4 THE OCEAN WORLD. 
Thouars, during his scientific voyage in the frigate Venus, took some 
very remarkable soundings in the Southern Pacific Ocean : one, 
without finding bottom at 2,411 fathoms ; another, in the equinoctial 
region, indicated bottom at 3,790. : 
In his last expedition in search of a north-west passage, Captain 
Ross found soundings at 5,000 fathoms. Lieutenant Walsh, of the 
American Navy, reports a cast of the deep-sea lead, not far from 
the American coast, at 34,000 feet without bottom. Lieutenant 
Berryman reported another unsuccessful attempt to fathom mid ocean 
with a'line 39,000 feet in length. Captain Denman, of H.M.S. Herald, 
reported bottom in the South Atlantic at the depth of 46,000 feet ; 
and Lieutenant J. P. Parker, of the United States frigate Congress, on 
attempting soundings near the same region, let go his plummet, after 
it had run out a line 50,000 feet long, as if the bottom had not been 
reached. We have the authority of Lieutenant Maury for saying, 
however, that “there are no such depths as these.” The under- 
currents of the deep sea have power to take the line out long after 
the plummet has ceased to sink, and it was before this fact was 
discovered that these great soundings were reported. It has also 
been discovered that the line, once dragged down into the depths of 
the ocean, runs out unceasingly. This difficulty was finally overcome 
by the ingenuity of Midshipman Brooke. Under the judicious 
patronage of the Secretary to the United States Navy, Mr. Brooke 
invented the simple and ingenious apparatus (Fig. 1), by which 
soundings are now made, in a manner which not only establishes the 
depth, but brings up specimens of the bottom. The sounding line 
in this apparatus is attached to a weighty rod of iron, the lower 
extremity of which contains a hollow cup for the reception of tallow 
or some other soft substance. This rod is passed through a hole in 
a thirty-two pound spherical shot, being supported in its position by 
slings a, which are hooked on to the line by the swivels 2. When 
the rod strikes the bottom, the tension on the line ceases, the swivels 
are reversed, the slings B are thrown out of the hooks, the ball falls 
to the ground, and the rod, released from its weight, is easily drawn 
up, bringing with it portions of the bottom attached to the greasy 
substance in the cup. By means of this apparatus, specimens of the 
bottom have been brought up from the depth of four miles. 
The greatest depth at which the bottom has been reached 
with this plummet is in the North Atlantic between the parallels 
of 35° and 40° north, and immediately south of the great bank 
of rocks off Newfoundland. This does not appear to be more 
than 20,000 feet deep. ‘The basin of the Atlantic,” says Maury, 
