730 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



struments, upon whose construction so much skilled laboi 

 and consideration had been lavished, consigned to their long 

 and hazardous journey, and their return eagerly watched for 

 by a knot of thoughtful men, standing, note-book in hand, 

 ready to register this first message, which should throw so 

 much light upon the physical conditions of a hitherto unknown 

 world" 



Up to the middle of the last century the little that was 

 known of the inhabitants of the bottom of the sea beyond low 

 water mark, appears to have been gathered almost entirely 

 from the few objects thrown up on the beaches after storms 

 or from chance specimens brought up on sounding lines, or 

 by fishermen engaged in sea fishing or dredging for oysters. 

 From this last source, however, it was almost imposssble to 

 obtain specimens, since the fishermen were superstitious con- 

 cerning bringing home anything but the regular objects oi 

 their industry, and from a fear that the singular things which 

 sometimes they drew up might be devils in disguise, with pos- 

 sibly the power to injure the success of their business, threw 

 them again, as soon as caught, back into the sea. Such super- 

 stitions are dying out, and in fact so singular are many of the 

 animals hid in the depths of the sea ; their forms and general 

 air are so different from anything which the fishermen were 

 used to see, that we can hardly wonder at the fear they excited. 

 When, however, the attention of naturalists was turned toward 

 the sea, they used the dredge such as was used by the oyster 

 fishermen, and all the dredges now in use are simply modifica- 

 tions of this. 



The dredge for deep sea operations is made with two scrapers, 

 so that it shall always present a scraping surface to the bottom, 

 however it may fall. The iron work should be of the very best, 

 and weighing about twenty pounds. The bag is about two 

 feet deep, and is a hand-made net of very strong twine, the 

 meshes half an inch to the side. As so open a net- work would 



