cuAP. XV. NO CREDIT WAS GIVEN. 293 



Academicians are therefore, in a fashion, still commemorated ; 

 though the length of the base, as La Condamine feared, is now 

 lost for ever. 



The latter part of the month of May was principally occupied 

 in arranging and despatching the collections. I re-examined, 

 labelled, catalogued and packed more than 8000 separate objects, 

 and succeeded in sending them to the coast, carriage unpaid. 

 These were found awaiting me, while a few other cases which 

 were forwarded some weeks later from Riobamba, carriage paid, 

 were very tardy in making their appearance, and caused a fort- 

 night's detention at Guayaquil. It is the usual habit in the 

 country to pay for carriage in advance, and the carriers have 

 their customers at their mercy. The establishment of a system 

 of transit which shall be fair to both sides is a general want, that 

 affords another great opportunity to persons of enterprize. 



As our faces were now going to be set homewards, and a 

 tolerably close estimate could be formed of the food and other 

 matters that would be required, surplus stock was cleared out. I 

 took a hundred Pounds over the counter in three days, and 

 incurred no bad debts. The success of this (my first) essay at 

 storekeeping was no doubt due to some lines that I saw on ^the 

 Isthmus ' (said to have been composed by a Calif ornian miner of 

 unusual literary ability), headed No Trust given", which in 1880 

 were exposed in a prominent position just outside the Railway 

 Station at Panama, and probably remain there still, as they were 

 looked upon with admiration, and were considered to embody a 

 great truth, in extremely felicitous language.^ 



Some of these goods were purchased by the amiable Hebraic 

 Yankee. In the interstices of the provision cases all sorts of 

 things which it was supposed might be useful were stowed away, — 

 amongst the rest, each tin contained a little pill-box, and each box 



1 The style of this composition may be inferred from the first line — 

 ''To TRUST is to BUST." 

 The remaining lines are unlit for these pages. 



