NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 13 



compartments. For the sake of liandiness these drawers were divided into two, so that 

 each recess instead of having one drawer 2 ft. long, had two drawers, each 1 ft. long, 

 stowed one behind the other. A number of drawers were fitted to receive articles in 

 every-day use — filtering paper, blowpipe apparatus, corks, india-rubber, &c. ; and one 

 was specially set apart for nails, screws, and hooks, things not without their uses in -a 

 laboratory on shore, and absolutely indispensable at sea, where every article, even the 

 smallest, must not only have its place, but must be secured in it. 



The top of the bench was fitted with shifting battens to keep things from falfing off, 

 and at one corner a leaden sink was let into it, communicating with the sea by a pipe 

 passing through a scupper. At the aftermost end of the bench, and on a low three-legged 

 stool, was a large tubulated glass bottle for holding distilled water. The whole of the ship's 

 supply of water was condensed from sea water, with rare exceptions during prolonged 

 sojourns in harbour, and it was always of excellent quality. For the laboratory it was 

 generally obtained fresh and hot from the cDndenser, and before it could take up carbonate 

 of lime from the white-wash with which the tanks were coated. The glass bottle was 

 broken in the first rough weather met with on the passage from Bahia to the Cape of 

 Good Hope. During nearly a year's cruising in the comparatively calm waters of 

 the tropics, the precaution of lashing the bottle in its place had been neglected, 

 with the result above mentioned. It was replaced at the Cape by an earthenware 

 filter. 



In place of retort-stands, to support apparatus, iron stanchions were used, let 

 into eyebolts in the beams, and fitting into holes in the top of the bench, or capable 

 of being folded up against the beams above when not in use. There were two of 

 these, and one is shown in the figure stowed away above out of use, and the other is 

 supporting a part of the carbonic acid apparatus, which will be described further on. 

 To accommodate another part of this apparatus, a small folding table, supported by a 

 bracket, was fitted to the foremost part of the bench. 



Against the after bulkhead were shelves for accommodating flasks, cylinders, and 

 other pieces of apparatus, also blocks of wood pierced for test-tubes. Against the inner 

 bulkhead were shelves for bottles containing standard solutions, flasks, beakers, and 

 other apparatus. The burettes were supported against the front of the shelves. They 

 were of the ordinary type of Mohr's burettes, except that at the top they were 

 contracted to the same diameter as at the lower end. When not in use they were 

 closed by a piece of india-rubber tube carrying a glass stopper. When one was to 

 be filled, a glass tube, long enough to reach to the bottom of the bottle holding the 

 standard solution, was attached to the nozzle below the pinchcock, and a sucking tube 

 inserted above in place of the glass stopper. By opening the pinchcock and sucking 

 above, the burette could be easily and economically filled with any reagent. For carbonic 

 acid determination, baryta-water was in constant use, and by filling the burettes in this 



