Morning journal and courier., 1881-03-16
shef1ield Scientific School.

rTachanfcs, Course-Prof. verrin on Deep
 Water Life or the U. s. Coast.
 The tenth, and, in some respects, the most interesting in the series of lectures to me chanics was given last night by Prof. Addison E. Verrill, of the Sheffield Scientific School. His subject, one of great popular interest, was esDeep Water Life of the U. s. Coast.
 After few preliminary remarks, the lec- turer stated that deep-sea dredging was of very recent date, although the dredge was used to considerable extent in shallow waters 100 years ago or more. His own ex- perience with dredging began in 1s59-60, from which time to 1871. he occasionally took part in excursions gotten up by private par ties for the purpose of deep-sea dredging. They were obliged to carry on their opera tions in saiIboat, scarcely reaching depth of more than 15O or 200 fathoms, and conin- ing their operations to Bay of Fundy and Grand Menan and coasts thereabouts In 1871 the U. S. Fish Commission was formed with the object of discovering the tempera- ture of deep waters, the nature of the sea bottom, the peculiar circumstances under which fish lived, their food, habits, etc., and new varieties of deep sea life. The commis- sion began to work in very small way at first, being obliged to resort to sailboats with the occasional aid of small steam launch. But such was the extent of the commissioners work that in 1877 Congress gave them the gunboat Speedwell as a steamer to be devoted entirely to their service. From 1877, there fore, date the most important explorations and discoveries of the Fish Commission. So much importance was attached to this work that in 1879 the Speedwen was replaced by the Fish Hawk, which is employed in the ing up as the season advances from Florida or Georgia, until in June she gains the Dela- ware.
 After this she is employed by the commis- sioners in their usual summer work of deep sea dredging Prof. Verrill in the summer is assisted by students from the college and men from Washington and other colleges The young men number. from twelve-to if teen and their principal occupation is to watch after the dredge or trawl, to remove the various creatures brought up by these in- struments, etc. The crew and officers also swell the party to a very considerable num- Der. The fish and other animals are sent to Washington to be assorted and preserved. A few, however, reach Yale College. The Pro- lessor was unable, therefore, to show his au- ditors many specimens. Such as there were are exceedingly rare and valuable. The Fish Hawk has been godsend to the commission. And many of the most important discoveries have been made in 1879 and 1880. She made three trips about 120 miles or so into the Gulf Stream itself and struck off the Massa- chusetts coast the richest of sea- bottoms yet investigated by the commission. The dredge was lowered to bottoms from 65 to 800 fath oms below the surface.
 The coast survey, with which Alexander Agassiz has identified himself, has been pur- suing a similar series of investigations in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, reaching depth of 2,OOO fathoms in some places. Agassiz has obtained already larger and more valuable collection than the English surveying party in the enormous vessel Challenger, assisted by every imple- ment that money can purchase and genius invent and numbering 150 men and more. Only now the various results of these explorations are being published. Last sum- mer Agassiz extended his Investigations into northern waters, actually overlapping the work of the commission. So that now the whole coast has been dredged from South America to the north of Halifax.
 In 1877 the fish commission for the first time excited the interest of the New England fishermen. especially those of Gloucester, Mass, and neighborhood in their work. These fishermen carry their operations into very deep waters in the catching of cod and hali- but and very often in hauling up their lines find strange creatures attached which they had been in the habit of casting away hereto fore as valueless. By persuading two or three of these men to preserve such specimens, the commissioners discovered that they could be- come invaluable allies in the work of deep-sea exploration. By working on the natural van- ity of these t'toilers of the sea"-a vanity, by IL publishing their names with those of the va rious specimens they had caught, created great desire among the fisher men to see their name in print. The result was that many rare and, in several cases, hitherto unknown varieties of deep-sea life were secured. The Commissioners ''struck bonanza" of the first water There were at least 1000 lots secured, many of them containing over 100 specimens The lines of these fishermen are sometimes run out for mile, and there are about 1, ,OOO little short lines with hooks set at intervals along the main line. As the cod or halibut are caught in these smaller lines, they of course wriggle about and snarl up the other lines,
 thus entangling many of these rare speci- mems.
 For the last three years these fishermen have done faithful work in saving these spe- cimens, doing their utmost to preserve them,
 sometimes at the risk of losing their lives. The gold banded coral was the first discov- cred by fishermen, and the sea-pens, hitherto found only off the Norwegian coast. Many
 rare specimens of star, cutie and devil fishes, with valuable corals, have been ob- tained through these men who fish off the Grand Banks, and about twenty-five fishes never yet discovered in American waters. It has been universally acknowledged that the fishermen of no other country on the globe would have entered with such zest in this work.
 The various instruments used by the com mission are the deep-sea dredge, the trawl,
 the rake dredge and the hemp brush drag.
 The deep-sea dredge is used to catch the smaller creatures. To this is sometimes at- tached weight of from 200 to 300 pounds. The trawl is used for the largest fish, but oc- casionally brings up at one haul from 150 to 200 Holsters, oftentimes 8 barrel of crabs and half ton or more of founders. The hemp
 brush drag is used in entanghng star fishes,
 sea-urchins, etc great improvement was made last year in the steamer in using steel rope instead of the usual hemp rope,
 which is necessarily large and becomes heavy in the sea from absorbing so much water, causing great friction and detention in haul ing 1t up. The steel rope is the size of ones
 little finger, and is strong compact, and en- tirely efficient Such have been the improve ments lately made in the machinery for deep- sea dredging that it takes but hour and a half to make a single haul now, while until recently, even on board the challenger, a haul could not be made inside of seven or eight hours in depth of 1000 fathoms.
 Of Nova Scotia the sea bottom is of mountainous and precipitous character. In the space of five minutes the dredge will sink from depth of 50 fathoms to 5OO Of New port the bottom is composed of fine sand and is hard, firm floor with but little mud An occasional pebble is brought up by the dredge: These pebbles have been carried from the coast by ice, which melts as it hears the Gulf Stream, and drops it's freight into the sea. Majestic properties have been found to belong to this sand The sand appears to become finer the farther out it lies from the coast Minute shells-Foraminefe formed to compoge the bottom at a depth of one thou-