172 Scientific News. [ February, 
Prof. A, Agassiz, who accompanied the Blake, having special 
charge of the results of the dredgings, all of which proved to be 
eminently satisfactory to him, many new forms and facts being 
obtained, In effecting the dredgings, over a line off Charles- 
ton, S. C., nearly normal to the coast, across the Gulf stream, 
Commander Bartlett found the depths much less than expected. 
This induced him, although the trip was one primarily for dredg- 
ing, to extend the work of sounding, and he accordingly ran a 
line of soundings nearly along the warmest band of the Gulf 
stream, commonly called the axis of the stream, for a distance 
of 150 miles, from lat. 32m. to lat. 33m. 30s. north, on which _ 
he obtained depths varying from 233 to 450 fathoms, ‘where it 
was supposed that the depths -would range from 600 to 1000 
fathoms. At the north-east end of this line, in about lat. 
33° 30’ north, the depth suddenly increased, in a distance of 15 
miles, from 457 to 1386 fathoms. These depths obtained by 
Commander Bartlett, appeared to indicate that a submarine table 
land may extend from the coasts of North and South Carolina 
across to the Northern Bahamas. 
— Lieutenant-Commander Sigsbee’s gravitating trap for collect- 
ing organisms at different depths, was described by Prof. Agassiz, 
at the last meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, who 
also reviewed the more important results determined by its use. 
It was found that to the depth of 50 fathoms the same organisms 
were taken as at the surface. The next 50 fathoms contained the 
same types, but the genera was less numerous. They counted 17 
genera of pelagic organisms upon the immediate surface in one 
of these investigations, but only 5 of them were brought up when 
the trap was let down to a depth of 100 fathoms. Prof. Agassiz 
concluded with a high compliment to the ingenuity of Commander 
Sigsbee, whose invention had surmounted so many of the difficul- 
ties connected with the study of submarine biology. 
He believed that the bodies of pelagic organisms brought up 
from great depths were the carcasses of animals that had perished 
of age or accident upon the surface, and had slowly settled to the 
bottom to furnish food for its living hosts, It required from three 
to four days for a dead tunicate to sink to the depth of 1000 
fathoms. 
— Many sheep and lambs have recently been worried on sheep 
farms in the neighborhood of Dundee, Scotland. An unusual 
method of sheep worrying was recently perpetrated on the farm 
of Pickstone, tenanted by Mr. Campbell. One morning a lamb 
was heard bleating in one of the fields on the farm, and, as no 
lamb could be seen on a casual inspection, a more careful search 
was made, when it was found that the bleating proceeded from 
a lamb that was buried in the land, the only part left exposed 
being the head. It was at once evident that this had been the 
