6 DEEP-SEA SOUNDING. 



Barbados in the West Indies, in 1886, many of the casts 

 when within the tropics were taken with sails clewed 

 up and topsail yards mast-headed, the breeze as a rule 

 being light and the sea comparatively smooth, steam, 

 however, being used as before. When the wire had 

 been reeled in to about 2000 fathoms, sufficient sail was 

 made to give the vessel a speed of not more than four 

 knots; when in to 1000 fathoms, all sail was made and 

 the propeller uncoupled. At Cape Town the upper 

 platform of the accommodation ladder was fitted to ship 

 on the starboard side of the vessel in line wnth but below 

 the level of the bridge, forward of the smoke-pipe, 

 and the sounding apparatus was transferred from the 

 starboard gangway to the bridge. This was an improve- 

 ment, and all casts after leaving Cape Town were taken 

 with the reel in this position. When this change was 

 made an iron pipe was fitted to lead from the main 

 boilers of the ship to the small "reeling" engine, taking 

 the place of the flexible rubber pipe formerly used. This 

 engine being small required a pressure of 60 pounds of 

 steam to reel in the cup from moderate depths, which of 

 course necessitated keeping as high a pressure on the 

 main boilers of the ship to which the steam-pipe was 

 connected. As a result a greater steam-pressure was 

 required to reel in the wire than to run the ship's engines 

 while sounding. It would have been, therefore, more 

 economical had we been furnished with a larger "reel- 

 ing " engine, — one requiring a less pressure of steam. 

 The Enterprise had six cylindrical boilers. Two of 



