242 THE ANTARCTIC MANUAL. 
the dredge at station 146 were “probably the most successful haul 
up to the present date, as regards number, variety, novelty, size and 
beauty of the specimens,” and the results of the soundings at station 
147 were even richer. Sir John Murray says “the deep-sea fauna 
of the Antarctic has been shown by the Challenger to be exception- 
ally rich, a much larger number of species having been obtained than 
in any other region visited by that expedition, and the Valdivia’s 
dredgings in 1898 confirm this.” The Valdivia’s course was, roughly 
speaking, parallel to that of the Challenger in these waters, but further 
west. The most southern point it reached, the apex of its angle, was 
about long. 55° E., off Enderby Land. The results of this expedition 
are being worked out, but are not yet available, 
It must not be overlooked that the dredge, probably in all cases, 
certainly in many, brought on board numerous forms which had no 
acquaintance with the deep-sea bottom. In its lengthy and slow 
passage from the depths it enmeshed many a dweller of the middle 
regions, and as it passed from water into air it skimmed the surface 
fauna, A striking instance of this occurred at station 158, where the 
dredge brought on board the remarkable Nemertine Pelagonemertes 
rollestont Moseley, whose very tissues proclaimed its pelagic or sea- 
surface origin. In the systematic part of this essay the species of 
animal brought up in the dredge from great depths are recorded one 
by one, and although it is impossible to be certain in every case that 
they really come from the bottom, their habits and their relationship 
to other bathybial forms makes this, in the great majority of cases, a 
matter of no doubt. 
The conditions of life in the ocean at depths over 1000 or 2000 
fathoms are remarkably uniform, and although the “ abysmal depths 
of the Antarctic Seas” sound colder than those of the tropics, they 
have really all about the same temperature, i.e. a few degrees above 
the freezing point of fresh water. It is possible that near the Poles 
this temperature may be a degree or two below 32° F., but the 
change of two or three degrees in the surrounding medium probably 
has no more effect on abysmal organisms than a change of from 62° 
to 64° or 65° F. has on us. 
The waters are still. Compared with the shallow seas there are 
no currents; and though we know that in places strong currents 
destroy deep-sea cables, and that there must be a continuous though 
slow change of water over the floor of the ocean, otherwise the 
waters of the tropics would become heated at the depths, yet, com- 
pared with the surface of the earth and with the shallower seas, we 
may look upon the depths of the ocean as a place where a great calm 
