provided with working laboratories with libraries mi- 

 croscope tables, alcohol tanks, lockers for specimens 

 and everything necessary for the study and preserva- 

 tion of material on board, but the exigencies of a survey 

 like ours are better met by a laboratory on land, sup- 

 plemented as it is by the laboratories and libraries of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, Yale College and other 

 scientific institutions. 



Every morning after breakfast preparations for the 

 day s work begin. Tlpck boots of leather or rubber, 

 p}u_e, Qwm\ skirts ao4 broa4 brimmed bate tft'^PJ'QW- 

 nent features in the make-up of the party. These are 

 considered "first rate chances to wear out all ones old 

 clothes," and when, at the sound of the "Bluelight's" 

 whistle, the motley procession starts for the wharf, each 

 member staggering under his load of buckets, bottles 

 and dip-nets, it would hardly be supposed by a casual 

 observer, that in its ranks are several of the leading 

 scientific writers and lecturers of the land, professors 

 in our chief literary scientific and medical colleges. 

 Here is none of that fastidiousness sometimes seen 

 among naturalists, especially those of the dilttaati 

 order, but each man is ready to lake his pull at a rope, 

 and eager to plunge up to his elbows into the muddy 

 contents of the dredge. Their labor has other than 

 scientific results, for they return in the fall to their 

 studies with faces and arms bronzed, chests expanded 

 and limbs elastic, with clear eyes and clear brain-, their 

 blood almost effervescing under the spell of cool, 

 bracing sea air, twice the men they would otherwise be. 



All are on board, the lines are cast off, we bach from J 

 our berth into the channel, we hear the four bells for: 

 "ahead fast' and with a brisk, merry "ching-ehug : 

 chug-chug chug-chu" we steam along past th^ long 

 wharves, margined with smacks, past the busy sliip- 

 yards,past "The Cedars"where some of the ladies of the 

 party are waving a farewell salute, down by the point 

 and Mystic Light and stand out through Fisher's Is- 

 land Sound. An hour brings us to some promising 

 locality designated on the chart perhaps by the sym- 

 bols "18, s. br. sh." which being interpreted mean, 

 "depth eighteen fathoms, bottom sand with broken 

 shells." "Stand by to take a sounding!" is the 

 order, and the moment the vessel's way is sufficiently 

 stopped the old quartermaster has had his lead on the 

 bottom, the tallowed cup is carefully inspected aud the 

 answer comes "eight'n an' a ahf fethums, sur, an' a 

 zandybot'm." The spot is carefully located on the 

 chart, and "over dredge!" is the signal for the instru- 

 ment to be dropped over the side, swung off and low- 

 ered by a slow, reversed movement of the donkev. 

 Meantime one of the party has lowered a Miller-Casella 

 thermometer on the sounding line and stand< watch in 

 hand, until it has gained the equanimity to tell the true 

 temperature of the bottom, after which betakes sur- 

 face temperature and record* the figures in a book, 

 together with notes on time of day, time of tide, state of 

 sky, temperature of air, depth "nature of bottom and 

 direction of currents. The water-bottle, a long brass 

 cylinder with valves, is used to dip up some of the 

 bottom wafer which is carefully preserved for the de- 

 termination of specific gravity and the percentages of 

 salt and air. One man stands with hand on dredse 





