FURTHER EXPLORATIONS IN THE LAND OF THE INCAS 437 



presence of new material that he would 

 otherwise have missed seeing. 



For instance, on this last expedition the 

 most interesting fossil — a portion of the 

 shell of a gigantic antediluvian "land 

 turtle" — was found by one of our civil 

 engineers in the office of a village magis- 

 trate whom he was visiting for reasons 

 of diplomacy. The head and skin of a 

 fine puma or mountain lion, the largest 

 and perhaps one of the rarest mammals 

 in Peru, was secured not by the nat- 

 uralist, but by the surgeon while on a 

 journey to see a very sick priest some 40 

 miles from our headquarters. Had it not 

 been for the surgeon's willingness to go 

 far out of his way in attending to this 

 call of charity, our collections would not 

 include a puma. It happened that a belt 

 of forest, probably the highest known in 

 the world, was located by the director 

 while on a reconnaissance trip through a 

 region which the botanist was unable to 

 reach. On the other hand, the botanist 

 was the first to observe an interesting 

 feature in the fortress near Cuzco, 

 namely, a groove cut across a corner- 

 stone so as to add to its symmetry by 

 making it appear to be two stones instead 

 of one. The naturalist spent several 

 weeks in an unsuccessful attempt to lo- 

 cate the presence of a spectacled bear, 

 until one was accidentally found by the 

 director while engaged in archaeological 

 reconnaissance along one of the old trails 

 leading to Machu Picchu. 



Thus it will be seen that a single party, 

 devoted to the study of one subject, is at 

 a disadvantage even in its own specialty, 

 as compared with an expedition com- 

 posed of several parties of observers 

 trained in various fields of investiga- 

 tion. 



The Expedition of 1915 included the 

 following: Hiram Bingham, Ph. D., Di- 

 rector; O. F. Cook, of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agricul- 

 ture, Botanist; Edmund Heller, B. A., 

 Naturalist; Clarence F. Maynard, C. E., 

 Topographer; David E. Ford, M. D., 

 Surgeon; Osgood Hardy, M. A., Inter- 

 preter and Chief Assistant; El wood C. 

 Erdis, Chief Engineer ; J. J. Hasbrouck, 

 Ph. B., Engineer ; Geoffrey W. Morkill, 

 Assistant in Charge of Headquarters ; G. 



Bruce Gilbert, of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, As- 

 sistant Botanist; Ricardo Charaja, As- 

 sistant to the Director. 



In addition, we had such native guides, 

 muleteers, and soldiers as were necessary. 

 We used 50 mules and 5 horses. 



On the 191 1 Expedition Prof. H. W. 

 Foote, of the Sheffield Scientific School 

 of Yale University, had cooperated with 

 me in assembling a balanced ration in 

 "unit food boxes." The object of this 

 plan was to facilitate the provisioning of 

 our parties by packing in a single box 

 everything that two men would need in 

 the way of provisions for aperiod of one 

 or two weeks, depending on the size of 

 the case. We found that the larger box 

 was too heavy, so in 191 5 only the smaller 

 size was used. These boxes have given 

 such general satisfaction, not only to the 

 men themselves, but to the surgeons who 

 had the responsibility of keeping us in 

 good condition, that a few words in re- 

 gard to this feature of our equipment 

 may not be unwelcome at this point. 



THE NECESSITY OF VARIED AND WHOLE- 

 SOME FOOD 



Many people seem to think that it is 

 one of the duties of an explorer to 

 "rough it" and "trust to luck" for his 

 food. I had found on earlier expeditions 

 that the result of being obliged to subsist 

 on irregular and haphazard rations was 

 most unsatisfactory. While "roughing it" 

 is far more enticing to the inexperienced 

 explorer than the humdrum expedient of 

 carefully preparing, months in advance, 

 a daily bill of fare that shall be suffi- 

 ciently varied, wholesome, and well bal- 

 anced, the results of such "trusting to 

 luck" are very unsatisfactory. 



The truth is that providing an abun- 

 dance of well - selected and properly 

 cooked food adds very greatly to the 

 efficiency of a party. It means far more 

 trouble and expense for the transporta- 

 tion department, and some of the younger 

 men on our parties sometimes feel that 

 their reputation as explorers is likely to 

 be damaged if it is known that straw- 

 berry jam, sweet chocolate, cheese, and 

 pickles are frequently found on their bills 

 of fare ! But experience has shown that 



