Dec. 27, I ! 



NA TURE 



197 



THE " TALISMAN'' EXPEDITION^ 



A T the public meeting of the five Academies on 

 I- »- October 29, 1S82, I had the honour of reporting 

 on the explorations of the Travailkur, and I announced 

 that this year a new scientific campaign would be under- 

 taken in the Atlantic. The Minister of Marine, respond- 

 ing to the desire expressed by his colleague, the Minister of 

 Public Instruction, and by the Academy, had, in fact, issued 

 the necessary orders to have the Talisman equipped for this 

 purpose. The Talisman is an excellent ^crew steamer, 

 provided with a good spread of canvas, sufficient to make 

 good way without the aid of its engines. For several 

 months it was placed in dock at the Rochefort Arsenal, 

 where the naval engineers undertook to refit it for the 

 service to which it had been appointed. The old hempen 

 ropes intended for raising the dredges were replaced 

 by a steel cable of great strength and flexibility, capable 

 of a strain of about 4500 kilogrammes, and worked by 

 two steam-engines. One of these set in motion the enor- 

 mous bobbin on which the cable was wound. The other, 

 a still more powerful engine, was intended for raising the 

 dredges. 



Large bag-nets, or trawls, with an opening of two or 

 three yards, advantageously replaced the heavy drags we 

 had formerly used. The soundings were executed by 

 means of an apparatus perfected by M. Thibaudier, naval 

 engineer, and so disposed as to prevent the motions of 

 the vessel from in any way affecting the tension of the 

 steel cable, which was arrested by an automatic break as 

 soon as the sounder touched the bottom. 



In order to gauge the temperature at great depths I had 

 an apparatus constructed by which a mercurial thermo- 

 meter (Negretti and Zanibra) could be turned over at any 

 moment. At the same time the capillary extremity of a 

 glass tube, where a vacuum had been made, and into 

 which the sea water then rushed, broke, supplying per- 

 fectly pure specimens, capable of being preserved for any 

 length of time by soldering the tubes. Our friend. Colonel 

 Perrier, had kindly lent me a Gramme machine, which 

 generated the electricity for some Edison lamps, so dis- 

 posed as to light up our apparatus, or, when needed, to 

 penetrate to depths not exceeding 35 metres. At my 

 request the command of the Talisman had been intrusted 

 to M. Parfait, frigate captain, who had held the same 

 position the year before on board the Travaillcu}-? I 

 may here be permitted to express to the officers of the 

 Talisman the feelings of gratitude inspired in us by 

 their devotion. They cooperated with us with unflagging 

 zeal, and for whatever success attended our mission we 

 are indebted to them. 



On May 30, the scientific mission ^ met at Rochefort, 

 and on June i the Talisman set sad. The voyage of 

 1883 may be divided into several distinct stages. Our 

 object was to study the coast of Africa as far as Senegal, 

 then the waters of the Cape Verde, Canary, and Azores 

 Archipelagos, volcanic lands which- could not fail to 

 supply us with interesting materials. Lastly, we hoped to 

 be able to devote our attention to the Sargassum Sea, its 

 fauna, and the nature of its bed. 



The sea bed stretching westward of Morocco and 

 the Sahara is extremely uniform, r.o longer presenting 

 those rugged reliefs that had so impeded our operations 

 on the coast of Spain. On the contrary, the slope is here 

 so gentle that at greater or less distances from the land 

 it was always possible almost infallibly to light upon the 



' Preliminary Report on the Talisman Expedition to the Atlantic Ocean 

 By M. Alphonse Milne -Edwards, President of the Subm.irine Dredging 

 Commission. Communicated by the author. 



- The staff ccnsisted of M. Antoine and M. Jacquef, lieutenant, of MM, 

 Gibory and Bourget, midshipmen, of M. \'incent, d ctor of the first class, of 

 M. Huas. assistant doctor, and of M. de Plas. chief mate. 



3 The mission consisted of M. A. M.lne-Edwards. Member of the Institute, 

 President, of M. de Folin. MM. Vaillani and Perrier, professors in the 

 Museum, MM. Marion and Filhcl, professors in the Faculty. M. Fischer, 

 assistant naturalist in the Museum, MM. Ch. Brongniart and Poirault, added 

 as assistants. 



needed depths. In these waters we made about 120 

 dredgings, and in a few days we had determined the 

 bathymetric distribution of the local fauna with sufficient 

 accuracy to enable us to indicate the levels explored from 

 the contents of our nets. 



At 500 or 600 metres live numerous fishes, such as 

 Macrurus, Malacocephalus, Hoplostethus, Pleuronectes, 

 as well as prawns of the genus Pandalus, belonging to 

 a new species with a rostrum pointed like a sword ; some 

 Peneae, Pasiphaw, a few small crabs ((Jxyrhynchidte, 

 Portunids, Ebalida»), pink Holothurians, some rare 

 specimens of Calveria, that soft Echinoderm discovered 

 in our waters by the naturalists of the Porcupine^ and 

 previously known in the fossil state ; several very large 

 sponges, such as .\skonema and Farrea. 



At greater depths, from 1000 to 1900 metres, fishes 

 still abound,' and often formed the bulk of our captures. 

 They were generally of a dull colour, with gelatinous 

 flesh, and their skin covered with a thick mucous coating. 

 Several had phosphorescent spots, serving to give them 

 light in the dark regions they inhabit. Here Pandali 

 give place to the new genus Heterocarpus, and to gigantic 

 blood-red prawns with enormously long antenna, which 

 were new to science and may be placed in the genus 

 Aristeus. The Nephropsis make their appearance at this 

 level. They are blind, coral-tinted Crustace^e, who seem 

 to be distributed over a wide geographical range, for 

 they have been found on the other side of the Atlantic 

 in the Caribbean Sea, and a closely allied species has been 

 fished up at a great depth near the .Andaman Islands. 

 The blind Polycheles, which in the present epoch repre- 

 sent the Jurassic Erjons, burrow in the mud, leaving 

 nothing visible except their long hooked nippers, adapted 

 for seizing the passing prey. Some crabs are still found, 

 such as Maiadfe (Scyramathia, Lispognathusi, a new 

 species of Homolia, and Lithodes, hitherto supposed to 

 be peculiar to Arctic and Antarctic seas. Lastly, numerous 

 forms were also observed of the genus Galathea, several 

 of which have their eyes transformed to spines. Sponges 

 are extreinely common, most of them with siliceous 

 skeletons. We brought up great numbers of Rosella, 

 Holtenia of several species, the rock crystal-like beards 

 white as snow were buried in the mud, the sponge mass 

 alone emerging ;'some Aphrocallistes, with solid skeletons 

 of the most elegant form. Calveria became more nume- 

 rous ; Holothurians of the genus Loetmogone, and other 

 species of the same family, crawled on the bottom in the 

 midst of Asteria, (.iphiuria, and Brisinga. The nets often 

 returned filled with so much treasure that they could not 

 all be classed within the day. 



While rounding Cape Ghir and Cape Nun, some 120 

 miles from the coast, the Talisman spent several days in 

 exploring a very regular bank at a depth of about 2000 to 

 22oometres. It was on this ground that on .Aug. 2, 1882, 

 the Travaillctiy had captured the curious fish described 

 by M. V'aillant under the name of Eiirypliarynx peli-- 

 c'lrn anil's, and two specimens of which were taken this year. 



Our prizes were again of great value. Magnificent 

 sponges, allied to those that have been described under 

 the name of Eiiph-ctclla subcrca were here found mingled 

 with large violet Holothurians of the genus Benthodytes, 

 and with other species of the same genus, remarkable 

 for their dorsal appendices. A Calveria, distinct from 

 those found at lesser depths, some Brisinga;, Polyps of 

 rare beauty (Flabellum, Stephanotrochus;, a Democrinus 

 and a Bathycrinus, not yet described, very numerous 

 Crustaceae, nearly all new to us and belonging to the 

 group of the Galathea; (Galathodes, Galacantha, Elas- 

 monotus), completed the list of invertebrates. The fishes 

 were very varied, and their study will furnish new facts 

 of the greatest interest to science. Amongst the most 

 remarkable I may mention Melanocctiis johnsoni, Bathy- 



' To Macrurus are here added the follo\\ ing genera : Bathynectes, 

 Coryphenoi'des, Malacocephalus, Balhygadus, Argyropeiecus, Chauliodus, 

 Bathypterftis, Stomias. Malacosteus, Alepocephakie. 



