Matthew Fontaine Maury, Lieutenant, U.S.N.

“ The series of systematic experiments recently made upon this subject shows that there is no reliance to be placed on such a supposition, for the shock caused by striking bottom can not be communicated through very great depths, and therefore it does not follow that the line will become slack and cease to run out when the plummet reaches the bottom. Furthermore, the lights of experience show that, as a general rule, the under currents of the deep sea have force enough to take the line out long after the plummet has ceased to do so. ”

“ In making these deep-sea soundings, the practice is to time the hundred fathom marks as they successively go out; and by always using a line of the same size and “make,” and a sinker of the same shape and weight, we at last established the law of descent. Thus the mean of our experiments gave us, for the sinker and twine used,
2 m. 21 s. as the average time of descent from 400 to 500 fathoms.
3 m. 26 s. as the average time of descent from 1000 to 1100 fathoms.
4 m. 29 s. as the average time of descent from 1800 to 1900 fathoms. ”

“ The three last-named attempts were made with the sounding twine of the American Navy, which has been introduced in conformity with a very simple plan for sounding out the depths of the ocean. It involved for each cast only the expenditure of a cannon ball, and twine enough to reach the bottom. This plan was introduced as a part of the researches conducted at the National Observatory, and which have proved so fruitful and beneficial, concerning the winds and currents, and other phenomena of the ocean. ”

“ So we had to go to work anew, and make several hundred thousand fathoms of sounding-twine especially for the purpose. It was small, and stood the test required, a pound of it measuring about six hundred feet in length.
431. The officers intrusted with the duty soon found that the soundings could not be made from the vessel with any certainty as to the depth. It was necessary that a boat should be lowered, and the trial be made from it; the men with their oars keeping the boat from drifting, and maintaining it in such a position that the line should be “up and down” the while. ”

“ This system of circulation commenced on the third day of creation, with the “gathering together of the waters,” which were “called seas,” and doubtless will continue as long as sea water shall possess the properties of saltiness and fluidity. ”