THE FIRST ALBATROSS EXPEDITION 259 



with about a pint of most uninteresting specimens, or 

 else it came up torn to pieces, as the lava bottom played 

 havoc with the nets, and so it kept up till we left Cul- 

 pepper Island, the most northerly of the islands ; and I 

 hoped that at least on the sea bottom of the deep basin, 

 when out of the influence of the lava fields of the islands, 

 we should get some good deep-water hauls. But there 

 ao-ain, that part of the Pacific proved as barren as the 

 rest, and the piece of sea I had been congratulating 

 myself that the Challenger left for me, has been a great 

 disappointment. We still have the chance off Acapulco, 

 now when within sight of land, to get something on the 

 continental slope. I settled, however, once for all the 

 fact that below two hundred fathoms at sea there was 

 no animal life, and the pelagic people will now have to 

 stop sailing into me, and take a back seat. Day before 

 yesterday we struck a regular trade-wind blow and I was 

 as sick as I could be, and as luck would have it I could 

 not find my Leavitt seasick pills, so made myself as 

 comfortable as I could. Of course no work could be 

 done, and yesterday the weather moderated for us to 

 work again and my stomach resumed its usual placidity. 

 It 's funny what things you wish to eat while trying to 

 get well. I managed to eat a little pineapple, some fried 

 bananas, and sour-krout ! It seems a queer combination, 

 but worked admirably and kept me well alive." 



On their arrival in Acapidco he writes : — 



" We are in the midst of coaling, and a more filthy 

 place than the Albatross is just now, you cannot imag- 

 ine. I begin to realize what I escaped at Panama. I 

 have not gone ashore here to live because the hotel is 

 such a frightful hole that even I, accustomed as I am 



