CHAP. III.] THU CRUISES OF THE 'porcupine: 89 



the previous cruises of our little vessel under the 

 command of Lieut. Hoskyn, R.N. The deepest 

 dredging of this excursion was 1,230 fathoms, mth 

 a minimum temperature of 3°'2 0., and a bottom of 

 fine grey mud with a considerable admixture of 

 sand. Animals were abundant even at this great 

 depth : among the mollusca several new forms allied 

 to Area; Trochus minutissimus^ Mighel, a North 

 American species ; and several others ; several crus- 

 taceans, and many interesting foraminifera. As in 

 previous dredgings in deep water, the miliolines were 

 of very large size, and the large cristellarians showed 

 every gradation in their axis of growth from the 

 rectilineal to the spiral. In the shallower dredgings 

 of this cruise the general character of the fauna was 

 much the same as before. It had what we have been 

 in the habit of considering a northern ' facias,' but 

 probably, as already explained, because the largely 

 extended deep-water fauna at a temperature of 

 0° to + 3° C, of which it forms a part, has hitherto 

 only been investigated off the coast of Scandinavia, 

 where it crops up within reach of observation. 



lAmopsis aurita, Brocchi; Area glacialis, Gray; 

 Verticordia abyssicola, Jeffreys; Bentalium abys- 

 sorum, Sars; Trochus cinereus, Da Costa; Fusus 

 despectus, L. ; F. islandicus, Chem. ; F. fenestratus, 

 TuRT ; Columbella haliceeti, Jeffreys ; Cidaris papil- 

 lata, Leske ; Fchinus norvegicus, D. and K. ; and 

 Lophohelia prolifera, Pallas, were found in these 

 dredgings. 



The ' Porcupine ' next put into Killibegs Bay, on 

 the north coast of Co. Donegal, and coaled there for 

 her trip to Rockall. As it was anticipated that this 



