Mat 21j 1915] 



SCIENCE 



741 



Tanner very kindly allowed lis to bring 

 back on the ship. The odor thus trans- 

 ferred to the hold of the Fish Hawk, while 

 in itself not small, we could assure the 

 captain would not be missed on the point, 

 where it was massive, corporeal and all- 

 pervading. 



Almost daily collections were made of 

 surface material. Trips for this purpose 

 were made in the Fish Commission launch, 

 Cygnet, D. H. Cleveland, captain, and 

 W. H. Lynch, engineer. Now and then 

 when trips were in the daytime we con- 

 trived to have a race with the Forbes 

 launch, Coryell, at which times, if the 

 energy with which Lynch shoveled coal 

 could have been transferred directly to the 

 machinery that actuated our propeller, we 

 should have easily won. As it was, unless 

 my memory is at fault, the Coryell usually 

 got the better of us. 



Two or three times a week collections 

 were made in the evening, beginning just 

 after dark. A favorite place for making 

 these evening collections was in the "hole," 

 where the launch would be made fast to the 

 nun buoy, and for an hour or more towing- 

 nets were used. The material thus collected 

 was then taken back to the laboratory, where 

 it was immediately examined. In this way 

 much information was obtained of the na- 

 ture, times, seasons, stages of development 

 and habits of the life at and near the sur- 

 face. I do not remember hearing in those 

 years the word plankton used. Possibly a 

 more tolerant interest might be awakened 

 in a modern audience in these old-time in- 

 vestigations if this paragraph had been 

 headed with the cabalistic legend : Plankton 

 studies. 



In 1882 dredging on the outer conti- 

 nental slope was still being vigorously car- 

 ried on, most of it in depths ranging from 

 100 to 400 fathoms. Trips to this locality 

 were usually called Gulf Stream trips. The 



great abundance of living things brought 

 up by the trawl from this under-sea edge 

 of the continent was still yielding many 

 new and interesting forms, and, since it was 

 important that the material be cared for 

 promptly, three or four of the younger men 

 were always detailed for this work. Pro- 

 fessor Verrill himself did not go on these 

 trips, the motion of the ship quickly inca- 

 pacitating him for work. Indeed, any one 

 who can endure the motion of the Fish 

 Hawk for 24 hours without experiencing 

 unpleasant sensations can qualify as an able 

 seaman, at least as far as immunity from 

 sea-sickness goes. Our trips to the Gulf 

 Stream were carried out in this wise: The 

 precise time of departure was not set until 

 a short time before starting. This was be- 

 cause the Fish Hawk, having been designed 

 as a kind of wandering fish hatchery whose 

 field of operation was to be limited largely 

 to such bodies of water as Chesapeake Bay, 

 was not then and is not now regarded as a 

 vessel that could safely weather a severe 

 storm. It was Professor Baird's custom, 

 therefore, before sending the Fish Hawk 

 on an outside trip, to get a special bulletin 

 from the weather bureau saying that no 

 atmospheric disturbances were indicated 

 for the North Atlantic coast for the next 

 forty-eight hours. Favorable conditions 

 prevailing, we were then notified, some- 

 times but an hour or two, or even less, be- 

 fore starting, that we were expected to make 

 a trip to the Gulf Stream. The usual time 

 for starting was 5 p.m. We steamed out all 

 night, and upon the following morning, 

 having now arrived at the outer slope, began 

 dredging. As a rule the trawl was over- 

 board by 5 o'clock; the first haul was con- 

 sequently made before breakfast. My re- 

 collection of these days are of hours of not 

 altogether unalloyed pleasure. To this day 

 the smell of material brought fresh from 

 the bottom of the sea awakes memories that 



