42 FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



opinions up to that important point in the history of the 

 science. It is too long to summarize ; but I may give some 

 idea of its contents by quoting a few passages, and stating 

 a few facts : — 



" The surveying ship ' Lightning ' " (Sir Wyville writes, 

 p. 57) " was assigned for the service — a cranky little vessel 

 enough, one which had the somewhat doubtful title to 

 respect of being perhaps the very oldest paddle -steamer in 

 Her Majesty's Navy. We had not good times in the ' Light- 

 ning.' She kept out the water imperfectly, and as we had 

 deplorable weather during nearly the whole of the six weeks 

 we were afloat, we were in considerable discomfort. The 

 vessel, in fact, was scarcely seaworthy, the iron hook and 

 screw-jack fastenings of the rigging were worn with age, 

 and many of them were carried away, and on two occasions 

 the ship ran some risk." 



Still, on this " cranky little vessel " in the rough seas of 

 the North Atlantic, they dredged down to 600 fathoms ; and 

 in 1869 on the " Porcupine," a more seaworthy ship, they 

 got successful hauls from the great depth of 2,435 fathoms, 

 nearly three statute miles. 



Part of the book is historical, and amongst other inter- 

 esting matters gives an account of those earlier observations 

 which afford glimpses of a fauna in the deep sea. For 

 example, we are told how in 1860 Professor Fleeming Jenkin, 

 in repairing a cable in the Mediterranean, found several 

 animals, including a deep-sea coral, attached to the broken 

 cable at a depth greater than 1,000 fathoms, and therefore 

 much beyond the supposed zero of Edward Forbes. During 

 the " Porcupine " expeditions, sixteen hauls of the dredge 

 were taken at depths beyond 1,000 fathoms, and two in 

 depths greater than 2,000 fathoms, and in all cases life was 

 found to be abundant. 



Let us take next Wyville Thomson's account of a 

 remarkable discovery made by one of these hauls, viz., that 

 of the first living representative of the fossil flexible sea- 



