380 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [10] 



The time under u days in port" is intended to include the necessary 

 delays of coaling and taking in stores, as well as those to be occasioned 

 by the investigations of the naturalists as before explained. Our sub- 

 sequent movements were governed accordingly, and it only remains for 

 me to record the leading events of our progress toward the Pacific, 

 leaving to the naturalists the task of reporting the scientific results of 

 our explorations. In noticing the casts of the trawl, etc., mention is 

 made of various forms taken simply to indicate the character of the 

 haul without reference to scientific results or pretending to strict ac- 

 curacy. 



Chesapeake Bay to Santa Lucia, West Indies. — We passed the capes 

 of the Chesapeake at 10.35 p. m. with calm, clear weather, light moon- 

 light, and a clear sea. Cape Henry Light was dropped at midnight, 

 thus severing our last connection with the Atlantic coast of the United 

 States. Pleasant weather and smooth seas continued until the 23d, 

 when a fresh breeze sprung up from the ENE., finally increasing to a 

 moderate gale; but being fair wind we looked upon it with favor, as it 

 enabled us to carry sail and ecouomize coal. It died away on the 

 evening of the 26th, from which time until we made Sombrero, at 4.15 

 p. m. the following day, we had light southerly winds and squally 

 weather. It was our custom to slow the engines every evening after 

 dark for fifteen or twenty minutes, whenever the weather was suit- 

 able for surface towing. At G.50 on the evening of the 27th, after pass- 

 ing the island, we made a haul of the dredge in 400 fathoms, fine gray 

 sand (latitude 18° 30' K, longitude 63° 31' W.). A great variety of 

 shells were conspicuous among the different forms, and large numbers 

 of cup-corals and sponges were taken. The weather had been threat- 

 ening all the evening with heavy thunder and lightning, and rain all 

 around us, but we escaped till about the time the dredge reached bot- 

 tom, when we were struck by a tropical tempest which raged with 

 slight interruption for nearly four hours, thoroughly drenching every- 

 body on deck and seriously complicating our work of dredging. It 

 was doubtful whether we would save our apparatus ; but it was finally 

 landed, slightly damaged, and it proved a fruitful haul. The sun came 

 up bright and clear the next morning, and we availed ourselves of 

 the opportunity to swing ship under steam, observing azimuths on 

 alternate points for compass errors. It was a particularly favorable 

 opportunity, for, being under the lee of Guadaloupe, the sea was per- 

 fectly smooth, and, what was equally important, we were on the line of 

 no variation. Having completed our observations we steamed ahead 

 until 9 a. m., when the trawl was lowered in 087 fathoms, ooze (latitude 

 10° 54' K, longitude 63° 12' W.), and landed on deck at meridian, 

 heavily loaded with ooze, which was pretty evenly impregnated with 

 the shells of pteropods and globigerina. The net contained the usual 

 variety of brilliantly-colored crustaceans, holothurians, deep-sea fish, 

 cup-corals, crinoids, sponges, etc. The haul completed, we resumed 



