200 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
during the cruise. It was one of the sessile kind and dark red 
in color. There was also a very large plumularian hydroid, many 
interesting simple corals, some beautifully red or pink in color, 
and a large serpent star. That day we were trawling off Little 
Barrier Island, which, like so many others has its tragic story. 
It seems that a man, a sort of warden (for this is a bird pre- 
serve) and his wife were left alone there for several months at a 
time. On one of these occasions the man took sick and died and 
the poor woman had to dig his grave and bury him with her own 
hands in that lonely spot! and she lived alone beside his grave 
for several weeks before her signal was seen and she was taken 
off. 
At the end of that day, July 24, my bottles were all full of 
specimens and the box which I had brought along was also prac- 
tically filled with material which would not spoil in the wintry 
temperature before we reached port. All were carefully wrapped 
in cheese-cloth together with their labels, and I felt that my part 
in the work on the trawler was an emphatic success, in the way 
of novel experiences, acquaintance with real men, and its primary 
object, the collecting of marine invertebrates. Indeed, from the 
standpoint of the naturalist, that week had been by far the most 
profitable of the entire expedition, so far as I was concerned. 
We ran into Auckland during the night and made port early 
the next morning, after a moderately successful cruise, from the 
fisherman’s standpoint. 
Two companies operated small fleets of trawlers out from Auck- 
land. One was ‘‘The Municipal Council’s fleet’’ of which the 
Cowan was one. The other, with larger vessels, was owned by 
the Sanford Company, which, I understand, had formerly had a 
practical monopoly of the business. I was told that both were 
fairly successful and that the Municipal Council’s Fish Market 
had succeeded in keeping down prices to the consumer and thus 
attained the primary object of the organization. 
I went ashore at about seven, after bidding good-bye to the 
captain, chief and crew of the Cowan and attempting, at least, 
to express my appreciation of the kindness with which they had 
made my eruise on the Auckland trawler one of the most interest- 
ing experiences of my life. May the world treat them as they 
treated me! 
