LOG OF THE ARCTURUS S85 



Feb. 15th and 16th. Heavy seas. Ship rolling deeply, and several 

 wan faces show the effect. Attendance at meals spasmodic. Every- 

 one busy unpacking and dragging quantities of things out of the hold, 

 to distribute in their proper places. Not possible to arrange things 

 very neatly, as ship is far too active and every object falls down 

 or slides around. 



Herring gulls followed us up to the evening of the 16th, and then 

 left in a body. They alighted on the water alongside again and again, 

 occasionally feeding, but more often only sitting quietly, very evi- 

 dently resting. Even when the waves were highest and the wind 

 strongest, they rested thus for five minutes at a time, if not much 

 longer. 



Two parasitic jaegers were about most of the day, flying somewhat 

 more easily than the gulls. The projecting central rectrices were 

 plainly visible. They went through a regular routine of flying well 

 ahead of the vessel, alighting and resting until the ship just passed 

 them, when they rose and again flew ahead. 



The gulls (twenty-two in all) spent most of the time, when not 

 resting on the water, balancing about twenty to forty feet above our 

 heads, headed up-wind just to windward and almost over the ship. 



Feb. 17th. Fairly quiet sea and beautiful day. Swung the pulpit 

 over the bow and had our first trial at catching weed from it. Caught 

 a tubful of weed but not a single fish in it, and only moderate num- 

 bers of shrimp and crabs. The weed all in small patches or smaller 

 bits and in long lines running with the wind, at right angles to our 

 course. Much of it rather old, with distinct new growths at the tips. 

 The government's map of the Sargasso Sea for February shows Ber- 

 muda well clear of the Sargasso area, but our experience of to-day 

 shows this is quite wrong, or that this is an exceptional year. 



Not a bird or cetacean all day. A bumble bee came aboard, having 

 flown four hundred miles from the land. 



Noon position: Lat. 33° 27' N; Long. 68° 31' W. 



Feb. 18th. Weed less abundant but in larger masses, and much 

 younger (lighter yellow) in appearance. No fish seen beneath it, and 

 that which we scooped up yielded only shrimp and crabs. Saw one 

 flyingfish. No birds, whales or other life. Bermuda sighted about 

 noon. Picked up black pilot about 4:30, and he took us into St. 

 George's, through the extraordinary channel, where the Arcturus 

 seemed to scrape the coral cliffs on either side. The water is so 

 clear that the reefs show up alarmingly. Scrubby cedar trees were 

 almost within plucking distance, growing among rocks and sand, and 

 sheltering little negro cabins half the size of our deck-houses. Tiny 

 islets dotted the quiet harbor, and as the brilliant sunset faded, 

 small sounds from the town came out to us with fine-drawn clear- 

 ness. Scudding showers during the evening settled into an all-night 

 deluge, but we caught a number of small fish, a crab (Callinectes or- 



