ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
53 
trips to the jungle and coast beyond Fort Sher¬ 
man, for horseback rides to the Chagres River, 
tarpon fishing at the Gatun spillway, and trips 
back and forth across the Isthmus. In Colon 
we met with the greatest disappointment of the 
voyage as Mr. Williams was compelled, for 
business reasons, to return to New York. It 
was with the deepest regret that we saw him 
go, for his enthusiasm in the expedition had 
been great, and now the real excitement of 
exploration was just ahead. 
For a supply of fresh water beyond that 
which the Noma carried, we depended upon the 
islands, as a supply was marked on the chart 
in several places, and the pilot book mentioned 
even a pipeline on the dock at Chatham. We 
passed through the Canal without special inci¬ 
dent, arriving at the Panama end in time to see 
the final searchlight display of the combined 
Atlantic and Pacific fleets. On the night of 
March 24 we steamed into the Pacific, which 
was as smooth as a lake during the four days 
it took us to reach the Archipelago. Indeed 
during our time there and on our voyages to and 
from Panama this ocean lived up to its name, 
and we experienced only perfect weather and 
summer calm, a welcome change from our At¬ 
lantic memories. 
At dawn on March 28 we sighted the islands. 
and steaming slowly among their misty shapes, 
recognized Indefatigable, James, Seymour, 
Daphne, Jervis and Duncan, and dropped 
anchor about 10:00 A. M. in Conway Bay on 
the north-west side of Indefatigable. This 
anchorage, chosen more or less at hazard be¬ 
cause of our incomplete information concerning 
the islands, proved to be a fortunate choice. 
Sheltered on the west by Eden, an isolated 
volcanic peak of an island, a sandy beach at the 
back of a natural lava breakwater provided an 
easy and safe landing for our small boats. Here 
we pitched two tents for temporary laboratories, 
though most of our work in arranging and 
studying specimens continued to be done on 
board ship. During our entire stay at the islands 
we lived on the Noma, thus eliminating the 
extra work of transporting supplies; also we 
had the benefit of the evening breezes and 
escaped the mosquitos which on some of the 
islands appeared at dusk in innumerable swarms. 
The shore life at this landing, which we 
named Harrison Bay, was plentiful and most 
interesting. The instantaneously arresting fea¬ 
ture was the astounding tameness of all the 
creatures. Having never seen human beings 
they had little fear, the birds and seasons 
being particularly indifferent to us. Perhaps 
indifference is hardly the word, since in many 
A ROUGH DAY AT SEA 
All work ceased when we rolled in the great troughs. It was a glorious sight to sit in the stern and 
watch the emerald combers seething over the rail. 
Photograph by William Beebe. 
