We rode happily up the ravine and stood in a rocky gateway.  At the right a green-clothed mountain rose out of a tangle of luxuriant vegetation; to the left wave after wave of magnificent forested ridges lost themselves in the low hung clouds; at our feet lay a beautiful valley filled with stately trees which spread into a thick green canopy overhead.

We camped in a clearing just at the edge of the forest.  While the tents were being pitched, I set a line of traps along the base of the opposite mountain and found a “runway” under almost every log.  About eight o’clock I ran my traps and, with the aid of a lantern, stumbled about in the bushes and high grass, over logs and into holes.  When I emptied my pockets there were fifteen mice, rats, shrews, and voles, representing seven species and all new to our collection.  Heller brought in eight specimens and added two new species.  We forthwith decided to stay right where we were until this “gold mine” had been exhausted.

In the morning our traps were full of mammals and sixty-two were laid out on the table ready for skinning.  The length, tail, hind foot, and ear of each specimen was first carefully measured in millimeters and recorded in the field catalogue and upon a printed label bearing our serial number; then an incision was made in the belly, the skin stripped off, poisoned with arsenic, stuffed with cotton, and sewed up.  The animal was then pinned in position by the feet, nose, and tail in a shallow wooden tray which fitted in the collecting trunk.

The specimens were put in the sun on every bright day until they were thoroughly dry and could be wrapped in cotton and packed in water-tight trunks or boxes.  We have found that the regulation U.S.  Army officer’s fiber trunk makes an ideal collecting case.  It measures thirty inches long by thirteen deep and sixteen inches wide and will remain quite dry in an ordinary rain but, of course, must not be allowed to stand in water.  The skulls of all specimens, and the skeletons of some, are numbered like the skin, strung upon a wire, and dried in the sun.  Also individuals of every species are injected and preserved in formalin for future anatomical study.

Larger specimens are always salted and dried.  As soon as the skin has been removed and cleaned of flesh and fat, salt is rubbed into every part of it and the hide rolled up.  In the morning it is unwrapped, the water which has been extracted by the salt poured off, and the skin hung over a rope or a tree branch to dry.  If it is not too hot and the air is dry, the skin may be kept in the shade to good advantage, but under ordinary field conditions it should be placed in the sun.  Before it becomes too hard, the hide is rolled or folded into a convenient package hair side in, tied into shape and allowed to become “bone dry.”  In this condition it will keep indefinitely but requires constant watching, for the salt absorbs moisture from the air and alternate wetting and drying is fatal.