400 



NA TURE 



[August 2i, 1884 



December 1867. l His collections, representing principally the 

 fauna of the Gulf Stream off Florida, gave new and interesting 

 results, going farther to prove the existence of a rich and diversi- 

 fied deep-sea fauna, different from that of the shore regions, than 

 any previously obtained. 



That these dredgings were not undertaken to please the 

 passing whim of some over-enthusiastic naturalist, but were as 

 deliberately planned and carried out, and as successful in their 

 results, as those of the English steamers which followed them in 

 CDnception, a reference to the official publications of the Coast 

 Survey will sufficiently prove. As substantiating this statement, 

 we may be pardoned for quoting a short paragraph from the 

 report of Mr. Pourtales, above referred to (December 1S67), in 

 which the plans and objects of the new explorations are briefly 

 stated. This would not be called for, were it not that it is this 

 identical report which has been so utterly ignored by European 

 writers, and equally overlooked by many Americans. Had it 

 only been written in popular language, and been published with 

 copious illustrations, it might have received the credit which has 

 been denied it ; but such channels of publication are seldom 

 deemed necessary to establish priority in scientific research. 



The plan of operations, according to Mr. Pourtales, was as 

 follows : — 



"The present Superintendent of the Coast Survey, Prof. B. 

 Peirce, has lately directed the resumption of the investigations of 

 the Gulf Stream, so successfully inaugurated by his predecessor, 

 but interrupted for several years by the war. Besides observa- 

 tions of the depth, velocity, and direction of that current, and 

 the temperature and density of the water at different depths, the 

 researches will be extended to the fauna of the bottom, of the 

 surface, and of the intervening depths. Not only will an insight 

 be thus obtained into a world scarcely known heretofore, but that 

 knowledge will have a direct bearing on many of the phenomena 

 of that gre,at current. Thus a new light may be thrown on its 

 powers of transportation from shallow to deeper water or along 

 its bed, on its action of forming deposits in particular localities, 

 or on its possible influence on the growth of coral-reefs on its 

 shores." 



In a subsequent passage he summarises his first season's results 

 in the following terse remarks, the italics being his own : — 



" However, short as the season's work was, and few as were 

 the casts of the dredge, the highly interesting fact was disclosed, 

 that animal life exists at great depths, in as great a diversity and 

 as great an abundance as in shallow mater. " 



Early in the following year (186S) the same explorations were 

 resumed, and they were continue'! through 1869. 



It may be thought that we have departed too widely from our 

 subject in discussing with so much detail the progress of Ame- 

 rican res. Mich during a period in which no great improvements 

 were made in methods of work on this side of the Atlantic ; but 

 how could we have better furnished proof of the rapid growth of 

 interestin such matters, and of the maturing of ideas which pre- 

 pared the way for the important changes marking the next 

 decade. 



There is, however, one noteworthy addition to the collector's 

 outfit made in this period, which deserves special mention. On 

 one of tlie dredging cruises of the English exploring steamer 

 Porcupine, between 1868 and 1870, Capt. Calver, the naval 

 officer in charge, attached several of the common deck-swabs to 

 the end of the dredge-net, with the expectation that, in sweeping 

 the ocean-bottom, they would securely entangle all the rough and 

 spiny objects lying loose within their path. His fondest hopes 

 were realised, and the novel experiment, suggested by often 

 finding such objects as sea-urchins, corals, and sponges, adhering 

 to the exterior of the dredge-net, and even to the lower part of 

 tfi2 drag-rope, gave origin to one of the most efficient implements 

 of modern deep-sea research. 



When the beam-trawl, a well-known English appliance for 

 the capture of bottom-fish, was first adopted into the outfit of the 

 marine zoologist, we are unable to state ; but it does not appear 

 to have ever been extensively and systematically employed in 

 scientific research until so used by the U.S. Fish Commission, 

 beginning in 1872. It was afterwards used by the Challenger 

 from 1S73 to 1878, and now greatly excels the dredge in the 

 extent and value of its results, wherever the ground is suited to 

 its use. 



The year 1871 was signalised by the organisation of the U.S. 

 Fish Commission, one of the most important scientific establish- 

 ments of modern times formaline zoological work. Although 



• Bulletin Jin,. Comp Zool., Cambridge, vol. i., 1863-69, pp. 103-120. 



instituted primarily for the investigation of fishery matters, it has 5 

 through the wise and liberal policy of its Director, Prof. Baird, 

 accomplished most valuable results for marine biology. The 

 latter department has been sedulously fostered, in the belief that 

 its results would have an important bearing upon the practical 

 questions at issue. No pains have been spared to perfect the 

 methods of research, and many valuable contributions have 

 already been made to the marine collector's outfit. These are 

 briefly described below, and, as the history of the Commission 

 is already well known to most readers, we need refer here to only 

 a few points which have marked its progress. 



The earlier explorations were carried on mainly by means of 

 sail-boats, and were confined to comparatively shallow water. 

 From 1873 to 1879 a naval tug was placed at the disposal of the 

 Commission every year ; but in 1SS0 the steamer Fish Hawk, a 

 twin-screw propeller of 205 tons (n.m), was built expressly for 

 the combined purposes of fish-hatching and dredging. Its small 

 size and light draught prevented long trips at sea, but it was well 

 adapted for deep-sea work, and was supplied with all the im- 

 proved appliances, as well as those which had originated with 

 the Commission, including wire rope, then recently introduced 

 by the Coast Survey. In 1883 the steamer Albatross, described 

 in vol. ii. of Science (pp. 6, 66), was completed, and made her 

 first successful cruise in the spring of that year. Her log for the 

 summer of 1883 records the deepest trawling yet made in the 

 Atlantic Ocean, the depth having been 2949 fathoms, and the 

 results successful. Brief accounts of her dredging cruises under 

 Lieut. -Commander Tanner, U.S.N., have appeared from time 

 to time in late numbers of Science. 



While the Fish Commission claims priority for many improve- 

 ments in apparatus primarily intended for depths under a thou- 

 sand fathoms, it willingly yields the palm for deep-sea improve- 

 ments to the U.S. Coast Survey, especially in the persons of 

 Commander Sigsbee, U.S.N., and Mr. Agassiz. The explora- 

 tions of the steamer Blake from 1877 to 18S0, in which the 

 methods of deep-sea dredging and sounding were completely 

 revolutionised, mark one of the most important stages in the pro- 

 gress of marine research. Wire rope was substituted for hemp, 

 the dredge was altered to adapt it to the soft bottoms of deep 

 water, on which dredging results had always been uncertain, and 

 the beam-trawl was made reversible. The methods of handling 

 and reeling the rope were also perfected. These changes and 

 additions were briefly described and figured from time to time 

 as work progressed in the Bulletin of the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology, at Cambridge, by Mr. Agassiz and Mr. Sigsbee, 

 and were afterwards fully discussed by the latter in one of the 

 most elaborate and instructive reports ever dedicated to the 

 methods of deep-sea research. 1 It is a quarto volume of 20S 

 and 41 plates, describing the sounding and dredging appli- 

 ances used by the Blake, and which, for the greater part, were 

 devised or improved during her dredging cruise. So far as her 

 dredging appliances are concerned, the credit for changes made 

 belongs mostly to Mr. Sigsbee and Mr. Agassiz, the former 

 having been in command of the expedition, and the latter in 

 charge of the natural history operations. 



During the seventh decade, European explorers were not idle, 

 and numerous deep-sea expeditions were fitted out. Most 

 notable among these was the cruise of the British ship Challenger 

 around the world between 1S73 arR l 1878. Her scientific results 

 were most interesting ; but the older methods of deep-sea work 

 were not greatly altered, although the practicability of using the 

 beam-trawl successfully in the deepest water was fully demon- 

 strated. 



In 1SS1 the French Government inaugurated a series of sub- 

 marine explorations in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean 

 Sea ; for that purpose fitting out a small naval vessel, the 

 Travailleur, and placing the management of affairs in the hands 

 of a competent scientific staff, under the directorship of Prof. A. 

 Milne-Edwards. These investigations were continued by the 

 same vessel during 1882, the appliances and methods of work 

 having apparently been patterned after those generally recognised 

 in Europe. In 1883 a larger vessel, the Talisman, was assigned 

 to the work, and operations were established on a much grander 

 scale than before. 



For an account of these explorations, descriptive of the 

 methods of work and general results, we are indebted to the last 

 volume of La Nature, a French journal of the character of 



1 "Deep-Sea Sounding and Dredging : a Description and Discussion of 

 the Methods and Appliances used on Board the Coast and Geodetic Survey 

 Steamer Blake." By Charles D. Sigsbee, Lieut. -Commander U.S. Navy 

 Assistant on the Coast and Geodetic Survey. (Washington, 1S80.) 



