X INTRODUCTION. 



Excellent as is the Sigsbee machine, the Lucas sounder has some advantages 

 in its compactness, it being self-contained and ^practically automatic. But 

 its greatest advantage lies in the use of malleable wire for sounding in 

 place of the hard-drawn wire in use in American machines. This greatly 

 simplifies the making of splices and lessens immensely the danger of 

 kinking while handhng the wire. We had in addition a Sir William 

 Thomson sounding machine for moderate depths in the lagoons or at our 

 anchorages. I also placed on board a steam winch of the Bacon pattern 

 with a drum large enough to hold six hundred to eight hundred fathoms 

 of wire dredging rope. This winch was used for deep-sea towing down 

 to one hundred and fifty fathoms and for the few hauls of the dredge 

 we found time to take. 



Dr. W. McM. Woodworth, my son Maximilian, and Mr. H. B. Bigelow 

 accompanied me as assistants. My son and Dr. Woodworth took a large 

 number of photographs. Dr. Woodworth had general charge of the collec- 

 tions. They were intentionally limited, as we could not hope in the 

 short time at our command to add much to the material obtained by 

 Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner during his prolonged stay at the Maldives and 

 Laccadives. Mr. Bigelow collected thirty species of Medu,sae, interesting 

 mainly for the geographical distribution of the genera represented. As 

 might be expected, they were principally Hydroids, exclusive of the Sipho- 

 nophores, Discophores, and Ctenophores. The pelagic Fauna was at times 

 very rich, and some of our deeper hauls were most productive. The surface 

 hauls inside the lagoons were also frequently very rich, far more than 

 in the lagoons of anj' other coral-reef region I have visited. This may 

 be accounted for from the open condition of the lagoons of the composite 

 atolls of the Maldives. No attempt was made to collect any plants, the 

 collections of Mr. Gardiner having supplied the material for an exhaustive 

 list of the Flora of the Maldives.' 



Messrs. Willis and Gardiner have published a most interesting account of 

 the Flora of the Maldives and of Minikoi based upon the extensive collections 

 made by Mr. Gardiner. They have made a careful analysis of the flora, 



1 The Botany of the Maldive Islands, by .J. C. Willis and J. Stanley Gardiner, Ann. Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Peradeniya, Vol. I., Part II., December, 1901. 



