TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 697 



This apparatus has been used for some time in the course of certain researches 

 which have been carried on in the North Sea. The task of a complete biological 

 survey of the Belgian coast having been entrusted to the author by his Govern- 

 ment, he soon felt the want of a handy ground-collecting instrument. Several of 

 the existing models, among which a few were of the boring-tube type, were tried. 

 Some worked rather well, but, although very heavy, they would only supply a 

 small quantity of sediment. Others gave good results on soft muddy bottom, but 

 no result at all on the sometimes very hard sands of the coast. None of them 

 was found to answer adequately for the particular desiderata of the work, a bulky 

 sample of all kinds of sediments being required. The author then set to work and 

 constructed the very simple apparatus exhibited, which, although a mere embryo 

 rather roughly set up, has done such good service as to induce him to call to it the 

 attention of those engaged in oceanographic study. 



It belongs to the cup type of sounding machine, the earliest idea of a ground- 

 collecting apparatus. The cup, however, has been provided with several additional 

 devices which give the whole quite a peculiar character. The most important of 

 these is an iron cover, exactly fitting the cup, and intended to prevent its contents 

 from being washed away. A very simple mechanism keeps this cover lilted up 

 as long as the cup is cutting into the soil. As soon as the cup touches the bottom 

 a little cam falls down, and is unlatched. Later on, when the apparatus is finally 

 hauled up, but not before it takes a vertical position again, the same mechanisoi 

 releases the cover and allows it to fall and close the cup. 



The construction of the apparatus is given in the figure. 



One of the most characteristic features of the instrument is that the rope is not 

 connected directly to the iron bar that bears the cup, but to a square block of 

 cast iron through which the bar freely plays up and down. 



When a hard ground is reached, the men in charge take care to give the rope 

 a few short pulls in order to make the cup bite into it. If inider such circum- 

 stances the instrument was allowed to lie flat on the ground it might empty itself 

 after each pull. The ring attached to the iron block is intended to keep the 

 apparatus in an oblique position, thus causing the cup to cut into the soil by its 

 edge, and to gradually fill up, no matter in what direction it may happen to tumble 

 down. 



When full the cup contains about six pounds of sand. The whole construc- 

 tion is very simple. There is no piece in it that any blacksmith or ship engineer 

 could not easily repair or even make anew in case of a breakdown ; a quality 

 which anyone engaged in exploration would certainly wish all his instruments to 

 posse.ss. 



The author has tried this sounding machine in shallow waters only ; but there 

 is little doubt that it woidd work well on the soft ooze of the deep sea. If neces- 

 sary a system of lost- weight mechanism could easily be devised and connected to it. 



8, Exhibition of a Neiv Orienting Ajyparatus for the Gambridgo 

 Microtome. By James Rankin. 



