60 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



of size we got a host of other things — shrimps, crabs, and lobsters, 

 corals, shells, and sponges, worms, fish, and algae. Several " brittle " 

 starfish have already been recognized as new species from among those 

 that we brought back, as well as a single specimen of a rare and prob- 

 ably unique form of amphipod, and an unusual crab that " talks " or 

 stridulates. From time to time we shall be reporting on other portions 

 of our biological treasure trove. 



On the morning of March 21 we raised the dim outline of the Isle 

 of Tortuga on the eastern horizon. It was here, in the month of 

 December, 1670, that Henry Morgan assembled several thousand free- 

 booters and thirty-odd sail, and set out to accomplish the sack of old 

 Panama, of which there now remain only a few scattered ruins. We 

 stopped for a day's collecting on the sheltering reefs of the Tierra 

 Baja Road, where that famous, or rather infamous fleet was assembled. 



Collecting one day on the immense barrier reef nearly 2 miles long 

 which makes the harbor of Christiansted, St. Croix, a safe anchorage, 

 I witnessed a curious sight. A lot of big dark green parrot fish were 

 browsing on algae on the flat of the reef at low tide, their backs half 

 out of water, like so many rooting pigs. When I suddenly came upon 

 them, just like a startled drove of pigs they scuttled away to the deep 

 water seaward, splashing, leaping, and, I almost want to say, squealing, 

 so great was the general commotion until the last one was out of sight 

 over the edge of the reef. 



Equally interesting was a hunt for the spiny lobster, langosta, at 

 night by torchlight. I was initiated into this sport in Puerto Rico 

 by Lt. J. M. Cabanillas, U. S. N., in charge of the Naval Radio 

 Station at San Juan. He uses an electric light strapped to his fore- 

 head with a brace of batteries high up on his shoulders. As he catches 

 these lobsters or crayfish by hand, he wears stout gloves as a protec- 

 tion against the fearsome spiny armature of these sizable crustaceans. 

 We had the good fortune to obtain several specimens of Panulirus 

 guttatus, reported in the West Indies from Cuba, Guadaloupe, and 

 Martinique but, so far as I am aware, never before from Puerto Rico. 



Haiti, where we visited Christophe's famous citadel, La Ferriere, 

 and Martinique are intriguing places. In both islands the current 

 language is a French patois peculiar to their black inhabitants. In 

 Martinique we went over from Fort de France, where the Conrad 

 anchored, to see Mount Pelee, the volcano that in 1902 destroyed more 

 lives than any other since Vesuvius at Pompeii. At the foot of the 

 mountain along the seashore to the southwest lies what was left of 

 the old St. Pierre. It is slowly rebuilding since the disaster of 35 years 



