DECEMBER 8, 1899. ] 
tor in about longitude 138° W., and subse- 
quently—until within sight of Tahiti—we 
occasionally got manganese nodules. 
As had been noticed by Sir John Murray 
in the Challenger, these manganese nodules 
oceur in a part of the Pacific most distant 
from continental areas. Our experience has 
been similar to that of the Challenger, only 
Lam inclined to think that these nodules 
range over a far greater area of the Central 
Pacific than had been supposed, and that 
this peculiar manganese-nodule bottom 
characterizes a.great portion of the deep 
parts of the Central Pacific where it cannot 
be affected by the deposit of globigerina, 
pteropods, or telluric ooze; in the region 
characterized also by red-clay deposits. 
For in the track of the great equatorial 
currents there occur deposits of globigerina 
ooze in over 2400 fathoms for a distance of 
over 300 miles in latitude. 
Manganese nodules we found south of 
the Marquesas also, where in 2700 fathoms 
we obtained, perhaps, the finest specimens 
of red clay from any of our soundings. As 
we approached close to the western Pau- 
motus, and rose upon the plateau from 
which they rise, globigerina ooze passed 
gradually to pteropod ooze, then to fine and 
coarse coral sand. In the channel south of 
the Paumotus to Tahiti the coral sand 
passed to voleanic sand mixed with globi- 
gerinee in the deepest parts of the line, and 
toward Tahiti passed to volcanic mud mixed 
with globigerinz, next to fine voleanic sand, 
and finally, at the last sounding, off Point 
Venus, to coarse volcanic sand. 
We made a few hauls of the trawl on our 
way, but owing to the great distance we had 
to steam between San Francisco and the 
Marquesas (3800 miles) we could not, of 
course, spend a great deal of time either in 
trawling or in making tows at intermediate 
depths. Still the hauls we made with the 
trawl were most interesting, and confirmed 
what other deep-sea expeditions have real- 
SCIENCE. 
835 
ized: that at great depths, at considerable 
distances from land and away from any 
great oceanic current, there is compara- 
tively little animal life to be found. Where 
manganese nodules were found the hauls 
were specially poor, a few deep-sea holo- 
thurians and ophiurans, and some small 
actinie which had attached themselves 
to the nodules with a few other inverte- 
brates, seemed to be all that lived at these 
great depths, 2500 to 2900 fathoms, far 
away—say from 700 to 1000 miles—from the 
nearest land. 
The bottom temperatures of the deep 
(Moser) basin varied between 34.6° at 
2628 and 2740 fathoms, to 35.2° at 2440 
fathoms, and 35° at 2475 fathoms; about 
120 miles from the Marquesas. At station 
No. 23, off the Marquesas, in 1802 fathoms, 
the temperature was 35.5°. 
Owing to the failure of our deep-sea ther- 
mometers we were not able to make any 
satisfactory serial-temperature observations. 
At station No. 11, lat. 14° 38’ N., long. 
186° 44’ W., we obtained: 79° at surface, 
78.7° at 50 fathoms, 55.9° at 100 fathoms, 
48.9° at 200 fathoms, 44.1° at 300 fathoms, 
and 38.9° at 700 fathoms. These tempera- 
tures are somewhat higher than those ob- 
tained by the Challenger in similar latitudes 
on their line to the westward of ours be- 
tween the Sandwich Islands and Tahiti. 
The temperatures of the bottom between 
the Marquesas and Paumotus were 34.9° at 
1932 fathoms, 35° at 2456 fathoms and 
9451 fathoms, and 35.1° at 2527 fathoms. 
We did not take any bottom tempera- 
tures between the Paumotus and Tahiti. 
Our deep-sea nets not having reached 
San Francisco at the time we sailed, we 
limited our pelagic work to surface hauls, 
of which we generally made one in the 
morning and one in the evening, and when- 
ever practicable some hauls with the open 
tow nets at depths varying between 100 and 
350 fathoms. The results of these hauls 
