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* SOULT. 355 SOUND, SOUNDING. Fleunis. From 1794 to 1799 he was employed ou the eastern frontier, and in the retreat after the defeat of Stockach (Man-h 25, 1799) he prevented the annihilation of the French army. Appointed general of division (April 21, 1799), and put under ilassfna, whom he ably seconded in Switzerland and Italy, he was afterwards ap- pointed by Xapoleon to one of the four colonelships of the consular guards and became an ardent sup- jiorter of the First Consul. He was created mar- shal of France in ISO-t. He justified his ap- pointment by his brilliant achievements in the subsequent campaign against the Austrians, especially at the battle of Austerlitz (December 2, 1805 ), which he decided by piercing the Rus- sian centre. He did good service in the Prussian campaign of 1806, took part in the battle of Eylau in 1807, and in the latter year was ap- jjointed governor of Berlin and created Duke of Dalmatia. Soult was next placed at the head of the Second Corps in Spain, jnirsued the re- treating British forces under Sir .John iloore, attacked them at Corunna (January. 1S09), and, though repulsed, forced them to abandon their baggage and munitions of war. He then occu- pied Oporto and Xorthern Portugal, but the sudden arrival of Wellesley made him retreat rapidly to Galicia. In September, 1809. he be- came commander-in-chief in Spain, gained a bril- liant victory at Oeaiaa on November 19th, and at the commencement of the following j'ear subdued Andalusia. In attempting to succor Badajoz, which he had captured and garrisoned, he was defeated by Beresford at Albuera (Jlay 16, 1811). After the battle of Salamanca and the advance of the Britisli on Madrid, Soult, on the rejection of his plans for transferring the theatre of war to Andalusia, demanded and obtained his recall. In 1813 he fought in Germany, but when the news of the defeat of the French at Vitoria reached Xapoleon Soult was restored to the command of the army of Spain. It was not in Spain, however, but in France, that the con- test had to be waged; and the advantages were all on the enemy's side ; nevertheless, by a sys- tem of military tactics which has been universally admired, he neutralized the strategy of Welling- ton, and reduced the campaign, during the seven months it lasted, to a mere trial of strength. He continued the struggle after the entry of the Allies into Paris, unsuccessfully opposing Wellington at Toulouse on April 10, 1814. He became an ardent royalist after the abdication of X'^apoleon, and was made Jlinister of War; but on the return of the Emperor from Elba he abandoned Louis XVIII. and joined the Imperial army. After Waterloo he was banished and not recalled till !May, 1819. He was finally restored to his honors, and took an active part in politics. In 1827 he was created a peer of France, and under Louis Philippe he repeatedly held high State offices. In 1845 he retired from active duty, and in 1847 he was honored with the ap- pointment of marshal-genei-al of France. Soult passed the rest of his days at his residence of Soultberg, near Saint-Amans. His Memoires ■n-ere published, in part, by his son (3 vols., Paris, 1854). Consult also Salle, T'le politique du mnrcrJuil fioiiH (Paris, 1834). SOUND, See Acoustics. SOUUD, Eecoeding of. See Phonogeaph. SOUND, SOUNDING (UF., Fr, soiHhr. prob- ably from Lat, sub, under -|- uiidarr, to undulate, from iDida, wave; less plausibly from AS., Icel. sund, Ger. Sund, sound, strait). The operation of ascertaining the depth of water. In shallow waters (less than 20 fathoms) the depths are ascertained with the lead and line (.see Lead, Sounding) ; in greater depths the deep-sea lead and line are used or else a sounding machine. Beyond a depth of 200 fathoms smmdiiigs arc not useful for the purpose of navigating vessels; but •deep-sea' soundings are taken in all dejiths in order to ascertain the shape and character of the ocean bottom and its organisms, living and dead. See Deep-Sea Exploration. Few attempts to ascertain the depth of the ocean were made before the beginning of the nineteenth century, and it was not untfl toward the middle of it that the investigations were at all systematic. The disadvantges under which the earlier expeditions labored were such as to preclude not only rapid but reliable work. For the lines rope of ordinary character was used, and the sinkers employed were generally too light. The weight of the rope after it became water- soaked was very great, and its bulk, together with that of the reels, very troublesome." The inadequate sinkers caused the line to run out very slowly, and the reeling in was both laborious and tedious. Owing to the difficulty of holding a large sailing ship in a fixed position for the requisite time and the amplitude of her movements on the waves, many of the soundings were made from boats, which still further reduced the speed, es- pecially that of preparing to cast and of reeling in. The first attempt (so far as known) to use wire for the line was that of the well-known 'ex- ploring expedition' sent out by the United States Xavy Department in 1838. The wire was of copper, about 3-32 of an inch in circumference, with sol- dered and twisted splices. Owing to lack of proper appliances for handling, it always broke at 500 to 1000 fathoms, and its use was aban- doned. In August, 1894, Captain Barnet, R. N., made a sounding in 2000 fathoms with iron wire. This also broke, and no more attempts with it were made. Three months later. Lieut. .J. C. Walsh, U. S. N., in the United States schooner Taney, tried to use steel wire, but his efforts were un,snccessful. the wire being too large and the sinkers too small. He reported soundings of 5700 fathoms and no bottom, but the depth was actually less than half as great. iluch work continued to be done with rope lines both before and after these experiments, but more especially afterwards. In 1840 Cap- tain .Tames F. Ross first noted time intervals in sounding; he also used very heavy sinkers, and his results were exceedingly accurate for those days. The question of time intervals was taken up and perfected by Lieutenant (afterwards Ad- miral) Taylor, and other officers of the United States Xa-y. and their observations were of great importance in determining theaccuracy of deep-sea work before the invention of the Thomson sound- ing machine. For a time the LTnited States X^avy Department abandoned the use of both wire and rope. and. at the instance of Lieutenant ^laury, adopted waxed flax twine, weighing only nine pounds to the statute mile. Between 1851 and 1853 much of the Atlantic was explored by United States vessels and hundreds of soundings