ON DEEP-SEA SOUNDING. 345 



sounding in the Bay of Biscay was the destruc- 

 tive stress experienced by the wheel in haul- 

 ing in the wire. 



My first attempt to remedy this defect was 

 a failure. It consisted in stopping the hauling 

 every twenty turns, taking the strain off the wire 

 by aid of a clamp, and easing it round the wheel. 

 This was done in a sounding of 1,200 fathoms, 

 made in Funchal Bay, Madeira, only a few 

 miles from Funchal, during the Hooper cable 

 expedition to Brazil last summer. I found 

 that stopping every twenty turns did not seem 

 to be of any use at all, so I stopped every 

 ten turns, and even that tedious process did 

 not afford sufficient relief. That plan having 

 proved a failure, I then looked out for some 

 other ; and the peculiarity of the apparatus 

 now before you consists in the way in which 

 the difficulty was overcome. In the American 

 Navy another mode of getting over it has 

 been followed : the wheel has been strengthened, 

 and a trigger apparatus has been introduced 

 for detaching the weight when it reaches the 



