R.R.S. 'DISCOVERY IT 93 



Around the starboard and forward sides of the biological laboratory there runs a 

 working bench at which there are four working places, three on the forward and one on 

 the starboard side. Each is opposite a window and each has a chair with a swivel top 

 which can be clamped in any position (Figs, i, 2). Underneath the bench and between 

 the chairs are tiers of small drawers. At the middle of the port side is a sink with taps 

 supplying salt water, hot and cold fresh water, spirit and strong and weak formalin, and 

 beside the sink is a vacuum connection from the main engine condenser which will give 

 a vacuum equivalent to about 25 in. of mercury. Forward of the sink is a bench con- 

 tinuous with that of the forward side, with drawers and a card index to the library 

 beneath a portion of it. On a shelf above the sink is a row of 5-litre aspirator bottles 

 containing graded alcohols and preserving fluids, their taps protected by a brass guard 

 rail. Above the bench forward of the sink are two lo-gallon cylindrical earthenware 

 containers, one for strong and the other for diluted formalin. Each has an ebonite stop- 

 cock from which a rubber tube leads to an ebonite tap over the sink. A supply of 75 per 

 cent spirit is kept in a 40-gallon tank abaft the flying bridge, and is piped down to another 

 tap over the sink. On the after bulkhead is a large bottle rack for the storage of con- 

 venient numbers of all sizes of specimen jars, and below it are tiers of baize-lined drawers 

 for small glass specimen tubes and miscellaneous apparatus. The bottle rack is similar 

 to that described in Discovery Reports, I, p. 170. 



A large gimbal table occupies the centre of the laboratory and is continuous at its 

 after end with a bench which reaches a higher level and is fitted with drawer and cup- 

 board space beneath. The swinging table is similar to that previously described (vol. i, 

 p. 169), but is larger and has an enamelled iron guard-rail level with the table top, and a 

 75-lb. weight slung close to the deck. The bench on the after side of it has a detachable 

 fiddle divided mto compartments which fit specimen jars of all the sizes kept in stock. 

 Part of the cupboard space beneath the bench is so designed that ten trays of \-\h. 

 specimen jars can be taken out of their storage cases and used in it as drawers until the 

 jars are filled and the trays replaced by others containing empty jars. A book-shelf of 

 two tiers runs around the forward and the starboard sides of the laboratory above the 

 windows. 



A bench fitted to carry the burettes necessary for the analyses of sea water runs across 

 the forward end of the hydrological laboratory (Plate IX, fig. i). It has two working 

 places, each opposite a window and each with a swivel-topped chair. On a high shelf on 

 the inboard bulkhead above this bench are two 20-litre reservoirs of silver nitrate 

 solution and one of sodium thiosulphate solution, the former for the determination of 

 the salinity, the latter for that of the oxygen content of sea water. The titration of sea- 

 water samples with silver nitrate solution is always done at the inboard working place, 

 which is, for that reason, shut off from strong natural light by a blind over the window 

 and a heavy curtain between it and the outboard working place and the other windows. 

 Above the bench is the recording mechanism of a Negretti and Zambra distance thermo- 

 graph, the thermometer bulb of which is in a pocket in the ship's hull at a point about 

 14 ft. below the surface. It gives a constant record of the temperature at that depth. 



