394 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



March 24th. Spent day at Devils' Hole, acquiring many speci- 

 mens, — snakes and birds as well as marine creatures. 



March 28th. All repairs on ice-machine, and pump finished, more 

 coal taken on, and four more expeditionists acquired, we went through 

 the Canal to-day, and entered the Pacific at 11 p.m. 



March 29th. In the Pacific, an ocean that can apparently be de- 

 pended on, — at least this part of it. There is hardly a ripple on the 

 surface, and the sun shines and the temperature is perfection. Every- 

 one busy cleaning laboratory, settling new quarters and generally 

 clearing the decks for action. Put out surface nets in evening, and 

 in an hour brought in solid quarts of plankton. 



Noon position; Lat. 7° 15' N; Long, 79° 56' W. 



March 30th. Up early, taking sounding in 2070 fathoms, followed 

 by Petersen and otter trawls, and silk nets at varying depths, while 

 some of us collected with dipnets from boom and pulpit. Every 

 net comes in bulging with so many organisms that the mere pre- 

 serving and recording of the creatures requires hours, to say nothing 

 of studying them. Just before dinner the water became thick with 

 innumerable jellyfish and similar planktonic animals, so that from the 

 upper deck the ocean alongside seemed to be clouded and milky. 

 We tried raw plankton as a food, and found that so far as flavor is 

 concerned, one might as well take salt water. 



Noon position; Lat. 5° 03' N; Long. 81° 08' W. 



March 31st. Station 28, 5:15 to 10:30 a. m. Sounded in 1805 fathoms. 

 Put down otter trawl 500 metres and three surface metre nets. 

 Captured Argyropelecus and Cyclothone in the trawl, and Polynemis 

 and young flyingfish at the surface. 



Station 29, 3:50 to 4:20 p. m. Put down a Petersen to 500 metres 

 and the silk net to 250 metres, obtaining Cyclothone, Argyropelecus, 

 Myctophum, and several species of flounder. 



Station 30, 8:00 to 8:20 p.m. Two surface nets. Results, young 

 Coryphaena and flyingfish, Myctophids, and quantities of inverte- 

 brates. 



Noon position; Lat. 8° 35' N; Long. 83° 01' W. 



April 1st. Sounded at 5:30 in 1826 fathoms. Hard bottom, nothing 

 in bottom samples. An extraordinary sight greeted us at dawn. As 

 far as the eye could see stretched a clearly marked line of foam, 

 zigzagging to the horizon in a NE and SW direction. On the south 

 side of the line the water showed dark and rough, while to the north 

 it was lighter and smoother. We later found that the temperature 

 of the smoother water was 2° lower than that on the southern side. 

 This line, that wound across the placid sea like a river meandering 

 through smooth fields, marked the meeting-point of two great currents, 

 and within its narrow limits swam or drifted or flew an amazing 

 quantity' of varied life. Boobies, petrels, phalaropes, gulls, tropic- 



