chap, ii.] THE CRUISE OF THE 'LIGHTNING: 69 



siderable de l'animal, augmente aussi les difficultes a 

 le faire sortir du dredge sans etre dechire. Quoique 

 je fusse assez lieureux pour le saisir avant qu'il sortait 

 de l'eau, et malgre toute la precaution possible, je 

 reussis seulement a conserver deux disques d'une paire 

 de bras fermes, mais a ceux-ei meme le peau etait 

 rompue. Quand F animal est eomplet et coherent, 

 ainsi que je l'ai vu une ou deux fois sous l'eau dans 

 le dredge, il est veritablement un exemplaire de luxe, 

 une 'gloria maris.' " 1 



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 Fseroe Bank. The bottom is throughout a mixture 

 of gravel and sand, with patches of mud ; Nos. 7 and 8 

 principally the debris of the metamorphic rocks of 

 the north of Scotland ; Nos. 9, 10, and 11 chiefly 

 volcanic, the detritus of the Fa^roe traps. This line 

 of soundings is entirely within what we afterwards 

 learned to call the ' coki area,' the thermometer for 

 depths below 300 fathoms indicating a temperature 

 slightly above or below 0° C. 



As we were now again approaching the Faeroe 

 fishing-banks, Ave shaped our course southwards, and 

 on the morning of September 6th we sounded and 



1 Description d'un Nouveau Genre des Asteries, par P. Cbr. Abs- 

 jomsen, in " Fauna littoralis JSorvegite," by Dr. M. Sars, .1. Koren, 

 and D. C. Danielssen. Seconde Livraison. JJergen, 1856, p. 96. 



