II THE PROBLEMS OF THE DEEP SEA 39 



trated volume entitled " The Depths of the Sea," 

 published since his departure. 



" In the spring of the year 1868. my friend Dr. W. B. Car- 

 penter, at that time one of the Vice-Presidents of the Royal 

 Society, was with me in Ireland, where we were working out 

 together the structure and development of the Crinoids. I had 

 long previously had a profound conviction that the land of 

 promise for the naturalist, the only remaining region where 

 there were endless novelties of extraordinary interest ready to 

 the hand which had the means of gathering them, was the 

 bottom of the -deep sea. I had even had a glimpse of some of 

 these treasures, for I had seen, the year before, with Prof. Sars, 

 the forms which I have already mentioned dredged by his son 

 at a depth of 300 to 400 fathoms off the Loffoten Islands. I 

 propounded my views to my fellow-labourer, and we discussed 

 the subject many times over our microscopes. I strongly urged 

 Dr. Carpenter to use his influence at head-quarters to induce the 

 Admiralty, probably through the Council of the Royal Society, 

 to give us the use of a vessel properly fitted with dredging gear 

 and all necessary scientific apparatus, that many heavy questions 

 as to the state of things in the depths of the ocean, which w r ere 

 still in a state of uncertainty, might be definitely settled. 

 After full consideration, Dr. Carpenter promised his hearty co- 

 operation, and we agreed that I should write to him on his 

 return to London, indicating generally the results which I an- 

 ticipated, and sketching out what I conceived to be a promising 

 line of inquiry. The Council of the Royal Society warmly 

 supported the proposal ; and I give here in chronological order 

 the short and eminently satisfactory correspondence which led 

 to the Admiralty placing at the disposal of Dr. Carpenter and 

 myself the gunboat Lightning, under the command of Staff- 

 Commander May, R.N., in the summer of 1868, for a trial 

 cruise to the North of Scotland, and afterwards to the much 

 wider surveys in H.M.S. Porcupine, Captain Calver, R.K, 

 which were made with the additional association of Mr. Gwyn 

 Jeffreys, in the summers of the years 1869 and 1870." * 



1 The Depths of the Sea, pp. 49-50. 



