746 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



United States Coast-Survey report for 1857, p. 102. — (From the work 

 of Commander Sands on Deep-Sea Soundings between the Delta and 

 Key West.) — ''At the bottom, the temperature in the month of May was 

 38° Fahrenheit, the air being 78° and the surface-water 77^°."' 



United States Coast-Survey report for 1858, p. 89. — " The highest tem- 

 perature observed at 50 fathoms was 78° Fahrenheit, and the lowest 

 obtained 38°, at the depth of 802 fathoms, at the position 9, five miles 

 from Havana." 



"On the line from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Tortugas, Com- 

 mander Sands found the temperature at the bottom, at the depth of 

 1,133 fathoms, to be 28° Fahrenheit. This position is in latitude 27° 

 16' north, longitude 86° 57' west." 



Same volume, p. 106 : " From the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi, 

 Commander Sands, in the steamer Walker, carried a line for depths and 

 temperatures across the Gulf in the direction of the Tortugas. The 

 greatest depth found on the line (1,710 fathoms) was in a position nearly 

 south of one in which a deep cast (1,511 fathoms) was made in the pre- 

 vious year. At the next station eastward, 2,000 fathoms of liiie were 

 payed out without indicating bottom. This was in a position north of 

 the passage between the western end of Cuba and Yucatan." 



The temperatures were observed at the surface, at 50, and at 100 fathoms, 

 and at the bottom, in 22 different positions, the lowest (31°) being ob- 

 tained at a depth of 896 fathoms, about one hundred and twenty miles 

 from the Delta. The surface temperature iu the same position was 77°. 



United States Coast-Surrey report for 1859, p. 80. — The above results 

 were verified by Lieutenant-Commander Huger, and something added 

 to the data ifor the Gulf Stream between Cuba and Florida, where tem- 

 peratures are found of 38° at a depth of 600 fathoms. 



United States Coast-Survey report for 1860, p. 84. — Lieutenant Wilkin- 

 son, in returning from Mobile to Key West, " observed with the deep-sea 

 thermometer and recorded the temperature found in the Gulf water to 

 a depth of 200 fathoms. Besides the record of the air-thermometer and 

 the register at the depth just stated, the temperature was noted in 

 twenty-three positions, at the surface also, and at 10, 30, and 100 fathoms. 

 In latitude 24° 05i' north, longitude 82° 52' west, (see sketch No. 27,) 

 the temperature found at 190 fathoms was 38° by the Saxtou thermom- 

 eter, that of the surfiice being at the same time 83°." 



In 1872, lines of soundings were run by Lieutenant- Commander J. A. 

 Howell, from the records of which enough have been selected to afford 

 some knowledge of the temperatures met with. The maximum and 

 minimum temperatures were obtained with a deep-sea registering-ther- 

 mometer. 



