HIS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA 67 



Atmosphere", ''Of Clouds and Equatorial Cloud Rings", 

 "On the Geological Agency of the Winds", and "Deep 

 Sea Soundings". 



The last-mentioned paper was made possible by the 

 cooperation afforded by the government in authorizing 

 in 1849 the Secretary of the Navy to detail three suitable 

 vessels to assist in Maury's wind and current investiga- 

 tions and to order all ships of the navy to cooperate in so 

 far as it was compatible with the public interest. Maury 

 had long had a desire to explore the bottom of the ocean, 

 and he now saw to it that these ships especially de- 

 tailed to help him were equipped and thoroughly in- 

 structed for making soundings. The first attempts were 

 made by the schooner Taney, under the command of 

 Lieutenant J. C. Walsh, in the autumn of 1849. But 

 her work was of negligible value, as she succeeded only 

 in losing some 5700 fathoms of line as well as her deep- 

 sea sounding apparatus, and then proved so unseaworthy 

 that she had to be condemned and sent back home under 

 escort. Later, however, the results secured particularly 

 by Captain Charles T. Piatt in the sloop of war Albany 

 and by Lieutenants S. P. Lee and O. H. Berryman in the 

 brig Dolphin were of great importance. So extensive 

 was the data regarding soundings at Maury's command 

 by the close of the year 1853 that he was able to publish 

 in the sixth edition of his "Sailing Directions" (1854) 

 ninety pages of matter under the heading of "Physical 

 Geography of the Sea". 



This edition of the "Sailing Directions" was brought 

 out by E. C. and J. Biddle of Philadelphia, and when 

 Maury's nephew, Dabney Maury, went to see the 

 publishers about some question connected with its pub- 

 lication, one of the firm called his attention to the fact 



