92 MEMORIAL SKETCH. 



sive years. Nor were the cruises themselves an unalloyed 

 pleasure, though they brought with them hours of rapturous 

 scientific bliss. Again and again, when Dr. Carpenter 

 joined his vessel, he was worn and jaded with protracted 

 work through the hottest days of the year, when, unfortu- 

 nately, the severest pressure of University duty coincided 

 with his least physical capacity to bear it. He knew that 

 he would pass days together, perhaps a week, in his berth 

 at the outset, and again with every gale ; and that the 

 liability to sickness and discomfort would haunt him 

 through the entire voyage. But for the brilliant success 

 of the first expedition, he would hardly, perhaps, have had 

 courage to attempt another. 



The ship first assigned to the investigators was the 

 Lightning ; it had passed the days of its youth, for it had 

 been built in 1824; nor was it constructed in accordance 

 with modern ideas of speed, as it was the earliest steam- 

 vessel in her Majesty's service. " Our old tub," wrote Dr. 

 Carpenter, somewhat disconsolately, " cannot, at the best, 

 " make mere than seven miles an hour ! " The weather was 

 abominable ; even the officers and men were sick ; and it 

 was often too rough to attempt to dredge. The kindness 

 of the Danish Governor and his lady, while the ship was at 

 Thorshavn, the chief harbour of the Faroe Islands, and 

 agreeable intercourse with the Dean of the Islands, and 

 the Rector of the High School, relieved the tedium of 

 confinement to the little cabin. Once more at sea, they 

 encountered fresh resistance from wind and wave, as though 

 the waters resented their inquisitorial activity, and were 

 determined to baffle all efforts to probe the secrets of their 

 depths. But at length the day of compensation dawned. 



