THE PACIFIC 203 



*Ah' lava were carried back to the ship. Six different flows had 

 poured down the mountainside and the party were amused to see 

 that a house which had been missed by only ^o yards was now up 

 for sale. 



Fine weather endured for some days after leaving Pearl Har- 

 bour, and the ship's philosophers, refreshed by their scientific 

 and social contacts in Honolulu, turned to their seismic experi- 

 ments with renewed vigour. But the course was northwards for 

 Adak, a U.S. Naval Base in the Aleutians, and after a week or so 

 the weather grew more stormy daily until the ship passed through 

 the chain of the Aleutian Islands in a gale of great ferocity, cold 

 northerly winds shrieking in the rigging and over the top of the 

 bridge where the Officer of the Watch huddled in his corner and 

 peered over the windbreak at the cold white scene of countless 

 breaking seas joined by wind-blown streaks of foam which 

 stretched away on either hand to the snow covered mountains 

 of rugged aspect. Two or three Black-footed Albatross, still at- 

 tendant upon the ship, were sweeping across this seascape like 

 leaves in the gale, the only dark coloured objects in a grey- white 

 scene. 



Although the country was bleak and snowbound the U.S. Naval 

 hospitality made up for everything, the few days spent at Adak 

 passing quickly, and once again the ship was at sea on her way to 

 Japan. 



Day after day, week after week, as the ship sailed in the North 

 Pacific the sky was overcast, the visibility was down to a mile or 

 so and winds of gale force kept the seas high and the ship's 

 motion violent. Ocean sounding was all that could be done on 

 such days although water temperatures and samples at depth were 

 taken with the reversing water bottles whenever the weather 

 moderated. But the sono-buoys lay snugly in their stowage and 

 the scientists cursed their luck and once again went over their 

 records made on calmer days. 



There was one activity, however, which never ceased by day 

 and that was the watching of birds. Except in the tropics one 

 cannot sail for long unaccompanied by seabirds. In the more tem- 

 perate zones there are always birds in attendance or to be seen 

 flying past from time to time. At regular intervals the birds in 



IS 



