CHAP. I1.] THE CRUISE OF THE ‘ LIGHTNING, 69 
comparaison du disque trés petit, et la grandeur con- 
sidérable de animal, augmente aussi les difficultés & 
le faire sortir du dredge sans étre déchiré. Quoique 
je fusse assez heureux pour le saisir avant qu’il sortait 
de eau, et malgré toute la précaution possible, je 
réussis seulement & conserver deux disques d’une paire 
de bras fermes, mais & ceux-ci méme le peau était 
rompue. Quand l’animal est complet et cohérent, 
ainsi que je l’ai vu une ou deux fois sous l’eau dans 
le dredge, il est véritablement un exemplaire de luxe, 
une ‘ gloria maris.’ ” } 
The bad weather was unrelenting, and again inter- 
rupted us for a couple of days: we got a sounding, 
however, on the 5th of September, in lat. 60° 30’ N. 
and long. 7° 16’ W., with no bottom at 450 fathoms 
and a minimum temperature about the freezing-point. 
It will be seen by the chart that the last five stations, 
Nos. 7 to 11, form an oblique line from south-east to 
north-west between the northern part of Orkney and 
the Féroe Bank. The bottom is throughout a mixture 
of gravel and sand, with patches of mud; Nos. 7 and 8 
principally the débris of the metamorphic rocks of 
ine; north of Scotland; Nos. 9,-10; and 11 chiefly 
voleanic, the detritus of the Froe traps. This line 
of soundings is entirely within what we afterwards 
learned to call the ‘ cold area,’ the thermometer for 
depths below 300 fathoms indicating a temperature 
shghtly above or below 0° C. 
As we were now again approaching the Féroe 
fishing-banks, we shaped our course southwards, and 
1 Description d’un Nouveau Genre des Astéries, par P. Chr. Abs- 
jornsen, in “ Fauna littoralis Norvegie,” by Dr. M. Sars, J. Koren, 
and D. C. Danielssen. Seconde Livraison. Bergen, 1856, p. 96. 
