398 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



quantities behind the beach, but few gulls and none nesting that we 

 saw. Sea-lions sleeping in the tide-pools, and mockingbirds feeding 

 their young. Walked along shore to the wonderful pools under the 

 cliffs, finding doves' nests with eggs on the way, and collecting the 

 small moths that are abundant in the scrubby growth. Grasshoppers 

 common, and many little Hemiptera on the low green plants. A queer 

 parasitic plant very common here; it is pale straw-color, and looks 

 like the shrivelled remains of some low growth at a little distance; 

 on examination it is a mass of filamentous strands, completely cover- 

 ing some clump of vegetation over which it is heaped like a hay- 

 stack. 



April 8th. Rowing round cliffs to east and south, found hundreds 

 of fork-tailed gulls {Creagrus furcatus) and noddy terns in even 

 greater numbers, nesting in cracks and on tiny shelves of rock. There 

 were shearwaters in small flocks of six or eight, and tropicbirds alone 

 or in pairs. A few pelicans were roosting here and there, and many 

 white boobies along the summit of the cliffs. Dwight Franklin ex- 

 plored island to opposite coast, but found little change in the coun- 

 try all the way; coming back he wandered to the northward, and 

 found a crater lake. Did not get back till after midnight. Rain in 

 the afternoon and showers in evening. Nothing like this three years 

 ago. Splendid fishing all round bay and outside, and enough group- 

 ers and mackerel being caught to feed all fifty-six of us. 



April 9th. Tried diving helmet for first time, and found it most 

 exciting experience. Trite but true to say it opens a new world. 

 Went down several times in about fifteen feet of water, experiment- 

 ing with pressure, rate of pumping, and so on. A large shark was 

 swimming nearby, but paid no attention to the diver. The strange 

 beauty of the submerged scenery is hard to describe. The range of 

 vision is limited to perhaps forty feet, while everything beyond that 

 is wrapped in a soft, luminous fog, a delicate blue haze like that of 

 a concentrated Indian Summer, in which shadowy forms weave to and 

 fro. There is little coral at this spot; the bottom is covered with 

 pavement-like volcanic rock, like that of which the island is mostly 

 made. 



Ice-machine has sprung leaks, so that ammonia fumes make the en- 

 gine-room almost unlivable. We are madly eating meat and fruit to 

 save it. 



April 10th. Staff now divided into parties, with special assign- 

 ments for each, such as shore collecting, plankton collecting, fishing, 

 identification and dissection of fish caught, painting, photographing, 

 mapping and sounding the bay, and diving in the helmet. Tremendous 

 activity all day. Fishing and diving from small boat under cliffs on 

 southeast side of bay, where pelicans, gulls and terns were nesting. 

 Sea-lions were sleeping in deep crevices, or swimming slowly along 

 shore, and whenever one drifted past, all the large fish vanished in- 

 stantly. Big hammerhead shark caught in gill-net, and nearly upset 



