THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN. 
208 
solved into clusters ; that, in certain directions, the abyss beyond 
these faint objects is decked with other nebulae, which these great 
instruments may bring to light, but can not resolve ; and that there 
are still regions and realms beyond, which the rays of the bright- 
est sun in the sky have neither the intensity nor the force to reach, 
much less to penetrate. 
427. So, too, with the bottom of the sea, and the knowledge- 
seeking mariner. Though nothing thence had been brought to 
light, exploration had invested the subject with additional inter- 
est, and increased the desire to know more. In this state of the 
case, the idea of a common twine thread for a sounding-line, and 
a cannon ball for a sinker, was suggested. It was a beautiful con- 
ception ; for, besides its simplicity, it had in its favor the greatest 
of recommendations — it could be readily put into practice. 
Well-directed attempts to fathom the ocean began now to be 
made, and the public mind was astonished at the vast depths that 
were at first reported. 
428. Lieutenant Walsh, of the United States schooner " Taney," 
reported a cast with the deep-sea lead at thirty-four thousand feet 
without bottom. His sounding-line was an iron wire more than 
eleven miles in length. Lieutenant Berryman, of the United 
States brig " Dolphin," reported another unsuccessful attempt to 
fathom mid ocean with a line thirty-nine thousand feet in length. 
Captain Denham, of her Britannic majesty's ship Herald," re- 
ported bottom in the South Atlantic at the depth of forty-six thou- 
sand feet ; and Lieutenant J. P. Parker, of the United States frig- 
ate " Congress," afterward, in attempting to sound near the same 
region, let go his plummet, and saw a line fifty thousand feet long 
run out after it as though the bottom had not been reached. 
The three last-named attempts were made with the sounding 
twine of the American Navy, which has been introduced in con- 
formity with a very simple plan for sounding out the depths of the 
ocean. It involved for each cast only the expenditure of a cannon 
ball, and twine enough to reach the bottom. This plan was in- 
troduced as a part of the researches conducted at the National Ob- 
servatory, and which have proved so fruitful and beneficial, con- 
cerning the winds and currents, and other phenomena of the ocean. 
These researches had already received the approbation of the Con- 
gress of the United States ; for that body, in a spirit worthy of the 
