CHAP. IL. ] TENERIFFE TO SOMBRERO. 187 
surprise, for it was already suspected that the valves had closed 
before the bottle reached the surface, from having been scarcely 
sufliciently tightened up. The slip water-bottle had also mis- 
carried, some mud having got into the valve, and prevented 
its closing fully. The sample in the tube of the “ Hydra” was 
ooze containing many foraminifera; the thermometer registered 
a temperature of 1°°9 C. 
The trawl was hauled in at 5 p.m. The beam was broken 
through the middle, and otherwise strangely torn and crushed, 
_by the combined action of the pressure to which it had been 
subjected, and the strain of pulling it up rapidly through three 
miles of water. The wood was driven in and compressed so as 
to reduce the diameter of the beam by half an inch, and the 
knots projected a quarter of an inch on all sides. In the bread- 
bag chamber at the end of the trawl there was a little mud, full 
of large foraminifera and the otolites of fishes, the finer débris 
having been washed through the canvas; and sticking to the 
net were several examples of the two bryozoa previously men- 
tioned, and a very perfect young specimen of the remarkable 
form which we dredged off the coast of Portugal, Varesia cya- 
thus. Our position at noon was lat. 21° 0’ N., long. 46° 30’ W., 
Sombrero Island distant 972 miles. 
On Thursday, the 6th, we sounded in 2325 fathoms, sending 
down a thermometer and the slip water-bottle. The bottom 
temperature registered was 1°-7 C., and the specific gravity of 
the sample of water was 1:02470 at 21° C., that of the surface 
water being 1:02556, at 23°°3 C. 
The bottom was a yellowish ooze with a very large propor- 
tion of red clay, and a corresponding decrease in the amount of 
carbonate of lime and in the number of shells of foraminifera ; 
a considerable approach to the character of the mud from Sta- 
tion 7 on the 24th of February, when we were approaching the 
bed of fine red clay. Serial soundings were taken at the usual 
intervals down to 1500 fathoms: 
