596 
MR. J. PRESTWICK ON SUBMARINE TEMPERATURES. 
remarkable low temperature of 25°* * * § 75 F. was recorded, at a depth of 4080 feet in Davis 
Straits, by Sir John Eoss and Sir Edward Sabine*. 
Buchan and Franklin employed, on the suggestion of Mr. Fisher, a leaden box with 
two valves, which remained open in descending, and were closed in the ascent. No 
other particulars are given, but there is every probability that it was constructed on 
the model of those of Hales and Scoresby. Their observations, with one or two excep- 
tions, are, allowing for the difference of season (June and July), in tolerable agreement 
with those of Scoresby ; but they seem less carefully made, and to require, I suspect, a 
larger correction. 
In 1819-20 Parry went out in command of the 4 Hecla’ and 4 Griper ’f, and pene- 
trated the Arctic seas of North America as far as 113° W. long. He took several deep- 
sea temperatures on board the ‘ Hecla,’ whilst Sir E. Sabine, on board the 4 Griper,’ 
made another series of observations. Mr. Fisher, who published an account J of the 
voyage, also notes some of those on board the 4 Hecla.’ 
About this time Sir Humphry Davy suggested another contrivance for bringing up 
water from depths, which seems to have been used occasionally by Eoss and Parry ; but 
the observations with it are not specified. On the occasion of Parry’s voyage in 
1819, Dr. Marcet contrived his water-bottle, which Parry appears to have occasionally 
employed, especially in 1821-23 (p. xvi), 44 in consequence of the failure of the thermo- 
meter when exposed to sudden changes,” although elsewhere he says (p. xiii) that the 
temperature was taken, unless otherwise noticed, by Six’s thermometer. Owing to the 
very small size (half a pint) of Davy’s and Marcet’s water-bottles, and their being of 
metal, they were valueless for temperature-experiments §, although useful for obtaining 
small samples of deep-sea water ; and they were consequently, with this exception, but 
little used for the former purpose. 
In Parry’s second voyage of 1821-23 1| he records a series of twenty-three experiments 
made in one of the inland seas of Arctic America, at depths of from 600 to 1200 feet. 
These show a temperature of from 29° to 31°*T on the surface, and a like temperature, 
* On reference to Sir E. Sabine he informs me, from a note made at the time, that on bringing up the 
thermometer the index marked 25f °, and that never having known it lower than 28°, he was very careful in 
examining the instrument ; that both he and Captain Ross were on the spot, and that Captain Ross remarked, 
in drawing it out of the tin case, which was full of water, that the mercury was close up to the index. It 
fell instantly and rapidly ; hut Sir Edwakd had the same belief, that when he first looked it was close up 
to the index. (See also Dr. Carpenter in Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. xvii. p. 187.) 
f Yoyage for the Discovery of a North-west Passage, 1819-20, in the ‘ Hecla ’ and ‘ Griper.’ By Captain 
Parry, 2nd edit, 1821, pp. 4, 5, 6, 7, 45, 115, 261, 271, 272, 273, 289, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 307. 
+ Journal of a Yoyage of Discovery in the Arctic Regions in H.M.S. ‘Hecla’ and ‘Griper’ in the years 
1819-20. By A. Fisher, Surgeon. 3rd edit. London, 1821. 
§ Fisher, op. cit. p. 17. 
|| Journal of a Second Yoyage for the discovery of a North-west Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
performed in the years 1821-23 in H.M.S. ‘Fury’ and ‘Hecla,’ under the orders of Captain W. E. Parry. 
London, 1824, p. 483. 
