284 YACHT EQUIPMENT 



compartments suitable for the bottles or other appa- 

 ratus required. If this is the only table in the labora- 

 tory, the other half should be left clear for writing, 

 charting, drawing, etc., but a separate table, at which 

 one can sit for writing and for a microscope, is a great 

 boon. 



If a swinging table be preferred, a stout rail, level 

 with the table and about ij inches clear of its edge, 

 fixed at the corners to stancheons from the floor, will 

 bring up any one lurching against it in a heavy sea. 



If there is a dynamo on board, a cluster of lamps 

 should be over the centre of the table ; but a hanging 

 oil lamp should not be arranged to throw a shadow 

 over the writing table. 



The particular work which it is proposed to attempt 

 will, of course, determine the character of the bottles 

 and apparatus to be kept in the laboratory ; but 

 sweetmeat jars, corked store bottles large and small, 

 and corked tubes, are needed in all kinds of zoological 

 and botanical work, and should be racked in quantities 

 round the walls. Bottles of killing and preserving 

 fluids should be racked together. A 2-gallon milk- 

 can, with tap below, and a filter of fine boulting-cloth 

 at the top, is handy for the necessary store of clean 

 water, whether salt or fresh (ship's fresh water not 

 being ideally clean) ; it should be emptied and re- 

 filled every day. An enamelled slop-pail, with a top, 

 should also be racked in a handy position to receive 

 mess and waste fluids of all sorts. 



i. Plankton. — Special receptacles in the fiddles of 

 the work table should be made to take two or three 

 sweetmeat jars or large square jars, into which the 

 contents of the tow net tin are emptied for sorting. 

 Other compartments should take those smaller bottles 

 in which the larger organisms are to be pickled. Empty 



