04 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [chap. hi. 



The weather was very settled. On the Sunday, as 

 Ave steamed down the Irish Channel there was nearly 

 a dead calm, a slight mist hanging over the water 

 and giving some very beautiful effects of coast 

 scenery. On the evening of Sunday the 18th we 

 anchored for the night off Ballycottin, a pretty little 

 port about fifteen miles from Queenstown, and 

 dropped round to Queenstown on Monday morning, 

 where we anchored off Haulbowline Island at 7 a.m. 

 At Queenstown Mr. P. Herbert Carpenter joined 

 Mr. Hunter in the laboratory, to practise under his 

 direction the gas-analysis, which it had been arranged 

 that he should undertake during the third cruise. 

 Monday the 18th was employed in coaling and pro- 

 curing in Cork some things which were required for 

 the chemical department ; and at 7 p.m. we cast off 

 from the wharf at Haulbowline and proceeded on our 

 voyage. 



During Monday night we steamed in a south- 

 westerly direction across the mouth of the Channel. 

 On Tuesday we dredged in 74 and 75 fathoms on the 

 plateau which extends between Cape Clear and Ushant, 

 on a bottom of mud and gravel with dead shells and 

 a few living examples of the generally diffused species 

 of moderate depths. The weather was remarkably 

 fine, the barometer 30*25 in., and the temperature of 

 the air 22-5 C. 



On Wednesday, July 21, we continued our south- 

 westerly course, the chart indicating during the earlier 

 part of the day that we were still in the shallow- 

 water of the plateau of the Channel. At 430 a.m. 

 we dredged gravel and dead shells in 95 fathoms, but 

 towards mid-day the lead gave a much greater depth ; 



