288 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 269. 



determined to 1 part in 5000, or 1 part in 

 10,000, the result would inspire confidence, 

 or, if it must be, distrust, in our present 

 value for the ratio between oxygen and 

 hydrogen. 



These suggestions, necessarily tentative 

 in their nature, are submitted to the Amer- 

 ican Chemical Society, in the hope of ob- 

 taining from those who do me the honor to 

 listen to them or to read them, expressions 

 as to the desirability of making experiment 

 in the lines described, and discussions of 

 the new methods indicated as possible. 



Edwaed W. Moeley. 



Adelbeet College. 



CRUISE OF THE ALBATROSS. 

 III. 

 Mr. Agassiz's third letter written from 

 the Albatross to Hon. George M. Bowers, 

 U. S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 

 is dated Suva Harbor, Fiji Islands, Decem- 

 ber 11, 1899, and is as follows: 



We left Papeete, November 15th, after 

 coaling and refitting on our return from the 

 Paumotus. During our trip to Suva we 

 made a few soundings from Tahiti to Tonga, 

 striking the northern extension of the deep 

 basin lying to the eastward of Nine ; the 

 depths ranged from 2472 to 28S2, the bot- 

 tom being red clay. This would indicate a 

 greater extension westward of the zone 

 over which the manganese-nodule bottom 

 extends. 



After leaving E"iue we steamed for the 

 deep hole of the Tonga-Kermadec Deep, 

 about 75 miles to the eastward of Tonga- 

 Tabu, and in 4173 fathoms made a haul 

 with the Blake beam-trawl, by far the 

 deepest trawl haul yet made. The gear 

 was carefully inspected and strengthened as 

 far as practicable by Captain Moser, and it 

 was with considerable anxiety that we laid 

 out 5000 fathoms of wire rope for our haul. 

 Fortunately, everything went off success- 

 fully and we landed the trawl safely back 



on deck. To my great surprise we found 

 in the bag a number of large fragments of 

 a silicious sponge belonging probably to the 

 genus Crateromorpha which had been ob- 

 tained by the Challenger in the Western 

 Pacific, but in depths less than 500 fathoms. 

 We also brought up quite a large sample of 

 the bottom ; it consisted of light- brown 

 volcanic mud mixed with radiolarians. 



We decided to trawl at 4173 fathoms 

 rather than wait for a possibly deeper 

 sounding, as the conditions for work were 

 admirable and we did not care to run any 

 risk from a change of weather. After our 

 haul we made a still deeper sounding in 

 the proximity of the 4762-fathom sound- 

 ing marked on the chart, and found 4540 

 fathoms with the bottom of the same char- 

 acter as at the place where we trawled. 

 We also took a couple of soundings in the 

 line from Vavau to the southern extremity 

 of the Lau Group in Fiji, but found, as we 

 expected from the soundings given further 

 south, comparatively shoal water, viz., 

 1381 fathoms. In the channel north of 

 Yangasa, where we crossed the Lau Plateau 

 between Yangasa and Mothe, we found 453 

 fathoms, with bottom composed of coral 

 sand, pteropod ooze and a few globigerinse. 

 Between Namuka and Yangasa we obtained 

 324 fathoms, between Namuka and Maram- 

 bo 600 fathoms, and between it and Kam- 

 bara 450 fathoms, and finally about 15 

 miles west of Kambara we sounded in 990 

 fathoms. These soundings would indicate 

 a continuous plateau of moderate depths 

 from Wailangolala south upon which the 

 islands of the Lau Group rise. 



On our way back to Papeete from the 

 Paumotus we examined the eastern coast of 

 Tahiti, and from Papeete examined the 

 western coast as far as Port Phaeton at 

 Tararao Isthmus. We examined in a gen- 

 eral way the Leeward Society Islands : 

 Murea, Huaheine, Eaiatea, Tahaa, Bora- 

 Bora, Motu Iti and Maupiti. There are 



