CHAP. IV.] THE VOYAGE HOME. 221 



water, sponge-producing seas of the Philippines. It came up 

 with scarcely any ooze and with only a small number of animal 

 species ; but among them were many very perfect specimens of 

 the rare little sea-urchin Salenia varisphia. It is singular that 

 although there were a large number of liempen tangles attached 

 to the dredge, and they seemed to have done their work well, 

 none of tlie Bryozoa so characteristic of moderate depths with 

 a bottom of globigerina ooze in the Atlantic were taken on this 

 occasion. In the evening we made sail due north. 



For the next ten days, up to the 26th, we kept a northerly 

 course on the central ridge of the Atlantic in soundings never 

 exceeding 2000 fathoms. The bottom was globigerina ooze, ex- 

 cept on two occasions when the sounding-tube brought up no 

 sample, and the station was accordingly entered " hard ground." 

 The bottom temperature averaged about 2° C, varying two or 

 three tenths, with differences of three or four hundred fathoms 

 in depth. The dredge was lowered on the 19th in 1240 fath- 

 oms, but it came up empty. We made another attempt on the 

 21st, and on this occasion we were more successful, bringing up 

 what we most wished, a supply of globigerina ooze for after-ex- 

 amination. The only organism recovered was a dead wisp of 

 Hyalonema spicules caught in the tangles. 



On the morning of the 27th we were close to the Island of 

 Ascension, and as we neared the land the weather became thick 

 and heavy all round, and there was a very heavy rain-squall, 

 which lasted some hours. It cleared off about noon, and the 

 dark-red cones and craters of the lower part of the island were 

 visible to the north-eastward. We sounded in 425 fathoms, and 

 put over the dredge, which was fairly successful, briuging up a 

 large number of corals and sponges, and a number of echino- 

 derms, including several examples of the ordinary form of Echi- 

 nus Flemingii. 



I was sitting writing below as we approached the land, and 

 did not go on deck until we had cast anchor in 11 fathoms in 



