July 18, 1884. 



SCIENCE 



55 



tion by fire at Chicago, in 1871. The loss of 

 these collections, and of all the voluminous 

 manuscript reports treating of them, followed 

 by the sad death of the author, has deprived 

 our country of a most important chapter in the 

 history of submarine exploration. 



The sixth decade of this century, however, 

 brought out many additional investigators ; and 

 a fresh impetus was given to the work, which 

 has since been expanded and developed to such 

 an extent as to establish, beyond all question, 

 American precedence in the methods of deep- 

 sea research at least, both as regards dredging 

 and sounding. 



From among the more energetic and suc- 

 cessful of our modern dredgers may be men- 

 tioned Prof. A. E. Verrill of Yale college, 

 whose dredging studies began in 1864, on the 

 coast of Maine, and who, since the organiza- 

 tion of the U. S. fish-commission, has been its 

 main helper and adviser in all matters pertain- 

 ing to submarine research, the special direc- 

 tion of the dredging operations having been 

 intrusted to him from the beginning. His 

 earlier experiences gave him a clear insight 

 into the requirements of the new project, and 

 enabled him to devise many valuable appli- 

 ances, and improve upon those which had been 

 in use. To his zealous and untiring efforts is 

 due much of the perfection in present methods 

 of work. 



In 1867 Mr. L. F. de Pourtales, of the U.S. 

 coast-survey, began the extensive series of 

 deep-sea explorations off the southern coast 

 of the United States, which were carried on 

 for several } 7 ears, and subsequently led to the 

 eventful cruises of the steamer Blake between 

 1877 and 1880, resulting in an entire revolu- 

 tion in the methods of deep-sea dredging and 

 sounding. The investigations of Mr. Pourtales 

 anticipated, by a 3^ear, those of the English 

 steamers Lightning and Porcupine, which 

 have been so widely described, and were pre- 

 ceded by only one series of systematic dredg- 

 ings in equal depths of water, — those of the 

 Professors Sars, father and son, of Norway. 

 But little credit for this fact has been received 

 from naturalists abroad ; the date of Mr. Pour- 

 tales' first cruise being generally regarded b}' 

 them as 1868, although his first paper, descrip- 

 tive of the character of his work, and of many 

 new forms of deep-sea animals, appeared in 

 December, 1867. 1 His collections, represent- 

 ing principal^ the fauna of the Gulf Stream off 

 Florida, gave new and interesting results ; go- 

 ing farther to prove the existence of a rich and 



1 Bulletin Mus. comp. zool. Cambridge., vol. i., 1863-69, pp. 

 103-120. 



diversified deep-sea fauna, different from that 

 of the shore regions, than any previously ob- 

 tained. 



That these dredgings were not undertaken 

 to please the passing whim of some over- 

 enthusiastic naturalist, but were as deliberately 

 planned and carried out, and as successful in 

 their results, as those of the English steamers 

 which followed them in conception, a reference 

 to the official publications of the coast-surve}' 

 will sufficiently prove. As substantiating this 

 statement, we may be pardoned for quoting a 

 short paragraph from the report of Mr. Pour- 

 tales, above referred to (December, 1867), in 

 which the plans and objects of the new explo- 

 rations are briefly stated. This would not be 

 called for, were it not that it is this identical 

 report which has been so utterly ignored by 

 European writers, and equally overlooked by 

 many American. Had it only been written in 

 popular language, and been published with 

 copious illustrations, it might have received 

 the credit which has been denied it ; but such 

 channels of publication are seldom deemed 

 necessary to establish priority in scientific re- 

 search. 



The plan of operations, according to Mr. 

 Pourtales, was as follows : — 



"The present superintendent of the coast- 

 survey, Prof. B. Peirce, has lately directed the 

 resumption of the investigations of the Gulf 

 Stream, so successfully inaugurated by his pred- 

 ecessor, but interrupted for several years by 

 the war. Besides observations of the depth, 

 velocity, and direction of that current, and the 

 temperature and density of the water at differ- 

 ent depths, the researches will be extended to 

 the fauna of the bottom, of the surface, and 

 of the intervening depths. Not only will an 

 insight be thus obtained into a world scarcely 

 known heretofore, but that knowledge will have 

 a direct bearing on many of the phenomena of 

 that great current. Thus a new light may be 

 thrown on its powers of transportation from 

 shallow to deeper water or along its bed. on 

 its action in forming deposits in particular 

 localities, or on its possible influence on the 

 growth of coral-reefs on its shores." 



In a subsequent passage, he summarizes his 

 first season's results in the following terse 

 remarks, the italics being his own : — 



;t However, short as the season's work was. 

 and few as were the casts of the dredge, the 

 highly interesting fact was disclosed, that ani- 

 mal life exists at great depths, in as great a di- 

 versity and as great an abundance as in shallow 

 water." 



Early in the following year (1868) the same 



