take soundings

And when they come to look at that spare room they had to take soundings before they could navigate it.

I even managed to take soundings, and found that the greatest depth was 54 feet; the lake bottom was almost level.

Now I'm going up in the bow with a boat-hook to take soundings; we'll run slow and keep right in the middle of the river.

The boats sent to take soundings were suddenly surrounded at the entrance of a large bay by a crowd of pirogues.

Still they were forced constantly to tack about, bring to, get under weigh, and take soundings at least once a day.