54 
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academij, 
made of pieces of chain, 4 feet long, with strands of rope rove through 
the links, and then fretted ont. 
SOETING-TEOTJGH. 
A sorting-troTigh similar to that used on board the ''Talisman" was 
provided by the Science and Art Museum of Dublin, for receiving the 
contents of the dredges. It was furnished with a series of sieves, and 
was carefully rinsed with sea water after each dredging, so that errors 
might not arise from assigning wrong stations to the various species 
obtained. 
"WOEKINa OF THE GeAE. 
When a sounding was made, and depth ascertained, the dredge and 
trawl were at once sent down. The plan which we found to work best 
was to attach a small dredge, with sackcloth bag, by a stout lanyard, 
to the thimble at the end of the dredge-rope, to which also the bridle of 
the Agassiz trawl was made fast ; it thus scraped in front of the trawl, 
turned up the ground a little, and secured a good sample of the bottom. 
It did not injure the working of the trawl ; for on one occasion, when 
this plan was adopted, in a comparatively brief haul we had no less than 
ten fish of various species, besides the usual assortment of Echinoderms, 
and lower forms of life. The dredge was also useful as a means for 
telling when the trawl was on the bottom, as its biting could easily be 
detected by a hand placed on the wire rope ; whereas the runners of 
the trawl caused an almost imperceptible vibration in the greater 
depths. The sounding being completed, and the trawl ready, the first 
thing done was to pass the end of the wire rope to the donkey-engine, 
take a half turn on the surging drum, then pass the end over the 
bridge -rollers, and shackle on the dredge and trawl. The block of the 
derrick was then hooked on to a strop on the trawl, held in place by a 
greased marline- spike, to the eye of which a lanyard was attached. 
The fall was manned, the trawl hoisted high in the air, swung clear of 
everything, and so was borne by the derrick till the bridle was placed 
in the towing sheave. Then the word was given to lower away from 
the derrick. The steamer going easy ahead, the moment the net 
touched the water it trailed astern ; when all seemed clear, the marline- 
spike was brought out by a smart jerk on the lanyard, and the trawl 
thus released, plunged into the sea, and was quickly out of sight astern, 
while the wire rope ran out over the sheave at a rapid rate. Warned 
