CHAP. II.] MADEIRA TO THE COAST OF BRAZIL. 77 



The following day we again took a series of temperature ob- 

 servations, and the gathering njiward of the warmer lines was 

 still more marked (Station XCVI.) ; and on the 13tli a series 

 of observations, at intervals of 100 fathoms to a depth of 1500, 

 gave a like result. The fall of temperature for the first hun- 

 dred fathoms was much the same as on the lOtli. 



Surface '. 25°-5 C. 



25 fathoms 20-6 



50 " 15-2 



'75 fathoms 12°-'7C. 



100 " 11-7 



On the Ittth we sounded and dredged in 1750 fathoms, hav- 

 ing drawn in slightly toward the coast of Africa to get some 

 idea of the fauna of the shallower water. The dredging was not 

 very successful ; the bottom was a dark-brown sandy ooze, with 

 many Glohigerince and other foraminifera ; but beyond some 

 fragments of a sponge, a broken sea - egg, and one or two bi- 

 valve-shells, the dredge contained no examples of the larger 

 animal forms. 



From the 15th to the IStli we continued our course, still in 

 the Guinea Current, and under nearly similar conditions of tem- 

 perature. On Tuesday, the 19th, the position of the ship at noon 

 was lat. 5° 48' N., long. 14° 20' W., about 200 miles off Cape 

 Mesurado. A sounding was taken in the morning, in 2500 

 fathoms, with a bottom of dark sandy mud. The trawl was 

 put over, and brought up a considerable number of animal 

 forms ; among them, very prominent on account of their brill- 

 iant scarlet color, nine large shrimps representing six species 

 — one referred to the family of the Peneidse, while the remain- 

 der were normal Carididfe ; several tubicolous annelids, and sev- 

 eral examples of a fine dorsibranchiate annelid with long white 

 bristles, which, exceptionally in its class, were very distinctly 

 jointed ; many specimens of an undescribed polyzoon with 

 stalked avicularia and large vibracula ; and a large Holothurid 

 belonging to the gelatinous group which we had frequently 

 met with previously in deep water, and remarkable for the 



