Dr. E. P. Wright on Deep-sea Dredging, 425 



ceeded by Madrid to Lisbon. Having spent some time in ex- 

 amining the very beautiful series of specimens of Hyalonema 

 which the energy and zeal of Professor Bocage have collected 

 in the excellent Royal Museum of Lisbon, I went on to Se- 

 tubal. I had brought out with me a medium-sized naturalist's 

 dredge, for which, I may remark, I had to pay duty while 

 passing through Spain. It is not necessary here to allude to 

 the difficulty of procuring a boat to bring me to the ground, 

 which lies about thirty miles to the south-west of Setubal, 

 which latter is a fishing-village now connected with Lisbon 

 by rail ; suffice it to say that, by the kind assistance of Pro- 

 fessor Bocage, and of the Deputy Inspector of Fisheries at 

 Setubal, I was at last enabled to procure an open sail-boat 

 and a crew of eight men : we also took on board about 600 

 fathoms of rope, tlie dredge, lots of hooks and bait, and pro- 

 visions for a couple of days. Leaving the port of Setubal a 

 little before 5 o'clock in the evening, we, after a fair night's 

 sailing, reached what the fishermen signed to me to be the 

 edge of the deep-sea valley, where they were in the habit of 

 fishing for sharks, and where, while thus engaged, they had 

 found the Hyahnema. It was now about 5 o'clock in the 

 morning j and the men, having had their breakfast, put the 

 boat up to the wind, and let down the dredge; before it 

 reached the bottom, about 480 fathoms of rope was run out, 

 some 30 more was allowed for slack, and then we gently drew 

 it (by hoisting a small foresail) for the distance of about a 

 mile along the bottom. It required the united efforts of six 

 men, hauling the line hand over hand, with the assistance of a 

 double-pulley block to pull in the dredge ; and the time this oc- 

 cupied was just an hour. The dredge was nearly full of a tena- 

 cious yellowish mud, through which sparkled innumerable long 

 spicules of the Hyalonema ; indeed, if you drew your fingers 

 slowly through the mud, you would thereby gather a handful 

 of these spicules. One specimen of Hyalonema^ with the long 

 spicules inserted into the mud, and crowned with its expanded 

 sponge-like portion, rewarded my first attempt at dredging at 

 such a depth. As I purpose presenting to the Academy (as a 

 portion of my report on Hyalonema) a detailed account of this 



sum of £20 at their disposal, to assist me in this matter, and I had in- 

 tended applying the money to one day's hire of a steam-tug ; but the 

 General uommittee having passed a resolution having for its object to 

 make all the specimens of natural history collected by means of its grants 

 the property of the Association, to be disposed of as they should direct, 

 and as I wanted the specimens that I might collect to dissect and cut up 

 for the benefit of science, I thought it better respectfully to refuse the 

 grant, and to decline to serve on the committee. — E. P. W. 



Ann. & Mag, N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol.n. 30 



