[11] FAUNA OF OUTER BANKS, VINEYARD SOUND, ETC. 651 



during the past three seasons, was built particularly for use in the hatch- 

 ing' of shad eggs, in the mouths of shallow rivers, and is, therefore, not 

 adapted for service at sea, unless in very fine weather. A much larger 

 steamer, the Albatross, of 1,000 tons, has been built for the use of the 

 Fish Commission, and fitted up expressly for deep-sea service, for which 

 she is in every respect well adapted, having the best equipment possible 

 for all such investigations, and at all depths. The examination of the 

 bottom beyond the depth of about 600 fathoms was therefore deferred by 

 us till the completion of the Albatross. Nevertheless, the apparatus 

 that we have used on the Fish Hawk has been better, in some respects, 

 than most other vessels engaged in such work have had, whether Amer- 

 ican or foreign. This year several new improvements were made, es- 

 pecially in the deep-sea thermometers. New forms of traps for capturing 

 bottom animals were also devised. The '■'•trawl-wings^'''' first introduced 

 by us in 1881, were used this year with great success, for they brought 

 up numerous free-swimming forms, from close to the bottom, which could 

 not otherwise have been taken. The use of steel wire for sounding, and 

 of wire rope for dredging, enabled us to obtain a much greater num- 

 ber of dredgings* and temperature observations than would have been 

 possible under the old system, adopted on the Challenger. 

 Of Echinoderms, nearly all of the species previously enumeratedt from 



*As an illustration of tlie rapidity witli which this work has been done by employ- 

 ing persons skilled in the various operations and using the wire rope, reeled upon a 

 large drum, I give here a memorandum of the time required to make a very successful 

 haul. In 640 fathoms, at station 1124, the large trawl was put over at 4.29 p. m. ; it 

 was on the bottom at 4.44, with 830 fathoms of rope out ; commenced heaving in at 

 5.17 ; it was on deck at 5.44 p. m. ; total time for the haul, 1 hour 15 minutes. The 

 net contained several barrels of specimens, including a great number and large variety 

 of fishes, as well as of all classes of invertebrata, probably more than 150 species al- 

 together, several of them new. 



At station 1125, in 291 fathoms, the trawl was put over at 6.03 p. m. ; on bottom at 

 6.10, with 500 fathoms of rope out ; commenced heaving in at 6.32 ; on deck at 6.50; 

 total time 47 minutes. This was a very good haul, but not so large as 1124. This 

 was the seventh successful haul of the trawl made that day. All the specimens were 

 assorted, labelled, and packed away in alcohol before 9 p. m. 



The adoption of steel-wire rope, since 1880, for dredging on the Fish Hawk has 

 greatly expedited our work. This great improvement, first used by Lieut. -Com. C. 

 D. Sigsbee, on the Coast Survey steamer Blake, in 1877-'78, was invented by Mr. A. 

 Agassiz, who introduced it during that cruise, and also on subsequent ones on the 

 Blake, when commanded by Lieutenant Bartlett. Its introduction and use has been 

 described by Mr. Agassiz in his reports, and also, in detail, by Captain Sigsbee, in his 

 extended work on Deep-Sea Sounding and Dredging. Our arrangements on the Fish 

 Hawk for reeling in the wire rope were unlike those on the Blake, for we used only 

 one drum, with 1,000 fathoms of rope on it. The use of steel wire for sounding goes 

 back to an earlier date than is commonly supjjosed. It was extensively tried by Lieut. 

 J. C. Walsh, U. S. N., on the schooner Taney, in his survey of the Gulf Stream in 

 1849 (see Maury's Winds and Currents of the Sea, p. 56, 1851). Important improve- 

 ments have since then been made in the reels for winding it in, by Sir William Thom- 

 son, Captain Sigsbee, and others. 



t See American Journal of Science, 1880 to 1882. 



