HYDROGRAPHICAL SURVEY. 19^^ 



the utmost power of twenty-five men being requi- 

 site to overcome the weight. The laborious opera- 

 tion of hauling the line in, occupied several hours, 

 the weight continuing nearly the same throughout. 

 The sunken boat, which, before the accident, would 

 have been buoyant when full of water, when it came 

 to the surface required a boat at each end to keep 

 it from sinking. " When it was hoisted into the 

 ship, the paint came off the wood in large sheets, 

 and the planks, which were of wainscot, were as 

 completely soaked in every pore, as if they had lain 

 at tlie bottom of the sea since the Flood !" A 

 wooden apparatus that accompanied the boat in its 

 progress through the deep, consisting ch icily of a 

 piece of thick deal, about fifteen inches square, 

 happened to fall overboard, and though it original- 

 ly consisted of the lightest fir, sunk in the water 

 like a stone. The boat was rendered useless ; even 

 the wood of which it was built, on being offered to 

 the cook as fuel, was tried and rejected as incom- 

 bustible. 



This curious circumstance induced mc to make 

 some experiments on the subject. I accordingly 

 attached some pieces of fir, elm, and hickory, con- 

 taining two cubical inches of wood each, to the ma- 

 rine-diver, and sent them to the depth of 4000 feet. 

 Pieces of wood, corresponding with each of these 

 in shape and weight, were immersed in a bucket 

 of sea-water, during the time the marine-diver, 

 VOL. I. N 



