Various

“ The study of the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the sea has always been surrounded by a sort of halo of romance, a scientific glamour that almost led men to believe that such research was like fishing—valuable results might be looked for in return for little labour, if the proper opportunity could be found. ”

“ I do not think that Laurence attempted to deceive him; for men who fall into his course of life soon become blind to its evils and consequences; and so, without premeditation, he did deceive him. Mr Shield, being a man as passionate in his friendships as in his hates, would listen to no ill of his friend. ”

“ I am free, popular, and admired. Instead of one admirer, I have hundreds, and the number is increasing nightly. What can woman wish for more?’
‘I’ll tell you, Emily: a nice husband, and domestic bliss.’
The actress indulged in a scarcely audible sigh. ‘That might have been my lot. I mean the domestic bliss part of the affair, if I had not had it dinned into my ears from morning till night that there was only one road to happiness—a union with Mr Stanley, whom I have never seen.’
‘You might have liked him very much.’
‘Impossible, my dear Julia. ”

“ As there is no stone quarry near, how these vast stones could possibly have been conveyed thither in the first place, and then raised to their position, has been an enigma to all modern architects and engineers by whom the temple has been critically examined, and who have freely confessed that, even with all our modern science of steam-cranes, hydraulic jacks, and railways, the transport and raising of such immense cyclopean masses would have undoubtedly presented many serious difficulties, if indeed it could be accomplished at all. ”

“ A row round the quarry at low water reveals the immense richness of the vegetable and animal life which inhabits its waters. There are growths of sponges of different colour, with gracefully interlacing branches like a coral grove, where bright-hued sea-anemones spread their tentacles, and crabs and other crustacea crawl and swim about at their pleasure. And not only are the commoner forms of marine life abundant; rarer species may be found frequently. The beautiful nudibranch mollusc Eolus lives in the quarry ”

“ As to the position in society of his progenitors, that is a point which would require the research of the Society of Antiquaries.’
The actress looked solemnly in the face of her friend, and taking both her hands within her own, replied: ‘Julia, there is a fascination in the life of a successful actress, of which you can form no conception. There is the delight of selecting the costume you are to wear on the eventful evening. No trifle to a woman, as you will admit. ”

“ The actor opened the ball. ‘You must have met an elderly party in the passage. That was the governor. He is very irate because I won’t fall in love by word of command, and marry Miss Anstruther, whom I have never seen.—By-the-bye, you have seen her. What is she like?’
‘A lovely girl,’ replied Vallance. ‘I met her at a ball at Scarborough, soon after her arrival from the West Indies. Faith, Harry, you might do worse.’
‘And might do better; eh, Jack? But your ideas of beauty are so opposite to mine, as I remember of old. ”

“ The chemical and physical work done at sea is chiefly the collection of samples of water and the observation of temperature. Water from any moderate depth is collected by lashing a bottle to the sounding-line and lowering it to the proper point; the stopper is then pulled out by a cord and the bottle allowed to fill. The water in the bottle is not changed in its ascent, as the mouth is narrow and it always hangs vertically. When the sea is rough or the depth is great, it is necessary to employ some other means. The ‘slip-water-bottle’ is convenient for most purposes. ”

“ The ‘dredge’ is the true naturalist’s implement. It is a small-meshed net, closed at one end, and fixed to a rectangular iron frame at the other. When drawn along, it scrapes the{467} bottom, and brings up everything that it encounters, mud and shells, and all living creatures that are not quick enough to get away. After a run over good ground, when the dredge is hauled up—an operation that is performed on the Medusa by a gun-metal wire-rope and a steam winch—and emptied on deck, the profusion of animal life that lies in a struggling heap before one is quite bewildering. ”

“ Wit itself has not inaptly been called ‘a pleasant surprise over truth;’ and wisdom, often its near ally, is, in the opinion of a clever writer, ‘nothing more than educated cunning.’ ‘Habits are what we learn and can’t forget,’ says the same author, who also defines silence as ‘a safe place to hide in,’ and a lie as ‘the very best compliment that can be paid to truth.’ ‘Show him an egg and instantly the air is full of feathers,’ said a humorist, defining a sanguine man. ”

“ Now and then, it is true, the fire of scientific enthusiasm burns strong enough in a man to enable him to overcome all difficulties, and to carry on a brilliant research with complete success to a satisfactory conclusion. The work of such men is monumental; but they do not appear many times in a century. The name of one marine chemist is associated with Edinburgh ”

“ The creatures brought up by the dredge or trawl are kept alive in boxes, the water in which must be changed at intervals, though, when there is a heavy sea and a head-wind, as often happens, this service is performed by the waves, which break over the bows in magnificent spray showers, very beautiful to watch from the dry security of the after-cabin. On arriving at the Ark, the animals are transferred to aquaria or glass dishes, in which a constant current of thoroughly aërated sea-water can be kept up, and in these they live very happily. ”

“ The ocean has been watched and studied for ages in innumerable aspects—it has been looked at from points of view wide asunder as the poles—it has been sung of by poets, and fished in by fishermen, and sailed over by sailors for thousands of years ”

“ An exquisite transparent medusa or jelly-fish, its umbrella several inches in diameter, rayed with purple, and carrying a fringe of graceful pendent tentacles, is often brought on board its namesake; and hosts of smaller species of these beautiful creatures are always to be found. It is in the tow-net, too, that the floating ova of fishes, about which there has been so much discussion recently, are caught. ”

“ If a man could take a wife on lease, for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years, the case would be different. But the feeling that my lot in life was fixed—cut and dried, so to speak—the matter won’t bear a thought.’ The young man felt strongly inclined to indulge in a stage-walk, but the limited area of the apartment forbade such a physical relief. If the reader should consider the remarks of the actor somewhat flippant, it must be borne in mind that no one whose character did not fall under that definition would have acted as Harry Stanley had done. ”

“ It is, however, in contemplation to drive the dynamo not by steam, but by water-power, abundance of which, descending from the hills, can be had close by, and only requires utilising. This railway will in many points resemble that up the Righi, only that electricity will be its driving-power instead of the odd-looking little engine so well known at the latter place ”

“ So far the problem of how to provide for an epidemic of smallpox in London is in a fair way of being solved, by a system which, though still in its earliest stage, is daily undergoing development and improvement. When yet another steamer is fitted out, there will be no difficulty in coping with a much larger epidemic than has visited London for many years, and at the same time treating patients with an amount of attention almost unknown till now. ”

“ The dredge and trawl explore the bottom, but are useless for collecting specimens from the surface or intermediate depths; and ‘tow-nets’—bags of muslin or canvas sewn on hoops and drawn after the vessel—are employed for this purpose. The creatures caught in the tow-net are usually small; when the contents of the net are placed in a bottle, the water seems full of bright spots darting about in all directions; but under the microscope the specks discover themselves to be beautifully formed crustaceans shining in glassy armour. But the tow-net often catches larger things. ”

“ For educated persons, male or female, without capital, Australia is a death-trap. Such persons would, according to my observation, do far better in America, or in the English settlements in China. In China, young gentlemen possessing no other fortune than a good education, are soon employed in the warehouses and stores by the Chinese merchants, who value Englishmen whenever they can get them to take charge of the more responsible parts of their businesses. The Chinese Customs’ Departments also are open to educated young Englishmen. But in Australia, brains are not a marketable commodity ”

“ But future historians may well be tempted to substitute the word steel for iron, for it is an undoubted fact that improved processes of manufacture, and the resulting easy and cheap production, are causing steel to be widely substituted for its parent metal. In railways, steel rails are now almost entirely replacing iron ones, and that modification of the metal known as ‘mild steel’ is finding great favour just now among shipbuilders. ”

“ The individual who is desirous of making chemical or physical observations on the wide sea is in a still more evil case. His apparatus is more costly and more complicated than that of the biologist; it is less easy to manage in a boat not specially adapted for the purpose; and the immediate vicinity of a laboratory is of the first importance. ”

“ The water must always be brought to the laboratory in stoppered bottles, which are entirely filled, and have had the stoppers tied down from the moment of collecting.
The temperature of surface-water is usually taken by drawing a bucketful and placing an ordinary bath-thermometer in it for a few minutes. The precautions of hanging the thermometer in the centre of the bucket and placing it in the shade must be observed. Temperature at greater depths may be observed in several ways. Three methods have been tried at the Marine Station. ”

“ It has become customary to speak of the present epoch as the ‘Iron Age,’ in order to distinguish it from those two long periods of human interest known respectively as the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. ”

“ Every person visiting the Laboratory at the Health Exhibition can have his or her schedule filled up with a statement, ascertained on the spot, of his name or initials, age, sex, occupation, place of birth, colour of hair and eyes, height standing and sitting, weight, length of span of arms, strength of squeeze and of pull, swiftness and weight of direct fist-blow, capacity of chest, lungs, and breathing, as measured by a spirometer, acuteness of vision as measured by a test type, conditions of colour-sense, and acuteness of hearing. ”

“ Should he wish to examine any locality minutely, he must purchase a dredge and tow-nets, leads and lines, and bottles and boxes to contain the specimens which may be obtained. The difficulty is only half overcome when the work of collecting is over. It is impossible to convey the creatures alive to any distance; and after a few attempts to do so, the naturalist either hires a room in the fishing-village for his work, or gives up the study of marine life altogether ”

“ A more common instrument, though one not found so suitable for use in shallow water, is the Miller-Casella thermometer, the form chiefly employed on the Challenger. It is a self-registering thermometer with a maximum and minimum arm, which register the highest and lowest temperatures met with in each immersion. As the temperature of the sea almost invariably decreases with increase of depth, the lowest temperature is considered to be that of the lowest point reached. ”

“ The accommodation which exists at present includes a floating laboratory, ‘the Ark,’ where zoological, botanical, and chemical work is being carried on by the permanent staff and other investigators. There is also a steam-yacht, the Medusa, fitted out with all the arrangements for trawling, dredging, sounding, and taking the other necessary observations. She is manned by an efficient crew, and has the advantage of the services of an engineer who was on the Challenger during her scientific cruise. ”

“ There is a young man acting in this company—a Mr Percy Montmorency. He is all I could wish—handsome,{474} clever, accomplished, and vastly agreeable.’
‘Then you have made your selection?’
‘Not so, Julia. His profession renders our union impossible. He may be heir to a peerage; he may be a lawyer’s clerk. There is the most delightful mystery as to our antecedents, we play-actors! For instance, who would suppose that I was the rich West Indian heiress, who utilised her amateur theatrical talents, and adopted her present profession? ”

“ But there is one branch of the metal trade which shows a continually increasing activity, and which need not fear any rivalry from steel, and that is the tinplate trade. Many thousands of tons of this tinned iron—that is, thin sheets of iron coated with tin—are annually exported from this country, our best customers being the United States. We may presume that a large quantity of this metal comes back to us in the form of tins containing preserved meats, fish, and fruit. ”

“ The routine-work of a biological and chemical laboratory is not of much interest to most people. For every day of collecting, with its fresh sea-air and new sea-sights, there must be{468} several spent on the Ark in preserving the specimens, pressing plants, dissecting, mounting microscopic objects, observing densities, analysing water, calculating results, and such things ”