| From Alexander E.
Agassiz’s Three Cruises
of the “Blake.” By permission
of Houghton,
Mifflin & Co. Fig. 18.—Agassiz or Blake Trawl. |
The chief advantage of this frame is that it does not matter in the least which side lands first on the bottom; it is to the other trawls what Ball’s dredge is to an oyster dredge. The course can also be altered during shooting or towing the Blake trawl with far greater ease than is the case with others. An Agassiz trawl very successful in the North Sea has the following dimensions: length of the connecting rods and therefore of the mouth 8 ft., height of runners and of mouth 1 ft. 9 in., extreme length of runners 2 ft., length of net 11 ft. 3 in., weight of whole trawl 94 ℔, 63 of which are due to the frame.
It is instructive to note how closely our knowledge of bottom-living forms has been associated with the instruments of capture in use. As long as small vessels were used in dredging, the belief that life was limited to the regions accessible to them was widely spread. The first known denizens of great depths were the foraminifera and few echinoderms brought up by various sounding apparatus. Next with the dredge and tangles the number of groups obtained was much greater. As soon as trawls were adopted fish began to make their appearance. The greatest gaps in our knowledge still probably occur in the large and swiftly moving forms, such as fish and cephalopods. As we can hardly hope to move apparatus swiftly over the bottom in great depths, the way in which improvement is possible probably is that of increasing the spread of the nets; and a start in this direction appears to have been made by Dr Petersen, who has devised a modified otter sieve which catches fish at all events very well, and has been operated already at considerable depths.
Of the economy of quite shallow seas, however, we are still largely ignorant. Much as has been learnt of the bionomics of the sea, it is but a commencement; and this is of course especially true of deep seas. The dredge and its kindred have, however, in less than a century enabled naturalists to compile an immense mass of knowledge of the structure, development, affinities and distribution of the animals of the sea-bed, and in the most accessible seas to produce enumerations and morphological accounts of them of some approach to completeness.
(J. O. B.)
DRELINCOURT, CHARLES (1595-1669), French Protestant divine, was born at Sedan on the 10th of July 1595. In 1618 he undertook the charge of the French Protestant church at Langres, but failed to receive the necessary royal sanction, and early in 1620 he removed to Paris, where he was nominated minister of the Reformed Church at Charenton. He was the author of a large number of works in devotional and polemical theology, several of which had great influence. His Catechism (Catéchisme ou instruction familière, 1652) and his Christian’s Defense against the Fears of Death (Consolations de l’âme fidèle contre les frayeurs de la mort, 1651) became well known in England by means of translations, which were very frequently reprinted. It has been said that Daniel Defoe wrote his fiction of Mrs Veal (A True Relation of the Apparition of Mrs Veal), who came from the other world to recommend the perusal of Drelincourt on Death, for the express purpose of promoting the sale of an English translation of the Consolations; Defoe’s contribution is added to the fourth edition of the translation (1706). Another popular work of his was Les Visites charitables pour toutes sortes de personnes affligées (1669). Drelincourt’s controversial works were numerous. Directed entirely against Roman Catholicism, they did much to strengthen and consolidate the Protestant party in France. He died on the 3rd of November 1669.
Several of his sons were distinguished as theologians or physicians. Laurent (1626-1681) became a pastor, and was the author of Sonnets chrétiens sur divers sujets (1677); Charles (1633-1697) was professor of physic at the university of Leiden, and physician to the prince of Orange; Peter (1644-1722) was ordained a priest in the Church of England, and became dean of Armagh.
DRENTE, a province of Holland, bounded N. and N.E. by Groningen, S.E. by the Prussian province of Hanover, S. and S.W. by Overysel, and N.W. by Friesland; area, 1128 sq. m.; pop. (1900) 149,551. The province of Drente is a sandy plateau forming the kernel of the surrounding provinces. The soil consists almost entirely of sand and gravel, and is covered with bleak moorland, patches of wood, and fen. This is only varied by the strip of fertile clay and grass-land which is found along the banks of the rivers, and by the areas of high fen in the south-eastern corner and on the western borders near Assen. The surface of the province is a gentle slope from the south-west towards the north-east, where it terminates in the long ridge of hills known as the Hondsrug (Dog’s Back) extending along the eastern border into Groningen. The watershed of the province runs from east to west across the middle of the province, along the line of the Orange canal. The southern streams are all collected at two points on the southern borders, namely, at Meppel and Koevorden, whence they communicate with the Zwarte Water and the Vecht respectively by means of the Meppeler Diep and the Koevorden canal. The Steenwyker Aa, however, enters the Zuider Zee independently. The northern rivers all flow into Groningen. The piles of granite rocks somewhat in the shape of cromlechs which are found scattered about this province, and especially along the western edge of the Hondsrug, have long been named Hunebedden, from a popular superstition that they were “Huns’ beds.” Possibly the word originally meant “beds of the dead,” or tombs.