CHAP. IV.] THE VOYAGE HOME. Ill 



and trawling nearly every day ; and we had amassed a splendid 

 series of characteristic Patagonian forms from dej^ths of 60 to 

 400 fathoms. On the afternoon of the 20th we sounded In 55 

 fathoms, about 20 miles due east of Cape Virgins, with a bot- 

 tom of blackish sand and a bottom temperature of 8°*8 C. 



The trawl brought up a large number of a wonderfully hand- 

 some Euryale, the disk in some of the specimens between three 

 and four inches across. We put a number of these great disks 

 into absolute alcohol, to harden the tissues at once and preserve 

 them in the best condition for dissection. There were also 

 some very large simple Ascidians {Cynthia gigas) from 30 to 

 40 centims. long, and with the ganglion — usually a minute 

 body not at once detected, lying between the two orifices — a 

 well-defined gray mass nearly as large as a pea. A viviparous 

 ophiurid occurred in considerable numbers, which we had al- 

 ready found in shallow water off Kerguelen Island. I shall 

 give an account of its singular mode of reproduction when de- 

 scribing the shallow-water dredgings at the Falkland Islands, 

 in W'hicli it occurred plentifully. On the following day we 

 trawled in 70 fathoms about midway between Cape Virgins 

 and the Jason Islands. Animals were still abundant, but most 

 of them of known forms. A pretty little Chirodota, which ad- 

 hered in numbers to the meshes of the trawl, w^as perhaps the 

 most interesting on account of its unusually large and numer- 

 ous wheels. The bottom was a black sand, and the bottom 

 temperature 7°'8 C. 



The 22d was a wretched day, w^ith cold rain and fog and a 

 disagreeable swell. We sounded in the morning in 110 fath- 

 oms, and put over the trawl, but it came up empty ; owing to 

 a strong current setting northward, it had probably never 

 reached the bottom. We had hoped to have reached Stanlej' 

 Harbor before night, but during most of the day the fog was 

 so thick that it was unsafe to run toward the land. In the 

 afternoon we sighted the Jason Islands, and in the evening it 



