32 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



as the date wliea such cables were haid is well known, thev' 

 afford us reliable means of approximately estimating the time 

 required by the deep-sea animals for their growth. Cables are 

 constantly raised from the bottom of the sea for repairs, etc., and 

 therefore I made strenuous eftbrts to interest the directors of 

 the cable companies in the matter, but without success. Those 

 responsible for the carrying out of the somewhat difficult and 

 dangerous operation of raising a cable are much opposed to its 

 being interfered with by any other interest than that of bringing 

 the cable on board as expeditiously as possible. But it is pitiful 

 to hear the account of an eye-witness as he gave it to me, of 

 seeing fathom after fathom of a hoary cable wound up on the 

 windlass with the corals, sponges, echinoderms, shells being 

 crushed into a hideous mass of shapeless fragments. 



'We have left the ' Porcupine ' on her second cruise at the 

 Straits of Gibraltar in 1870. Having entered the Mediter- 

 ranean, the naturalists resumed their dredging operations along 

 the African coast without satisfactory results. The fauna of 

 the littoral proved to be rich enough, but at a short distance 

 from the coast the bottom was found to be rocky and not adapted 

 for the use of the dredge. In deeper water at some distance from 

 the 100-fathoms line the bottoui was uniformly covered with a 

 tenacious yellowisih mud mixed with sand and barren of animal 

 life. Dr. Carpenter, who was then in chai'ge of the scientific 

 operations, ascribed the latter circumstance to the " turbidity of 

 the bottom water." He therefore, for the remainder of this 

 cruise, and during the cruise of the ' Shearwater ' * in 1872, 

 concentrated his attention on an investigation of the physical 

 conditions of this inland sea, which lie found to differ greatly 

 from those of the open Atlantic. He attributed the lower 

 temperature and inferior density of the surface-water to the 

 inflow from the Atlantic and to the currents through the 

 Straits of Gibraltar : an opinion which became the subject of 

 serious criticism and discussion t. Very important were the 

 results of his observations on the temperature of the deeper 

 water. The temperature was found to be uniform from the 

 depth of 100 fatiioms to 1743, the gr> ate^t depth reached by the 

 sounding machine of the ' Porcupine' off the S.E. end of Sicily. 

 Thus, Ksix temperatures tiiken below 1000 fathoms in the Medi- 

 terranean were all between 54°7 and 56°, and one at 112 

 fathoms 55°-5 ; whilst in the Atlantic, almost in the same 

 latitude the corresponding depths sliowed tem.peratures of re- 

 spectively 39°-7 and 52°-5. Carpenter justly infers that the 

 distribution of anin^al lite in inland seas cut oft' from the general 

 oceanic ciiculalion must be diiferent from that of the open sea ; 

 and relsing upon his own experience he expresses finally his 

 belief " that in the Mediterranean basin the existence of animal 

 life in any abundance at a depth greater than 230 fathoms will 

 be found quite exceptional." 



* Proc. Roy. Soc. 1872, pp. 535-644. 



t Spratt, Proc. Eoy. Soc. 1872. 



