26 
The heaviest fish taken on regulation tackle duriig the entire 
cruise was a 235-lb. shark landed by the President after a one-hour -and- 
thirty-six-minute tug of war. A party from the McDOUGAL harpooned a giant 
or olevil "P'sli 
manta^hich, on a heavy duty boat scales, registered 1645 lbs. It measured 
15 feet in width and 9 feet in length, exclusive of a 4-foot tail. 
About 12:30 p.m. we got under way for Balboa, 540 miles distant. 
August 4. Balboa, Canal Zone, 
Moored alongside the pier at a quarter past two. The President 
was kept busy every minute of this day receiving the representatives of the 
national press associations and local reporters and attending to his official 
mail. During the afternoon there was a tea party in honor of the President 
of Panama and other prominent Panamanian and Zone officials. He also re- 
ceived a delegation of the Zone "old-timers." 
Through the kind intermediation of Dr. James Zetek, Mr. Paul Allen, 
of the Missouri Botanical Garden station here in the Zone, gave my seedling 
palms some much needed attention— a good soaking and packing in sphagnum 
moss. The President displayed great interest in Dr. Zetek' s work for the De- 
partment of Agriculture and the Barro Colorado Laboratory and discussed it 
with him at some length. 
August 5* 
Following an all-day inspection of the Canal Zone, its defenses, 
and adjacent portions of the Republic of Panama, the President boarded the 
HOUSTON at the upper Gatun locks. We left at about 6:00 p.m. for the last 
leg of our cruise, to Old Providence Island, Colombia, in the Caribbean off 
the east coast of Nicaragua, 260 miles to the northward* 
