XVUl CHALLENGER 



eyes and containing perhaps priceless gems never to be captured 

 again. 



Whether or not something new would be taken in the next 

 haul became a matter for betting with gin and bitters as stakes, 

 and for many of the wardroom this soon became their only interest 

 in this tedious business. 



And so the ship crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic, the 

 southern part of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. She called at 

 the British ports of Gibraltar, Bermuda, Halifax, Cape Town, 

 Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, Hong-Kong and Port Stanley to 

 re-provision and carry out repairs. She visited Madeira, Teneriffe, 

 St. Thomas, Cape Verde, Bahia, Yokohama, Valparaiso, Monte- 

 video and Vigo, and at each place expeditions were made into 

 the hinterland by the scientists and the officers, their observa- 

 tional powers sharpened by the knowledge of the importance of 

 the voyage upon which they were embarked ; they recorded details 

 of the lives of the people; the activities, or lack of such, by 

 govermiients, and the flora and fauna of the countryside. Many 

 little-inhabited or uninhabited islands were visited, where speci- 

 mens were obtained of every animal, plant or even stone to be 

 found upon them. These included St. Paul's Rocks, a small group 

 less than one hundred feet high situated upon the Equator far out 

 in the Atlantic, and past which the river of the Equatorial Current 

 runs so steadily and so swiftly that the ship was able to secure by 

 a hawser to one of the rocks at the western side of the group and 

 lie there for two days and nights, whilst the scientists examined 

 the few inhabitants of this barren spot; these consisted of two 

 species of noddy, a booby, a spider and a crab. Meanwhile the 

 men fished for abundant cavalli from a boat made fast to the 

 hawser securing the ship to the rocks. 



The visit to the island of Fernando Noronha, lying between 

 St. Paul's Rocks and Bahia, was not such a success, for although 

 the vegetation and the birds were both of considerable interest, 

 the island was a Brazilian prison and the Governor, although 

 courteous, would not give permission for collecting. 



Tristan da Cunha was reached on the way to the Cape and here 

 some high-priced provisions were bought, and two Germans, who 

 had been living a Robinson Crusoe existence on nearby Inacces- 

 sible Island for over 1 8 months, were rescued from a life among 



