281 
ON THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN DEEP-SEA 
EXPLORATIONS, ON BOARD H.M.S. PORCUPINE , 
IN THE SUMMER OF 1869. 
By Wm. LANT CARPENTER, B.A., B.Sc., (a Member of the 
Expedition). 
T HE object of this article is not to give an account of the 
remarkable results obtained in the late deep-sea dredging 
expeditions, since an abstract of them has been given to the 
public in the Proceedings of the Royal Institution , and in other 
scientific journals, and will shortly appear more in detail in the 
Proceedings of the Royal Society. The aim of the present 
writer is to endeavour to give the readers of the Popular 
Science Review some idea of the means employed to obtain 
these results, by describing the apparatus used, its mode of 
working, the precautions taken to avoid sources of error, &c. 
During the time that the expedition was under the charge of 
Mr. J. Grwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., from the latter end of May to the 
middle of July, the writer was entrusted with the chemical 
researches to be made, as well as with a portion of the physical 
investigations, and he had ample opportunities of observing the 
method of conducting the deep-sea dredging. It may be stated 
broadly that three sets of enquiries were instituted — (1) an 
investigation into the temperature of the sea at great depths, 
with a view to ascertain the extent and direction of submarine 
currents supposed to exist ; (2) an enquiry into the existence 
and distribution of animal life at these depths ; (3) an exami- 
nation of the sea-water at various depths for its physical and 
chemical properties, such as its specific gravity, the amount and 
nature of the gases dissolved in it, and the organic matter con- 
tained in it. 
It will be convenient to describe — first, the separate parts of 
apparatus with which the vessel was furnished for the pro- 
secution of these enquiries, and, subsequently, the way in 
which the whole was used. 
H.M.S. Porcupine , paldle steamer, 380 tons, is one of the 
surveying vessels of her Mijesty’s navy, and has long been com- 
