Bathybia. €| Some time elapsed before this new 

 method of procedure could be put to the tesU 

 Raft-'building: was not without its troubles, 

 as we were unacquainted with the materials 

 available, and consequently their floating quali" 

 ties had to be determined. At length a struct 

 ture was completed which rode lightly on the 

 water, and was regarded by the seafarers 

 amongst us as distinctly promising. In its 

 construction we employed the dead trunks 

 of huge fungi of a variety capable of resist" 

 ing waterlog. Large sheets of fungus several 

 inches in thickness, found growing over the 

 ground in moist localities, furnished an excels 

 lent decking ; whilst a spyrogyra^Iike alga was 

 found to answer splendidly as a cord for bind" 

 ing the structure. ^ Whilst these preparations 

 were in progress several incidents of special 

 interest occurred. One of these came near 

 proving fatal to one who had gained much in 

 favour by rendering signal service as a moun^ 

 taineer during our descent. Provisions had 

 become alarmingly scarce, and a section of the 

 company decided that members of the scientific 

 staff were much more likely to excel as connois^ 

 seurs in the matter of food^stuffs than prove 

 experts in shipbuilding. As the labour of 

 examining the natural products at hand did 



37 



