28 CHALLENGER 



number of extensive anchorages for large vessels which appeared 

 to exist among the smaller islands such as Carriacou, Little St. 

 Vincent and Little Martinique. 



The early operations were the same as on other surveys : a base 

 had to be measured, astrolabe sights had to be taken, and then, 

 a true bearing having been observed, the triangulation had to be 

 schemed and carried on to the hilltops, here much covered in 

 trees, scrub and cactus. So instead of the cold, rugged, climbing 

 of Labrador there were long days here spent clearing the bush 

 so that the various triangulation stations should be inter- visible. 

 And a camp party were thus engaged at this moment while the 

 ship lay in St. George's and the crew relaxed ashore. After the 

 week-end the ship returned to the survey ground and once again 

 the ship's company were in the throes of the activity which is 

 attendant upon the early days of a survey. 



During the first week the base measurement was the most im- 

 portant work; the day temperatures being too high for accurate 

 measurement with the steel tapes, only the early mornings and 

 the late afternoons could be used for carrying out this work. Also 

 during the first week the star sights were obtained with the 

 astrolabe. 



On Carriacou clear starlit skies permitted observing all night 

 long and the native people were amazed to see lights flickering far 

 into the night on Jack-a-dan Island. Inside the instrument tent the 

 chronograph operator cursed the hundreds of tiny flies, moths and 

 flying beetles which were attracted by his kerosene light and 

 which fell with a click into the back of the chronograph or became 

 lodged on the rollers guiding the paper and jammed these in the 

 middle of a successful series of observations, to the unreasoning 

 fury of the observer at the astrolabe outside. Sometimes in a lull 

 between stars the observer would come into the tent for a tot 

 of whisky, for there is nothing like this to make the stars twinkle 

 in the telescope. 



As dawn was breaking each day, those who had been observing 

 through the night turned in on their camp beds in the cool tent 

 and slept as the sun rose and the shadows fell away; but later 

 the tents became so hot that further sleep was impossible and they 

 turned out to meet the fierce glare of noon and to feel the sand 

 hot beneath their feet as they went down the beach for a bathe. 



