24 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
used a dredge which he had brought with him; later 
on he used dredges made by our engineers. 
The dredge consisted of a rectangular frame, two 
feet by three, made of four iron rods two inches 
wide by half an inch thick, welded together at 
the corners, with a bag about two feet deep securely 
fastened to this framework. The bag was made of 
cotton twine in a two-and-a-half inch mesh; it nar¬ 
rowed towards the bottom. Sometimes cheese¬ 
cloth was placed inside the bag to catch the animal- 
culas. A rope was fastened to the middle of one 
side of the framework so that, when lowered to the 
bottom of the sea, the framework would maintain 
an upright position, with the bag extended out be¬ 
hind it. 
When Murray got ready to use the dredge he 
would get over the rail of the ship, which was only 
four feet above the surface of the ice, go to the 
edge of a lead and find out the depth of the water 
by the hand lead-line; then he would lower the 
dredge, put the rope on his back and walk along the 
edge of the lead, dragging the dredge behind him. 
He could handle it alone up to a depth of twenty 
fathoms; beyond that he had to have help, which 
we all of us gladly gave. I do not believe that 
dredging was ever done in that part of the Arctic 
before. Before we got through we had brought 
up a good many specimens which were entirely un~ 
