Albatross' Foot," I said wryly.

" What did she say?"

" Finsen,' said the factory ship, if you don't lay off the bloody booze before breakfast, I'll give you a shore job cutting up whale's guts,' " I replied.

He grinned. " The Royal Society wouldn't have cared for that."

" It was difficult enough to persuade them that there was any substance in the story of The Albatross' Foot. It took a hell of a lot of talk. This scholarship runs for one year, and it's not worth much-only a thousand pounds. I' ve already lost two and a half months getting to Tristan.

I was just plain lucky that the South Africans were sending out a relief ship to the radio station."

" But Bouvet…" Sailhardy demanded.

I shrugged. " But Bouvet!" I echoed. " They wouldn't hear of it. No ships go there. It would have meant a special charter, a special expedition. Neither the Royal Society nor myself could raise tens of thousands of pounds for anything on that scale. No, • Sailhardy, even if I prove the Tristan prong of The Albatross' Foot, I can't ever hope to prove the Bouvet one."

" You could try and collect reports from the catchers far south

…" he began rather helplessly.

" You can imagine the reaction of tough catcher captains, can't you?" I said. " It isn't practical. My theory is simple: two great warm currents strike down towards Bouvet, one from the Atlantic side and the other from the Indian Ocean side of Africa, and link up in the neighbourhood of Bouvet. The Atlantic one is ours here at Tristan. That's the theory, anyway. The combined warm currents then break open the pack-ice which forms in winter between Bouvet and the Antarctic mainland. It not only breaks it up-it clears the sea for four hundred and fifty miles. It is, in fact, the whole mechanism which holds the Antarctic ice at bay. It is as important to South America, South Africa and Australia as the Gulf Stream is to the United States. It's the most exciting thing that happens in the world's oceans, the most dramatic. It is completely unknown." I tugged at the line to my net. " A hell of a lot depends on this one little net. Otherwise, it is likely to remain completely unknown."