120 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



marked active, for reasons best known to the carto- 

 grapher. It did not even intersect Narborough, 

 which, exactly one hundred years ago, had given 

 Morrell such a warm reception. 



On our visit two years ago to these islands we 

 had hoped against hope for some hint of volcanic 

 activity, with the same chance of success that a 

 ramble through an old cobwebby attic might yield 

 some overlooked treasure of the past. We calcu- 

 lated the half-dozen historic outbreaks to see if any 

 periodicity marked their occurrence, but all was 

 useless and we experienced nothing but the dead 

 cinders of a world's end. 



With the present incentive to hope we cleared 

 Darwin Bay at ten o'clock and headed a little 

 south of west, steaming slowly over the calm 

 water. James was on our port side, Bindloe to star- 

 board, with Abingdon and Indefatigable dim in 

 the distance. New soundings between Tower, 

 Bindloe, and James gave us data for our contour 

 map which was slowly taking form in the Arcfurus 

 laboratory, and a deep haul brought up a catch of 

 strange deep-sea beings. On we went, watching 

 clouds form and reform on the horizon, but never 

 certain of their origin. Toward evening all the 

 islands, after flashing the sunset colors vividly 

 back and forth to one another, gradually withdrew 

 behind misty veils woven from their deeper valleys. 

 I put over a small net from the boom-walk and 

 skimmed the surface for an hour. Then in the 

 dark-room I watched the wonderful glow from 

 the lantern fish which I caught — little eruptions of 



