78 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 155 



the chief hydrographic officer that he, too, was in 

 imminent danger in a heavy gale on the 26th of 

 December, but that, having read what the hydro- 

 graphic office had said about using oil, he " placed a 

 bag in each closet forward, and let her go south- 

 south-east," the effect of which was that he shipped 

 no more water. 



After all this, I should not wonder if some Jack 

 tar, a little more imaginative than the rest, should 

 outrun all competitors by reporting to the hydro- 

 graphic office that he had quelled the raging deep 

 merely by carrying a bottle or two of oil in the ship's 

 locker ; just as Hahnemann finally found that it 

 was not necessary actually to take his medicine, but 

 that, if the patient only smelled of the phial in which 

 it was contained, it accomplished the same result. 



Now, I should seriously like to know whether there 

 is any more credible evidence that oil has a quieting 

 influence upon the ocean than the kind of trash the 

 newspapers are publishing as coming from the hydro- 

 graphic office. C. F. Cox. 



New York, Jan. 18. 



[Our correspondent assumes a very grave respon- 

 sibility in trying to throw discredit on the efforts of 

 the hydrographic office to render less dangerous the 

 very hazardous vocation of the sailor. The efficacy 

 of the use of oil to smooth the rough waters has been 

 known for centuries, and the seamen of all countries 

 have been in the habit of resorting to it when the 

 necessity has arisen, although, for the reasons given 

 below, not as freely as would be desirable. The 

 evidence accumulated by the hydrographic office, 

 through its branches in the seaboard cities, is the 

 result of the first systematic attempt ever made by 

 any government to collect such information, and to 

 disseminate it, iu the widest possible manner, among 

 the class most interested. Many seamen have used 

 it with success ; and most, having heard of its value 

 ever since boyhood, have always intended to use it 

 on occasion. It must be borne in mind, however, 

 that there is much to be done on board a ship under- 

 going all the vicissitudes incident to a gale of wind ; 

 and, unless the captain has had previous experience, 

 he is not likely to think of experimenting when there 

 is so much to do which he knows to be necessary. 

 Seamen, also, though given to the telling of 'yarns,' 

 are slow to believe them, a very harsh and trying 

 experience making this class most incredulous and 

 conservative. 



The life-saving services of this country and Great 

 Britain have made experiments with a view to demon- 

 strating the usefulness of oil in quelling the surf. 

 The results, however, have been unsatisfactory ; yet 

 this investigation led them incidentally into the subject 

 of its usefulness off shore with most satisfactory re- 

 sults. The report to the superintendent of the U. S. 

 life-saving service in 1883, of a committee appointed 

 to examine this matter, states in conclusion, " The 

 majority of the printed statements herewith, assum- 

 ing them to he authentic, together with all verbal 

 statements made by mariners who have used it, fur- 

 nish conclusive evidence that in deep water oil has a 

 calming effect upon a rough sea." 



In an article published in the Nineteenth century 

 for April, 1882, Mr. C. F. Gordon Gumming states 

 that it is now many years since I first endeavored 

 to call public attention to the simple precaution. - ' 

 ''Though the casting of oil on troubled waters has 

 been so persistently regarded merely as a poetical 



figure of speech, notes of its actual use have occasion- 

 ally appeared in books of travel ; " and, again, " It 

 has been reserved for the nineteenth century to find 

 the practical application of the observations made by 

 Pliny eighteen hundred years ago." The corre- 

 spondent's confessed want of knowledge of the sea 

 leads him very properly to make inquiries in regard 

 to its ' prodigies and marvels ; ' but his sympathy 

 should restrain him from decrying any attempt to 

 benefit a class which, on the whole, gets a very 

 small share of the substantial comforts of life. — Ed.] 



The following is a letter received at the Boston 

 branch of the hydrographic office : — 



On Nov. 28, 1885, I left Boston for London, deep 

 with general cargo, and cattle and sheep on the upper 

 deck. At 8.30 p m. of Dec. 4 we were caught in a 

 heavy storm at W. N. W., bar. 29 20. The first hour 

 of the storm no canvass could stand it. In lat. 44° 

 38 and long. 48° 28' W., ship running under bare 

 poles, the sea was then so high and dangerous, I 

 resolved to try the use of oil, having had it brought 

 to my notice by information on your chart. I got 

 two common gunny-bags and a good wad of oakum 

 wrung out in paint-oil, and hung over each quarter, 

 just dipping in the water, also one over by the scup- 

 pers in the midships. At 10 p.m. I got the lower 

 topsail set, and continued to run until noon next day. 

 By the racing of the engines my engineer reported to 

 me that he could not run much longer, as the packing 

 of the gland of the high-pressure engine was all worn 

 out. I then got two more farther forward with a 

 hand in each water-closet forward, dropping oil 

 through ; by this means she kept steady on her course, 

 engines stopped, and sailing 6 knots, while the 

 engineer did his work comfortably. I landed the 

 whole of my cattle alive at Deptf ord, and never broke 

 any of the cattle-pens. 



The use of oil I strongly recommend in an emer- 

 gency : a small drip is of no use. I used one gallon 

 per hour, and had the watch continually going round 

 attending one bag after another. 



The result you know, and I hope it will be of use to 

 shipmasters. Kenneth Doyle, Master. 



Fuiness line, SS. Stockholm City, 

 Boston, Jan. 17. 



The Taconic controversy in a nutshell. 



In Science, No. 153, Prof. N. H. Winchell, in 

 writing under the above head, presents a very timely 

 demurrer against the injustice done to the memory of 

 Professor Emmons in ignoring the name ' Taconic,' 

 and substituting ' Cambrian,' and several other des- 

 ignations, for pre-Potsdam formations other than 

 Archaean. 



In referring to recent studies of rocks that have 

 been claimed as part of the Taconic by Emmons, 

 Professor Winchell writes, " Some of the opponents 

 of Emmons, re-enforced lately by active, younger 

 men, revive the fossiliferous character of some of the 

 eastern belts as new matter, adding many interesting 

 and valuable details, and begin again to fire at the 

 old fort long ago abandoned by Emmons, insisting 

 that Emmons is still intrenched there (1872-85)." 



I have several reasons for thinking that I have 

 been understood to have taken a stand as part of 

 the it enforcement, because of my having recently 

 published a paper on the subject mentioned, and en- 

 titled " On the occurrence of fossils in the 1 Hudson 



