DEEP-SEA RESEARCHES. 97 



and stones, at a depth of about 600 fathoms, presumably in 

 utter darkness, at a temperature of 30°, and with 40 per cent, 

 of carbonic acid in the atmosphere of dissolved gases. I can 

 scarcely conceive a more complete boulevcrsement of our ordinary 

 biological notions than is given by this remarkable disclosure of 

 the condition of this bottom. 



Stornoway, September 9, 1869. 

 On Tuesday we brought up a great prize, an Echinoderm, 

 which (Thomson is sure) is " brand-new, but intensely old," i.e. 

 a form which belongs to the Chalk, but was supposed to be quite 

 extinct. It is something like an Echinus which has been sat 

 upon, so as to be flattened out into a round cake ; its peculiarity 

 being that whilst it has the same general plan of structure, the 

 plates are disconnected from each other, and some of the 

 meridional bands are wanting, so that there is a general loose- 

 ness about the frame, which gives it a most curious feel when laid 

 living on the hand. The discovery of this living type at once 

 gives the clue to the interpretation of the fossil Echinothiiria, 

 which had previously been accounted very problematical, and 

 supplies an instance equally interesting with Hhizocrmus, of the 

 persistence of Cretaceous types, thus adding strong support to 

 Thomson's hypothesis. In the evening the dredge was put over, 

 and allowed to trail all night with the swabs attached. Hearing 

 the heaving-in a little before five a.m., I got up and went on 

 deck, where Thomson aheady was, and there we saw a sight 

 we shall not easily forget : the swabs loaded with Holteiiias, of 

 which there were at least two buckets full, besides multitudes of 

 other things, nearly all of them specially interesting, as a new 

 species of Cidaris, nearer to the Chalk forms than the common 

 one, numerous specimens of star-fish, of which we had previously 

 only two or three, and of which there are probably no specimens 

 in any other than Scandinavian museums, two very fine specimens 

 of Hyalonema, many small siliceous sponges, and last (but by 

 no means least) a second specimen of the EchiiwtJiuria. This 

 I was greatly rejoiced at for Thomson's sake, as he can now 

 work out the anatomy of the animal without mutilating his first 

 and best specimen. This brought our work to a most trium- 

 phant conclusion, this haul being as much beyond any previous 

 one in interest as was our corresponding haul last year. 



