¥ May 8, 1873] 
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the body, while, as in the latter, there is no proboscis and 
there are no tentacles. The pharynx is very short, and is 
attached to the walls of the body by four retractor 
muscles. The pharynx shows six to seven folds ending 
in a chitinous border. The mouth is a round aperture, 
beset with small cuticular papillae. The perisom is divided 
into four muscular bands, the surface large, showing a 
tissue of square meshes, in each of which there are four to 
five sense-bodies. For the reception of this singular 
species Dr. von Willemces-Suhm proposes to establish 
the genus Leéoderma, which will represent a family 
intermediate between the Sipunculids and the Pria- 
lids, . 
: On the 18th we sounded at 9 A.M. in 1,525 fathoms, 
lat. 25° 45’ N., long, 20° 12’ W., 160 miles S.W. of the 
Island of Ferro, and 50 miles to the west of the station of 
the day before, in 1,525 fathoms. The “ Hydra” tube 
brought up no bottom, and we sounded again with a 
depth of 1,520 fathoms, and again no bottom. It thus 
seemed that we had got upon hard ground, and as the 
sounding of the following day gave 2,220 at a distance of 
only 19 miles, we had evidently struck the top of a steep 
rise. The dredge was lowered at Io A.M. with 2,220 
fathoms of line and 2 cwt. leads 300 fathoms before the 
dredge. At 5.30 P.M. the dredge was hauled up, and 
contained a few small pieces of stone resembling the 
volcanic rocks of the Canary Islands, and some large 
bases of attachment and some branches of the calcareous 
axis of an Alcyonarian polyp allied to Corallium. Some 
of the larger stumps were nearly an inch in diameter ; the 
_central portion very compact, and of a pure white colour : 
the surface longitudinally grooved, and of a glossy black. 
The pieces of the base of the coral which had been torn 
off by the dredge were in one or two cases several inches 
across and upwards of an inch thick, forming a thick 
crust from which the branches of the coral sprang. The 
crust was of a glossy black on the surface, showing a fine 
regular granulation, and a fracture through the crust was 
of a uniform dark brown colour and semi-crystallised. 
- The whole of the coral was dead, and appeared to have 
been so for a longtime. It was so freshin its texture, how- 
ever, that it was scarcely possible to suppose that it was 
sub-fossil, although from the comparatively great depth at 
which it was found, and the many evidences of volcanic 
action over the whole of this region, one could scarcely 
avoid speculating whether it might not have lived at a 
higher level and been carried into its present position by 
a subsidence of the sea-bottom. I hope we may have an 
opportunity of determining this question in returning 
over the same ground later in the season, 
Attached to the branches of the coral there were 
several specimens of a magnificent sponge belonging to 
the Hexactinellide. One specimen, consisting of two 
individuals united together by their bases, is about 60 
centimetres across, and has very much the appearance of 
the large example of the tinder-fungus attached to the trunk 
of a tree (Fig. 1). Both surfaces of the sponge are covered 
with a delicate network. of square meshes closely re- 
sembling that of Aya/onema, and formed by spicules of 
almost the same patterns. The sponge is bordered by a 
fringe of fine spicules, and from the base a large brush of 
strong, glassy, anchoring spicules project, fixing it to its 
place of attachment. The form of the barbed end of the 
anchoring spicules is as yet. unique among sponges. 
Two wide, compressed flukes form an anchor very much 
like that of one of the skin-spicules of Syxapta. The 
sponge when brought up was of a delicate cream colour. 
It was necessary to steep it in fresh water to free it from 
salt, and the colour changed to a leaden grey. A 
number of small.examples of the sponge, some of 
them not much beyond the condition of gemmules, 
were found attached to the larger specimens and to 
branches of the coral, so that we have an opportunity of 
studying the earlier stages of its development. 
NATURE 29 
* For this sponge, which forms the type of a new genus, 
I propose the name Polzopogon amadou. 
Attached to the sponge were two examples of a fine 
Annelid which Dr. v. Willemces-Suhm refers to the 
family Amphinomidze, sub-family Euphrosyninz, with 
many of the characters of the genus Luphrosyne. The 
body is 12 mm. long and 5 mm. broad, and consists of 
fifteen segments. The surface of the head is covered 
with a caruncle extending over the anterior segments, 
and the whole surface is clothed with milk-white two- 
bperenee sete, which radiate over each segment like 
a fan, 
On the following day a series of temperatures were 
taken from the surface to 1,500 fathoms at intervals of 
Ioo fathoms. 
Depth. Temp. Depth. Temp. 
Surface 19” 5C. | 800 fathoms Lies! & 
100 fathoms . 17° 2 | OOO) As 4°7 
200)6-4,5 pay, | 1000 ,, 4°6 
3005 «55 rhs FIOO"* 5; 38 
400, 9 * 5 eeecom ys 3.5 
500 ” im 0 | 1300 ” i ea! 
600) ~,5), 2-0... « 6° Somos 2°8 
700 6°2 | ¥500 2° 6 
Ee oe eae hc 
The dredge was not used, but, as is our custom when- 
ever the rate of the ship is such as to make it practicable, 
a large towing-net was put out astern. 
In hot, calm weather the towing-net is usually un- 
successful. It seems that the greater number of pelagic 
forms retire during the heat of the day to the depths of 
a few fathoms, and come up in the cool of the evening 
and in the morning, and in some cases in the night. The 
larger phosphorescent animals are frequently abundant 
during the night round the ship and in its wake, while 
none are taken in the net during the day. Mr. Moseley 
has been specially engaged in working up the develop- 
mental stages of Pyrosoma, and the intricate structure of 
the tissues and organs of some of the surface groups, 
whose extreme transparency renders them particularly 
suitable for such researches, 
Feb. 21.—Up to 2.15 P.M. sailing under all plain sail at 
the rate of six knots an hour before the N.E. trades, force 
3 to 4. 
The dredge was put over at 5 P.M. with 3,400 fathoms 
of line, and was kept down till one o’clock AM. on the 
following morning, the ship drifting slowly. Our position 
at noon on the 21st was about 500 miles S.W. of Teneriffe, 
lat. 24° 22’ N., long. 24° 11’ W., Sombrero Island S. 58° 
W. 2,220 miles. Work began early on the 22nd, and the 
dredge, which had begun its ascent at 1,15 A.M., came up 
at 5.45 half full of a yellowish ooze, which was not so 
tenacious as usual, and on the whole singularly poor in 
higher living things. A careful and laborious sifting cf 
the whole mass gave us three small living mollusca, 
referred to the genera Arca, Limopsis, and Leda; and 
two Bryozoa apparently undescribed. Foraminifera were 
abundant, many examples of miliolines being of unusually 
large size. Some beautiful radiolarians’ were sifted out 
of the mud, These may have been taken into the 
dredge on its way up, or more probably they may have 
lived on the surface or in intermediate water and have 
sunk to the bottom after death, since they consist of 
continuous fenestrated shells of silica. 
On Tuesday the 25th a small dredge was lowered at 
6.30 A.M. with 3,500 fathoms of line (2,500 fathoms of 
2} in. rope and 1,000 of 2-in.), and 2 cwt. leads attached 
300 fathoms in advance. At 7.30 we sounded in 2,800 
fathoms, with a bottom of the same reddish ooze, and a 
temperature of 2°C. A series of temperatures were taken 
at intervals of 100 fathoms down to 1,000, the result 
agreeing closely with those of the previous series. At 
5.15 P.M. the dredge came up clean and empty. It had 
either never reached the bottom, owing to some local 
current or the drift of the ship, or else everything had 
T Modcdc, white, and zwywv, a beard, o 
