28 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
true and loyal citizens, or words to that effect. In fact it be- 
came such a ease of involved personality that there was reason 
to fear for the sanity of the distracted director before the mat- 
ter was adjusted. 
After being assured by the Secretary that the War-Trade 
Board had consented to the issuance of the license and that 
it would be forthcoming on the presentation of the ‘‘enclosed 
blanks properly filled out,’’ and after the blanks had been re- 
turned filled out according to the best advice I could get, an 
onimous silence ensued. Week after week passed and we 
wanted to ship our goods east, but nothing was heard from the 
War-Trade Board regarding the license. And then Henderson 
to the rescue! Being a resident of Washington, having written 
a standard work on diplomacy, and hence being acquainted 
with the ins and outs of the Circumlocution Office, he proceeded 
to camp on the trail of that war-trade license, stalked it to its 
lair in a forgotten pigeon-hole, actually secured it properly 
signed, sealed, and delivered, and triumphantly mailed it to me 
just in time to save reason, which was decidedly tottering. 
And then all sorts of awful things were told us about the 
customs regulations at the port of departure. We were not | 
allowed to take with us any printed or written matter what- 
ever, either on our person or in our baggage. Nothing but 
‘“absolutely necessary wearing apparel and toilet articles’’ would 
be allowed as baggage. Now all of our equipment was to be 
taken as baggage, by a special very generous arrangement with 
the Quebec Company. This included various notes, lists, scien- 
tific papers and books, charts, chemicals, instruments, etc., not 
associated in any way with the toilet. This ‘‘baggage’’ was all 
to be taken in the name of the director of the expedition, who 
began to see visions of an aggregate sentence of many lifetimes 
in a federal prison on account of infringements of the law too 
numerous to mention. But I have always found that officials 
‘‘higher up,’’ where they are allowed some exercise of judgment, 
are entirely reasonable and courteous when a matter is plainly 
presented for adjudication; and that they can usually be de- 
pended upon to meet the situation, however unusual, with entire 
sanity and justice. Such indeed was the case with the New 
