Chapter 20

OFF THE PACIFIC COAST.

"Well, Lieutenant, how goes the sounding?"

"Pretty lively, Captain; we're nearly through;" replied the Lieutenant.
"But it's a tremendous depth so near land. We can't be more than 250
miles from the California coast."

"The depression certainly is far deeper than I had expected," observed
Captain Bloomsbury. "We have probably lit on a submarine valley
channelled out by the Japanese Current."

"The Japanese Current, Captain?"

"Certainly; that branch of it which breaks on the western shores of
North America and then flows southeast towards the Isthmus of Panama."

"That may account for it, Captain," replied young Brownson; "at least, I
hope it does, for then we may expect the valley to get shallower as we
leave the land. So far, there's no sign of a Telegraphic Plateau in this
quarter of the globe."

"Probably not, Brownson. How is the line now?"

"We have paid out 3500 fathoms already, Captain, but, judging from the
rate the reel goes at, we are still some distance from bottom."

As he spoke, he pointed to a tall derrick temporarily rigged up at the
stern of the vessel for the purpose of working the sounding apparatus,
and surrounded by a group of busy men. Through a block pulley strongly
lashed to the derrick, a stout cord of the best Italian hemp, wound off
a large reel placed amidships, was now running rapidly and with a slight
whirring noise.

"I hope it's not the 'cup-lead' you are using, Brownson?" said the
Captain, after a few minutes observation.

"Oh no, Captain, certainly not," replied the Lieutenant. "It's only
Brooke's apparatus that is of any use in such depths."

"Clever fellow that Brooke," observed the Captain; "served with him
under Maury. His detachment of the weight is really the starting point
for every new improvement in sounding gear. The English, the French, and
even our own, are nothing but modifications of that fundamental
principle. Exceedingly clever fellow!"

"Bottom!" sang out one of the men standing near the derrick and watching
the operations.

The Captain and the Lieutenant immediately advanced to question him.

"What's the depth, Coleman?" asked the Lieutenant.

"21,762 feet," was the prompt reply, which Brownson immediately
inscribed in his note-book, handing a duplicate to the Captain.

"All right, Lieutenant," observed the Captain, after a moment's
inspection of the figures. "While I enter it in the log, you haul the
line aboard. To do so, I need hardly remind you, is a task