rom the sea in a small bucket let
down on a line from the moving ship. First efforts in this direction
would have been amusing had it not been for the caustic eye of the 'Mate'
on the bridge. If the reader ever gets the chance to try the experiment,
especially in a swell, he will soon find himself with neither bucket nor
water. The poor Mate was annoyed by the loss of his buckets.

Everybody was working very hard during these days; shifting coal, reefing
and furling sail aloft, hauling on the ropes on deck, together with
magnetic and meteorological observations, tow-netting, collecting and
making skins and so forth. During the first weeks there was more cargo
stowing and paintwork than at other times, otherwise the work ran in
very much the same lines all the way out--a period of nearly five months.
On July 1 we were overhauled by the only ship we ever saw, so far as I
can remember, during all that time, the Inverclyde, a barque out from
Glasgow to Buenos Ayres. It was an oily, calm day with a sea like glass,
and she looked, as Wilson quoted, "like a painted ship upon a painted
ocean," as she lay with all sail set.

We picked up the N.E. Trade two days later, being then north of the Cape
Verde Islands (lat. 22 deg. 28' N., long. 23 deg. 5' W. at noon). It was a
Sunday, and there was a general 'make and mend' throughout the ship, the
first since we sailed. During the day we ran from deep clear blue water
into a darkish and thick green sea. This remarkable change of colour,
which was observed by the Discovery Expedition in much the same place,
was supposed to be due to a large mass of pelagic fauna called plankton.
The plankton, which drifts upon the surface of the sea, is distinct from
the nekton, which swims submerged. The Terra Nova was fitted with tow
nets with very fine meshes for collecting these inhabitants of the open
sea, together with the algae, or minute plant organisms, which afford
them an abundant food supply.

The plankton nets can be lowered when the ship is running at full speed,
and a great many such hauls were made during the expedition.

July 5 had an unpleasant surprise in store. At 10.30 A.M. the ship's bell
rang and there was a sudden cry of "Fire quarters." Two Minimax fire
extinguishers finished the fire, which was in the lazarette, and was
caused by a lighted lamp which was upset by the roll of the ship. The
result was a good deal of smoke, a certain amount of water below, and
some singed pape