6 Cruise of the ''Alerts 



climb up unobserved, suddenly laid hands on it. On placing it in 

 a meat-safe, which we extemporised as a cage, it ate ravenously, 

 as well it might after its long journey. 



When in the latitude of Lisbon, and i8o miles to the westward 

 of the Portuguese coast, a large " sea-flier " bird paid us a visit, 

 soaring over the waves in our vicinity, and evidently on the look- 

 out for garbage from the ship. The plumage of the upper surface 

 of wings and body was of a dusky brown colour, the under surface 

 of the body was whitish, and the wings were long and pointed; 

 in mode of flight he resembled a large tern. He did not long 

 remain with us, probably not finding it a sufficiently productive 

 hunting-ground. I may here mention that on the 6th of October, 

 when a hundred miles from Madeira, we sighted a bird answering 

 the same description. 



All opportunities of plying the tow-net were duly availed of, 

 but owing to the unusually rapid speed of the ship, these were few. 

 However, we succeeded in capturing many specimens of living 

 Foraminifers (mostly of the genus Orbitolites), stalk-eyed Crus- 

 taceans, Radiolarians, an lanthina, a few Salpae, and the pretty 

 little Pteropod Mollusc, the Criseis Aciculata, besides many other 

 organisms which the rapid motion of the net through the water 

 had rendered unrecognizable. As it is usually found that these 

 minute pelagic organisms are to be obtained from the surface in 

 most abundance at night-time, and during the day retreat for 

 some fathoms from the glare of the sunlight, I constructed a 

 wooden apparatus on the principle of a kite, which I attached to 

 the towing line at some three or four yards from the net, and 

 which had the effect of dragging down the net some yards below 

 the surface, and then retaining it at a uniform depth. It of 

 course required to be adjusted each time to suit the required 

 depth and the rate of the vessel, but it had this great advantage 

 over the usual system of employing heavy weights, that the strain 

 not being nearly so great, a light and manageable rope could be 

 used ; and that, moreover, the adjustment for depth could be 



