194 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP. 



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. granulare 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 Valetta 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 i 

 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 j^ 

 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 



