THE START 5 



and in our veins ran about every strain of blood that there 

 was on this side of the water during colonial times. Cher- 

 rie's father was born in Ireland, and his mother in Scot- 

 land; they came here when very young, and his father 

 served throughout the Civil War in an Iowa cavalry regi- 

 ment. His wife was of old Revolutionary stock. Father 

 Zahm's father was an Alsacian immigrant, and his mother 

 was partly of Irish and partly of old American stock, a 

 descendant of a niece of General Braddock. Miller's father 

 came from Germany, and his mother from France. Fiala's 

 father and mother were both from Bohemia, being Czechs, 

 and his father had served four years in the Civil War in 

 the Union Army — his Tennessee wife was of old Revolu- 

 tionary stock. Harper was born in England, and Sigg in 

 Switzerland. We were as varied in religious creed as in 

 ethnic origin. Father Zahm and Miller were Catholics, 

 Kermit and Harper Episcopalians, Cherrie a Presbyterian, 

 Fiala a Baptist, Sigg a Lutheran, while I belonged to the 

 Dutch Reformed Church. 



For arms the naturalists took i6-bore shotguns, one of 

 Cherrie's having a rifle barrel underneath. The firearms 

 for the rest of the party were supplied by Kermit and 

 myself, including my Springfield rifle, Kermit's two Win- 

 chesters, a 405 and 30-40, the Fox 12-gauge shotgun, and 

 another i6-gauge gun, and a couple of revolvers, a Colt and 

 a Smith & Wesson. We took from New York a couple 

 of canvas canoes, tents, mosquito-bars, plenty of cheese- 

 cloth, including nets for the hats, and both light cots and 

 hammocks. We took ropes and pulleys which proved in- 

 valuable on our canoe trip. Each equipped himself with 

 the clothing he fancied. Mine consisted of khaki, such as 



