

 expense. This will open to direct personal 

 investigation, regions which, more than any 

 others, promise dynamic results from evolu- 

 tional study, and will supplement the work of 

 museums with correlated researches upon living 

 and freshly killed organisms. This was a " pro- 

 gressive " doctrine which Colonel Roosevelt en- 

 dorsed with enthusiasm, and after we had 

 brought semblance of a comfortable American 

 home to great, rambling Kalacoon, we were able 

 to welcome Colonel and Mrs. Roosevelt as the 

 first visitors to the actual accomplishment of the 

 project which months before, we had so enthu- 

 siastically discussed at Oyster Bay. 



