DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPEDITION, 19 
to pass with as much ease as possible. The smaller nets were for use while the ship was 
drifting, the larger net while steaming at 2-4 knots, an 80-lb. weight being generally 
placed between two swivels at the end of the warp to sink it. At 3 knots the wire 
then ran out from the ship at an angle of about 45, while the net itself beyond the lead 
would be streaming out horizontally. 
To some degree we used the above nets for collecting the plankton at different depths, 
but we were provided also with the Wolfenden and Fowler closing-nets. The former was 
lent to us by its inventor, Dr. Norris Wolfenden, and the latter was a net which had 
been for two winters in the Antarctic Regions in the ‘ Discovery, cleaned and repaired 
for us under the direction of Dr. Fowler (fig. 5). They differ in principle, the Wolfenden 
being opened by a messenger and closed at the same depth after a certain interval of 
The Fowler Vertical Plankton Net. 
A, closed ready to descend ; B, opened by first messenger; C, closed hy second messenger. 
time by a second messenger, and the Fowler being opened at a certain depth, hauled up 
vertically through the water to a lesser depth, and then closed. Our experience is that 
they both give the depth of their organisms quite reliably, and that they are both 
easy of manipulation and so simple in construction that they cannot go wrong. With 
either, the manipulator is able to see when the messengers strike and when the nets are 
working. In the weather we experienced, almost constantly heavy winds and seas in 
relation to the work we were doing, the Fowler net proved the most successful, perhaps 
because of its larger size and weight. For the Wolfenden type of net heavy messengers 
are essential, and the net should be of considerable length, since the longer it is the more 
rapidly will the water pass through it. 
4 
