Viewing page 55 of 146

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

53

States to San Francisco, via the straits of Magellan, with Prof. Louis Agassiz and a party of naturalists on board. In 1872, '73 and '74, the steamer Bache was detailed during a few weeks of each summer for dredging work in the Gulf of Maine, in the interests of the U.S. Fish Commission, as elsewhere explained.

In 1877 began [[strikethrough]] that [[/strikethrough]] a most interesting series of explorations by the Coast Survey steamer "Blake," during which the methods of deep-sea dredging and sounding were [[strikethrough]] so [[/strikethrough]] very greatly improved, [[strikethrough]] as has been described above [[/strikethrough]]. & The [[strikethrough]] dredging [[strikethrough]] natural history operations were in charge of Mr. Alexander Agassiz. The first cruise, during which Commander Sigsbee, United States Navy, was in charge of the vessel, lasted from December, 1877, to March, 1878, and extended from Key West to Havana, and thence westward along the north coast of Cuba; from Key West to the Tortugas, the northern extremity of the Yucatan Bank and Alacran Reef, to Cape Catoche, and across to Cape San Antonio; thence back to Key West, and from there to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Seventy-nine casts were made, the deepest being in 1,920 fathoms. During the second cruise, from December, 1878, to March, 1879, under Commander Bartlett, United States Navy, dredgings were made from Key West to Havana; thence to Jamaica, through the old Bahama Channel and Windward Passage, and from Jamaica to St. Thomas, along the south coasts of Hayti and Porto Rico. From St. Thomas the dredgings were continued southward as far as the 100-fathom line off Trinidad. This season over 200 successful casts of the dredge and trawl were made in all depths down to 2,412 fathoms. The third cruise, from February to May, 1880, covered the western Caribbean Sea, between Cuba, Jamaica, and Honduras; 22 hauls were made, the deepest in 961 fathoms. The fourth cruise, during the summer of 1880, was devoted to running several lines of soundings and dredgings off the Atlantic coast of the United States, between George's Bank and the latitude of Charleston, in depths of 24 to 1,632 fathoms; 47 dredge and trawl hauls were made.

Of the collections obtained during these cruises of the Blake, a part of the Crustacea, the Echini, Ophiurans, stalked Crinoids, corals and sponges, have been worked up and reported upon, and are now represented in the National Museum