INTItODUC'I'ION — WAITK. 11 



was portion of the ^mii^wjiv on the sturhounl side, and, except 

 when the ti'tiwl was bein^ aetually towed, this was freiiuently 

 rendered an untenable position o\vin<f to the passa^^e of thi; warjis 

 and ropes from the donkey engines. 



Rolling and pitching is a condition insepai'ablc! from life at sea, 

 but in a vessel specially ecjuipped for scientitic work the incon- 

 veniences are reduced to a minimum. In my case work had to be 

 conducted on deck, and Iiaving no rackwork, all receptacles had. 

 to be lashed to stays and other deck furniture. 



I mention these matters in order to show under what adverse 

 conditions my work had to be conducted. On the other hand, I 

 cannot speak too highly of the kindness shown to me by the 

 officers and crew of the vessel, to whom at times my movements 

 must have been troublesome, interfering somewhat with ship 

 management. 



Perhaps of all objects those which gave me most trouble were 

 the long fingered Echinoderms (Luidium). Soon after being laid 

 on deck these creatures and their long members parted company, 

 and no amount of persuasion would induce them to remain in 

 position. I next found that it was possible to kill the star fishes 

 before separation took place by inverting them in a shallow dish 

 and rapidly flooding them with the strongest spirits. The 

 I'hythmical roll of the vessel, however, caused the arms to sway 

 from side to side until they broke away from the centrum as 

 before. The difficulty was finally overcome by the construction 

 of a cabinet containing shelves. After being killed, each speci- 

 men was transferred to one of the trays and pinned into position, 

 and thus safely conveyed to port at the first opportunity. 



A constant source of annoyance were the Squids ; in company 

 with fish and other specimens the net would sometimes yield them 

 by bucketsful ; when voiding their secretion (sepia) the whole 

 became a blackened mass. In this connection one matter may be 

 worth mentioning : for the first week, or thereabouts, my hands 

 were black from this cause, and no amount of washing would 

 remove the stain. This disappeared natui'ally after a time, and 

 thenceforward the sepia had no effect on the hands whatever. 

 Whether this resulted from a counteracting effect of fish mucous 

 or not I cannot say. 



TRAWL. 



The type used was that known as the Otter Trawl, wherein the 

 mouth of the net is kept distended by means of two large boards. 

 — the ottei^s. Our trawler, Captain Nielsen, had introduced 

 some improvements on the usual type of otter trawl, but such 

 need not be referred to here. It may, however, be mentioned 



