Mr. Beebe lets me call him Uncle Will, even if he is the head of this big expedition. He was awfully nice to let me go on part of it.

I had my twelfth birthday on the Arcturus down on the Equator. And I know how lucky I was to be taken along. It was great fun. And I think I learned a lot, though perhaps it will hurt my school work, being away and everything. Anyway, Mother and I joined the Arcturus—Uncle Will’s ship—at Panama. We spent nearly three months in the Pacific Ocean, studying sea life and visiting seven uninhabited desert islands. And I promised Dad to write a little story about it all. He told me to try to tell what we did and [[4]]what I saw just like fellows telling each other about their adventures. That’s pretty hard to do.

Using a Net from the Boom.

Then when I got back they let me make this little book out of what I wrote most every day on the boat. It’s meant for boys and girls. Mother helped me fix up the spelling and make the grammar right.

The writing took quite a long time, and I think being a naturalist would be more fun than being a writer. Anyway, my stories help me remember the fun we had on the Arcturus. I don’t see how it could have been much better.

We arrived in Colon from New York and Havana early in the morning of March 27th, and after our inspection, Capt. Lane took us in his own launch over to the Arcturus—a high white ship which was lying across the harbor. [[5]]

This Arcturus, the boat on which we are to take our trip, is named for the great star which sailors use as a guiding star in sailing strange seas. She was fitted out by men who are interested in the New York Zoological Society, which has the wonderful Zoo in the Bronx. Among the living animals collected for the Zoo are albatrosses, flightless cormorants (a very rare bird), boobies and penguins. A great many specimens were to go to the American Museum of Natural History and fish to the Aquarium at the Battery. She is fitted with a whole outfit for a scientific expedition. At first sight she looked like a freighter, high sided and built for cargo, with many booms and cables and equipment for hoisting and moving things.

There are two laboratories in the forward part, the lower one fitted with bottles, microscopes, modelling clay and all sorts of glass jars in which to preserve specimens. The upper room is more of a library with reference [[6]]books and text books on all subjects about oceanography, for this is an expedition mostly to study about the sea and the strange creatures in it. Also there is a chemical laboratory so that the blood of fishes can be examined.