CHAP. III.] THE CRUISES OF THE ' PORCUPINE: 111 



deep, flowing in a south-westerly direction, beneath 

 an tipper stratum of comparatively warm water 

 moving slowly towards the north-east ; the lower 

 half of the latter, however, having its temperature 

 considerably modified by intermixture with the 

 stratum over which it lies." ' 



Our next few dredgings were on the Shetland 

 plateau, in depths under 100 fathoms, and over 

 ground already carefully worked by our colleague 

 Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys. We got few novelties, but 

 owing to our very eifective dredging appliances we 

 took some of the ' Haaf ' rarities, such as Fusus nor- 

 vegicus, Chemn. ; Fusus berniciensis, King ; Fleuro- 

 toma carinatiim, BivoNA ; in considerable numbers. 

 The hempen tangles stood us in good stead with the 

 echinoderms. On one occasion the dredge brought up 

 at a single haul, in the bag and on the tangles, cer- 

 tainly not less than 20,000 examples of the pretty 

 little urchin, EcMnus norvegicus, D. and K. 



On the 28th of August we anchored in Lerwick 

 Harbour. We remained at Lerwick several days 

 taking in necessary supplies, looking at the geology 

 and the many remarkable antiquities of the neigh- 

 bourhood, and ransacking the haberdashers' shops for 

 those delicate fleecy fabrics of wool which imitate in 

 a scarcely grosser material, and with almost equal 

 delicacy of design, the fretted skeletons of Holtenia, 

 Euplectella, and Aphrocallistes. 



In this earlier part of the cruise nearly all the 

 dredgings had been confined to the cold area, and 



' Dr. Carpenter, in " Preliminary Eeport on the Scientific Explora- 

 tion of the Deep Sea, 1869." (Proceedings of the Eoyal Society, vol. 

 xvii, p. 441.) 



