306 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA, [cHAP. VII. 
channel between Scotland and the F&éroe plateau; 
and giving, respectively, the temperatures of — 1°1, 
—1':2, —0°7, and —0°5 C. No. 9, with a depth of 
170 fathoms and a temperature of 5° C., is excep- 
tional; it is apparently the top of a circumscribed 
ridge or bank. We dredged at this station and got 
large numbers of the rare and beautiful Zerebratula 
cranium ; but when we tried for the same spot in the 
following year in the ‘ Porcupine,’ we could not find 
it. On the 6th of September we sounded and took 
temperatures in lat. 59° 36’ N., long. 7 20° Weim 
530 fathoms, when the mean of three thermometers, 
which only differed from one another by about °3 
of a degree, gave a bottom temperature of 6°4 C. 
A temperature sounding, at the moderate depth of 
189 fathoms, was taken on the morning of the 7th 
September in lat..59° 5’ N., long, 7 29° Wowaue 
gave a bottom temperature of 9°6 C. The three 
soundings, Nos. 138, 14, and 17, at the depths 650, 
570, and 629 fathoms, extending into the North 
Atlantic as far westward as long. 12° 36° W., gave 
a bottom temperature of 5°8, 6°4., and 6°6 C., 
respectively. 
The general result of these observations we could 
not but regard as very remarkable. The region 
which we had somewhat imperfectly examined in- 
cluded, in the first place, the channel about a couple 
of hundred miles in width, with an extreme depth 
of rather under 600 fathoms, extending between the 
northern boundary-line of the British plateau and 
the shoal which culminates in the Froe Islands 
and their extensive banks; and secondly, a small 
portion of the North Atlantic extending westwards 
