United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Carlile P. Patterson, Superintendent A Description and Discussion of the Methods and Appliances used on Board the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Steamer “Blake”

Abstract

THE publication of the “Depths of the Sea” and of the “Voyage of the Challenger” by Sir Wyville Thomson has made the public familiar with the work of the English in the exploration of the depths of the ocean. But little is known, even in America, of the important part which the United States Coast Survey has taken in the solution of the problems of the physical geography of the sea. The Coast Survey during the superintendence of Prof. Bache instituted a series of investigations on the physical problems of the deep sea, connected with the Gulf Stream, which have little by little been expanded by his successors, Prof. B. Peirce and the Hon. Carlile P. Patterson, into the most important hydrographic exploration yet undertaken by any government. With a wise liberality secondary hydrographic scientific problems, mainly of interest to the biologist and geologist, have been made a part of the work of the Coast Survey. Thus since 1866 the use of the dredge, the trawl, the tangles, and of all the apparatus necessary for a thorough exploration of the fauna of the depths of the sea has become as familiar to some of the navy officers attached to the Coast Survey as the use of the sextant or of the lead.

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Carlile P. Patterson, Superintendent. A Description and Discussion of the Methods and Appliances used on Board the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Steamer “Blake.”

By Charles D. Sigsbee Pp. 192, xli. Plates. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880.)