36 WORST JOURNEY IN’ THE WORLD 
and on South Trinidad Island,. were skinned and made 
up into museum specimens. They were also examined for 
external and internal parasites by Wilson, Atkinson and 
myself, as were also such fish and other animals as could be 
caught, including flying fish, a shark, and last but not least, 
whales in New Zealand. 
The method of catching these birds may be worth de- 
scribing. A bent nail was tied to a line, the other end of 
which was made fast to the halyards over the stern. Suff- 
cient length of line was allowed either to cause the nail to 
just trail in the sea in the wake of the ship or for the line to 
just clear the sea. Thus when the halyard was hoisted to 
some thirty or forty feet above the deck, the line would be 
covering a considerable distance of sea. 
The birds flying round the ship congregate for the main ~ 
part in the wake, for here they find the scraps thrown over- 
board on which they feed. I have seen six albatross all to- 
gether trying to eat up an empty treacle tin. 
As they fly to and fro their wings are liable to touch the 
line which is spread out over the sea. Sometimes they will 
hit the line with the tips of their wings, and then there is 
no resulting capture, but sooner or later a bird will touch 
the line with the part of the wing above the elbow-joint 
(humerus). It seems that on feeling the contact the bird 
suddenly wheels in the air, thereby causing a loop in the 
line which tightens round the bone. At any rate the next 
thing that happens is that the bird is struggling on the line 
and may be hauled on board. 
The difficulty is to get a line which is light enough to 
fly in the air, but yet strong enough to hold the large birds, 
such as albatross, without breaking. We tried fishing line 
with no success, but eventually managed to buy some 5-ply 
extra strong cobbler’s thread, which is excellent for the 
purpose. But we wanted not only specimens, but also 
observations of the species, the numbers which appeared, 
and their habits, for little is known as yet of these sea birds. 
And so we enlisted the help of all who were interested, and 
it may be said that all the officers and many of the seamen 
had a hand in producing the log of sea birds, to which addi- 
