Capt. Pmrifs Expedition. — Temperature oftheCaribbeanSea. 69 



NEW NORTHERN EXPEDITIONS. 



His Majesty's discovery ships Hecla and Fury have been 

 recommissioned at Deptford by Captains Parry and Hopp- 

 ner. The latter officer was the first lieutenant on board of 

 Captain Lyon's ship on the recent voyage. Such is the con- 

 fidence felt in the intrepidity, judgement, and conduct of the 

 distinguished officer in command of the expedition, and in the 

 attention paid by the different naval departments to the com- 

 fort of the men, that no sooner were the ships commissioned, 

 than one-third of the crew belonging to the Fury on the for- 

 mer voyage again volunteered for the Hecla, the ship bearing- 

 Captain Parry's pendant. Captain Lyon at the same time 

 commissioned His Majesty's ship Griper, which ship is de- 

 stined for Repulse Bay, whence Captain Lyon proceeds over 

 land to the back of that Bay, to survey the coast thence to the 

 " Cape Turnagain " of Captain Franklin's recent discoveries. 

 Captain Franklin proceeds by the way of New York to Fort 

 Enterprize, with a view to survey the coast on the American 

 Continent to the westward, connecting, if possible, the survey 

 between Fort Enterprize and Icy Cape. 



TEMPERATURE OF THE CARIBBEAN SEA AT THE DEPTH OF 

 6000 FEET. 



The following is Captain Sabine's account of an experiment 

 on this curious subject, as given by him, in a transcript of the 

 original memorandum written at the time, in a letter to Sir 

 H.°Davy, published in the second part of the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1823, p. 207. 



" H. M. S. Pheasant, on passage between Grand Cayman 

 Island and Cape St. Antonio, in Cuba, lat. 20^ N., long. 83* 

 W., November 13, 1822. 



"At 2 P.M. hove to, and sounded with 1230 fathoms of 

 line, beino- 11 coils of 1 1 3 fathoms each, and three fathoms 

 of a 12th°coil; at the end of the line was attached a strong 

 iron cylinder of 75 lbs. weight, inclosing a Six's self-register- 

 ing thermometer : the top of the cylinder screwed down upon 

 leather, being designed, by excluding the water from the in- 

 terior, to obviate any effect which might be supposed to 

 arise from the increased pressure of water at great depths : 

 the thermometer fitted into spiral springs at the top and bot- 

 tom, which kept it from contact with other parts of the cylin- 

 der, and preserved it from injury, in case the apparatus should 

 accidentally strike against the sides of the ship, or against 

 rocks at the bottom: another iron cylinder, of much less 

 strength and weight than the preceding, was attached two 

 fathoms above the end of the line, and being pierced with 



holes 



