Dr. E. P. Wright's Observations on Dredging. 51 



In the first place, I would observe that I accompanied the 

 expedition, in the course of which that discovery was made, 

 with the express purpose of ascertaining if my belief in the 

 existence of animal life at the greatest depths was well 

 founded or the contrary. The capture of any particular genus 

 or order of animals not having been anticipated by me, the 

 capture of the OphiocomcB might, under a strained and per- 

 verted interpretation, receive the verdict of "accidental ;" or 

 it might be called accidental in the sense that, from that par- 

 ticular locality, that particular sounding, or the instiaiment 

 employed on that special occasion, no distinct result was 

 looked for. In this sense, but in this sense only, I had myself 

 already described it as being " accidental." I certainly did not 

 expect to capture an Oj^hiocoma^ any more than I expected to 

 capture a tm*bot. If it affords Dr. Wright any satisfaction to 

 learn this, he is welcome to the fact ; but since I can adduce 

 the clearest evidence in support of my having anticipated the 

 general scientific result which it was my good fortune to be 

 able to establish, I must say it appears to me that Dr. Wright 

 has gone out of his course, somewhat ungracefully in this in- 

 stance, to deliver himself of what appears very like a sneer. 



Scientific men are quite competent to decide whether a dis- 

 covery made with a '■^sounding-line^'' (for which Dr. Wright 

 expresses such contempt) is a discovery of less value than 

 one made with a " dredge," and, further, whether the mere 

 circumstance of a set of Echinoderms showing a preference for 

 a piece of sounding-line, when they might have secured an 

 upward passage of a mile and a half within a comfortable 

 copper or iron receptacle, can detract in the slightest degree 

 from the value or the significance of the discovery lohen 

 worked out to its legitimate conclusion. 



I would, however, remind Dr. Wright that, whilst he seems 

 so ready to call my discovery '•'' accidental ^'^ he does not appear to 

 be aware that he has placed in my hands a weapon which recoils 

 somewhat unpleasantly on himself; for he does not hesitate to 

 claim full credit (see ' Annals ' for December 1868, p. 426) for 

 having '■'■added to tlie fauna of this deep-sea valley [from a depth 

 of 480 fathoms] a shark'''' as well as " a sponge!" and this 

 in the same page that he naively informs your readers that 

 " he was not prepared to find sharks at such a depth^ and was 

 surprised when the padrone asked for leave to throw out the 

 fishing-lines just over the place ivhere tJiey had drawn tip the 

 dredge'''' from the above-mentioned depth of only 480 fathoms. 



As bearing on Dr. Wright's discovery of the shark at 480 

 fathoms, I may mention that many years ago MM. Pouillet 

 and Biot, from independently conducted observations, were 



4* 



