306 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [chap. vu. 



channel between Scotland and the Fseroe plateau ; 

 and giving, respectively, the temperatures of — l°'l, 

 -r-2, -0°-7, and -0°-5 0. No. 9, with a depth of 

 170 fathoms and a temperature of 5° C, is excep- 

 tional; it is apparently the top of a circumscribed 

 ridge or bank. We dredged at this station and got 

 large numbers of the rare and beautiful Terebrahda 

 cranium ; but when we tried for the same spot in the 

 following year in the ' Porcupine,' we could not find 

 it. On the 6th of September we sounded and took 

 temperatures in lat. 59° 36' N., long. 7° 20' W., in 

 530 fathoms, when the mean of three thermometers, 

 which only differed from one another by about '3 

 of a degree, gave a bottom temperature of 6°'di C. 

 A temperature sounding, at the moderate depth of 

 189 fathoms, was taken on the morning of the 7th 

 September in lat. 59° 5' N., long. 7° 29' W., and 

 gave a bottom temperature of 9°6 C. The three 

 soundings, Nos. 13, 14, and 17, at the depths 650, 

 570, and 620 fathoms, extending into the North 

 Atlantic as far westward as long. 12° 36' W., gave 

 a bottom temperature of 5°-8, 6°-4, and 6°'6 C, 

 respectively. 



The general result of these observations we could 

 not but regard as very remarkable. The region 

 which we had somewhat imperfectly examined in- 

 cluded, in the first place, the channel about a couple 

 of hundred miles in ^^idth, with an extreme depth 

 of rather under 600 fathoms, extending between the 

 northern boundary-line of the British plateau and 

 the shoal which culminates in the Pseroe Islands 

 and their extensive banks ; and secondly, a small 

 portion of the North Atlantic extending westwards 



