1890 - 91 .] Prince of Monaco on Ship for Study of the Sea. 297 
willingly devote themselves to the best interests of their fellow- 
men. 
It was consequent on such reflections that, some seven or eight 
years ago, I undertook the mission which lay before me, because I 
was at once a sailor and devoted to science. The only means at 
my disposal, a sailing schooner of two hundred tons, was unfortu- 
nately much too restricted for the realisation of the enterprises 
which I dreamt of. But what can we not achieve when we are on 
the path of good and our whole heart is in it ? 
The “ Hirondelle ” was supplied in 1886 with several hemp ropes 
of different sizes for sounding and dredging and with a deep-sea 
trawl similar to that of the “Blake,” and with a large iron pot 
and various sounding leads. With this material, worked by the 
arms of the crew, I made soundings, temperature observations, and 
dredgings in the Gulf of Gascony, down to a depth of five hundred 
metres. But the labour of these operations was considerable, and 
the crew were sometimes kept at the capstan for four hours at a 
time. And as the weather of that year was very bad there were 
series of twenty-five days during which it was impossible to leave 
off one’s oil skins, for the trawl could be worked even in a heavy 
sea. In the intervals of work the 900 metres of dredge rope of the 
trawl, hardened by the water, and coiled all round the deck of 
the little schooner, rose like an oval wall above the heads of the 
men, who, always in the best of spirits, never murmured at the 
■work, and even showed much intelligent curiosity in the results. 
In the following years my working gear was much improved by 
the use of steel wire for sounding and dredging purposes, as also by 
the use of a special winch, still, unfortunately, worked only by the 
muscular exertions of my crew, and I was able to rectify many 
deficiencies in my methods of work ; aided also by that will of 
success, which is the firmest support of workers, I succeeded in 
carrying my researches to a depth of 3000 metres round the Azores 
and off Newfoundland. But then, perfected in their training and 
stimulated by a certain pride, my crew worked as long as twenty 
hours at a stretch in dredging in 2800 metres. A pot similar to one 
which I had lost in moderate depths in 1886, when used with 
handier material, gave me magnificent results in depths of as much 
as 2000 metres, but this was always accompanied by very hard 
