l Le Travailhur ' in the Bay of Biscay. 433 



Government to inaugurate the more extended examination of 

 that portion of the Bay of Biscay "which has now been made. 

 The course of the Fosse de Cap-Breton more than about three 

 miles from land was not known ; but a sounding on the chart 

 further seaward indicating much shallower water, suggested 

 the possibility that the Fosse might be a merely local depres- 

 sion. Cross sections of soundings by the ' Travailleur/ how- 

 ever, have now satisfactorily determined that the Fosse, at 

 about three miles from land, suddenly turns southward, then 

 westward, and then north-westward, until, gradually increas- 

 ing in depth, it joins the great abyss. It was suggested that 

 this Fosse de Cap-Breton indicated the outlet, under a former 

 geological epoch, of the river Adour, which now empties 

 itself into the sea at Bayonne. The intervening country 

 between Bayonne and Cap-Breton is at the present time 

 occupied by " Les Sables/' a range of Tertiary sandhills. 



It remains that I should now notice some of the zoological 

 results of the expedition. Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys has already 

 acquainted the Section with those results as relates to the 

 Mollusca. It is with the other classes that I have to do ; and 

 it is necessary that I should preface what I say by stating 

 that the names I give must be received with caution, inasmuch 

 as these notes merely give the impressions conveyed to me as 

 the animals were dredged, being without books to refer to at 

 the time. The specimens are in the hands of those able 

 French naturalists who were members of the Commission, 

 and with whom will rest the determination and description 

 of the animals obtained; and I have thus had no opportunity 

 of examining and accurately naming them. 



As might have been expected, many of the Crustacea ob- 

 tained off the Portuguese coast by the ' Porcupine ' occurred 

 in the North-Spanish dredgings ; among these were Do- 

 rhynchus Thomsoni, Norman, Amathia Carpenteri, Norman, 

 Ebalia nux, Norman, Ethusa granulata, Norman, Pagurus 

 tricarinatus , Norman, Munida tenuimana, G. O. Sars, and 

 Apseudes spinosa, Sars, and grossimayia, Norman. The large 

 Norwegian Brachyuran Geryon tridens, Kroyer, which was 

 traced southward by the ' Porcupine ' to the entrance of the 

 Bay of Biscay, was found to be the most abundant species 

 within the Bay, though in size greatly dwarfed as compared 

 with Norwegian specimens. A Thysanopoda, probably T. nor- 

 vegica, was taken several times abundantly, and was doubtless 

 caught as the dredge approached the surface. The large, 

 most remarkable, blood-red Schizopod Gnathophausia zoea, 

 Willemoes-Suhm, which was discovered in the 'Challenger' 

 Expedition near the Azores and off the coast of Brazil, 



