io Cruise of the "Alert" 



During our stay here the dredge was several times brought 

 into requisition. On the 8th of October, a party, consisting of 

 the captain, Lieut. Vereker, some seamen, and myself, started in 

 the steam cutter on a dredging expedition to the bay of Santa Cruz, 

 which is distant about eight miles from Funchal. As we steamed 

 along the coast, we had excellent opportunities of observing the 

 sections exhibited by the cliffs of the varieties of volcanic rock 

 of which the upper crust of the island is mainly formed. At Point 

 Garajas (Brazen Head), of which Lieut. Vereker made a good 

 sketch, the north-east face of the cliff presents a magnificent dyke 

 — a nearly vertical seam of dark lava, about three feet in width 

 and two hundred feet in height, extending from summit to water 

 line, and sealing up this long fissure in the older trachytic rock of 

 the head. Farther on, masses of basalt resting unconformably 

 on variously arranged layers of laterite tuff and trachyte, the 

 latter in many places honeycombed in weird fantastic caverns, 

 afforded a fertile subject for geological reveries into the early 

 history of this now beautiful island. On reaching the bay of 

 Santa Cruz, we lowered the dredge in thirty-five fathoms, finding, 

 as we had half anticipated, that it was altogether too heavy to 

 ride on the mass of sand that here forms the sea bottom. It 

 buried itself like an anchor, and it was not without great diffi- 

 culty that we could succeed in dislodging it. On bringing it up, 

 we found it to contain some shells of the genera Cardium, Pecten, 

 Cyprcea, Olivci, and Dentalium, a few small Echini, a Sertularian 

 Polyp, several Annelids — among others, a Nereis — and Alcyo- 

 narians. We returned on board soon after dusk, having spent 

 a most enjoyable, if not materially profitable, day. On subse- 

 quently dredging in fifty fathoms in the same bay, our work 

 was more satisfactory ; but besides some Crustaceans, an Ophio- 

 coma, and an Asterias of a brilliant orange colour, obtained few 

 specimens of any interest. On another day we tried the coast 

 to the westward of Funchal ; and as we moved along in the 

 steam cutter, obtained, by means of the tow-net, several specimens 



