THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP. iv. 



a beautiful double fenestrated frame, with a peculiar 

 twist in it reminding one of a Campy lodiscus, and a 

 very elegant crenated border. These disks are raised 

 on delicate hollow pedicels, which expand beneath, 

 at their point of attachment to the common stalk. 

 A large mass of muscle envelopes the lower part of 

 the group of pedicels, and doubtless determines the 

 movement of the valves in reference to one another. 



It is difficult to see what relation in position the 

 valves can occupy when the instrument, whatever 

 may be its use, is closed. 



We now steamed onwards to the south-east for 

 about ten miles, and put down our dredge, fully 

 equipped with ' hempen tangles ' and every accessory 

 device for entrapping the denizens of the deep, exactly, 

 as our Commander assured us, over the spot where we 

 had dredged the Holtema early in the cruise. We 

 got there in the evening, and adopted a plan which 

 we had tried successfully once or twice before; we 

 allowed the dredge to remain down all night, moving 

 along with the drift of the vessel, and hauled it up 

 in the early morning. I do not believe human 

 dredger ever got such a haul. The special inhabit- 

 ants of that particular region vitreous sponges and 

 echinoderms had taken quite kindly to the tangles, 

 warping themselves into them and sticking through 

 them and over them, till the mass was such that we 

 could scarc3ly get it on board. Dozens of great Hoi- 

 tenice, like 



" Wrinkled heads and aged, 

 With silver beard and hair," 



a dozen of the best of them breaking off just at 

 that critical point where everything doubles its 



