270 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



bled into our berths and soon fell asleep, and did not a^v^ake again before 

 noon. 



We were still in tlie lee of the island, for a new storm had broken 

 out, which soon compelled our captain to weigh anchor and keep mov- 

 ing, as before, back and forth along the island. In the evening the pros- 

 pects were very dark and melancholy. The showers came down from 

 Mount Misery howling and creaking through the cordage of the ship, 

 and whipping the sea into foam. The swells of the sea had also increased 

 considerably, and made the ship, as soon as we got ever so little further 

 from the land, pitch and roll terribly, by which we could easily under- 

 stand what rough weather there must be further out at sea. Mean- 

 while, it was our intention at the first perceptible improvement in the 

 weather to leave Beeren Island without delay, with which we by this 

 time, to tell the honest truth, were thoroughly disgusted. 



The following morning we were already on our way northward. The 

 wind had quieted considerably, tlye barometer had risen, and the atmos- 

 phere had cleared. But the storm during- the previous two days had 

 thrown the ocean into so violent a commotion that our ship, having the 

 seas on the beam, rolled witb more violence than ever. Later in the day 

 the sea quieted little by little, and a breeze from the north made it set- 

 tle still more rapidly. When we had advanced to about midway be- 

 tween Beeren Island and Spitzbergen we stopped, the trawl was sent 

 down to a depth of 123 fathoms, and was hauled on board full of speci- 

 mens of the fauna of the deep. Not less than twenty-eight fishes (the 

 most of them small, it is true) were secured by this haul, besides a 

 raidtitude of lower animals, among which were some of great interest. 

 We now directed our course to the westward, in order to determine the 

 descent of the Beeren Island Bank toward the deep outside. In three 

 successive soundings we found down along the bank, first, 444 fathoms, 

 then 795 fathoms, and, finally, 1,149 fathoms. At all these stations care- 

 ful series of observations of the temperature were taken, both with the 

 usual Oasella-Miller thermometer and with the improved Negretti-Zam- 

 bra, the result going to show that in this stretch of the sea there is found 

 a considerably confused distribution of temperature in the deep. The 

 course was again changed and directed northward to Spitzbergen. On 

 the way the trawl was sent down on the declivity of the bank, but came 

 up in disorder, the net, probably on account of the severe ground-swells, 

 having been wound around the beam. 



The following day, toward noon, we got the first landfall of Spitz- 

 bergen, but the land was for the most part covered with fog, so that we 

 only here and there caught glimpses of immense masses of ice and 

 snow that shimmered through the fog. We sent a dredge down on the 

 bank, where the water was only 70 fathoms deep. But we were unsuc- 

 cessful again, the sack of the dredge being so torn asunder by the sharp 

 stones on the bottom that only what accidentally stuck fast to it and 

 to the tangles could be secured. In the evening of the same day we 



