sounding-lead

Out of this necessity grew the use of the lead and sounding line; and, ultimately, marine-surveying, which is the recording of the form of coasts and of the depth of the sea, as ascertained by the sounding-lead, upon charts.

Autobiography and Selected Essays 2003

The sea-bottom was composed of neither rock, mud, sand, nor shells; the sounding-lead brought up nothing but a kind of metallic dust, which glittered with a strange iridescence, and the nature of which it was impossible to determine, as it was totally unlike what had ever been known to be raised from the bed of the

Off on a Comet 2003

For, as we have seen, these polypes cannot live at a greater depth than about twenty-five fathoms; and actual observation has shown that while, down to this depth, the sounding-lead will bring up branches of live coral from the outer wall of such a reef, at a greater depth it fetches to the surface nothing but dead coral and coral sand.

Autobiography and Selected Essays 2003

With his sounding-lead Jim tried the depth of the water.

Jim Spurling, Fisherman or Making Good Albert Walter Tolman

Out of this necessity grew the use of the lead and sounding line; and, ultimately, marine-surveying, which is the recording of the form of coasts and of the depth of the sea, as ascertained by the sounding-lead, upon charts.

Autobiography and Selected Essays Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895 1909

For, as we have seen, these polypes cannot live at a greater depth than about twenty-five fathoms; and actual observation has shown that while, down to this depth, the sounding-lead will bring up branches of live coral from the outer wall of such a reef, at a greater depth it fetches to the surface nothing but dead coral and coral sand.

Autobiography and Selected Essays Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895 1909

The decks were strewn with sawdust; every man was in his place; the guns were ready, and except for the song of the sounding-lead there was silence in the ships as they moved forward through the glorious morning.

Hero Tales from American History Theodore Roosevelt 1888

At daybreak on the following morning the _Flying Cloud_ was once more hove about and headed for the land under the same canvas which she had carried during the night, one hand being sent into the main-chains with the sounding-lead.

The Missing Merchantman Harry Collingwood 1886

I HAVE a question for thee alone, my brother: like a sounding-lead, cast I this question into thy soul, that I may know its depth.

Thus Spake Zarathustra 1885

Out of this necessity grew the use of the lead and sounding-line; and ultimately marine surveying, which is the recording of the form of coasts and of the depth of the sea, as ascertained by the sounding-lead, upon charts.

The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VI (of X)—Great Britain and Ireland IV Various 1885