32G 
Brooke's deep-sea explorer. 
deep” in mud and sand that had existed at the bottom 
of the ocean foi’ centuries in their xindisturbed seclusion. 
It is also worthy of remark that both of these admi- 
2'able inventions sprang from the brains of two of our 
own officers, — the shoal- water one having been made in 
Ilong-Kong, under the immediate direction of Coin- 
luander Rodgers, while the “deep-sea explorer” was got 
up by Passed Midshipman (now Lieutenant) John M. 
Brooke, the able astronomer of the expedition, and who 
is even now trying to bring it before the notice of Con- 
gress. 
In anticipation of these leads “working well,” we had 
provided ourselves with several hundred small vials, in 
which every thing worth preserving was stowed away, 
after which it was sealed up and labelled carefully, for 
future examination. 
There was one remarkable fact which we noticed about 
the soundings along that entire coast: this was their re- 
markable regularity, without regard to the greater or less 
elevation of the land along which they were obtained. 
Generally speaking, (as in the case of the northern and 
southern shores of the Mediterranean,) soundings are 
found to vary with the nature of the land; that is, deep 
water is generally found off bold headlands, and shoal 
water off low ranges: but in this case we found only 
ten or twelve fathoms abreast of the highest points, 
wdiich was no increase to what we had carried along ex- 
tensive tracts of country whose greatest elevation was not 
probably more than fifteen or twenty feet. 
These towering, precipitous, and black-looking points 
■presented a totally different appearance, when you were 
