246 
NOTES FROM THE “CHALLENGER” 
IV. 
‘Oe Saturday, the 15th of March, before going into the 
harbour of St. Thomas, a sounding was taken in 450 
fathoms off the island of Sombrero. The bottom 
brought up by the sounding machine was globi- 
gerina mud largely mixed with broken shells, chiefly 
those of pteropods. The dredge was put over early, and 
veered to 1009 fathoms, At noon it was hauled up half 
Ly 
a 
Ee 
B 
z 
aS 
Fic. 1.—Astacus Zaleucus, v. W.-S. 
filled with calcareous ooze. It was again sent down, and 
brought up early in the afternoon with a like freight. 
These dredgings, which we did not regard as entering into 
the regular work of the sections, but which were only 
undertaken to give us a general idea of the deep-water 
fauna of the West Indian province, may be taken in con- 
nection with one or two hauls taken with the same object 
and under the same circumstances, in waters of nearly 
equal depth on the 25th of March, after leaving St 
NATURE 
mT 
| Fuly 24, 1873 
Thomas. The careful examination of this zone, between 
300 and 1,200 fathoms among the West Indian Islands, 
will undoubtedly add enormously to zoological knowledge. 
The objects of the present expedition do not, of course, 
include a detailed investigation of this kind, which must 
be done quietly in a small steamer, by some one on the 
spot, and will require the patient work of several years. 
Even the few hauls of the dredge*which we had it in our 
power to make, brought to light a number of new and 
highly interesting forms, representing nearly all the in- 
vertebrate groups. A thorough investigation of the belt 
must yield a wonderful harvest. F 
In those dredgings on the 15th we got several sponges 
belonging to the Hexactinellide, very closely allied to 
Fic. 2.—Salenica Varispina, A. Ag. 
those which we had previously met with in moderately 
deep water oft the coast of Portugal, showing that the 
distribution of this remarkable order in deep water is 
very wide. Several stony corals occurred, but of all 
these, with the exception of a species of Sty/aster, which 
was very abundant at this station, we got better examples 
on a subsequent occasion. The Sty/astey agrees ve 
closely with the description and figure given by Pourtalés 
of S. complanatus. The only marked difference is that 
the primary and secondary septa do not unite to the same 
extent as shown in the figure. 
In this dredging two very interesting crustaceans — 
occurred, both belonging to the decapod family Astacide, 
