30 G THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [chap. vn. 



channel hot ween Scotland and the Fseroe plateau ; 

 and giving, respectively, the temperatures of -11, 

 -l°-2, -0 7, and -0°-5C. 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 hank. We dredged at this station and got 

 large numbers of the rare and beautiful Terebratula 

 cranium; hut when we tried for the same spot in the 

 following year in the ' Porcupine,' we could not find 

 it. On the Gth of September we sounded and took 

 temperatures in lat. 59° 30' N„ long. 7° 20' W., in 

 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 o, l< ( !. 

 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' AY., and 

 gave a bottom temperature of 9°0 C. The three 

 soundings, Nos. 13, 11, and 17, at the depths 050, 

 570, and 020 fathoms, extending into the North 

 Atlantic as far westward as long. 12° 3G' TV., gave 

 a bottom temperature of 5°*8, 0-1, and 6°*6 0., 

 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, iu the first place, the channel about a couple 

 of hundred miles in width, with an extreme depth 

 of rather under 000 fathoms, extending between the 

 northern houndary-line of the British plateau and 

 the shoal which culminates in the lYeroo Islands 

 and their extensive banks; and secondly, a small 

 portion of the North Atlantic extending westwards 



