Prince Albert I of Monaco (left) prepares a 

 balloon equipped with automatic instruments 

 designed to record meteorological data at 

 sea. Albert spent much of his life and 

 private fortune on oceanographic research. 



Now the oceans were to be surveyed in breadth and depth. One 

 ocean-going expedition followed another, sponsored by one nation 

 after another. The U. S. Coast Survey steamer Blake set out in 1877 

 to explore the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean under the leader- 

 ship of Alexander Agassiz, son of Louis. As a mining engineer, he 

 had made a substantial fortune, and it was he who paid off the debts 

 of his father's abortive marine station. Now, turning to oceano- 

 graphy, he made an important change in method. Instead of the 

 stout ropes the Challenger had used for deep-sea dredging, Agassiz 

 adapted the steel cables used in mining, making a great saving in 

 stowing space on board ship and a considerable saving in the time 

 needed for letting down and hauUng in the nets. The Challenger had 

 taken more than two-and-a-half hours to make a sounding in 243 5 

 fathoms; in contrast the Blake took about an hour for a sounding 

 of 2929 fathoms. 



From 1880 to 1883 the French research ships Travailleur and 

 Talisman surveyed the deep waters of the Mediterranean and eastern 

 Atlantic in an attempt to compare the deep-sea fauna found in each. 

 Their results revealed the same kinds of animals in each, but they 

 were more numerous in the Atlantic. In 1882 the U.S.S. Albatross 

 was commissioned for oceanographical work by the U. S. Fish and 

 Fisheries Commission. Working in the tropical Pacific, she took 

 more deep-sea fishes in one haul of her dredge than the Challenger 

 had collected in her whole cruise. In 1885 Prince Albert of Monaco 

 began a series of cruises in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic, 

 using first the yacht Hirondelle and later the Princess Alice and 

 Princess Alice II. Although his particular interest was in exploring 

 the deep seas, his many expeditions contributed greatly to oceano- 

 graphy as a whole. As a young man he had served in the Spanish 



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