178 



ANIMAL LIFE OF THE DEEP SEA BOTTOM 



Stone with rounded edges from the Philippine 

 Trench. The fingers are pointing to the sea- 

 anemones, which are whitish in colour. 



was safely home and we should be 

 able to make a fresh attempt; yes, 

 it was a relief to known that we 

 should be able to try again, even 

 in the Philippine Trench. For that 

 was where we were, a little before 

 dawn on July 22, 1951 ; at station 

 No. 418. Then the facts came out 

 in rapid succession. "There's clay on 

 the frame!" somebody cried. "It's 

 been on the bottom!" And then: 

 "There are stones in the bag!" 

 Everybody on board who could 

 leave his job gathered round the 

 big dishes while nervous fingers 

 unloosed the cords so that the con- 

 tents could be carefully removed. 

 We hardly noticed the red prawns, luminiscent euphausids, or black 

 fishes; we all knew these to be pelagic animals, caught on the way up 

 through the free water masses. But there, on a rather large stone, were 

 some small whitish growths — sea-anemones! Even if no more animals 

 had been found, this would still be the outstanding haul of the expedition 

 (Fig. above). It was proof that higher animals can live deeper than 

 10,000 metres. Is it surprising that all were overjoyed? And that pleasure 

 became excitement when out of the greyish clay with gravel and stones 

 we picked altogether 25 sea-anemones, about 75 sea-cucumbers, five 

 bivalves, one amphipod, and one bristle-worm? It was an unexpectedly 

 rich variety of bottom-dwelling animals. 



That the haul had been made on the bottom was obvious, and fortu- 

 nately we had all the proofs that it was at 10,190 metres. We had carefully 

 navigated according to the configuration of the bottom laboriously pieced 

 together from our echo-sounding on many days before; on the bridge they 

 had calculated the driftage due to current with such accuracy that our 

 depth throughout had never been less than 10,190 metres; wind and sea 

 had been very slight from the north, almost head on, as favourable as 

 they could possibly be. Forgotten was the long night vigil; our success had 

 to be followed up, everything repeated if possible. 



And repeated it was, except that the second time we trawled for only 

 90 minutes, compared with 110 minutes the first time. We had to break 

 off the trawl, which was made at between 10,145 '^'^^ 10,210 metres. 



