despite a clear sky — about the fearful cutting cold, 

 about the yawings and near-founderings of the 

 Hippocampus; but as this is not a tale of men (and 

 women) who go down to the sea in ships, suffice 

 it to relate that we reached the laboratory at last, 

 safe yet not exactly sound: both the motor-boat 

 and our persons were so freighted with ice and 

 rime that we were objects of wonder to the popu- 

 lace, and of dismay to our children who greeted us 

 almost in tears at the dock. 



II 



Of the minor disappointments attending the 

 work of the naturalist, few occur more frequently 

 perhaps than his failures in the finding of needed 

 material for study. This statement may seem 

 strangely inconsistent with my references to the 

 teeming life of the sea; yet it is a common experi- 

 ence for the collector to set out with the definite 

 purpose of securing but one type of subject and 

 return without so much as even a clue to the where- 

 abouts of his quest. The truth is, much of his most 

 interesting finds are owing to the result of fortu- 

 nate accidents rather than to that of design. To be 

 sure, there is always prevailing an abundance of 



[47] 



