CHAPTER XIII 

 LOGS, NOTES, AND LABELS ; ODDS AND ENDS 



BY THE EDITOR 



Logging, note-taking, and labelling with cold, wet 

 fingers form at best an unpleasant task even on a fine 

 day ; they should therefore be simplified as far as 

 possible. 



All note and log books should be bound in a glazed 

 waterproof cloth, paged, if possible, with a white rag 

 paper rather than with a pulp paper ; on no account 

 with paper of a highly sized surface. The notebooks 

 should be of a size to slip easily into a pocket ; the size 

 of logbooks will depend to some extent on the hand- 

 writing, but 12 inches long by 8 inches high is a good 

 size ; if they are to be used on deck, a thin sheet of 

 lead (about 16 metal gauge) tacked on to one cover, 

 will prevent their being blown overboard. At night a 

 fair copy should be made of each day's log, and the 

 day's notebook glanced through ; this often enables 

 errors and omissions to be detected while the facts are 

 fresh in the memory. 



All labels should be placed inside the bottle, except 

 with water samples. The paper should be selected 

 with some care ; soft wood-pulp paper should on no 

 account be used. A " vegetable parchment " paper is 

 good, but any good stout rag paper will serve the turn, 

 if it does not rub away after soaking in water for some 

 days. Write with a B or BB pencil, or with Wolff's 



415 



