TEMPERATURE OF SEA-WATER 



fact that we had captured an albatross on the second 

 day out. It is generally supposed by seamen to be un- 

 lucky to kill this bird, but as we did it for the purposes 

 of scientific collections and not with the wantonness of 

 the "Ancient Mariner," the superstitious must seek for 

 some other reason for the weather. By this time most of 

 the scientific staff had recovered from sea-sickness, so 

 to employ their time when they were not on pony- 

 guard meterological observations were taken every 

 hour. There sometimes was an inclination to obtain 

 the temperature of the sea- water from the never-failing 

 stream which poured over the deck, but to the ob- 

 server's credit this feeling was sternly suppressed, and 

 the more legitimate and accurate, if less simple means, 

 that of drawing it from over the side, was adopted. It 

 is not at all an easy operation to draw water in this way 

 from the sea when a ship is under way, and in our par- 

 ticular circumstances, the observer often got premature 

 knowledge of the temperature by the contents of the 

 bucket, or the top of a sea, drenching him. On this day 

 we began to feel the serious effects of the towing strain 

 on the ship. For days the sailors' quarters below the 

 fore-deck had been in a state of constant wetness 

 from the leaking of the fore- deck, and the inhabitants 

 of Oyster Alley had come to the conclusion that it might 

 more suitably be named " Moisture Alley." But when 

 Dunlop, the chief engineer, came on the poop bridge 

 that afternoon and reported that the ship was making 

 about three feet of water in an hour, matters assumed a 

 more serious complexion. I had not expected that we 

 would get off scot free, as the ship had to endure a very 

 severe strain, and was old, but three feet of water in an 

 hour showed that she was feeling the effects of the towing 

 very much. It was necessary to rig the hand-pump to 

 help the steam-pumps to keep the water under, and this 



51 



