Mr . Jacob Perkins on 
3 2 6 
manner. Six coverings of cotton cloth, saturated with a 
composition of sealing wax and tar, were strongly fastened 
over the cork, by a cord wound round them, directly under 
the projection at the neck of the bottle. After the bottle had 
been suffered to remain at the depth mentioned a few minutes, 
it was drawn up. No water was found to have been forced 
into it, neither was there any visible change at the mouth. 
The same bottle was again sunk, and at the increased depth 
of two hundred and twenty fathoms : when drawn in, it was 
found to contain about a gill of water ; but not the slightest 
visible change had taken place in the sealing. 
The same bottle was now sunk, for the third time, to the 
still greater depth of three hundred fathoms, and when drawn 
up, only a small part of the neck was found attached to the 
line. Its appearance was truly interesting. The bottle was 
not broken by external pressure, but evidently by the ex- 
pansion of the condensed sea-water, which had found its way 
through the sealing. Upon examination, it was found that 
the cork had been compressed into half its length, making 
folds of about one eighth of an inch ; and that the coverings, 
consisting of six layers of cloth and cement, had been torn 
Up on one side before the bottle burst. The effect produced 
upon the cork cannot, we imagine, be accounted for but 
in one way, viz. that the water, divided into very minute 
particles, must, by the surrounding pressure of water, have 
been forced through the coverings, and filled the bottle ; 
that the water thus forced in and condensed, to a great degree, 
expanded as the pressure was removed by drawing it to- 
wards the surface, not only so as to press the cork back into 
the neck, and, owing to the resistance of the coverings, to 
