OUR SCHOONER. 
57 
return home. The main object of our voyage how¬ 
ever, the principal, and to our idea the most essential 
to modern science, was the following up of the obser¬ 
vations commenced by our friend in the preceding 
year. He had noticed in the course of some deep- 
sea sounding experiments, that the water is of a 
high temperature at a depth of 400 fathoms, showing 
a difference of 9° at that depth when compared with 
the temperature at the surface ; a fact so extraordinary 
as to lead scientific men to assume that this, our asser¬ 
tion, is so contrary to the laws laid down by modern 
savans, that they do not hesitate to declare that the 
statement we made was impossible to be received. To 
confirm these observations, then, was the main pur¬ 
pose of our journey this year (1872). 
One word respecting our schooner : rigged with the 
usual foresail, topsail, and top-gallant sail, three jibs, 
fore-trysail and mainsail, she differed at first sight in 
no way from an ordinary pleasure yacht; but a second 
glance at her heavy spars, her massive bows supported 
with stout iron bands firmly bolted to her stem, and 
extending round the bluff of her bows to about twelve 
feet aft, evidently to protect her in encounters with 
the ice, her false gripe, to give her plenty of fore-reach, 
convinced us that the work cut out for her was no child's 
play. Looking closer, we found her frame was coated 
