808 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 
was passed over a pulley-block fastened at the stern of the boat, and 
then again passed through a double sheef, and the seven men pulled 
lustily at it, resting every now and then. After a great lapse of time the 
dredge, marked by a long track of mud, made its appearance, and in a 
few minutes more was alongside. It was still nearly half full of a 
deep yellow-coloured tenacious mud. On passing my fingers through 
it I found it full of long spicules of Hyalonema, one small specimen of 
which was found adhering to the rope; the head-like portion (basal 
portion of most writers) was but small, but the glass rope was spread 
out towards the end farthest from the head, and left no doubt on my 
mind, from its appearance, that it had just left its anchorage in the 
soft mud. It was thus a matter of satisfaction to me to think that I had 
determined this one fact about the manner of life of this strange sponge, 
the more so, as this was the point which I had been asked to report on 
by the Council of the Royal Irish Academy. I propose, in my Report 
to this body, to go into this subject in some detail. 
The specimen of Hyalonema was at once placed in a glass of sea 
water. The “glass rope’ was covered over with a colony of little 
Polythoa, which were observed to be alive. Any amount of Hyalonema 
spicules could have been gathered from the mud, but time was precious ; 
it was evident we were on the proper ground; and another trial with 
the dredge was made, again without success. As the day got on a 
stiffish breeze got up, and it was considered unsafe to dredge any more. 
It must not be forgotten that our boat was an open undecked boat, and 
one not at all suitable for rough weather. Seeing my disappointed 
looks, the men said they would let down the long line and take some 
sharks, and, perhaps, even in this way obtain some of the Hyalonema. 
The bait used was small codling, and about twenty baited hooks were 
attached to the line. When it had lain on the bottom about two hours 
the men drew it in again. As the baited portion reached the boat, 
there was an evident strain on the line, but at the same time there was 
no evidence of any struggling fish, such as would have been the case 
had a dog-fish been hooked. The men had to pull hard, and at last 
one big dark-coloured shark, and another and then another made its 
appearance, until five or six were drawn on board; they fell on the 
deck, quite dead. I have no doubt that they were choked in their passage 
through the water. They turned out to be the Centroscymnus ccelolepis 
of Bocage and Capello. . 
We now set sail for Setubal, which we reached late in the evening. 
Professor Bocage was waiting to receive us. There being no late train 
to Lisbon, we had to sleep at Setubal that night, but reached Lisbon 
very early on Wednesday morning. 
Wednesday and Thursday were spent in going over the Museum 
with Professor Bocage and Signor Capello, his assistant. The first 
things naturally that attracted my attention were the specimens of 
Hyalonema; ten of these were from Setubal, and most of them were 
preserved in spirits of wine: they were, certainly, the very finest 
collection of this remarkable sponge in Europe. The largest had a stem 
