Geography of the Sea. 137 



While sounding in Ponds Inlet, Baffin Bay, in 1819, by means 

 of an ingeniously constructed contrivance called a deep sea clam, 

 he succeeded in detaching and bringing up portions of the bot- 

 tom from depths as great as 1,000 fathoms. The fact that this 

 mud contained living organisms was the first proof of life at 

 depths where it was thoitght impossible for it to exist. The 

 truth of this discovery, however, was not generally accepted, 

 many eminent men of science on both sides of the Atlantic 

 contending for and against it, and the question was not finally 

 settled until long afterward, in 1860, when, by the raising of a 

 broken telegraph cable in the Mediterranean, unimpeachable evi- 

 dence of the existence of life at the greatest depths in that sea 

 was obtained. The science, however, remained in its infancy un- 

 til about 1850, when Maury originated his system of collecting 

 observations from all parts of the globe, and by his indomitable 

 energy aroused the interest of the whole civilized world in the 

 investigation of the physical phenomena of the sea. 



Through Maury's efforts the United States Government issued 

 an invitation for a mai'itime conference, Avhich was held in Brussels 

 in 1853 and attended by representatives of the governments of Bel- 

 gium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, 

 Portugal, Russia, Sweden and the United States. The main ob- 

 ject of the conference, to devise a uniform system of meteoro- 

 logical observations and records, was accomplished. According 

 to the agreement, ships' logs were to have columns for recording 

 observations of the following subjects : latitude, longitude, mag- 

 netic variation, direction and velocity of currents, direction and 

 force of wind, serenity of the sky, fog, rain, snow and hail, state 

 of the sea, specific gravity and temperature of the water at the 

 surface and at different depths. It was also proposed that 

 deep-sea soundings should be taken on all favorable occasions, 

 and that all other phenomena, such as hurricanes, typhoons, 

 tornadoes, waterspouts, whirlwinds, tide-rips, red fog, showers 

 of dust, shooting stars, halos, rainbows, aurora borealis, meteors, 

 etc., should be carefully described, and tidal observations made 

 when practicable. 



The practical results of this conference were great. The sys- 

 tematic and uniform collection of data by men of all nations is 

 going on uninterruptedly to-day, and is furnishing the means for 

 the solution of many of the problems relating to the Geography 

 of the Sea. 



