122 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE CARNEGIE 



Any attempt to get further south seemed hopeless. For ten days 

 we had averaged less than sixty miles, and on no day had we 

 made as much as a hundred. Accordingly, Captain Ault gave 

 orders to head westward toward Barbados, thereby omitting the 

 proposed loop to the mouth of the Amazon. 



The scientific routine was progressing favorably. We had 

 occasional difficulties with equipment. The piano-wire had a 

 habit of breaking at kinks, and we lost a few snappers from this 

 cause. It was not always certain when bottom was struck, and 

 sometimes many meters of wire coiled up in kinks on the ocean- 



The Forecastle CJaxg 

 On a Sunday afternoon. 



floor. We really needed a separate machine, with an automatic 

 stop for the sounding work. Parkinson found that his electrom- 

 eter-fibres were scaling and he had to radio for a new supply to 

 be delivered in Barbados. From time to time messengers sent 

 down to reverse the Nansen bottles were intercepted by some 

 marine organism. But on the whole our duties were discharged 

 more smoothly every day, and we could relax for a few hours 

 after supper. An occasional game of cards, or a motion-picture 

 of our own make, followed the meal. And there were those who 

 found pleasure in stretching out on the cover of a whale-boat to 

 watch for shooting-stars or gaze at the moon. 



