252 DREDGING REPORT, 1862, 
at the hour appointed for our departure, and it was past noon 
when we steamed over the bar, and felt at last assured that no 
further cause of delay could occur to the fertile imagination of 
the captain. 
Our course lay east, with just a soupgon of south in it, and a 
couple of hours’ run over a sea, smooth as a mill pond, brought 
us to ground some twenty miles from land, where we decided to 
try our tackle for the first time. 
Here we worked with fair results for some time, finding a hard 
bottom, and about 25 to 35 fathoms water. The results as 
regards Mollusca, are recorded in the first column of the table 
which accompanies this report. As evening approached, we 
again got up steam, and ran the whole night due east. The 
early dawn found us eighty or one hundred miles from land, with 
a glassy sea and a ground swell disastrous to landsmen. We 
were hard at work by five o’clock, dredging in 20 to 25 fathoms 
water, on a soft oozy bottom, and thus continued all day, grad- 
ually working westward, the water varying from 20 to 35 fath- 
oms, and the results of each haul often widely differing from its 
predecessor. Whether it was from enthusiasm for the work, or 
from more ignoble causes, I will not say, but certain it is that the 
breakfast hour, dinner time, tea and supper alike passed without 
being able to seduce us from the deck. Mr. West, the well- 
known and most able natural-history draughtsman, was hard at 
work with his microscope under circumstances of much difficulty, 
and his beautiful drawings of many of the zoophytes and other 
animals obtained, added interest and value to the results of the 
expedition. ? ee 
That night the boat lay by, the setting sun dipped into a 
waveless sea, and the weather was all that a dredger could 
desire. The tide and currents tended to drift the boat east- 
ward, and the dawn found us probably about as far from land as 
on the preceding morning. The dredges were again let down, 
and with intervals during which considerable way was made 
westward, we worked till afternoon. ‘The results of these two 
days’ work are recorded in the second column of the tables. 
The depth of water shows that we never actually reached the 
