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11 kept pretty busy--one collecting station after another and often with more material than we could pickle down the same day. I had intended to have some mail ready for sending out at this place, but only by staying on board am I able to get a few notes written. It is too late to mail them here, but will get them off from Martinique, where we are due on the 22nd. The West Indies are a delightful cruising ground....The weather, except for two or three rather windy days, has been most delightful--rather warm mid-days, but beautiful balmy moonlit nights. Between Trinidad and here (St. Lucia), the smaller islands are rather dry, despite frequent rains. It is the dry season, but, even so, we have some kind of little shower or drizzle out of almost a clear sky. Then again everything clouds up and there is a proverbially tropical rainstorm--pelting, driving rain for some minutes, and then its over. But for these frequent rains even in the dry season, there would be now living down here; most of the smaller islands have to depend on roof-caught rain water. The larger ones, like Grenada, St. Lucia, Trinidad, and Martinique, have tropical rain forests, much water, and many streams. Others, like Union, Tobago Cay, Mustique, and others nobody ever hears of, have a tough time when the rains fail for longer periods, as they often do. "There is a lot to tell, and much of interest. Grenada's principal crop is nutmegs. In the past they have been able to supply the world with them, but did you ever hear that the principal use of nutmegs is to flavor sausages? Here in St. Lucia the chief crop is copra (dried coconut meats) for oil and soap production. Almost all of the islands grow bananas, coffee, cocoa, and almost anything else the tropics produce--papayas, mangoes, cassava, yams, and what not.... "Martinique, March 22, 1956. We are moving along. Hope to leave here (Martinique) Sunday and may reach Dominica on Monday, the 26th, where Jack Clarke is awaiting us. Things have been going quite well, and I'm sure that we shall have some very worthwhile collections with us when we return about May 1." --- EXCUSED LEAVE FOR VOTING On May 1, 1956, the residents of the District of Columbia will have an opportunity to vote in primary elections. Employees of the Smithsonian Institution who are residents of the District of Columbia may be granted a maximum of two hours excused leave for the purpose of voting on May 1. Please refer to Section 430-5h in the Smithsonian Institution Manual for further information. --- ADD NEW RATS "Rats that walk like men" and many other small mammals of the North African desert have just been added to the mammal collection. They were collected by Dr. Henry Setzer, associate curator of mammals, during his expedition to
