LESSON IN HYDRODYNAMICS 109 



fixing our tackle to the yardarm. But in hauling 

 in, it carried away, and down came block and dredge- 

 rope with a fearful crash athwart the fore-awning chain. 

 Luckily the rope, though nearly cut through, held 

 until we got some fresh tackle on to it ; but no 

 sooner had we again commenced heaving in, than 

 the drum of the steam-winch, over which the rope 

 was being reeled, gave way, striking the deck with 

 great violence, but fortunately not doing much harm 

 to the bystanders. When at last the trawl came in, 

 amid a dreadful tangle of ruined dredge-rope, all the 

 swabs were gone, and all we got for our trouble was 

 a little mud and three crustaceans, which had probably 

 been caught in the ascent of the trawl. We had sent 

 down in the trawl-bag an untouched bottle of Bass's 

 beer, and when it came up, though the capsule and 

 wires were intact, the cork was so much compressed 

 that it rattled in the neck of the bottle, and the bottle 

 itself contained a mixture of beer and sea-water. The 

 pressure at a depth of 1439 fathoms, amounting to 

 nearly two tons on the square inch, had been sufficient 

 to turn the cork into a pellet of hard wood and to force 

 the sea-water under the capsule, and so between the 

 mouth of the bottle and the shrunken cork. 



On the 14th of December, the Investigator reached 

 the east coast of the peninsula, and there we stayed 

 until the end of March following, and surveyed nearly 

 140 miles of the Ganjam and Vizagapatam coast-line. 



