CRUISES OF THE "MICHAEL SARS " 95 



their abrupt heads, and sometimes with their flukes in the air. 

 A school of other whales, probably the " caaing-whale," was 

 also seen. 



At Station 53 we reached a lesser depth of water, namely 

 2615 to 2865 metres, and had, accordingly, arrived at the slope 

 rising from the deep basin of the Atlantic to the plateau of the 

 Azores. A sample from the bottom showed much pumice, 

 pteropod shells, and a large percentage of carbonate of lime, 

 with siliceous spicules of sponges and radiolaria. 



We shot the big trawl with 6400 metres of wire, and towed 

 it from ten in the morning till two o'clock in the afternoon. At 

 5,15 P.M. it came up with a most successful catch. The greater 

 abundance of organisms here as compared with profound depths 

 was surprising. There were at least 500 holothurians belonging 



Fig. 81. 

 Oneirodes sp. Nat. size, 2.5 cm. 



to several species, large red crustaceans, fifteen Pagurtts, a 

 number of actiniae, lamellibranchiates, and sponges, as well as 

 thirty-nine fishes (different species of Macrtirus, Alepocephalus, 

 Halosanropsis, Bathysaurits, Benthosaurus, and Synapho- 

 brancJms). This haul proved again that animal life was 

 abundant at about 3000 metres (1500 fathoms). 



Our pelagic hauls were equally interesting. They were 

 carried out during the night of 8th June, and nine appliances 

 were towed simultaneously. The surface tow-net contained a 

 quantity of the large medusa [Pelagia atlanticd), a number of 

 what are sometimes called salmon-herrings (scopelids, most of 

 them Mydophuni coccoi or M. pMiictatiini), and as many as 

 thirteen black Astronesthes niger. This was the more remark- 

 able because we had towed appliances on the trawl-wire at a 

 depth of 30 metres the previous day, for at least four or five 

 hours, and had not captured a single scopelid or Astronesthes. 

 A better proof of the vertical wanderings of these animals seems 



