The Arcturus Adventure

Front matter

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Preface

THE origin and evolution of life, men and expeditions are interesting. On the very day of my return from the Galapagos in the Noma, I was introduced to a recently elected member of the Board of Managers of the New York Zoological Society, Henry D. Whiton. Mr. Whiton said to me, “You seem tremendously interested in the Galapagos; if you ever want to go back there I will furnish the steamer if you can get someone else to provide the coal.” So from this generous, tentative beginning there crystallized the twenty-four hundred ton steam yacht Arcturus, the specified coal, a splendid oceanographic outfit, a captain and a crew, and an expedition of six months’ duration, which steamed from New York to the Sargasso Sea, thence to Cocos and the Galapagos, and which secured a host of treasures, from the most microscopic beings which contribute to the surface luminescence of the sea, to a giant devilfish weighing more than a ton.

The two chief contributors to the expedition were Henry D. Whiton, who gave the Arcturus, and Harrison Williams who provided three-fourths of the entire cost. Other generous contributors were Marshall Field, Clarence Dillon,

Vv vi PREFACE

Vincent Astor, the American Museum, George F. Baker, Jr., Arthur T. Newbold, Thomas S. Yates and Junius S. Morgan. Other gifts to be recorded are a sounding machine from William H. Trotter; sets of oceanographic books from Frederic C. Walcott; motion picture negatives from George Eastman; flashlights and batteries from the National Carbon Co.; a powerful radio set from the Stromberg-Carlson Mfg. Co. and the launch Pawnee from Harry Payne Bingham. To Ernest Lester Jones, Chief of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, I am obliged for a host of kindnesses and the loan of valuable instruments, and to the U. S. Fisheries Bureau for the Albatross launch and much valuable gear.

The entire responsibility for the sea-going condition of the Arcturus, her complete overhauling and the supervision of the building of laboratories, dark-rooms, refrigerators and oceanographic apparatus was assumed by Mr. J. R. Gordon and the naval architect, Edwin C. Bennett. Capt. Yates acted throughout for Mr. Williams, and it is to the whole-hearted enthusiasm and interest of these gentlemen that the smoothness of operation and general success of the mechanical basis of the expedition was due.

For Captain Howes and First Mate Mc- Laughlin I have nothing but single-minded praise. No more willing, patient and capable seamen ever existed.

Several guests of honor joined the expedition for more or less brief stages, among them being

PREFACE vu

Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn, Mr. Gregory Bateson, Mr. Herbert Satterlee and Miss Mabel Satterlee, Mrs. George Putnam and her son David, and Miss Margaret McElroy.

The scientific staff was of my own choosing, each of the seventeen members having a definite field of work, which they filled to the full extent of their ability. Without their loyalty, constant enthusiasm and cooperation, nothing of success could have been achieved.

The scientific working personnel was as follows: William Beebe, Director; W. K. Gregory, Associate in Vertebrates; L. Segal, Associate in Special Problems; C. J. Fish, Associate in Diatoms and Crustacea; John 'Tee-Van, General Assistant; William H. Merriam, Assistant in Field Work; Isabel Cooper and Helen Tee-Van, Scientific Artists; Ruth Rose, Historian and Technicist; M. D. Fish, Assistant in Larval Fish; Elizabeth Trotter, Assistant in Fish Problems; Dwight Franklin, Assistant in Fish Preparation; Jay F. W. Pierson, Assistant in Macroplankton; Don Dickerman, Assistant artist; E. B. Schoedsack, Assistant in Photography; Serge Chetyrkin, Preparateur; D. W. Cady, Surgeon.

The interest taken in the expedition was astonishingly deep and wide-spread, and the publicity was accurate and dignified. An unexpected result was the desire it aroused among several gentlemen to carry on oceanographic work in the same part of the world. Zane Grey visited the Galapagos in his three-masted schooner Fisherman after a convill PREFACE ference concerning the possibilities of big-game fishing, and since then Harry Payne Bingham in his yacht Pawnee, and William K. Vanderbilt in the Ara have done most excellent oceanographic work, the former in the Caribbean and the latter in Galapagos waters. As late as March, 1926, Mr. Vanderbilt reported the Albemarle volcano as still in eruption.

The Arcturus Oceanographic Expedition, the ninth expedition of the Zoological Society, sailed from Brooklyn on February 11th, 1925, and returned to New York on July 30th. In the interval we steamed a distance of over 13,600 miles, touching at Norfolk, Bermuda, Panama, Cocos Island and the Galapagos. We brought back 11,000 feet of splendid motion picture film taken by E. B. Schoedsack, besides hundreds of colored plates and photographs. We established one hundred and thirteen stations, made hundreds of hauls with nets and dredges, threw overboard two thousand drift bottles containing data as to our identification, the date, latitude and longitude.

My object in this volume differs in no respect from that of the account of my last expedition, Galapagos: World’s End,—a scientifically accurate, popular presentation of the high lights and vivid experiences of the expedition. As yet there has been time and opportunity for the careful identification of only a few of the many thousands of specimens collected, so that in some instances technical names are lacking in this volume. Whenever identification has been possible I have included it

PREFACE IX in the list of scientific names in Appendix B. Appendix A consists of a résumé of the bird life of Osborn Island. Beyond a final narrative chapter I have attempted no definite chronological journal.

All the details of operation, explanation of the apparatus, technical descriptions of specimens and of our individual problems, will be published in Volume VIII of Zoologica, the Zoological Society’s scientific publication.

Chapters VI and X are wholly the work of Ruth Rose and in her réle of Staff Historian she has collaborated with me in Chapters I, [X and XVI. Colored Plates IV and VI, and the book lining are the work of my Staff Artist, Isabel Cooper; Plate III is by Don Dickerman; Plate VIII by Dwight Franklin, while Plates I, II, V and VII are by Helen Tee-Van. In regard to the black and white illustrations, Figures 1, 4, 8, 49, 50, 59 and 60 are from drawings by Dwight Franklin; 31, 47 and 58 by Isabel Cooper; 36 by Don Dickerman; 12 and 18 by Charles Livingston Bull by permission of the Curtis Publishing Company; 2, 16, 56, 61 and 66 by John Tee-Van; 69 by Elwin R. Sanborn from the New York Aquarium, and 10 from the American Museum. All the remaining photographs are by Ernest Schoedsack.

OBJECTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE EXPEDITION

The avowed objects of the Arcturus Expedition were the investigation of the Sargasso Sea and the x PREFACE

Humboldt Current. Owing to continual storms the former was in such a disintegrated condition that I soon decided to postpone detailed study until a more favorable time. In the Pacific, to our surprise, we found that there was absolutely no trace of the Humboldt Current about the Galapagos. The inexplicable absence of this great, cold, Antarctic current was more than made up for by the presence of equally unexpected natural conditions.

Among the totally unexpected and inestimably valuable phenomena—the high lights of the expedition—were the great volcanic eruption on Albemarle (Chapter V) ; the albatross rookery on Hood (Chapter IV) ; the remarkable results of hundreds of dives in a copper helmet and bathing suit (Chapters III, VII, [X, XI and XITI); the discovery in New York of a dramatic personage who had sought pirate treasure on Cocos for two decades (Chapter X) ; the temporary current rip in mid-ocean (Chapter II); and the deep sea work in the submerged Hudson Gorge, only one hundred miles from New York City (Chapter XV).

Finally, the accomplishment which, scientifically, proved the most valuable of all, was the result of my decision to make a ten-day stay in one spot in mid-ocean, Station 74 (Chapters XIII and XIV), where continual dredging yielded very remarkable collections of fish and crustacea, equivalent to any two months of the less intensive work. In fact the crustacea taken at Station 74 equal 80% of all the rest which we took in the Pacific.

CHAPTER I.—Sarcasso WrEEps AND Waves (By William Beebe and Ruth Rose)

II.—Wuere Currents Rip Il1I.—Wirxn Heimer anp Hose IV.—ALBATROSSES V.—Tue Birty or a VoLcano VI.—Oovr Istannps (By Ruth Rose) VIL.—Wirn THE SHarks OF NARBOROUGH VIII.—FLotsam anp JeTsam

IX.—Cocos—TueE IstEe or Pirates (By William Beebe and Ruth Rose)

X.—Cocos—A TALE or TREASURE (By Ruth Rose) A ! . ; 3

XI.—Tue Puinosorpuy or Xesurus XII.—SLUMBERERS OF THE SURGE XIII.—Srventy-rour: Aw Isuanp or WATER

XIV.—Davery Jones’ GOBLINS xl

PAGE

CHAPTER XV.—FIsHING IN THE Hupson’s ANcIENT GorGE

XVI.—Loe or THE Arcturus (By William Beebe and Ruth Rose) ‘ : : : :

AppENDIx A APPENDIX B

INDEX ; 4 Z x ‘

PAGE

384 427 431 437

ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR

Puate VIII.—Fia. A. Argyropelecus. A LumINnEscENT Deep-Sea Fish with Eyes Drrecrep Urwarp. Fic. B. Sternoptyx. A Common DeeEp- Sea Fiso with Part or THE Bony SKELETON VISIBLE THROUGH THE SKIN OF THE Bopy.

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Painted by Dwight Franklin. Frontispiece

Puate I.—Scaruet-TaitED TRIGGERFISH, Xanthichthys ringens (Linné) Painted by Helen Tee-Van.

Puate II.—Bortrerriyine Fisu, Cypselurus furcatus (Mitchil!) : Painted by Helen Tee-Van.

Puats III.—Youne Fisa Taken at THE SURFACE In Mip-OcEan

Fig. A. Young of the Giant Sunfish, Mola mola (Linné). “« B. Young of an unknown Soldier-fish, Holocentrus. * €¢. Young of an unknown Pomfret, Taractes.

Painted by Don Dickerman.

Puate 1V.—Parti-CoLtorep BumpueEans, Bodianus eclancheri (Valenciennes) .

Painted by Isabel Cooper.

Puate V.—Luminovus SurFrace Fisu 1n Dayuicur AND DARKNESS

Painted by Helen Tee-Van. xiii

XIV ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR

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Pruatn VI.—YeELLOw-TAILED SURGEONFISH Xesurus laticlavius (Valenciennes) ; 5 : . 200 Painted by Isabel Cooper.

Puate VII.—Fia. A. Saquip THrowine Our a De- FENSIVE SMOKE SCREEN OF SEPIA Ink. Fic. B. Deer Sea Prawn Emittina a LUMINESCENT DEFENSIVE CLOUD . ; : 5 5 . 846

Painted by Helen Tee-Van.

ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK AND WHITE

FIGURE PAGE 1.—TueE Littie SeA-DEvVIL OF THE Arcturus . , 4

2.—DIAGRAMMATIC VIEW OF THE OCEANOGRA ?HIC APPARATUS OF THE Arcturus : : : 5

3.—THE Boom-WALK OVER THE SIDE OF THE Arcturus ; - ; ; . : : 12

4.—ForwarpD Ho.Lp oF THE Arcturus, WHERE ALL THE APPARATUS FOR THE VOYAGE WAS STOWED . , ‘ : : ; : 13

5.—Tue Larce Drepce Being Haven IN AFTER Draceingc ALONG THE Bottom ror Two

Hours, at A DeptH or ONE MILE f ieee 6.—ScIENTIFIC STAFF OF THE Arcturus at WORK IN THE LABORATORY ; / ; : Hames, 4 | 7.—HARPOONING A DOLPHIN ; ‘ ; - 128 8.—CaTCHING SURFACE SPECIMENS : ‘ aes 9.—ForwWaRD VIEW OF THE PULPIT ; : nee 10.—Tur Busse GLOBIGERINA . . ; ie!) 11.—LEPTOCEPHALUS . 3 ; ; : Cl Oe

12.—LiFeE oF THE CuRRENT Riv. : P . 48 xv

Xvi ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE 13.—CurRENT Rip ‘ : . M 3 ;

14.—Guiavucus. A : : : : ; 15.—Paprer NavtTILus . P : : B 5 16.—Ecaes or THE Insect Halobates j : 17.—Lir& OF THE CURRENT Riv. 3 : :

18.—Divine 1n Twenty Feet or WatTeER IN DarwIN Bay, SURROUNDED BY HUNDREDS OF Fiso or SEVERAL DozEN SPECIES

19.—Maxine Reapy To Dive 20.—WILLIAM BEEBE IN THE Divine HELMET

21.—Tue AuTHoR IN TWENTY FEET OF WATER, ON LARGE CorAL BOULDERS, ABOUT TO HARPOON A RarE Fish ss. : : :

22.—MoorisH Ipou, A Brivwtiant SHorE FisH or THE GALAPAGOS

23.—Hoop Istanp Rooxery or Boosirs, GUuLLs AND ALBATROSSES

24.—GaLAPAGos ALBATROSS ON ITs Eaa 25.—TuHESE ALBATROSSES HAVE NO FEAR or Man 26.—BirTH OF A VOLCANO

27.—Arcturus Starr WatTcHING THE VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN THE GALAPAGOS

28.—LAVA FROM THE ALBEMARLE VOLCANO PouRING INTO THE SEA, KILLING FIsH AND SEA-LIONS

29.—OsBorN ISLAND, BETWEEN GARDNER AND Hoop

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49 58 58 59 59

78 79 88

108 109 109 132

146 147

ILLUSTRATIONS xvii

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30.—Manta or Giant Ray Caprurep sy DIcKEr- MAN, FRANKLIN AND Capy } : . 186

31.—HEaD oF SEA SNAKE, FROM THE CuRRENT Rip 187

32.—Eaa-casE OF A Derr Sra Ray, AND THE NEARLY Hatcuep Empryo iT CONTAINED , . 187

33.—PHYLLosomMa—A TRANSPARENT, LARVAL CrUs- TACEAN : : é : : ; a 202

34.—Porpita, ONE oF THE Most BEAUTIFUL OF THE FioatinG JELLYFISH . ; ; ; pres

35.—Grant Ray or DervitFisH SWIMMING AT THE

SURFACE . : F : , ; . 203 36.—Unscientiric Mar or Cocos IsuanpD .° . 230 37.—CuatHaM Bay, Cocos Istanp 7 ' Sed

38.—TuHeE Arcturus, FROM THE SHORE OF CHATHAM Bay, Cocos Isuanp . , ; : . 246

39.—WaFrER Bay, Cocos, WITH FRESH-WATER STREAM IN THE FOREGROUND AND Cocoanut PaLm PLANTED BY CAPTAIN GISSLER . é . 247

40.—Cocos Isutanp Boosirs, SEEKING SHELTER AT NIGHT IN THE Su1p’s BOATS DURING A SEVERE

STORM : ; ; : j ‘ . 276 41.—WaFeER Bay, SHOWING WHAT IS LEFT OF ONE OF Caprain GISSLER’s Houses : : ea Fig

42.—Ruta Rose Divine at Cocos In FirrEEN Fret or WATER : é sf 4 ; . 808

43.—BLACK-BARRED SURGEONFISH, Teuthis tricstegus (Linné) . ‘ , : . , . 808

XVill ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE

44.—A LarGE Precr or Cora, SupporTING A Host oF BRILLIANTLY COLORED SEAFANS, SPONGES, SHELLS AND OTHER ORGANISMS

45.—WHITE-STRIPED ANGELFISH, Holocanthus passer VALEN.

46.—WHITE-LINED TriaGcERFisH, Melichthys bispinosus GILBERT

47.—A Burnp Deep Sra Fisu, Bathypteréis sp., WHOSE Curer Contact with Lire 1s By M&ANS OF THE Lona TENTACLE-LIKE Rays OF THE PrEcTorAL Fins .

48, 49, 50.—TurREE New Species or LANTERN- BEARING SEA DEVILS FROM STATION 74

51.—Peruican-Fisu, Saccopharynz sp. 52.—A Siivery SnrPe-EEx, Nemichthys sp.

538.—A Livina Sra-Devit, Melanocetus sp., PHoto- GRAPHED WITHIN A MINUTE OF CAPTURE. FROM A Derptu or 600 FatHoms

54.—A Brortu.uip Fisx Stitt Livina arrer Havina BEEN BROUGHT UP FROM A HALF MILE DeptH

55.—Sortina A Rico Haut Brovueut uP BY THE DREDGE FROM A DeptH or 624 FaTHOMS AT STATION 74

57.—A Deep Sra SHark, Eraut INcues Lone, rrRoM Over A Haur Mite Dept at Station 74

58.—A Sea-Devit with LuMINEscCENT TEETH .

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PAGE

874 375

ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE 59, 60.—Two Species or Sra-DEVILS FROM THE Buack ZONE

61.—ATLANTIC Routes or THE First VoyaGE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND OF THE Arcturus

64.—IsaBEL Cooper, Starr Artist, PAINTING A Livine Fisu

65.—Dwicut FRANKLIN, COLORING A PLASTER Mopet From A LivinG Fisu

66.—Paciric RoutTEs OF THE Arcturus 67.—LakE ARCTURUS

69.—Sanp SHARK WITH Two SHARK SUCKERS CLINGING To IT A ; C ; 4

.

x1X

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386 387 387

396 397 406

CHAPTER I

BY WILLIAM BEEBE AND RUTH ROSE

Most amazingly I am floating in midspace beneath a dense grape arbor with the sun shining through a mat of yellow-green leaves and the unripe fruit glowing like myriads of jade beads. Then the air becomes chokingly oppressive—I gasp—kick out violently with my feet and shoot up through the tangled mass of olive growth. Dripping like Neptune, wreathed like Bacchus, my head breaks water in mid-ocean in a mass of sargassum weed—a thousand miles from land. Nothing is in sight except the sliding hillside of an appallingly steep but smooth swell bearing down upon me, until I shake the water from my eyes, brush aside the dangling strands and, twisting about, behold the huge bulk of the Arcturus silently liftmg and settling a few dozen yards away. This is my first fish-eye-view of the Sargasso Sea, on the only day for weeks which is calm enough for a swim.

The thought of a grape arbor as seen from below is more than a simile of these hanging gardens, and far from original, for about three centuries ago a Portuguese spoke of them as salgazo or “little grapes.”

While the sargassum may be falsely reported to have been the weed that clogged a thousand ships, yet it undoubtedly played a most important part in the discovery of America. Mutiny among the crews of Columbus was too much of a menace for the comforting daily sight of drifting vegetation not to be a very real mental anodyne.

“They were astonied” writes an old translator of Columbus’ journal, ‘when they saw the sea, in a manner, covered with green and yellow weeds, which seemd to have been lately washed away from some rock or island. This phenomenon gave them reason to conclude that they were near some land, especially as they perceived a live crab floating among the weeds.” And a week later they saw “a tropicbird and such a quantity of weeds as alarmed the crew who began to fear that their course would be impeded.”

When rumor and legend and travellers’ tales need renewed basis of fact they always turn again to the Sargasso Sea. The supposed graveyard of ships has ever been the incubator of fancies. The great heart of the Atlantic has been credited with powers which make of it almost a sentient monster,—it can draw to it ships and men, can hold them indefinitely, spew them forth, or pull them down to black, soul-crushing depths. Its vegetation is as dense as baled hay and has the holding power of an octopus tentacle!

It is a terrible thing to me to destroy beliefs and legends. Knowing however, that there were no

Fig. 1.—Tue Littie Sea Devin or THE Arcturus. Diabolidium arcturi Beebe.

Three times natural size.

PLATFORM iB MESSENGERS

Ue f /NERTICAL NETS

THERMOMETERS

WATER SAMPLES

7 y ae

PETERSEN TRAWL

<«— SOUNDING

TUBE and WEIGHT

2 ~— TANGLES ic. = Sa

Fig. 2.—DIAGRAMMATIC VIEW OF THE OCEANOGRAPHIC APPARATUS OF THE Arcturus.

Nets, trawls, dredges, etc., used in studying the life of the sea.

fleets of vessels held captive by the sea of weed, I had nothing to abjure when I found that the only wrecks were dissolute Welsh colliers wallowing past on their unpainted way.

The mere mention of the Sargasso Sea in the list of my intended objectives was enough to inspire a whole crop of colored Sunday supplements of ancient weed-clogged vessels. As a matter of fact, realizing that scores of sailing vessels and steamers had traversed this sea again and again, and that the fauna of the weed itself was as limited as it was interesting, my object in this area was quite definite and unique. On my numerous trips from New York to British Guiana I had now and then seen, tantalizingly near, weed of considerable extent, sometimes one or two acres matted together —a golden-yellow undulating meadow. All that I asked of the Sargasso Sea was a duplication of such a meadow which I had seen more than once in areas well outside the conventionally mapped area of weeds. I hoped that the shallow and mid-sea life beneath, ranging from 100 to 500 fathoms deep, fed by the untold myriads of dead creatures falling slowly from the weed through the water, would yield hauls of unexcelled richness.

In February I took the Arcturus from Bermuda southeastward straight through the heart of this sea, then east, almost to its furthermost limits. Months later on our return I again steamed through a great section, this time farther to the north. We saw numberless patches of weed, but seldom any which were larger than a man’s head. For many days, in storm and calm, these averaged one to every square hundred yards. So my Sargasso Sea failed, in the aggregate, to materialize and I contented myself with the thousand and one other interests and problems which always rush in to fill such a vacuum.

When, in the very heart of the sea, I found only small heads or mats of weed I should have been truly desolate were it not that the explanation was of exceedingly great interest. It made the Sargasso Sea more familiar, less sinister; it showed that even in this shifting, plastic, nomadic, openwork island there were definite seasons. An eternal spring or autumn or winter is a frightful thing to contemplate, while a succession of seasons links the very antipodes with our home backyard. Dunsany well knew how to destroy an alien feeling—to connect the extremes of geologic ages—when he began a tale with the sentence, “It was a cold winter’s evening late in the Stone Age.”

And so this region lost much of its inimical character when I realized that I could say of my visit, “It was a late autumn day in the Sargasso Sea.” My experience demonstrated an incisive difference between an undertaking dealing with business, religion or politics on one hand, and science on the other. We had set out to find vast fields of the weed teeming with living creatures, and we found only small mats and plaques almost destitute of life. A negative result such as this would be accounted a failure in business or hopeless in religion. To science it was of concrete value and added a wholly new interest to the entire problem. Simultaneously with the disappointment at not seeing the fragments of weeds united into vast fields, came the certainty that following this autumn and winter, there must come spring and summer to these sunken meadows.

Although life was at lowest ebb yet the sargassum itself was in full growth. Day by day as we steamed eastward the weed became fresher and cleaner. ‘The dark-colored, older portions disappeared in the heart of the new branches. Each bunch sent tiny sprigs up into the air, a valiant effort on the part of a poor, aquatic relation to share the thinner medium with the forests and flowers and fruits of the dry earth.

The origin and maintenance of the Sargasso Sea is still a moot question, whether the vast area is replenished annually by fragments storm-torn from the rocks of shallow coastal waters and poured forth by the Gulf Stream, or whether the weed perpetuates itself by continuous growth. Like the familiar banana, there are no seeds or spores formed in mid-ocean, but the growth of new, paleyellow fronds and bladders is vigorous and constant. After my experience on this expedition I have no doubt whatever that the weed can propagate itself, vegetating, for a great many years if not perennially. When I kept masses of it in running water in aquariums, the older portions soon died from some excess or lack of light or heat. When I picked these pieces up by the newly sprouted fresh tips they would break off by their own weight, the old growth sinking to the bottom, while the newer sprigs and bladders rose and floated buoyantly at the surface. This would seem to account for the great abundance of wholly new heads which I observed in the heart of the area, quite devoid of any down-pulling old growths. I have no doubt that in a vast number of cases the sprouts are automatically detached at the point of juncture, either by the turbulence of the waves or after the whole has been pulled under water for some distance. That there is a certain amount of constant replenishment from coastal plants there is no doubt, but I think this is of minor importance in the maintenance of the Sargasso Sea as a whole.

The great age of the Sargasso Sea is attested by the specially adapted organisms,—fish, crustaceans, worms, anemones—which inhabit it, while the extreme reluctance of these to leave the shelter of even a tiny frond is a powerful argument against any wholesale, rapid, annual replacement of the oceanic weed-drift by fresh supplies from shore. Although we seemed to have arrived in the winter of the sargassum fauna, yet we collected 95 percent of the known crustacea and other groups in proportion.

An unexpected coincidence is infinitely more exciting and interesting than the fulfillment of a preconceived plan: Hence my delight at discovering that my most interesting days in the Sargasso Sea occurred at the same spot in mid-ocean as the most dramatic points of Columbus’ first voyage.

My mind went back to the details of that expedition and as the sublime may be compared with the ridiculous, so I compare the efforts of Columbus with my own. How absurd and petty became the few delays and disappointments of my preparations when I recalled the years and years during which he passed from country to country, trying to make his convictions real, his ideals practical to one sovereign after another. ‘The entire cost of outfitting the three caravels of Columbus was $7,- 203.73 but, while this seems like an astonishingly small sum, we must remember that the purchasing power of coin at the end of the fifteenth century, for ships, labor and food, was at least twelve times what it is today. Hence it is probable that seven thousand dollars in 1492 would equal eighty thousand today. However, we must agree with Thatcher that “Under any circumstances, whether we consider the maravedis expended or the results achieved, we may regard it as the most fortunate outlay of money since gold and silver and copper were minted into coin.”

Here was I with my one vessel, on an expedition which was to cost more than twenty times Columbus’ original outlay, with hope of results, which even at the maximum, could be considered only as a burlesque upon his achievement. And as a final commentary let us recall that, as a result of his being the first individual on his own expedition to detect the certainty of western land, he was rewarded by the munificent annual grant of ten thousand maravedis, or sixty-one dollars, a perquisite or tip derived from the profits of the slaughter houses of Seville!

Perhaps the best way of visualizing our life and adventures in the Sargasso Sea will be to compare them with the notes of Columbus made upon geographically identical days of his memorable voyage.

SEPTEMBER 23RD, 1492, CuHRistopHER CoLumMBus Wrote IN His Journat, “Wer Saw A TROPICBIRD.”

On the 28th of February, 1925, on the Arcturus, so exactly at Columbus’ location, that four hundred and thirty-three years before we would probably have been within sight of the Santa Maria, the dismal bleat of a tin fish-horn woke me. I slid out of my berth on the next roll of the ship and groped sleepily for dressing-gown and slippers that were arranged in fireman fashion ready to be donned. The captain and officers of the Arcturus had been instructed to blow the horn whenever they sighted any living thing, and their eyes were uncommonly sharp.

Like figures in a demented Swiss weather indicator, the port cabins simultaneously decanted a row of bathrobed observers, who peered earnestly at heaving grey sea and lowering grey sky. It was that dreary hour of dawn when the whole world is grey, without a hint of the color-bringing sun. Shivering, we lined up at the rail in time to see a snow-white tropicbird skim past the wireless structure, his two elongated tail-feathers trailing like a foamy wake.

There was a notable lack of enthusiasm at this sight. It was the fifth morning that we had leapt out at dawn to see the same bird, who appeared to take delight in coming only at this hour. The spectacle had somewhat lost its charm, not to speak of its novelty, but the officer on duty, like one of the immortal Six Hundred, refused to reason why. I also suspect that he enjoyed making us get up.

As we turned back to our cabins, one morose scientist was heard to mutter, “It may be bad luck to shoot an albatross, but I'd like to take a chance on that tropicbird.”

Life is strenuous on an oceanic expedition, and on the previous evening our nets had brought in a rich haul of fishes from the depths, and my late session in the laboratory had lasted until three. So now I lazily determined on another half-hour in bed. Just as I was comfortably dozing off, there was a scrambling at the open porthole, and with a thud Chiriqui dropped on my chest.

Chiriqui is the small Panamanian monkey who has been the indispensable mascot of three expeditions of the New York Zoological Society. He isa much travelled and thoroughly spoiled person, and in his more destructive moments is known as Rasputin, the Demon Monk. His uncanny ability to escape from confinement causes him to be referred to also as Houdini, and the exercise of this talent accounted for his presence now. Having apparently toiled all night, he had at length succeeded in breaking out of jail, as represented by his enormous cage on the forward deck, and grinning with fiendish delight he turned three somersaults on my prostrate form, concluding the performance by scaling the life-preserver rack and from that eminence hurling himself at my head.

Feeling gloomily Shakespearean, I informed him that he had murdered sleep, and hurriedly dressed, with a wary eye on him and the more perishable articles in the cabin. He is living proof of the prestidigitator’s boast that the hand is quicker than the eye, and with three snatches he can irremediably wreck as many objects. To the accompaniment of his protesting shrieks, I returned him to his prison, repaired the hole through which he had escaped, and descended to the main deck for a half-hour of work in the laboratory before breakfast.

On this, as on previous days, early morning found the ship wallowing through the endless procession of great surges which rolled tirelessly up from the south. Only thin streamers of weed, sometimes extending for a mile or two, undulated over the leaden sea. The use of the intricate deck machinery which operates our diversified gear was complicated still further by the incessant and violent motion of the vessel. We had become experts in balancing and, at a preliminary cost of a good deal of breakage, in knowing just how far we could roll before laboratory equipment suffered a seachange into something new and strange in the way of wreckage.

Some of the scenes in the laboratory during those first stormy days defy description. An agonized scientist, caught unawares by a particularly vicious