The advent of sensitive sub-mm array cameras now allows a proper census of
dust-enshrouded massive star-formation in very distant galaxies, previously
hidden activity to which even the deepest optical images are insensitive. We
present the deepest sub-mm survey, taken with the SCUBA camera on the James
Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and centred on the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). The
high source density on this image implies that the survey is confusion-limited
below a flux density of 2 mJy. However within the central 80 arcsec radius
independent analyses yield 5 reproducible sources with S(850um) > 2 mJy which
simulations indicate can be ascribed to individual galaxies. These data lead to
integral source counts which are completely inconsistent with a no evolution
model, whilst the combined brightness of the 5 most secure sources in our map
is sufficient to account for 30-50% of the previously unresolved sub-mm
background, and statistically the entire background is resolved at about the
0.3 mJy level. Four of the five brightest sources appear to be associated with
galaxies which lie in the redshift range 2 < z < 4. With the caveat that this
is a small sample of sources detected in a small survey area, these submm data
imply a star-formation density over this redshift range that is at least five
times higher than that inferred from the rest-frame ultraviolet output of HDF
galaxies.Comment: to appear in the proceedings of `The Birth of Galaxies', Xth
Rencontres de Blois, 4 pages, 1 postscript figure, uses blois.sty (included
