6 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



rocks on which the village stands. Outside the harbour 

 the depth increases precipitously to 200 fathoms. We 

 sailed about 10 miles along the fiord, and determined 

 precisely the spot indicated by Dr. Norman on the map, 

 and here we lowered our dredge. We had fixed around 

 the mouth of the dredge long tassels of hemp fibre, since 

 on rocky ground, such as we were now dredging, one 

 cannot expect much to be " scooped up " by the slowly 

 travelling dredge as it passes over the bottom, whilst the 

 threads of the hemp, on the contrary, entangle and hold 

 all sorts of objects with which they come into contact. 

 We were 1000 feet from the bottom, and our dredge 

 took a good five minutes to sink as we paid out the rope 

 from the winch in the stern of our boat. When it 

 reached the bottom we let out another 2000 feet of rope, 

 and then very slowly towed the dredge for about a 

 quarter of an hour. Then the laborious task commenced 

 of winding it up again, two men turning the handles of 

 the winch for a quarter of an hour. At last the dredge 

 could be seen through the clear water, and soon was at 

 the surface and lifted into the boat. The hempen 

 tangles were crowded with masses of living and dead 

 white coral (Fig. 3), star-fishes, worms, and bits of stone 

 covered with brilliant-coloured sponges, Terebratulae (a 

 deep-water, peculiar shellfish, the lamp-shell), and other 

 animals. There were only a few fragments of coral in 

 the bag of the dredge. 



We filled glass jars with sea water and placed the 

 bits of coral in them, and I eagerly examined them for 

 the creeper-like " Rhabdopleura." There, sure enough, 

 it was on several of the dead stems of coral, and we 

 sailed back to Lervik with our booty in order to examine 

 it at leisure with the microscope whilst still fresh and 

 living. In our temporary laboratory at the farmhouse 



