Page:The ocean and its wonders.djvu/31

 from the fact that, after a large quantity of line has been run out, the shock of the lead striking the bottom cannot be felt. Moreover, there is sufficient force in the currents to sweep out the line after the lead has reached the bottom; so that, with the ordinary in use among navigators, it is impossible to sound great depths. Scientific men have, therefore, taxed their brains to invent instruments for sounding the deep sea—for touching the bottom in what sailors call “blue water.” Some have tried it with a silk thread as a, some with threads, and various other materials and contrivances. It has even been tried by exploding petards and ringing bells in the deep sea, when it was supposed that an echo or reverberation might be heard, and, from the known rate at which sound travels through water, the depth might thus be ascertained. leads have been constructed having a column of air in them, which, by compression; would show the aqueous pressure to which they had been subjected; but the trial proved to be more than the instrument could stand.

Captain Maury, of the American Navy—whose interesting book has been already referred to—invented an instrument for sounding the deep sea. Here is his own description of it:—“To the lead was attached, upon the principle of the, a small piece of for registering the number of revolutions made by the little screw