232 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. iv. 



and on the 3d of May we stopped and sounded in 2965 fath- 

 oms, with a bottom of red clay, and a bottom temperature of 

 2°-3 C, lat. 26° 16' ^., long. 33° 33' W. We were therefore, 

 on the combined evidence of the depth and the temperature, 

 in the prolongation to the westward of nearly the deepest por- 

 tion of the eastern basin of the Atlantic. We sounded again 

 on the 6th, lat. 32° 3(V N., long. 36° 8' W., in 1675 fathoms, 

 with a temperature of 2°'T C, and a bottom of pure globi- 

 gerina ooze ; so that we had now passed over the edge of the 

 trough, and were once more on the " Dolphin Rise." Here 

 we iixed the position of our three hundred and fifty -fourth 

 and last deep-sea observing station. 



From this point we made our way home as speedily as we 

 could ; but our friends in England in the early part of the year 

 1876 may well remember the continued north-east winds which 

 lasted until far on in the spring. These winds were dead in 

 our teeth ; and as our coal and fresh provisions began to get 

 low, we, in our weariness and impatience, were driven to the 

 verge of despair. At length, hopeless of any relenting, we re- 

 solved to go in to Yigo and get some coal and some fresh pro- 

 visions, and a run on shore. As we steamed up Vigo Bay on 

 the 20tli of May, the Channel Fleet, under the command of 

 Captain Beauchamp Seymour, one of the finest squadrons of 

 iron-clads ever afloat, gradually resolved itself, ship after ship, 

 out of the mist. They were just gathering, and their tale was 

 nearly complete ; but before we left next day the fleet con- 

 sisted of Her Majesty's ships Minotaur^ Iron Dulie, Monarch, 

 Resistance, Defense, Blach Prince, Hector, and the dispatch- 

 boat Lively in attendance. As we rounded the stern of the 

 Defense to our anchorage, her band struck up the air " Home, 

 Sweet Home,'' and tried the nerves of some of us far more 

 than they had ever been tried among the savages or the ice- 

 bergs. 



Vigo seemed very charming, but we had little time to enjoy 



