14 CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN, 
would sometimes appear flattened like a door-knob, or to conyey a more sensuous image, like a 
huge crimson pegtop with purple bands. It was easy, also, to distinguish by means of a marine 
glass the solar spots, the eye not being overwhelmed by the light but readily accommodating itself 
to the rays of the summer sun, which, owing to his low declination, ave nowhere so delicate as they 
are in the far north. 
Some of the strange acoustics experienced in this region are not unworthy of mention, A 
remarkable multiple echo was noticed between two mountains at Plover Bay, Sibéria; another noticed 
by our sledge party in a cliff at Cape Onmann, Siberia, gives back more than a dozen echoes, and 
Baron Wrangel relates that a pistol fired near some cliffs on the River Lena is echoed a hun- 
dred times. The great distance to which small sounds are sometimes transmitted is also worthy of 
record. he first time this acoustic clearness of the atmosphere came under observation was at 
Saint Michael’s, where a conversation carried on at an incredible distance could be distinctly heard. 
Aiid the grim silence and desolation of heretofore aa tia Wrangel Island, at a time, too, when 
the air was acoustically opaque for that latitude, I distinctly heard our boatswain, a small man, 
with a voice of no great volume, giving orders two miles away, while laughter and sounds of the 
voice, when any one spoke above the ordinary tone, were heard with sneh amazing distinctness as 
to suggest telephonic communication. Where the conditions were so favorable to the reflection of 
sonorous waves, it was natural to expect the occurrence of a rarer phenomenon, an echo at sea, such 
as I once noticed in a fog off the Newfoundland Banks while crossing the Atlantic in a French 
steamer, whose fog-whistle was echoed in a surprising manner. But at no time was it observed 
that the nephelogical state of the atmosphere overhead or the prevalence of fog banks gave rise to 
anything like an aerial echo. 
Although as a rule no very marked differences in the deep sea and surface temperatures were 
observed, yet a few of the anomalies noticed are deserving of mention. For instance, near Herald 
Island, on July 30, the temperature at the bottom was 48° and 49°. A few days later off the Siberian 
coast, 100 miles to the southward, it measured 37°; while laterin Bering Sea, over 600 miles to the 
southward, it fell to 35°. 
The density of the sea water, as observed by Mr. F. BH. Owen, assistant engineer of the Corwin, 
is shown in the accompanying table. The instruments used in obtaining the results were a ther- 
mometer and a hydrometer. Water was drawn at about 6 feet below the surface and heated to a 
temperature of 200° F., and the saturation or specific gravity is shown by the depth to which the 
hydrometer sinks in the water. As sea water commonly contains one part of saline matter to thirty- 
two parts of water the instrument is marked in thirty-seconds, as 5, 5, &c., and the densities are 
fractional parts of one thirty-second : 
2 
rulese 
Points of observation. 5 icy 
a | B 
D Q 
| &\a 
At Saint Michael’s, Bering Sea.................. 50 2 
Off Plover Bay, Asia ceases rl ee i 
Aretic Ocean, near Bering Straits 32 3 
Arctic Ocean, near ice on Siberian coast 8 i 
Bering Sea, off Saint Lawrence Island.. BA ? 
Golovnine Bay, Bering Sea, July 10 ....... 12 t 
Bering Sea, between King's Island and c ‘Ape Pri iat ; 
pane to Kotzebue Sound, July 1 pevis dia serek 47 7 
Cape Thompson, Arctic Ocean, July G davasye 36 2 
ley Cape, July 24.... a 36 P| 
Herald Island, in the 4 81 i 
Cape Wankarem, Siberia, August 5 33 i 
Wrangel Island (surface in ice) August. 12 Dar aeehnen ore ; 31 ; 
Wrangel Island (below surface 6 feet) August ab eae Ril Bet eR MO arate Se ote LARS 2 31 ‘ 
The use of the dredge resulted in finding the usual bathybian forms that have been already 
described in works relating to Arctic voyages. In latitude 70°, longitude 170°—a spot known 
among the whalers as the “ Post-Otfice”—the dredge brought up some mud of a temperature of 
32°, while the water near the surface measured 34°. Microscopic examination of the mud revealed 
some shells of foraminifera. 
In passing Bering Straits the brownish tint of the water was noticed. It resembled that often 
seen in the water of mill-ponds which has been discolored by decaying leaves, The phosphores- 
—————_— 
