56 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



city is beautifully situated and contains many fine homes and parks. 

 One of the show places is the Caracas Country Club, where we met, 

 among other most hospitable people, Dr. Alfredo Jahn and Rudolf 

 Dolge, President and Vice President of the Venezuelan Natural 

 Science Society. 



Between La Guaira and Port of Spain, Trinidad, a number of 

 dredgings and shore collections were made at Tortuga, Cubagua, 

 and Coche Islands. Boat dredging, shore collecting, and botanizing 

 were undertaken at Port of Spain, and additional collections were 

 made also on the windward side of the island at Manzanillo. 



The famous pitch lake of Trinidad was an interesting sight. The 

 level of the lake is definitely receding, which is no wonder, for the 

 excavating seems never to stop. There is an almost constant stream 

 of loaded cars clattering up the cable way to the asphalt refinery and 

 empties coining back to be filled up again. The viscous mass of 

 asphalt is still soft enough to receive good, deep impressions of your 

 feet if you stand in one place any length of time. 



One of the high lights of the cruise was our visit to Tobago. This 

 is the Atlantic Robinson Crusoe Island. It is true that the exploits 

 of Crusoe were largely those of Alexander Selkirk, who lived on 

 Juan Fernandez, off the coast of Chile, but the locale of that world- 

 famous story is the island of Tobago. It is a most beautiful place, 

 and Buccoo Bay is claimed by some to have furnished Defoe with 

 the material for his scenic descriptions. To reach Buccoo and its 

 reef we first had to take an auto bus across the island from Scar- 

 borough, where the Velero III was anchored, and then make arrange- 

 ments with a native fisherman to take us out in his boat, but both 

 trip and collecting were well worth the effort. 



Buccoo, at Tobago, was our last major collecting stop in the Atlan- 

 tic, although some work was done during our 2-day stop at Willem- 

 stad, Curacao, off Galera Point, Colombia, and again in Caledonia 

 Bay, Panama. We arrived at Cristobal in the early evening of 

 April 28, after 26 days on the Atlantic. The strong easterly trades 

 blew almost without cessation throughout the trip. The monotonous 

 regularity of it had us all on edge, but the Captain did not let the 

 wind stand in the way of our scientific investigations. We had the 

 great pleasure of Mrs. Hancock's company on this cruise. Not only 

 did she wholeheartedly encourage our several endeavors, but she and 

 the Captain also took an active part in our collecting forays. 



Again the Institution is indebted to Captain Hancock for this 

 opportunity to participate in another of his successful scientific 

 expeditions. 



