10 



THREE CRUISES OF THE " BLAKE. 



As soon as the sinker strikes bottom, which is made apparent 

 by the stopping of the reel, read the register and the odometer, 

 and at the same time ship the crank on the axles of the reel, 

 and, to insure the detachment of the sinker, pay out a few turns 



7!^ 



Fig. 6. — Sigsbee's Detacher, and 



Belknap's Sounding Cylinder. 



(Sigsbee.) 



Fig. 7. — Section of Fig. 6. 

 (Sigsbee. ) 



Fig. 8. — Belknap's Cylin- 

 der detached from Shot. 

 (Sigsbee.) 



few 

 its 



of the wire by hand, until it feels slack. Then reel in a 

 turns, and the distance that the cross-head travels down 

 o-uides will indicate if the sinker has been detached. Gener- 

 ally, with a good form of detacher, it drops off on striking bot- 

 tom. In place of the Stellwagen cup, rod, and detacher, used 

 in Fig. 4, we may use for deeper soundings the sounding-rod, 

 composed of Sigsbee's detacher in connection with a modification 

 of Commander Belknap's cylinder No. 2. During the descent 

 the cone / is kept up by the shot, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, 



