and Laboratory Methods. 



1231 



SPOILS FROM LAND AND SEA. 



larger volumes were covered with black oil cloth and lettered with white paint, a 

 most valuable precaution. 



Two deal tables 20 by 4 feet, with ledges around them, accommodated the 

 whole party either as dining or laboratory tables, the light from the sky-light 

 being ample by day and four large swing- 

 ing lamps serving at night, although but 

 little laboratory work was done after dark. 

 A small dark-room for photographic 

 work was enclosed on the starboard side 

 next to the library shelving, and this room 

 was as near purgatory in the heat of the 

 tropics as one would be willing to endure, 

 even in the cause of science. 



The main, and altogether the most 

 comfortable, laboratory was on deck. The 

 cabin top was just high enough to serve 

 as an excellent table to work at in a 

 standing position, was almost flat, and large enough to accommodate the entire 

 party at once when necessary. After we got into the warm region of the West 

 Indies, this cabin top served as a bed for most of the party, and the bunks below 

 were permanently deserted except in rainy weather, of which there was very little. 

 When at anchor the vessel was covered with an awning reaching from the 

 foremast to the stern, and a cooler or more convenient laboratory would be hard 

 to devise. Of course it was not provided with running water, but the very purest 

 of sea water was easy to secure in any quantity by simply dipping it up in buck- 

 ets. An abundance of tubs, buckets, tin pans and glass dishes was provided, as 

 well as suitable instruments for dissection. We had a dozen laboratory micro- 

 scopes of convenient type for dissection, and the same number of compound 



instruments, although it seldom happened 

 that all of these latter were used at any 

 one time. For any special investigation 

 demanding a better instrument we had a 

 high-grade microscope with a 1-1 2th oil 

 immersion lens. Histological work, be- 

 yond the examination of fresh tissues, was 

 out of the question, under the circum- 

 stances, and would have been less pro- 

 fitable than the study of living organisms 

 even had it been practicable. 



As to our plan of work, it was, as is 

 A CATCH. always the case where wisely directed, 



determined by the varying and unforseeable conditions that daily confronted us. 

 In other words, we studied that which was at hand in greatest abundance, or that 

 which seemed most instructive. When under sail we depended largely upon 

 the dip-nets for material. 



One day, for instance, was devoted to a study of the Sargosso weed and its 



