18 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. i. 



the crest of a Physalia. Again and again he picked it off and 

 put it on the surface at some distance, but it always turned at 

 once to the Physalia and struck out, and never rested until it 

 liad clambered up into its former quarters. 



On Thursday, the 19tli, we sounded in 2750 fathoms in a 

 gray mud containing many foraminifera. Position of the ship 

 at noon, lat. 35° 29' N., long. 50° 53' W. 



The wind now gradually freshened, and for the next three 

 days we w^ent on our course with a line breeze, force from 4 to 

 7, from the southward, sounding daily at a depth of about 2700 

 fathoms, with a bottom of reddish-gray ooze. On Tuesday, the 

 24th, the trawl w^as put over in 2175 fathoms, lat. 38° 3' N^., 

 long. 39° 19' W., about 500 miles from the Agores. As in most 

 of the deep trawls on gray mud, a number of the zocecia of del- 

 icate branching polyzoa were entangled in the net. One of 

 these on this occasion was very remarkable from the extreme 

 length (4 to 5 mm.) of the pedicels on which its avicularia were 

 placed. Another very elegant species was distinguished by the 

 peculiar sculj)ture of the cells, reminding one of those of some 

 of the more ornamented Lepralice. 



On Wednesday, the 25th, a serial sounding (Fig. 4) show^ed 

 that the layer of warm water which envelops Bermudas was 

 gradually thinning out and disappearing, and a sounding on the 

 27th (Fig. 5) brought out the same result even more clearly, the 

 isotherm of 16° C, which at Station LIX. was at a depth of 330 

 fathoms, having now risen to 50 fathoms below the surface. 



On Monday, the 30th of June, we sounded in 1000 fathoms, 

 about 114 miles westward from Fayal. The dredge was put 

 over early in the forenoon, and came up half filled with a gray 

 ooze with a large proportion of the dead shells of pteropods, 

 many foraminifera, and pebbles of pumice. Many animal forms 

 of great interest were found entangled in the swabs, or sifted 

 out of the mud. A schizopod crustacean of large size, and 

 great beauty of form and brilliancy of coloring, came up in this 



