LIFE IN GREAT DEPTHS 159 



remarkable haul made by the "Galathea" in the 

 Philippine Trench I owe to the leader of the expedition, 

 A. Bruun. 



Preliminary studies by echograms proved the very 

 deepest part of the trench, below the depth of 10,000 

 meters, to be a narrow strip of nearly flat bottom, only 

 one to two nautical miles wide and 100 miles long. The 

 slopes on both sides of the trench are relatively steep, 

 making it difficult to keep the trawl from becoming 

 torn or lost, especially since the equatorial current keeps 

 the surface water masses moving at right angles to the 

 trench with a velocity of one to two knots. To make a 

 successful haul under these conditions in a depth of 

 nearly 10,500 meters requires expert handling of the 

 ship and gear. 



After fourteen hours the trawl was raised to the 

 surface and the catch was highly satisfactory. It in- 

 cluded seventeen sea anemones, sixty-one sea cucum- 

 bers, four mussels, and one amphipode. It proved con- 

 clusively that even in this enormous depth bottom-living 

 organisms exist. Equally important was the discovery 

 in the mud brought up from this great depth of nu- 

 merous bacteria, a fact which I shall refer to later. 



No fish were caught. Later work by the "Galathea" 

 in the Java Deep, the Solomon Deep, and the Kermadec 

 Trench, however, brought up a comparatively large 

 number of invertebrate bottom-living animals from 

 depths exceeding 9,000 meters. In the Java Trench a 



