NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE 259 



weights back from the bottom. So a Sigsbee releasing-device 

 was removed from a sampling-tube and attached to our snapper 

 in such a way that when it touched bottom the weights would be 

 released and left down below. Unfortunately, when we first 

 tried the outfit the wire broke at a splice, due to the great strain 

 caused by so much weight. The method looked promising in 

 spite of this accident, and when we reached Guam we had some 

 suitable weights cast for this apparatus. 



On May 11 the Carnegie approached treacherous Wake Island, 

 an isolated speck in the ocean only twenty -one feet high. On a 

 previous cruise the vessel might well have come to grief here. 

 The watch-officers could hear the surf half a mile away before the 

 Island itself was visible in the darkness; and only a prompt change 

 of course saved the ship. But with a steady wind and a brilliant 

 day we were able to pass within a quarter-mile of Peacock Point. 

 Our observations checked the position of the Island as given by 

 the U.S.S. Tanager expedition of 1913, and our own-dead reckoning 

 of 1915. 



Here there are no coconut-trees, only low spreading shrubs. 

 Otherwise the Island is a typical coral atoll, with an exquisite 

 blue-green lagoon which could be easily seen from the rigging. 

 Innumerable sea-birds circled our masts as we passed by, but no 

 signs of human life could be made out ashore. We kept sharp 

 lookout for castaways, as the Island is seldom passed by ocean- 

 traffic. Captain Ault remarked that it might well be made a 

 sea-plane harbor in the future, because of its position midway 

 between Hawaii and Guam, and in a direct line between Los 

 Angeles and Manila, 



Echo-soundings were made frequently as we approached and 

 departed, to secure more data on the shape of the pedestal on 

 which this isolated atoll rests. The whole stretch between Apia 

 and Guam was characterized by a very irregular bottom. Rapid 

 changes of three or four thousand meters in the depths were not 

 rare. On May 18 a sounding of 8,060 meters was obtained, show- 

 ing that we were crossing the northeast end of the famous Nero 

 Deep near Guam. The previous sounding of 2,900 meters was 

 only twenty miles away! 



