CHAPTER VI. 



DEEP-SEA DREDGING. 



The Naturalist's Dredge. 0. F. Miiller. Ball's Dredge. Dredging 

 at moderate Depths. The Dredge-rope. Dredging in Deep 

 Water. The ' Hempen tangles.' Dredging on board the * Porcu- 

 pine.' The Sieves. The Dredger's Note-book. The Dredging 

 Committee of the British Association. Dredging on the Coast of 

 Britain. Dredging abroad. History of the Progress of Know- 

 ledge of the Abyssal Fauna. 



APPENDIX A. One of the Dredging Papers issued by the British 

 Association Committee, filled up by Mr. MacAndrew. 



UP to the middle of last century the little that 

 was known of the inhabitants of the bottom of the 

 sea beyond low-water mark, seems to have been 

 gathered almost entirely from the few objects found 

 thrown upon the beach from time to time after 

 storms, and from chance captures on lead-lines, and 

 by fishermen on their long lines and in trawls and 

 oyster and clam dredges. Even these precarious 

 sources of information could not be used to the 

 utmost, for it was next to impossible to induce fisher- 

 men to bring ashore anything except the regular 

 objects of their industry. Even now the schoolmaster 

 has scarcely made way enough to eradicate old pre- 

 judices. Eishermen are often so absolutely ignorant 

 of the nature of these extraneous animals, that it 



