PACKING AND SHIPPING 323 
that it would be easier to send goods to the 
North Pole than across the country, as he had 
been instructed, owing to the fact that there 
was hardly a mountain trail over which they 
might be transported. In addition to this it 
would take several weeks to make the journey, 
and the expense would be enormous. These 
facts were communicated to the shippers who 
promptly decided to abandon the goods, re 
plying that they did not care to do business 
in such an inaccessible country. As a result 
of this colossal error goods to the value of 
more than $2500 were lost to the exporter 
and the importer, and bad feeling engendered 
on both sides. The speculator who bought 
them at the custom house sale, told me that the 
contents of the bottles had deteriorated so that 
the goods were unsaleable after their long 
stay in the tropical warehouse, and as a re 
sult he was the possessor of a large quantity 
of bottles for which he had no sale. 
Shipments from the United States to a for 
eign country require what is known as a con 
sular invoice to accompany them. This docu