390 W. P. Trowbridge on Deep Sea Explorations. 
were running with a velocity of two feet and a half per second 
at the depth of 2,000 fathoms or 12,000 feet. Here the result 
contradicts in quite as strong a manner the mechanical laws of 
the descent; and in fact below 1000. fathoms or 6000 feet, if we 
credit the observations, a velocity was observed in the running 
simply the difference between one mile and nine miles. ; 
n measuring the distance to the sun an error of eight miles 
would hardly be worth noticing, perhaps, but what conclusions 
can be drawn from a measurement in which the probable error 
amounts to eight times the whole distance 
Popular ideas with regard to the sinking of bodies in the sea, 
have heretofore been vague; for the reason, perhaps, that the 
laws which govern this descent, and which are derived from 
the well known laws of fluids, have never been fully defined in 
their application to the depths of the ocean. Some imagine that 
indee ; 
Eee a book sustaining this absurd notion. Others again 
mous, and due to the whole pressure of the column of water 
above, and that all bodies which are lighter than water at the 
of the water increases directly with the depth. These 
It is true the pressure increases with the 
pressure 
is nearly 8000 pounds, but the column of 
rater, is only shor about 60 feet; the density 
