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BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
and tlience to the westward of the islands through Unimak Pass into Bering Sea. The weather was 
squally and misty at times while working in the region of Anderson Rock, hut there were frequent 
intervals when it was quite clear, and from the masthead we commanded a view of the horizon for 10 
miles or more in every direction, but without detecting any surface signs of rocks or shoals ; neither 
did the soundings indicate anything of the kind. Our observations do not prove the non-existence 
of the danger referred to, but simply show that it does not lie in the position indicated. The evidence 
seems so conclusive as to the existence of rocks somewhere in that vicinity that I am inclined to the 
belief that they will eventually be found and located properly. Our investigations are gradually 
narrowing the limits in which they may be searched for. 
A few dredging and fishing trials were also made south of the Alaska Peninsula 
during the summer of 1890, but they add no information of material importance for 
this brief review. 
DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS AND DREDGINGS IN THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN, OFF 
THE ALASKAN COAST. 
On approaching the Alaskan coast in July, 1888, soundings were begun in a 
depth of 2,550 fathoms, latitude 52° 15' N., longitude 156° 37' W. This was the first 
of a series of ten stations extending H. 88° W., 390 miles, and made to ascertain 
whether a marked depression in the bottom, observed farther to the eastward by the 
U. S. S. Tuscarora in 1874, was more than local in its character. The soundings of 
the Tuscarora revealed a depression simply, but from them geologists had predicted 
the existence of a submarine trough, running parallel to the coast of the Alaska 
Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, and extending probably along the entire length 
of the latter islands to the sounding of 4,037 fathoms made by the Tuscarora off Attn 
Island. The Albatross soundings, supplementing those of Capt. Belknap, developed 
this predicted trough a distance of 400 miles. Its direction, where determined, was 
S. 65° W. and N. 65° E., nearly parallel with the trend of the coast line, the center 
being 60 miles from the Shuraagins and 100 miles from the southwestern extremity 
of TTnalaska. It is about 30 miles in width between the 3,000-fathom lines, with a 
maximum depth of 3,820 fathoms in latitude 52° 20' N., longitude 165° W. 
In August, 1890, after leaving Bering Sea, another similar line of soundings was 
run across the same region, but some distance to the eastward of the Tuscarora series. 
The results have been described by Capt. Tanner as follows: 
Departure was taken off tbe Trinity Islands in latitude 56° 02' N., longitude 153° 52' W. Run- 
ning E. 3° S. true, 11 miles, we found 207 fathoms ; then east true, with intervals of 20 miles, the 
following depths were found across the line of the great submarine trough which extends along the 
Aleutian Islands, viz : 1,152, 2,197, 2,620, 2,935, and 2,925 fathoms. Increasing the interval to 30 miles, 
we found 2,776 fathoms, and a farther distance of 62 miles gave us 2,414 fathoms. The maximum depth 
was found in latitude 56° 02' N. , longitude 151° 12' W. It will be observed that while the depths are 
less than those found farther west, they are at least 800 fathoms greater than the normal, showing 
that the easterly extension of the depression reaches that point. The line of soundings was extended 
to the Queen Charlotte Islands, where a successful haul of the trawl was made in 1,588 fathoms. 
This depression has therefore now been traced a distance of nearly 600 miles. 
After completing the investigations off Middleton Island and Pamplona Bocks, in 
August, 1888, a line of ten sounding and dredging stations was carried southward, 
nearly parallel with the coast line of Alaska and British Columbia, to the north end 
of Vancouver Island. At the first six stations the depths ranged from 1,433 to 1,815 
fathoms, but they subsequently decreased to 876, 204, 83, and 52 fathoms. 
The foregoing deep-sea soundings and dredgings, as well as those of lesser depth, 
made to determine the contour of the bottom along the margin of the continental 
platform off the coast of the Alaska Peninsula, are represented on U. S. Coast and 
Geodetic Survey charts S and T. 
