The lines of street beggary are not, in this
year of grace, cast in pleasant places.

SUBMARINE GEOGRAPHY.

BY an act of the American Congress in
March 1849, the secretary of the United
States Navy was authorised to appoint three
suitable vessels for the purpose of investigating
the phenomena of the winds and the waves,
to find short routes, and to discover matters
of importance to commerce and navigation.
These vessels were to sail under the instructions
of Lieutenant Maury, the author of the
Wind and Current Charts, published at New
York. From some cause, but one vessel was
fitted out for this important service; the
"Fancy," a schooner commanded by
Lieutenant Walsh, which sailed from New York,
in October 1849, amply furnished with the
means of carrying out the instructions given.
Those orders included not only constant
observations upon the wind, the force and set of
the currents, with their temperature, depth,
position, &c., but also notices of the general
temperature of the ocean, with " deep-sea
soundings."

In May of the following year, the United
States ship Albany, Commander Plate, was
despatched on similar service to the West
India station, equally well found in every
requisite for the purpose. The field of the
"Fancy's " operation was to have been the
"Horse Latitudes " to the north of the
Equator, and a few degrees south of the
Line, between fifteen and twenty-five degrees
west longitude. Unfortunately, this vessel
proved unseaworthy, and her commander was
compelled to relinquish his undertaking before
being half completed. This first voyage was,
however, not without results, for it enabled
the officer in command to disprove the existence
of various supposed rocks between the
West India Islands and the African continent,
and which had, until that time, been
regularly laid down in the official charts.
Lieutenant Walsh also discovered a submarine
current of considerable velocity, moving in
a direction opposite to that on the surface;
he found water at a great depth, which, when
brought up, relieved of all pressure, and
equalised to the surface temperature, proved
to be lighter than the water at the surface.
In " deep-sea soundings " less was done than
had been anticipated, owing mainly to the
loss of their longest wire-line, which parted
close to the reel on deck. The deepest sounding
made by this expedition, and which is
also the deepest yet made, was five thousand
seven hundred fathoms, or six miles and a
half, at which immense depth no bottom was
found. This was made about three hundred
miles to the eastward of Bermuda, on the 15th
of November, 1849, and serves to establish
the fact, that the actual depth of the great
ocean basin is greater than any elevation
above the sea level. The time occupied by
this length of wire in running out was one
hour and a half; and, to have wound it
up on the reel by two or three men, would
have required at least twelve hours; that
labour, however, was not needed, as the
whole length parted at the surface, and was
lost.

It may not be uninteresting to detail the
mode by which the direction and velocity of the
under-currents were determined—a method
at once simple and efficacious. A large chip-
log of a quadrantal form, the arc of it
measuring four feet, and being heavily
loaded with lead to keep it upright, was sunk
to the required distance, say one hundred and
twenty fathoms; on the upper end of the line
to which this was secured, was a barrega, or
float, which of course followed the direction
of the sunken chip-log, propelled by the under-
current; and the rate at which it moved
was ascertained by means of a log-line and
glass, in the ordinary way. Lieutenant
Walsh found, by these means, a great number
of under-currents moving at various rates,
according to depth, ranging from two miles
to half a mile, but always in a direction
contrary to the surface current, and usually
moving at a more rapid rate.

The second expedition in the Albany,
proved far more successful than the first; and
although the scene of operations was on a
much more limited scale, the task was
performed most completely. This vessel was of
much larger tonnage, more liberally officered,
and better supplied with materiel. In place
of wire sounding lines, cod-lines of sufficient
size were furnished, which were well waxed
or oiled, and marked off at every hundred
fathoms. The supply extended to fifty
thousand fathoms, sufficient, one might
suppose, for several such voyages, yet the greater
part of it was used on this one trip; losses of
some thousands of fathoms occurring
incessantly from the inferior make of the line
causing it to part.

The first deep-sea soundings were made
somewhat to the southward of the Bermudas,
where no bottom was found with lines of one
thousand nine hundred fathoms and one
thousand fathoms. Standing on towards Hayti,
and within a few degrees of that island,
bottom was found, and regular sets of soundings
effected in a most satisfactory manner
from that point right across the Gulf of
Mexico, and afterwards across the Carribean
Sea. From a depth of sixteen hundred fathoms
(about two miles) the ground gradually
trended upwards, towards the coast of Hayti,
with very ordinary undulation. Passing on,
westerly, through the shoals and islands to
the northward of Cuba, at which island the
vessel remained a day or two to overhaul the
lines and correct the imperfections, a course
of soundings was taken right across the bay
from east to west, and again from west to
east. Three months were occupied in this