INTRODUCTION. 5 



^' foot-break," but used a " friction line," making one end 

 of the line fast to the platform of the reel, then leading 

 the free end over the friction groove in the direction in 

 which the reel was turning, keeping hold of the line with 

 his left hand. He could thus look about him with 

 greater freedom and could control perfectly the move- 

 ment of the reel and tell with certainty the instant the 

 sinker struck bottom. 



When sounding in the South Pacific it was found that 

 the vessel could be kept in position with comparative 

 ease, even in rough seas and during moderate gales, by 

 using the spanker with sheet to windward, sometimes 

 assisted by the main trysail with its sheet also to wind- 

 ward (thus keeping the wind slightly on the starboard 

 bow), and by moving the engine ahead just enough to 

 stem the wind and sea. Notwithstanding the heavy 

 seas and bad weather in these high southern latitudes 

 not a cast was omitted in the whole line. 



I have copied freely from the log-book and my private 

 journal in reference to this particular line, as it was run 

 as far south as the sailing directions advised vessels to 

 go at that season of the year on account of ice, and in a 

 portion of the globe which has hitherto received little 

 attention in the matter of deep-sea soundings. Even to 

 this day (1892), more than six years having elapsed, the 

 chalets do not show a single deep-sea cast to the southwai^d 

 of the line run by the Enterprise and but few soundings 

 for some degrees of latitude to the northward. 



In the line run between Montevideo, Uruguay, and 



