DEED. 



740 



DEEP-SEA EXPLOKATION. 



deeds being required only to convey the class 

 of interests known as incorporeal, such as ease- 

 ments, profits, future interests in land, and the 

 like. But deeds have now, under the technical 

 description of grants, almost entirely superseded 

 other modes of conveyance of interests in land. 

 Only estates for years or tenancies at will are 

 still capable of arising by parol or by writing 

 not under seal, and in England even leaseholds, 

 for three years and upward, can be created or 

 transferred only by deed. In Great Britain and 

 most of the United States, the general use of 

 deeds for purposes of conveyance is a matter of 

 regulation by statute. 



In form, however, the deed remains substan- 

 tially the same as at common law. The writing 

 must still be on paper or parchment, though it 

 may to-day be done by the typewriting machine 

 or the printing-press. The old requirement of a 

 seal is also generally adhered to, though in a 

 few of the Western States it has been abolished, 

 and in most others a scroll, or similar mark 

 made with the pen, may be substituted for the 

 more usual wafer or sealing-wax. But, whatever 

 its form, the important thing is not the adhesion 

 to the paper of something called a seal, but the 

 sealing of the instrument by the party to be 

 bound by it. It must be 'his own act and seal.' 

 At the present time, also, it is generally con- 

 sidered that the instrument must contain the 

 name of the maker in his own handwriting, al- 

 though prior to the Statute of Frauds, in 1648, 

 signing was not necessary to the validity of 

 deeds, and it is not clear that the statute con- 

 templated any addition to the formalities with 

 which they were already surrounded. 



Delivery is properly accomplished by the obli- 

 gated party handing over the sealed writing in 

 person to the party to be benefited thereby. 

 Either party may, however, be represented by an 

 agent, and a delivery to an unauthorized third 

 person is good if subsequently ratified by the 

 benefited party. Indeed, it has been held that 

 any unequivocal act on the part of the obligated 

 party, showing an intention to vest the posses- 

 sion of the document in the benefited party, is 

 sufiicieut to constitute a delivery, even without 

 a manual transfer of possession to any one — as 

 where the former, at or after the time of sealing, 

 utters the words, 'I deliver this as my act and 

 deed,' or where he incloses the sealed writing in 

 an envelope, addressed to the benefited party, 

 though retaining it in his own possession. There 

 is some conflict of authority, however, as to 

 whether a delivery of the latter sort, or to a 

 third person, which, in fact, never comes to the^ 

 knowledge of the party intended to be benefited 

 will be sustained by the courts. There majjjilfstj 

 be a conditional delivery, which is Tcn^jfUrAlo a 

 third person, as an 'escrow,' or mejjjr writing, 

 to be delivered over to the benefi^d party on 

 the performance of some act or the' happening of 

 some event. An escrow does not take effect as a 

 deed until the delivery over, when it takes eflfeot, 

 by relation back, as of the time of its first de- 

 livery. See Escrow, and the titles of the vari- 

 ous kinds of deeds, as Covenant; Grant ; Lease 

 AND Release. Consult; Coke on Littleton; 

 Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of Eng- 

 land; Kent, Commentaries on American Law; 

 Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law 

 (2d ed., London and Boston, 1899) ; Holmes, 



I'he Common Law (Boston, 1881) ; and the au- 

 thorities referred to under Real Phopeety. 



DEEMS, Chablbs Force (1820-93). An 

 American clergyman. He was born in Baltimore, 

 graduated at Dickinson College in 1839, and was 

 for some time agent in North Carolina for the 

 American Bible Society. He was professor of logic 

 and rhetoric in the University of North Carolina 

 from 1842 to 1845, and held the chair of natural 

 sciences in Randolph Macon College (Ashland, 

 Va.) from 1845 to 1846. He then became a 

 Methodist preacher at New Berne, and for five 

 years was principal of the Greensboro Female 

 College. In 1865 he went to New York, where he 

 helped found the Church of the Stranger (unde- 

 nominational ) , of which he became pastor. In 

 1881 he founded the American Institute of Chris- 

 tian Pnilosophy. Among his many publications 

 are: Life of Dr. Adam, Clarke (1840) ; The Home 

 Altar (1850); Annals of Southern Methodism 

 (1856) ; Life of Jesus (1872) ; A Scotch Verdict 

 in Evolution (1886) ; The Light of the Nations 

 (1886) ; The Gospel of Common Sense as Con- 

 tained in the Canonical Epistle of James (1889) ; 

 Chips and Chunks for Every Fireside; and 

 Wit, Wisdom, and Pathos (1890) ; The Gospel of 

 Spiritual Insight, and Studies in the Gospel of 

 John (1891). Consult his Autobiography (New 

 York, 1897). 



DEEM'STEB., Dempster, or Doomstek (AS. 

 dom, doom, judgment, as in Domesday Book; 

 hence doomster or deemster, a judge) . The 

 name of an officer formerly attached to the High 

 Court of Justiciary in Scotland, who pronounced 

 the doom or sentence of condemned persons. The 

 office was held along with that of executioner. At 

 the conclusion of a trial, this dread official was 

 produced in open court, in presence of the 

 wretched criminal, as is graphically described by 

 Scott in his tale of Old Mortality. See notes to 

 that work, and also notes to Heart of Mid- 

 Lothian. The office of deemster has been long 

 abolished. In the Isle of Man and Jersey deem- 

 sters are judges, the office as well as the title be- 

 ing of great antiquity and dignity. The highest 

 judicial authority in the Isle of Man is divided 

 between two deemsters, one for the northern and 

 the other for the southern half of the island. 



DEEP KIVEK. A river rising in Guilford 

 County, N. C. (Map: North Carolina, C 2). It 

 flows southeast and then east, and, joining the 

 Haw River (q.v.) in Chatham County, forms the 

 Cape Fear River (q.v.). About 120 miles long, 

 the stream drains an area of 1350 square miles. 

 Extensive coal and copper deposits are found in 

 ^s valley. It furnishes extensive water-ptfwer 

 at Lockville, and is navigable to Carbonton. 



DEEP-SEA EXPLORATIOBT. The depths 

 of the sea have been explored with precision only 

 during comparatively recent years. Deep-sea 

 investigations began in the necessity for accurate 

 soundings for submarine cables, and this is still 

 the main reason for sounding, but much more haa 

 been accomplished in this field by dredging for 

 purely scientific purposes. 



The most important part of our knowledge of 

 deep-sea conditions has been gained since 1870. 

 The Challenger expedition sent out by the British 

 Government from 1873 to 1876 (see Challen- 

 ger ) engaged in pelagic investigations for nearly 

 four years, sounding and dredging in the oceanic 

 basins at more than 350 different places. This 



