160 THE DEPTHS OF THE SE. I. [chap. iv. 



a beautiful double fenestrated frame, witb a peculiar 

 twist in it reminding one of a Campy lodiscus, and a 

 very elegant crenated border. These disks are raised 

 on delicate hollow pedicels, which expand beneath, 

 at their point of attachment to the common stalk. 

 A large mass of muscle envelopes the lower part of 

 the group of pedicels, and doubtless determines the 

 movement of the valves in reference to one another. 



It is diflftcult to see what relation in position the 

 valves can occupy when the instrument, whatever 

 may be its use, is closed. 



We now steamed onwards to the south-east for 

 about ten miles, and put down our dredge, fully 

 equipped with ' hempen tangles ' and every accessory 

 device for entrapping the denizens of the deep, exactly, 

 as our Commander assured us, over the spot where we 

 had dredged the SolterdcB early in the cruise. We 

 got there in the evening, and adopted a plan which 

 we had tried successfully once or twice before; we 

 allowed the drerlge to remain down all night, moving 

 along with the drift of the vessel, and hauled it up 

 in the eaiiy morning. I do not believe human 

 dredger ever got such a haul. The special inhabit- 

 ants of that particular region — vitreous sjionges and 

 echinoderms — had taken quite kindly to the tangles, 

 warping themselves into them and sticking througli 

 them and over them, till the mass Avas such that we 

 could scarcsly gat it on board. Dozens of great Hol- 



tenice, like 



" Wrinkled heads and aged, 

 Wit'u silver beard and haii'," 



a dozen of the best of them breaking off just at 

 that critical point where everything doubles its 



