339 



NOTES BY A NATURALIST ON HIS VOYAGE TO THE 



FALKLANDS AND BACK, WITH REMARKS ON THE 



FAUNA AND FLORA OF THOSE ISLANDS. 



By rupe;rt VALLKNTIN. 



It is some years since I had seen a school of flying-fish, or 

 admired the beautiful iridescence of a Portuguese man-of-war, or 

 even gazed on the Southern Cross, or the Magellanic clouds ; so 

 that a little thrill of pleasurable anticipation was excusable when 

 I embarked on the steamship Tanis at Tilbury Docks, laLe on the 

 evening of 4th October, 1898. By breakfast time the next 

 morning we were well down the river ; and about noon, having 

 landed our pilot at Dover, our course was shaped for Ushant. 



I was anxious to examine the plankton over which we were 

 steaming, but our pace exceeded eight knots an hour. I tried 

 during the first few days the method first suggested by Sir John 

 Murray; viz., that of straining the sea- water, which circulated 

 over the ship, through a fine piece of silk bolting cloth. This 

 was only partially successful ; the copepods seeming to be stunned, 

 and in most instances damaged beyond recognition by the rush 

 of water through through the pump and pipes. Our engineer, 

 who took a great interest in my studies, kindly lent me a small 

 bucket holding about two quarts, to the handle of which I 

 fastened a light line ; and with this I was able to dip water from 

 the sea, and pour it through a fine silk-net, the pelagic forms 

 being retained in a small test-tube fixed at the extremity. This 

 plan was most successful, especially in the Guinea current ; and I 

 was able to examine almost daily my captures so obtained in a 

 coal-bunker, which was used as a fitting-shop, when any slight 

 repair became necessary to the vessel or engines. 



Only those who have attempted microscopical work at sea in 

 a small steamer which seemed to illustrate perpetual motion in 

 in all directions, can form any idea of the difiiculties one has to 

 contend with while examining minute pelagic forms under a 

 dissecting microscope, or even with an inch objective. Besides 

 the rolling, the light was very poor, being obtained from a bull's- 

 eye about six feet distant from the bench to which my instru- 



