BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES I'lsii commission'. 269 



deavored to ascertain the quantity of matter floating in the sea.* It 

 was difficull to make such observations, because one formation passed 

 away alter a few months, to give way to others. Xo such accumulation 

 offull-grown matter as is found everywhere on the land can, there 

 fore, be looked for in the sea. 



7>.-IIVOICO<>iICAl > III«' WOICK Ol I III. A i. It A IKONS I N 1884. 



By Lieut. SEATON S€IIK01:DI-:K, U. S. N. 



Daring the year 1SS-1 the Albatross took 701 soundings, almost all of 

 which were located with sufficient accuracy to give them hydrographic 

 value. During the winter and spring the vessel was employed by 

 the Navy Department in searching for reported dangers in the West 

 Indies and on the way there, runnings lines of soundings across the 

 Caribbean Sea and among some of the islands, noting currents care- 

 fully, and establishing the longitude of Cape San Antonio lighthouse, 

 Cuba. 



The following are the reported dangers over or near which the depths 

 were found in the positions given : 



* Many soundings. 



t Off Cape San Antonio ; many. 



The soundings were such as to prove the nou existence of all except 

 the Georgia Shoal, reported by Captain Holt, of the American brig Geor- 

 » gia, in 1867. An extensive search was made for this, resulting in the 

 discovery of a bank a little to the southward of the reported position, 

 in latitude 17° 36' to T<° 44' X. and longitude 75° 40' to To- 5 1.7 \Y. 

 The least water found by the Albatross was 17 fathoms. 



One hundred soundings were taken off Cape San Antonio, and t In- 

 shoal reported there may be expunged from the charts. 



Six lines of soundings were run across the Caribbean Sea, four be- 



*The o :ly person who lias done Bomething in this Line is Murray, of the Challenger 

 expedition. 



