190 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP. 1V. 
confine myself at present almost exclusively to the 
description of the phenomena of the deep water in 
the Atlantic so far as these have been worked out, 1 
will not here repeat the narrative of the experiments 
in the Strait. I will, however, give a brief sketch of 
Dr. Carpenter’s cruise in the Mediterranean, as the 
remarkable phenomena connected with the distribu- 
tion of temperature and of animal life which he 
observed, illustrate while they contrast with the 
singularly different conditions which have been 
already described in the outer ocean. 
The first sounding in the basin of the Mediter- 
ranean was taken on the 16th of August, lat. 56° 0’ 
N., long. 4° 40’ W., at a depth of 586 fathoms, with a 
bottom of dark grey mud. The surface temperature 
was 23°6C., and the bottom temperature 12°8 C., 
about three degrees higher than at the same depth 
in the ocean outside. A serial sounding was taken to 
determine the rate of the diminution of temperature, 
with the following curious result :— 
Suntace<. akg de ao ee kt 
LOitathomisi) 9. 2a ee Re Le AOS 
20 4 re ee ea es ook Por 
30 se ee ee Toe et orm ent L/S) 
40 2G 
50 :; 6 
100 “8 8 
586 ‘ 2°8 
Thus the temperature fell rapidly for the first 30 
fathoms, more slowly for the next 20, from 50 to 100 
lost only 3°C., and before reaching the depth of a 
hundred fathoms had obtained its minimum tempera- 
