NA rURE 



[December 28, 1899 



In latitude 31° lo' N., and longitude 125° W., we made our 

 first sounding in 1955 fathoms, about 320 miles from Point 

 Conception, the nearest land. We occupied 26 stations until 

 we reached the northern edge of the plateau from which rise 

 the Marquesas Islands, having run from station No. i, a distance 

 of 3800 miles, in a straight line. 



At station No. 2 the depth had increased to 2368 fathoms, the 

 nearest land, Guadeloupe Island, being about 450 miles, and 

 Point Conception nearly 500 miles distant . The depth gradually 

 increased to 2628, 2740, 2810, 2881, 3003, and 3088 fathoms, 

 the last in lat. 16° 38' N. , long. 130° 14' W., the deepest 

 sounding we obtained thus far in the unexplored part of the 

 Pacific through which we are passing. From that point the 

 depths varied from 2883 to 2690 and 2776, diminishing to 2583, 

 and gradually passing to 2440, 2463, and 2475 fathoms, until off 

 the Marquesas, in lat. 7° 58' S., long. 139" 08' W., the depth 

 became 2287 fathoms. It then passed to 1929, 1802, and 1040 

 fathoms, in lat. 8° 41' S., long. 139° 46' W., Nukuhiva Island 

 being about 30 miles distant. Between Nukuhiva and Houa- 

 Houna (Ua-Huka> islands we obtained 830 fathoms, and 5 miles 

 south of Nukuhiva 687 fathoms. When leaving Nukuhiva for the 

 Paumotus we sounded in 1284 fathoms about 9 miles south of 

 that island. These soundings seem to show that this part of the 

 Marquesas rises from a plateau having a depth of 2000 fathoms, 

 and about 50 miles in width, as at station No. 29 we obtained 

 1932 fathoms. 



The deep basin developed by our soundings between lat. 24° 30' 

 N., and lat. 6° 25' S., varying in depth from nearly 3100 fathoms 

 to a little less than 2500 fathoms, is probably the western ex- 

 tension of a deep basin indicated by two soundings on the charts, 

 to the eastward of our line, in longitudes 125° and 120° W., and 

 latitudes 9° and 11° N., one of over 3100 fathoms, the other of 

 more than 2550 fathoms, showing this part of the Pacific to be 

 of considerable depth, and to form a uniformly deep basin of 

 great extent, continuing westward probably, judging from the 

 soundings, for a long distance. 



I would propose, in accordance with the practice adopted for 

 naming such well-defined basins of the ocean, that this large 

 depression of the Central Pacific, extending for nearly 30° of 

 latitude, be named Moser Basin. 



The character of the bottom of this basin is most interesting. 

 The haul of the trawl made at station No. 2, lat. 28° 23' N., 

 long. 126° 57' W., brought up the bag full of red clay and man- 

 ganese nodules with sharks' teeth and cetacean ear-bones ; and 

 at nearly all our stations we had indications of manganese 

 nodules. At station No. 13, in 2690 fathoms, lat. 9° 57' N., 

 long. 137° 47' W., we again obtained a fine trawl haul of man- 

 ganese nodules and red clay ; there must have been at least 

 enough to fill a 40-gallon barrel. 



The nodules of our first haul were either slabs from 6 to 18 

 inches in length and 4 to 6 inches in thickness, or small nodules 

 ranging in size from that of a walnut to a lentil or less ; while 

 those brought up at station No. 13 consisted mainly of nodules 

 looking like mammilated cannon balls varying from 4i to 6 inches 

 in diameter, the largest being 6^ inches. We again brought up 

 manganese nodules at the Equator in about longitude 138^ W., 

 and subsequently — until within sight of Tahiti — we occasionally 

 got manganese nodules. 



As had been noticed by Sir John Murray in the Challenger, 

 these manganese nodules occur in a part of the Pacific most 

 distant from continental areas. Our experience has been similar 

 to that of the Challenger, only I am inclined to think that these 

 nodules range over a far greater area of the Central Pacific than 

 had been supposed, and that this peculiar manganese-nodule 

 bottom characterises a great portion of the deep parts of the 

 Central Pacific where it cannot be affected by the deposit of 

 globigerina, pteropods, or telluric ooze ; in the region character- 

 ised also by red-clay deposits. For in the track of the great 

 equatorial currents there occur deposits of globigerina ooze in 

 over 2400 fathoms for a distance of over 300 miles in latitude. 



Manganese nodules we found south of the Marquesas also, 

 where in 2700 fathoms we obtained, perhaps, the finest speci- 

 mens of red clay from any of our surroundings. As we 

 approached close to the western Paumotus, and rose upon 

 the plateau from which they rise, globigerma ooze passed 

 gradually to pteropod ooze, then to fine and coarse coral" sand. 

 In the channel south of the Paumotus to Tahiti the coral sand 

 passed to volcanic sand mixed with globigerinse in the deepest 

 parts of the line, and towards Tahiti passed to volcanic mud 

 mixed with globigerinae, next to fine volcanic sand, and finally, 



NO. 1574. VOL. 6t] 



at the last sounding, off Point Venus, to coarse volcanic 

 sand. 



We made a few hauls of the trawl on our way, but owing to 

 the great distance we had to steam between San Francisco and 

 the Marquesas (3800 miles) we could not, of course, spend a 

 great deal of time either in trawling or in making tows at inter- 

 mediate depths. Still the hauls we made with the trawl were 

 most interesting, and confirmed what other deep-sea expeditions 

 have realised : that at great depths, at considerable distances 

 from land and away from any great oceanic current, there is 

 comparatively little animal life to be found. Where manganese 

 nodules were found the hauls were specially poor, a few deep- 

 sea holothurians and ophiurans, and some small actiniae which 

 had attached themselves to the nodules with a few other inverte- 

 brates, seemed to be all that lived at these great depths, 2500 

 to 2900 fathoms, far away— say from 700 to 1000 miles — from 

 the nearest land. 



The bottom temperatures of the deep (Moser) basin varied 

 between 34"6'' at 2628 and 2740 fathorns, to 35 2° at 2440 

 fathoms, and 35° at 2475 fathoms; about 120 miles from the 

 Marquesas. At station No. 23, off the Marquesas, in 1802 

 fathoms, the temperature was 35 "5". 



On our way to Tahiti from the Marquesas we stopped a few 

 days to examine the westernmost atolls of the Paumotus. 



It is premature from the examination of the western extremity 

 of the Paumotus to base any general conclusions regarding the 

 mode of formation of these atolls ; certainly as far as I have 

 gone there is absolutely nothing to show that the atolls of the 

 Paumotus have not been formed in an area of elevation similar 

 to that of Fiji. ' The evidence in Rairoa and in the atolls of the 

 western Paumotus is very definite. Makatea is an elevated 

 mass of coralliferous limestone .similar in all respects to masses 

 like Vatu Vara, Thithia, and others in Fiji. Like them Makatea 

 is surrounded by a comparatively narrow shore platform cut out 

 from the base of the limestone cliffs and on the seaward exten- 

 sion of which corals grow abundantly to depths of seven to eight 

 fathoms, when they appear to become very much less numerous. 

 So that it is not unnatural, as I am inclined to do, to look upon 

 the area of the Paumotus as one of elevation, the raised and 

 elevated land of which has been affected much in the same way 

 by denudation and erosion as have the masses of elevated coralli- 

 ferous limestone of Fiji. Only there seems to have been, from 

 the evidence thus far presented, a far greater uniformity in the 

 height of the elevation of the Paumotus. This would render 

 the explanation I have given less evident had I not the experi- 

 ence of the Fiji group to guide me. I am informed that there 

 are other islands and atolls in the Paumotu group, showing 

 traces of this elevation, so that I am at any rate justified in 

 denying that the Paumotus as such are situated in an area of 

 subsidence and that subsidence has been the great factor, as is 

 maintained by Darwin and Dana, in the formation of the 

 characteristic atolls of the group. 



It may be well to point out also that the Paumotus, like the 

 Marquesas on one side and the Society Islands on the other, are 

 situated upon a plateau similar to that upon which the last- 

 mentioned groups are placed — this plateau having a depth of 

 from 1200 to 1500 fathoms, and rising from the general oceanic 

 basin which surrounds them, and which has a depth of from 

 2300 to 2500 fathoms. Furthermore, evidence of this elevation 

 is found at the two extremities of the Paumotu plateau at 

 Makatea, an elevated island consisting of tertiary coralliferous 

 limestone, and at the Gambler Islands, which are volcanic 

 islands of considerable height. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dr. T. E. Stanton, of University College, Liverpool, has 

 been appointed professor of engineering in University College, 

 Bristol, in succession to Prof. Ryan. 



Dr. Edward Taylor Jones has been appointed professor 

 of physics in the University College of North Wales, in suc- 

 cession to Prof. A. Gray, F.R.S. The Drapers' Company has 

 made the College a grant of ^{^200 a year for a period of three 

 years towards the maintenance of the department of electrical 

 engineering, pending the establishment of the department on a 

 permanent footing, 



