Miscellaneous. 223 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Preliminary Report on the Expedition of the ‘Talisman’ in the 
Atlantic Ocean. By M. A. Mitye-Epwarps. 
At the public meeting of the five Academies on the 25th October, 
1882, I had the honour of giving an account of the explorations of 
the ‘ Travailleur,’ and I announced that this year a new scientific 
campaign would take place in the Atlantic. In fact, the Minister 
of Marine, in reply to a desire expressed by his colleague the Minister 
of Public Instruction and by the Academy, had given the necessary 
orders that a despatch-ship, the ‘ Talisman,’ should be fitted out for 
that purpose. 
The ‘Talisman’ is an excellent screw-steamer, provided with 
powerful sails, sufficient without the help of its machinery to give 
it a rapid motion. During several months, in the dockyards of the 
arsenal at Rochefort, it was placed in the hands of the Marine en- 
gineers, who undertook to adapt it to the service which it was to 
fulfil. The old hempen ropes intended to raise the dredges were 
replaced by a steel cable of extreme firmness and flexibility, able to 
support, without breaking, a weight of nearly 4500 kilogrammes, 
and presented to the Admiralty by the Minister of Public Instruction*. 
Two steam-engines secured its action: one of them set in motion 
the enormous reel on which it was coiled; the other, which was 
more powerful, drew up the dredging-apparatus. Some large nets 
or trawls of 2 or 3 metres across the mouth replaced with advan- 
tage the heavy dredge which we formerly employed. ‘The soundings 
were made by means of an apparatus perfected by M. Thibandier, 
marine engineer, and arranged in such a manner that the move- 
ments of the vessel should have no influence on the tension of the 
steel rope ; an automatic brake arrested the unwinding directly the 
sounding-apparatus touched the bottom. In order to measure the 
temperatures of the deep strata of the water I had caused to be 
constructed an apparatus enabling a thermometerwith a broken 
column of mercury to turn over at a given moment. The same 
movement caused the breakage of the capillary extremity of glass 
tubes in which a vacuum had been produced, and into which the 
sea-water then rushed, furnishing samples of perfect purity, which 
could be indefinitely preserved after hermetically sealing the tubes. 
Our confrére, Colonel Perrier, was kind enough to lend me a 
Gramme machine, which furnished electricity to some Edison lamps, 
so placed as to illumine our apparatus, or, at need, to descend into 
the sea to a depth not exceeding 35 metres. At my request the 
command of the vessel was confided to Captain Parfait, who, the 
preceding year, occupied the same post on board the ‘ Travailleur’f. 
* The weight of a metre was 344 grammes, and the price about 0 fr. 62. 
+ The staff was composed of M. Antoine and M. Jacquet, lieutenants, 
of MM. Gibory and Bourget, ensigns, of M. Vincent, doctor, and M. Huas, 
assistant doctor, and of M. Plas, purser. 
