630 DEEP-SEA SOUNDING. 



atmospheric and meteorological observations made ; and the direction and 

 rate of the surface (and in one or two cases of sub-surface) currents were 

 determined. In the North Atlantic Ocean, 130 soundings were taken, 

 and other observations made (December 30th, 1872, to August 30th, 1873), 

 between Portsmouth and Tenerife, Tenerife and St. Thomas in the 

 Caribbees, St. Thomas and Bermuda, Bermuda and Halifax, having 

 crossed the Gulf Stream in a north-westerly direction, Halifax and Ber- 

 muda, Bermuda and Madeira, Madeira and Bahia, crossing the eastern 

 portion of the Guinea Current in a southerly direction. On the return 

 voyage in 1876, crossing the Equator in about 14° 25' W., on April 7th, 

 Spithead was reached on May 24th. 



Between the years 1874 — 1880, the U.S. surveying vessel Blake, a 

 steamer of only 218 tons register, under the command of Captain Sigsbee, 

 and later of Captain Bartlett, took upwards of 3,000 deep soundings with 

 wire. During 1885 — 1890, the Blake was again occupied, under Lieut. 

 Pillsbury, in examining the Caribbean Sea and the course of the 

 Gulf Stream. 



Telegraph cable companies now began to employ vessels and staffs of 

 their own, to take most elaborate series of careful soundings, and a great 

 deal of our present knowledge of the depths of the sea is due to their 

 researches. In 1874, 1879, 1881, and 1882, Messrs. Siemens Brothers' 

 steamer Faraday made a most complete examination of the region 

 between Northern Europe and Amer ca, when the so-called Faraday Hills 

 were discovered, in mid- Atlantic. These consist of several patches, with 

 depths under 1,000 fathoms, situated between lat. 49° 35' and 49° 50' N., 

 long. 28° 55' and 29° 50' W. ; the least depth found was 625 fathoms, in 

 lat. 49° 41^' N., long. 29° 5' 50" W. A wire sounding line was used, with 

 Buch accurate results, that the difference between repeated measurements 

 at the same spots, in depths about 2,000 fathoms, rarely exceeded 

 2 fathoms. 



Among later surveys of the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean by 

 telegraph ships, we may mention those of the Dacia and International, 

 between Spain and the Canary Islands, in 1883 ; the Buccaneer, in 1886, 

 off the West Coast of Africa ; the Silvertown, in 1884, between Senegal 

 and the Canary Islands, and in 1889, off the West Coast of Africa ; the 

 Minia, in 1889 and 1893, in mid- Atlantic and off Nova Scotia; the Silver- 

 town, in 1891, between the Cape Verde Islands and Pernambuco; and the 

 Westmeath, in 1890 and 1892, between Halifax and Bermuda, and off and 

 among the Caribbee Islands, the Bahamas, and Florida. 



In 1881, the French Government despatched the Travailleur, and in 

 1883, the Talisman, to examine the seas from Western Europe to the 

 Senegal, and among the Azores, Canary, and Cape Verde Islands, and in 

 the Sargasso Sea, and they added much to our knowledge of the ocean. 

 Soundings were also made by the Italian corvette Vettor Pisani, in 1882. 

 Nor must we omit to mention the explorations made by the Prince of 

 Monaco, in his yacht Hirondelle, during the years 1885 — 1888, and the 

 expedition of the German steamer Natio^ial, in 1889. 



Careful series of soundings have also been taken by the following 

 United States vessels : — The Entervrise, in 1886, between the Eiver Plate 



