DKEP-.Si:.\ I.Xri.nKATION. 155 



voiul tlio sLrcani. Nciirly one lniiuln'<l hauls of tin- dredge 

 wc'iv made in all, aud (iruanL^ins were l)n)ii<,dit up 1)V the 

 bushel, espeeially iVoui a region averaging somewhat less 

 than three liundred fathoms, but also to some extent from 

 the <lecper waters. 



The work of 18(i7, however unimi^orlanl in the actual 

 bulk of the eolleetions made and the depth reached, when 

 eom|)ared with more recent investigations of the same kind, 

 was really the initiation of a new era in research. When 

 we look back at. the history of deep-sea exi)loration we see 

 that this need not have been so, perhaps we may say ought 

 not to have been so, but as a i)lain matter of fact it was so, 

 in spite of tlie absence of any emphasis upon it in foreign 

 accounts of the progress of such investigations. 



In 1808, fresh publications were made by 8ars, father and 

 son, whose researches on the Norwegian coasts have l)een 

 alluded to. On the coast of Portugal, Bocage and Perceval 

 AVright dredged in nearly live hundred fathoms from an 

 open boat, obtaining the remarkable "glass sponge," ILj- 

 alonema. Wyville Thomson and Carpenter in the Lightning 

 explored the sea-bed south of the Faroe Isles, and reached 

 a deptli of 550 fathoms. In 1800, the intense interest ex- 

 cited l)y these discoveries led to the voyages of the British 

 naval vessel Porcupine, with Dr. J. Gwyn Jcflreys, Professor 

 Wyville Thomson, and Dr. W. B. Carpenter, in charge of 

 the scientilic operations, and dredgings were made in 2,435 

 fathoms, or nearly three miles, reaching nearly the deepest 

 {)art of the North Atlantic. Smitt and Ljungmans, in the 

 Swedish frigate Josephiiie. dredged from the coast of Por- 

 tugal to the Azores, and then across the Atlantic to America. 

 The third cruise of the T. S. Coast Survey steamer Bibb. 

 1 Robert Piatt, U. S. N. commanding, was made, with Pour- 

 tales in charge of the dredging operations, lie was later 

 in the season joined by Prof. Louis Agassi/, whose report on 

 the work to the Superintendent of the Survey states that 

 • we owe to the Coast Survey the first broad and compre- 

 hensive basis for an exi)loration of tiie sea bottom on a 

 lart^e scale, opening a new era in /oological and geological 



