276 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [chap. vi. 



of the Natural History Museum of Lisbon, greatly 

 surprised the zoological world by a notice of the 

 occurrence on the coast of Portugal of whisps of 

 silicious spicules resembling those of the Hya- 

 lonema of Japan.' They were brought up by the 

 Setubal shark-fishers, who, it seemed — an equally sin- 

 gular circumstance — plied their vocation at a depth 

 of 500 fathoms. Professor Perceval Wright, anxious 

 to ascertain the full historv of the case and to 

 get Syalonema in a fresh state, went to Lisbon 

 in the autumn of 1868, and with the assistance of 

 Professor du Bocage and some of his friends procured 

 at Setubal an open boat and a crew of eight men, 

 with " 600 fathoms of rope, the dredge, lots of hooks 

 and bait, and provisions for a couple of days. Leav- 

 ing the port of Setubal a little before five o'clock in 

 the evening, we, after a fair night's sailing, reached 

 what the fishermen signed to me to be the edge of 

 the deep-sea valley, where they were in the habit 

 of fishing for sharks, and there, while thus engaged, 

 they had found the Hyalonema. It was now about 

 five o'clock in the morning ; and the men, having had 

 their breakfast, put the boat up to the wind, and let 

 down the dredge ; before it reached the bottom, about 

 480 fathoms of rope were run out, some thirty more 

 were allowed for slack, and then we gently drew it— 

 by hoisting a small foresail — for the distance of about 

 a mile along the bottom. It required the united 

 efforts of six men, hauling the line hand over hand, 

 with the assistance of a double pulley-block, to puU 

 in the dredge : the time thus occupied was just an 



^ Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London for the Year 

 1864, p. 265. 



