380 EEFORT— 1880. 



■well represented, and novelties Tvei'e discovered in the MoUusca, Crus- 

 tacea, Echinoderms, Annelids, Actinozoa, and Sponges. 



As regards myself, this expedition had a peculiar charm. Having 

 had the scientific charge of similar expeditions for the Royal Society in 

 H.M.S. Porcupine in 1869 and 1870, and in H.M.S. Valorous in 1875, 

 and having examined the collections made during the voyages of H.M.SS. 

 Shearivatfr and Challenger, as well as those made in nearly all the 

 Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, and American deep-sea and exploring ex- 

 peditious in the North Atlantic, I was naturally glad to participate in the 

 French expedition, and particularly as it embraced that part of the sea 

 which was at no great distance from the scene of my former labours in the 

 cruise of the Forcupine along the western coasts of Spain and Portugal, and 

 which cruise was so unusually productive. Impelled by this recollection, 

 I made last year a verbal and informal application to the late First Lord 

 • of our Admiralty, for the use of one of her Majesty's ships to explore 

 the Bay of Biscay this summer. The answer I I'cceived was very favour- 

 able ; but the pecuniary resources of our Government were then at a low 

 ebb, and I was encouraged to renew the application when commerce 

 revived and times became more prosperous. I hope our new Govern- 

 ment will avail itself of the now improved finances, and not neglect this 

 genuine and beneficial method of instructing the nation, and maintaining 

 its credit for maritime discovery. 



The fauna observed during the TravaiUeur cruise closely resembled 

 that which I ascertained during the Porcupine cruise of 1870 at corre- 

 sponding depths. This will be shown, so far as the Mollusca are concerned, 

 in the list of species appended to the jiresent paper ; and I have no doubt 

 that the other branches, when they have been worked out by the experi- 

 enced naturalists to whom they have been enti-usted, will confirm my 

 opinion. 



In a physical and geological point of view this French exjiedition has 

 borne good fruit. No less than 103 soundings were made. They have 

 proved the existence, within a few miles of the coast, of a submarine valley 

 opening from the Fosse de Cap Breton and extending to a point opposite 

 Cap Fenas. The large diagram and chart which I now exhibit will give 

 a better explanation than I can do by any words. The diagram was pre- 

 pared for me when I presented to the Royal Society my rejiorts of the 

 Porcupine expeditions of 1869 and 1870 ; and the chart has been filled up 

 and given to me by my kind friend the Hydrographer.^ The striking in- 

 equalities of depth within a narrow area which thus appear were noticed 

 in a Bayonne newspaper of August 4 as ' des grands fonds sous-marins, 

 qui continuent sous les eaux de I'Atlantique les vallees pyreneennes.' As 

 a general role, it may be said that where mountains or high land apjiroach 

 the sea the depth of water is greater off that coast than where the land lies 

 low. But this must depend in a great measui'e on the geological nature 

 of the land adjacent to the sea. If the formation be granitic or gneissic, 

 the wear and tear or denudation must be slower than if the formation be 

 sandstone, cretaceous, or tertiary; and the action of rivers and streams on 

 the surface of the land must be proportionably increased or diminished, arid 

 cause the sea-bed to be more or less filled up in the course of time. Every- 

 where during the dredgings of the Travailleur in deep water the sea-bed 

 was found to be covered by a thick layer of mud, of a diflFerent colour from 



' See Proceedings of the Royal Society for 1870, and the Admiralty Chart of the 

 Bay of Biscay. 



