Dredging Operations at Funchal. 1 1 



of gulfweed entangling small sponges. The dredge, being put 

 over in seven fathoms, procured for us many specimens of a 

 Cidaris, studded with black spines three to four inches long, 

 and whose oblate spheroidal tests of about two inches diameter 

 were of a beautiful smalt colour. Off the same coast, in forty 

 fathoms, the bottom was found to consist of black basaltic sand 

 crowded with tooth-shells. This fine black sand seemed to form, 

 the sea-bottom along the south coast of the island as far out as 

 the fifty fathom line, and from our experience docs not prove a 

 favourable berth for our friends the Mollusca and Annulosa. 



Among the Crustaceans obtained in the above drcJgings was 

 a species of Glaucotlide new to science, which has since been 

 described by Mr. E. J. Miers, of the British Museum, under the 

 title of " Glaucotlwe rostrata'.^ 



On the afternoon of the I2th of October, in company with 

 Sir George Narcs, and under the guidance of Dr. Grabham, a 

 British doctor for many years resident in Madeira, we had an 

 opportunity of inspecting a " pinerj'," established within the last 

 two years by a Mr. Holloway, and by which he expects to amass 

 a considerable fortune. This establishment, which lies to the 

 north-east of the town, at an altitude of about three hundred 

 feet, consists of a series of long, low hothouses with sloping glass 

 roofs, painted white, and facing to the southward, and is heated 

 entirely by the sun's rays. The material in which the pines arc 

 planted consists of the branches of the blackberry plant chopped 

 to fragments, and spread out in a thick layer, and in this sub- 

 stitute for mould the young pines are placed, at intervals of about 

 eighteen inches apart. They grow to an enormous size, as we 

 ourselves witnessed ; and being cut when they show the least 

 sign of ripening, and packed carefully in well-ventilated boxes, 

 are shipped to London, where they fetch prices varying from 

 twenty-five to thirty shillings each. 



Dr. Grabham was kind enough to give us much interesting 

 information concerning the natural history of the island, which, 



