viii PREFACE 



f erence concerning the possibilities of big-game fish- 

 ing, and since then Harry Payne Bingham in his 

 yacht Pawnee, and WiUiam K. Vanderbilt in the 

 Ara have done most excellent oceanographic work, 

 the former in the Caribbean and the latter in 

 Galapagos waters. As late as March, 1926, Mr. 

 Vanderbilt reported the Albemarle volcano as still 

 in eruption. 



The Arcturus Oceanographic Expedition, the 

 ninth expedition of the Zoological Society, sailed 

 from Brooklyn on February 11th, 1925, and re- 

 turned to New York on July 30th. In the interval 

 we steamed a distance of over 13,600 miles, touch- 

 ing at Norfolk, Bermuda, Panama, Cocos Island 

 and the Galapagos. We brought back 11,000 feet 

 of splendid motion picture film taken by E. B. 

 Schoedsack, besides hundreds of colored plates and 

 photographs. We established one hundred and 

 thirteen stations, made hundreds of hauls with nets 

 and dredges, threw overboard two thousand drift 

 bottles containing data as to our identification, the 

 date, latitude and longitude. 



My object in this volume differs in no respect 

 from that of the account of my last expedition, 

 Galapagos: World's End, — a scientifically ac- 

 curate, popular presentation of the high lights and 

 vivid experiences of the expedition. As yet there 

 has been time and opportunity for the careful iden- 

 tification of only a few of the many thousands of 

 specimens collected, so that in some instances tech- 

 nical names are lacking in this volume. Whenever 

 identification has been possible I have included it 



