1 
Waldo L. Schmitt 
Diary, trip to Panama and Galapagos Ids., April, 1941. 
April 1, 1941. Had Malpelo in plain sight this a.m., though hazy 
Toward nine o'clock took couple of shots at it; at 9s30 we got in launch to 
make circuit of island and fish. Saw the old Hancock Exped. landing place to 
N.E. Toward southeast by cave saw moisture and some green algae; did most of 
our fishing about N.'V. point. Gapt. Pickens got a nice wahoo and a rainbow 
runner (I remembered it from the Presidential cruise). Laing and Dr. Blanch 
got s. Pacific Amberjack apiece; Ernest got a Colorado grouper. 
Amberjacks: 
1. Standard length S'S” = 46 lbs. A&i. 11" for over all. 
" 3’4-l/2" = 40 lbs. Add 10" for over all. 
2 
3. Wahoo 44 inches 44" to base tail = 20 lbs. 
4. Rainbovf runner 20" = 3-1/2 lbs 
5. Colorado grouper, Pycteroperca olfax . 
dorsal = 11 spines, 16 soft rays 
anal 3 " 11 " " 
gill rakers, counting stalk, 16. 
Malpelo is very precipitous sided, well nigh inaccessible all around 
Saw our old (Hancock) landing, but we could not land; had no official permis¬ 
sion and besides no point to landing except I might have gotten a few speci¬ 
mens. Calm day, we could have landed had tie had a mind to. No apparent vege¬ 
tation other than lichenous growths here and there; lot of apparently nesting 
gulls, mostly small, of Galapagos species. Already mentioned one streak of 
moisture by cave near S.E.; had lot of bright green algae growths, but per¬ 
haps only 20-30 foot streak, irregularly a few feet or inches wide in places. 
In a notch in larger islet to south, looked at from west, a single slender 
stalk of a plant, maybe 2-1/2 feet high, like stalk of one of our dead century 
