238 Dr. Hooker on some results of Deep-sea Dredging, 



unacquainted with any other plant, except the Gloriosaj which 

 exhibits the innermost layers of the compound starch forms with 

 such remarkable distinctness. 



XXVIII. — Note on some Marine Animals, brought up by Deep-sea 

 Dredging, during the Antarctic Voyage of Captain Sir James 

 C. Ross, R.N. 



To Richard Taylor, Esq. 



My dear Sir, West Park, Kew, Aug. 31, 1845. 



Having remarked, in the notice given of Mr. Goodsir^s valuable 

 labours in the last number of the ' Annals of Nat. Hist.,' that 

 300 fathoms is supposed to be the extreme depth from which 

 living animals have been dredged, I think it may interest some 

 of your readers to know that Sir James Ross, during the late 

 Antarctic Voyage, used the dredge on several occasions with 

 considerable success in the same and in much deeper water. 



In latitude 33° 32' S. and long. 167° 40' E., living specimens 

 of Homera frondosa, besides four other Corals, a Dictrupia, two 

 Ophiurce, an Annelide, one small Echinus (and the spines of an- 

 other, three inches in length), were all procured in a living state 

 from 400 fathoms. 



Off Victoria Land, between the parallels of 71° and 78° of south 

 latitude, the dredge was repeatedly employed -, once with great 

 success at 380 fathoms. Generally the contents of the net, after 

 dredging at between 200 and 400 fathoms in these latitudes, 

 were various Crustacea, as numerous Nymphia, Pycnogona of a 

 very large size, and such Arctic genera as Crangon, Alpheus, 

 Gammarus and Idotea, the species sometimes resembling very 

 closely indeed those that Capt. Ross had met with during the 

 North Polar voyages : of MoUusca, the genus Chiton, Boltenia, 

 and the remains of both univalve and bivalve shells, of which we 

 found no traces on the lands we visited ; various Annelides and 

 Serpulce, Ophiurce and Asterice, Alectos, Bicellaria, an Encrinite 

 resembling the Irish one, very many Virgularice and Sponges, 

 with Holothurics several inches in length. The pebbles were ge- 

 nerally covered with Flustrce ; but on one occasion a magnificent 

 mass of syenite was procured, the edges of which were sharp 

 and the surface clean ; it must have been but recently deposited 

 by an iceberg, for the greater proportion of the stones around 

 were of trap or basalt of various kinds. 



The most remarkable circumstance connected with this subject 

 of deep-sea dredging is, that the bottom of the Antarctic Ocean, 

 near the lands visited by Sir James Ross, was found to be covered 

 with a mud consisting in great part of the remains of Infusoria, 



