782 
MR J. M. WORDIE ON 
The type of attachment employed for collecting bottom samples varied with the 
machine. In the case of the Lucas, there was used either a snapper or a group of 
four short tubes, each about 4 inches in length and |-inch diameter ; both were fitted 
with a detachable weight of 50 lbs. In the smaller Lucas machine, the 28-lb. weight 
was not detachable ; this machine, however, was very seldom required, and was finally 
stowed away as unnecessary. In the case of the Kelvin a 14-lb. sounding lead was 
at first in use, but later on a snapper with fixed weight (belonging to the small 
Lucas machine) was found to give better samples. When the deposits ultimately 
became so monotonous that they were no longer desirable as specimens, a return was 
made to using the simple 14-lb. lead. Experience showed that in Antarctic waters 
the snapper is the best all-round form of attachment. 
This equipment was found to be quite adequate to its purpose.* Sufficient 
detachable weights were carried to take one hundred deep-sea soundings. As the 
great majority of the casts, however, were made in shallow waters where a machine 
with recoverable sinker could be employed, not quite half of these weights had been 
used up to the time when the ship was crushed and had to be abandoned. It is 
hardly necessary here to give details or hints on the methods.! It may be mentioned, 
however, that winding-in was done by hand ; in the case of the deeper soundings 
(1500-2000 fathoms) this took almost an hour. 
Position of the Soundings. 
While the ship was a free agent and fighting her way southwards through the 
ice, soundings were made whenever she was held up by close pack. The ship’s 
course was never interrupted to take a sounding, for the number of times both in the 
pack and off Coats Land when she was stationary was quite sufficient for the purpose. 
After she was beset (January 1915), casts were made more frequently, and, when the 
depths became moderate, sounding became a routine task practically every forenoon. 
Later (August 1915), when deep water was again met with, an attempt was made to 
sound twice in every degree of latitude. This at least was what was aimed at ; the 
programme only lasted for a short time, however, as at the end of October the 
ship was crushed and abandoned, and sounding gear was naturally not among the 
essentials salved from the wreck. 
In the Table of Soundings the positions up to and including January 19, 1915 
(when the drift commenced), are those at which the sounding was made, calculated by 
dead reckoning from an observed noon position. Onwards from January 20, however, 
the positions entered are the daily noon positions observed by the ship’s officers ; their 
* This was the only branch of oceanography which was well provided for — a result, of course, of planning the 
scientific equipment of the Expedition almost entirely for a base on land. In view of the opportunities for oceano- 
graphical work, whether the ship is beset or not, it is desirable that this science, as it was on the Scotia voyage, should 
he well in the forefront of the programme of any future expedition. 
f Dr Pirie gives very full and useful information about methods, etc., in his report. 
