308 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [chap. mi. 



inity two ocean areas with totally different bottom 

 climates — a fact which, taken along with the dis- 

 covery of abundant animal life at all depths, has 

 most important bearings upon the distribution of 

 marine life, and upon the interpretation of palieon to- 

 logical data. 



The conditions during the ' Lightning ' cruise were 

 so unfavourable to careful observation, that we deter- 

 mined to take the earliest opportunity of going over 

 this region again, and determining the limits of these 

 warm and cold areas, and investigating their con- 

 ditions more in detail. Accordingly, in the follow- 

 ing year, when we had II. M.S. 'Porcupine' at our 

 disposal, Dr. Carpenter and I once more left Storno- 

 way on the 15th of August, 1869. On this occasion 

 we had everything in our favour; the weather was 

 beautiful, the vessel suitable, and we were provided 

 with Miller- Casella thermometers on whose accuracy 

 we could depend. A table of Captain Calver's valu- 

 able thermometrical observations during this cruise 

 is given in Appendix A to this chapter. 



We proceeded to very nearly the same spot where 

 we had taken our first sounding on the former year, 

 and took a warm area temperature of 7°*7 C. Station 

 No. 46 (Plate IV.). We then moved on slowly 

 towards the Efftroe fishing banks, finding in succes- 

 sion at Stations 47, 19, and 50, - 6°'5, T'G, and 7°'9 ( !. 

 At Station 51, about 40 miles south of the bank, 

 there was a decided fall of temperature — the ther- 

 mometer indicating 5° 6 C. at a depth of 110 fathoms; 

 and about 20 miles directly northwards a sounding 

 at Station 52, lat. GO 25' N., long. 8° 10' W. 3 at a 

 depth o!' only 380 fathoms, gave a minimum tern- 



