194 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP. iv. 



a mass of intermediate forms ; and although after 

 careful consideration I have described the two 

 species as distinct, I find it a matter of great diffi 

 culty to draw the line between them. Several 

 specimens of a handsome Astrogonium allied to 

 A. granular e were taken on the ' Adventure ' 

 Bank. Professor Duncan reports some interesting 

 corals, and Professor Allman two new species of 

 Aglaophenia ; and Dr. Carpenter detected once 

 more the delicate Orbitolites tenuissimus, and the 

 large nautiloid Lituola, with which he was familiar 

 in the dredgings in the Atlantic. 



After a short stay at Malta, on September 20th the 

 'Porcupine' steamed out of Yaletta Harbour, and 

 steered in a north-easterly direction, towards a point 

 seventy miles distant, at which a depth of 1700 

 fathoms was marked on the chart. This was reached 

 early the next morning, and the line ran out 1743 

 fathoms, lat. 36 31' 30" K, long. 15 46' 30" (No. 60), 

 with a temperature of 13*4 C., more than half a 

 degree higher than the temperature of the deepest 

 sounding in the western basin. The tube of the 

 sounding apparatus brought up a sample of yellow 

 clay, so like the bottom at some of the most unpro 

 ductive spots in the western Mediterranean, that 

 it was not considered advisable to delay the time 

 necessary for even a single cast of the dredge, which 

 at that depth would have occupied nearly a day. 

 Having thus satisfied themselves as far as they 

 could by a few observations that the physical con 

 ditions of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean 

 were similar to those of the western, they steered for 

 the coast of Sicily. Quietly along the Sicilian coast 



