530 FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. [18] 



pounds. No restraint was apparently put upon the reel, and the wire broke at two 

 thousand fathoms on the first sounding, which seems to have been the only one 

 attempted. 



Three months later, the same year, Lieutenant J. C. Walsh, United States Navy, in 

 the United States schooner " Taney," attempted sounding with English steel wire of 

 Nos. 5, 7, and 8, Birmingham gauge, to the eastward of Bermuda. " The wire was 

 wound on an iron reel (holding about 7,000 fathoms), fitted with brakes or friction 

 bands for its better control in working, and swivels were fitted next the sinker, and at 

 every thousand fathoms, to counteract the tendency to twist. The lengths were 

 marked with copper labels, and the sinker weighed only 10 pounds ; but 6 pounds may 

 be added for the weight of the registering machine devised by Maury and used on this 

 occasion." The wire seems to have been of too large a size, the splices too imperfect, 

 and the sinkers too light for the purpose, and the several experiments made were all 

 unsuccessful. Outhe first trial, some 5,700 fathoms of wire were run out without an 

 indication of bottom, although the depth must have been less than half that distance, 

 when the wire parted near the surface, it was supposed from a defective splice. In 

 the other trials made, the wire generally broke at depths of about 2,000 fathoms, or 

 above the bottom. 



We have no further records of the attempted use of wire for sounding from this 

 time until Sir William Thomson began his experiments, in 1872, on the principle that 

 "the art of deep-sea sounding is to put such a resistance on the reel as shall secure 

 that at the moment the weight reaches bottom the reel will stop." A description of 

 the Thomson machine is given in the descriptive catalogue whichfollows, and need not 

 be repeated here. Thomson made the first trials with his machine in the Bay of Biscay, 

 in 1872, from the schooner-yacht "Lalla Rookk," and although the reel proved too 

 weak to withstand the strain put upon it by the wire in reeling in, the first soundiug 

 was accurate. The English Navy, however, declined to use the machine until it 

 could be perfected, a work that has since been successfully accomplished by the naval 

 service of this country. Commodore Ammen, United States Navy, then chief of the 

 Bureau of Navigation, ordered one of the new machines from Thomson as soon as he 

 heard of its successful trial, intending to have it used by the U. S. S. "Juniata," in a 

 line of soundings from New York to Bermuda, in 1873. This project was abandoned, 

 however, and the entire outfit transferred to the U. S. S. "Tuscarora," which received 

 an equipment at San Francisco, in the summer of 1873, for a series of soundings 

 across the Pacific Ocean, between the United States and Japan, " for scientific pur- 

 poses, and for the purpose of determining the practicability of laying a telegraph 

 cable between those points." Captain George E. Belknap, United States Navy, was 

 in command of the "Tuscarora," and to his skillful management was due the first 

 successful line of deep-sea sonndings with piano wire. The equipment of the ship 

 was completed in August, 1873, and she at once proceeded to test her appliances a 

 short distance off San Francisco, making successful soundings in depths of 830 to 

 1,949 fathoms. The only important defect discovered was as to the strength of the 

 reel, which soon showed signs of weakening and had to be strengthened ; a new and 

 larger reel of extra strength was also constructed. Later on, several other minor 

 alterations and improvements, suggested by experience, were introduced in the ma- 

 chine. The original plan was to run the line of soundings from Cape Flattery to 

 Yokohama, Japan, by way of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and a beginn ng was at 

 once made off the first mentioned point. Twenty-five casts were taken in depths 

 down to 2,534 fathoms, before the approach of winter rendered it necessary to discon- 

 tinue operations until the nest year, but in returning to San Francisco a line of 83 

 casts in like depths of water was successfully completed. In January, 1874, the 

 "Tuscarora" sailed from San Diego, California, on a new route across the Pacific 

 Ocean, via the Hawaiian and Bonin Groups. Twenty-seven days were consumed in 

 making 62 casts, from San Diego to Honolulu, in depths of 71 to 3,050 fathoms ; 29 

 days.from the latter group to the Bonin Islands, with 59 casts in depths down to 3,287 



