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The "little winch" is a most important piece of apparatus on 

 board. It is placed on the starboard side forward of the bridge 

 and is worked by its own engine direct from the main boiler of 

 the ship. It is used for taking soundings, temperatures, etc., and 

 can haul in cable or sounding-line at the rate of 70 fathoms per 

 minute. Reference was also made to the " big winch " used for 

 heavier work, such as deep-sea trawling, and which carries four 

 miles of warp. Many slides were shown illustrating the methods 

 and instruments employed in the work, including Ekman's 

 current meter, a piece of apparatus very efficient under laboratory 

 tests, but very difficult to use in actual deep-sea work owing to 

 the difficulty of anchoring a ship fore and aft in a rigid position. 

 A specimen of Bidder's deep-sea current bottle, used for deter- 

 mining the direction and velocity of currents in deep water, was 

 exhibited and described. This is an ordinary soda-water bottle 

 loaded with shot, so that its specific gravity is slightly in excess 

 of deep-sea water. It contains a card of instructions bearing 

 a number, which is also marked on the " tally " of the bottle. A 

 piece of fairly stout wire, about 2 ft. long, is fastened to the neck. 

 When thrown overboard at a known position, the bottle sinks 

 to the bottom, where it rests on the point of the wire, which 

 is extended in continuation of the long axis of the bottle, 

 which then drifts with the current. The wire serves to keep the 

 bottle from fouling on the rough surface of the bottom. Many are 

 picked up by trawls or drift ashore ; and as finders are requested 

 to return the card to the Fishery Board a fair proportion are 

 traced, and it is now possible to chart with considerable accuracy 

 the movements of the bottom water in the area under inves- 

 tigation. Various forms of surface and mid-water nets were 

 illustrated and described. One, the vertical-haul net, is lowered 

 to any desired depth, and then hauled up, and is supposed to 

 take all organisms in the vertical column of water through which 

 it is raised. Such nets are worked in pairs, one being of coarse 

 canvas and one metre in diameter, intended to catch eggs, young 

 fish, etc.; the other of fine bolting cloth, one foot in diameter, for 

 the purpose of taking microscopic plankton. Another piece of 

 apparatus, the Buchanan-Petterson water-bottle, takes a sample 

 of water at any required depth, lecording at the same time the 

 temperature at that depth. Beam-trawls and otter-trawls were 

 then illustrated and described, and the methods of handling 



