514 FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. [2] 



States; and those of the sea-coasts by the United States Fish Commission and Coast 

 Survey, the Treasury and War Departments, and individuals working in the interest of 

 the Smithsonian Institution. The surveys of Alaska have been made by the Western 

 Union Telegraph expedition, the United States Coast Survey, the Signal Service Bu- 

 reau of the War Department, and the Treasury Department. Extensive explorations, 

 both at home and abroad, have been carried on by, or under the auspices of, numer- 

 ous American societies and museums of natural history, and colleges, and notably by 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard College. 



Following is given a brief summary of the more important American explorations 

 which have contributed in greater or less degree to a knowledge of aquatic life and 

 the conditions of its existence. Investigations by or under the Government are first 

 considered, and afterwards those by museums, colleges, and private individuals. In 

 connection with the Navy Dex^artment, Coast Survey, and Fish Commission, the im- 

 provements recently made in the appliances and methods of deep-sea sounding and 

 dredging are briefly described. 



THE UNITED STATES AND ADJACENT REGIONS, NOT INCLUDING ALASKA. 



The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. — Although a Bureau of the Treasury De- 

 partment, this survey has much in common with the Navy, as regards the character and 

 methods of its surveying work, and a large proportion of its members of all grades 

 have been officers detailed from the latter service. Its operations, however, are limited 

 to the vicinity of the coasts of the United States, where the depths of water are seldom 

 very great, and where the phenomena encountered are more diverse. The charts, 

 relief models, and coast pilots exhibited will serve to explain the nature and extent 

 of the hydrographic work thus far accomplished, which consists of observations of 

 depth, of velocity and direction of currents, of bottom, intermediate, and surface tem- 

 peratures, of the contours of the coast line, &c. In all instances where important 

 bottom specimens have been obtained in sounding, they have been carefully pre- 

 served and labeled, and while several reports have already been published upon the 

 subject, vast quantities of such material still await examination. 



The sounding appliances now employed by the Coast Survey are probably more per- 

 fect than those of any similar service of any country. For the greater depths of water 

 piano-forte wire is used, on the principle of Sir William Thomson, with the improved 

 machine of Commander Sigsbee, which is fully described in the catalogue. In connec- 

 tion with the Navy Department, we have given a brief account of the introduction of 

 steel wire for sounding purposes by the United States Navy. In August, 1874, one of 

 the Thomson sounding machines of the original pattern, was furnished to the Coast 

 Survey steamer Blake, in charge of Commander Howell, United States Navy, and 

 then sounding in the Gulf of Mexico. But few trials were made with it, hov> ever, 

 before Lieutenant-Commander Charles D. Sigsbee, United States Navy, succeeded in 

 command of the steamer, in December, 1874. Prior to taking this command, Mr. 

 Sigsbee had planned the original pattern of his own machine on the same princi- 

 ple, shown on plate 7 of Sigsbee's "Deep-sea sounding and dredging" (exhibited). 

 Sigsbee's idea in improving on the original Thomson pattern was, in his words, 

 to obtain a machine "that might be worked with fewer demands on the watch- 

 fulness and ingenuity of those having it in charge." This first pattern was used 

 on the Blake during the remainder of his connection with that steamer, or until 

 1878, when he was succeeded in command by Commander Bartlett, United States 

 Navy. Before his detachment, however, he had already planned a second machine 

 (shown in plates 8 to 12), embodying the improvements suggested by three years' 

 trial and experiment with his original pattern. The first one of this hind was 

 supplied to Commander Bartlett in 1878, and was continued in use for two or three 

 years with the best of results ; but in 1880 it was in turn superseded by a third 

 pattern, containing still further improvements. It is this latter machine which is 

 described in the catalogue, and of which a model is on exhibition. Being thus fully 



