WORK AT ANCHOR 71 



and, by unravelling the strands of the hemp, make 

 swabs such as are used for drying up the deck. These 

 swung over the stern of his vessel on to the bottom, 

 with two or three fathoms of rope to spare, if taken 

 up and cleaned every twelve hours or so, will often 

 bring up a great variety of living organisms, pieces of 

 rock with a couple of dozen different kinds of sedentary 

 animals attached to them, numerous Crustacea, star- 

 fishes, worms, and other forms. A couple of plankton- 

 nets floating out from the ship at the same time, in 

 one-third and two-thirds the depth of the anchorage, 

 will indicate to him the floating fauna, on which the 

 animals of the bottom so largely feed. When the 

 anchor is raised, mud or sand is often found clinging 

 to it, and a good sample should certainly be secured 

 and dried, after putting any living organisms that may 

 be found into some preserving fluid. A washing in 

 fresh water and treatment with a little weak spirit, 

 which otherwise would have been cast away, will 

 prevent any objectionable smell from the sand when 

 in process of drying. 



By such methods as the above the naturalist will 

 obtain a general view of the life of the coast which he 

 is visiting. He may even attain an idea of the inter- 

 relations of that life with its environment — i.e., the 

 topographical and physical conditions of the region. 

 He may proceed farther, and see how the animals and 

 plants interact with one another ; how the freely 

 moving forms take refuge within the branches of the 

 sedentary organisms ; how the struggle continually 

 goes on between the sedentary animals and plants ; 

 and, lastly, how both animals and plants in their vege- 

 tative phases of growth adapt themselves to their 

 environments. Such a study, particularly of the latter 

 points, is of the greatest value to the worker on syste- 



