JEANNETTE INQUIRY.	449
appeared to forget that the ship rolled. He would lay an instrument down on the rail and it would roll off on the deck and get jambed up So that it would have to be repaired, or would be rendered useless. The deep sea sounding cups were in the starboard chart room and were opposed to be wiped off after using, in order to keep them from rusting. I remember they got rusty, and I remember the captain's having Nindemann or some of the men polishing them up. It was the same way with the hydrometer for measuring the density of the sea water. A hydrometer with graduated glass rolled over and broke in some way and De Long complained about Collins smashing these things. I re• member his saying if we went on this way smashing instruments we would not have instruments to last us three months. Then the mount ain barometer, and the only one we had on board, was broken. That was in Collins's charge. There were only two spare glasses, one tube being inside of the other tube, and there was a, little difficulty about fitting them. When it was discovered that the mountain barometer was broken, Mr. De Long directed Collins to set another glass, and when he first used it he broke the first spare glass, and De Long appeared to be out of patience about that, and Mr. Collins appeared to be confident he could set the other glass all right. So when he got ready to set the other glass De Long cautioned him particularly to be careful, as this was the last pair of glasses aboard the ship, and if we discovered any new land and ascended a mountain we would not have any mountain barometer to measure the heighth of the mountain. Collins started off all right to repair the barometer. He asked me to give him a piece of inch and a quarter iron tube. It is necessary to boil mercury to get out the air in order to make it correctly. I had one of the men get the piece of pipe and bring it in to Collins, and I saw what he was going to do with it. He suspended the glass tube containing mercury inside the iron tube and placed the alcohol lamp underneath this glass tube with 33 inches of mercury above it. I told him he should not do that, as I. was afraid the flame from the alcohol lamp would soften the end of the tube, and it would probably burst or break. De Long heard me speaking to Collins. Collins was taking it in good nature. Collins said, "Oh, no; it will be all right." De Long very naturally came into the port work-room to see what was going on and be had some discussion with Collins about this barometer, too. He completed the boiling to his satisfaction, and the tube was not broken then. But the next morning we found the tube had split and all the mercury had run out, and, of course, there was a hou-dou between De Long and Collins about the tube, and I was called in both by De Long and Collins as to the conversation of the previous day about putting the alcohol lamp under the iron tube and the iron tube outside creating a fierce flame that must be like a Nast furnace, that made it break when it cooled. He accused Collins there and then of not knowing how to set a tube, so I cleared out, not caring to take any part in it. That was the beginning of the instrument troubles as far as I saw. Then, later on, we killed a couple of bears and De Long wanted a picture of the bears—a hunting scene—taken. We had photographic apparatus aboard the ship, and Collins brought out the instrument and set it up, and took a plate and carried it-aboard the ship, and De Long wanted him to develop the plate. I+or some reason—I do not know why—it was never developed.
By Mr. CURTIS :
Q. No negative was perfected d—A. No, sir; he exposed the plate and I suppose the picture was there had it been developed, but I could not tell whether it was a negative or not until it was developed.
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