Galapagos Expedition - Welcome Aboard

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 When each expedition of which I have been a member has come to its conclusion it has been a constant source of regret to me that no diary had been kept. The expedition faded, with the passing of the years, into a general memory with certain predominant high lights. Many of the events which occurred, and which added so much to the pleasure of all, were forgotten. In retrospect even some members of the party lost certain of their characteristic traits. True, sometimes they were recalled in conversations when the members of the expedition met and reminisced, but more often this was not the case.
Therefore, when this expedition to the Galapagos Islands was planned, I felt that the opportunity had come to keep a journal record. The trip itself should be interesting enough to record. The personnel of the party consisted of people capable of thinking, and presumably capable of putting down their thoughts in good written form.
The usual expedition diary is kept by one or, at most, two members of the party. As a result the entire trip is seen from one or two viewpoints and the burden of the work very often results in abbreviations and omissions. In order to enlarge the scope of this diary each of eight members of the party was asked to keep the record one day in eight. The following evening at dinner he read his record to therest of us and additions were made when necessary and accuracy was at a premium.
There has been no attempt in the following pages to alter the form in which the writer chose to express himself. While there is a resultant potpourri of tense and verbiage, this seems to add something to the flavor of the writing.
Carola and myself assumed the task of writing about the preliminary trip before the Museum party joined the yacht, and Dr. Herbert Barker very kindly brought the story to its conclusion by jotting down the events that occurred from Talara, Peru until we returned to the Panama Canal.
Much has undoubtedly been omitted that could have been said. Some scientific things have been presented in an amateurish way, and perhaps some amateurish things have been presented in a scientific way, but here follows the story of a trip to the Galapagos as seen by eight pairs of eyes and expressed by eight individuals. If the following pages bring enjoyment and amusement, the work has been worthwhile, and it has been put in book form for the purpose of recalling to the members of the expedition this trip, which was made by us together .
LEON MANDEL
Created with Covid 19.2
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