58 NOTES ON DEEP SEA SOUNDINGS. 



On 14th and 15th July, 1874, the " Challenger" was in 600 

 fathoms water, in the neighbourhood of the Kerinadec Grroup, the 

 bottom composed of lava pebbles and pumice, and dangerous to 

 the trawl. 



The weather prevented any determination of deep or shallow 

 water between that group and New Zealand. On the 17th July, 

 in latitude 25° 5' S., and longitude 172° 56' W., the depth was 

 2,900 fathoms, and bottom temperature . 32°.9, proving a deep 

 continuous channel from the southward to those seas. She was 

 at Tonga-tabu on 19th and 22nd July, reaching Kandavu on the 

 25th, after dredging in shallow water near Matuku. The anchor- 

 age at Ovalu was surveyed in the beginning of August, on the 

 12th of which month 1,350 fathoms were reached, 30 miles from 

 Kandavu, the bottom being red ooze. There was little in the 

 dredge but pumice and a branch of a tree. 



Between Fiji and the New Hebrides the bottom, on the 15th, 

 in 1,450 fathoms, was red clay. Two days afterwards the same 

 bottom was found in 2,650 fathoms, the temperature being 35° 

 that of 1,300 fathoms. There is proof that below that depth the 

 sea is cut off by a ridge extending towards Baine Island, and 

 from Sandy Cape in Queensland to New Caledonia, New Hebri- 

 des, the Solomon Islands, and New Gruinea, the depth of which 

 does not exceed 1,300 fathoms. Below this depth, between the 

 New Hebrides and Torres Strait, the water, as in the Mediter- 

 ranean and other cut off seas, is stagnant. 



In a run of 1,000 miles four soundings over 2,200 fathoms 

 were obtained, the temperature constant. At 170 miles from 

 Eaine's Island, the depth was 1,700 ; at 74 miles off, 1,400 

 fathoms, showing the gentle slope up to the Barrier Reef.* 



A continuous line of shallow soundings extends all the way 

 from Torres Strait to the Arrou Islands ; some points there are 

 incorrectly laid down on the charts. The sea is shoal — varying 

 from 5| to more than 150 fathoms on the south-west of Wokan 

 Isle.f 



Soundings at 800 fathoms occurred between the Islands, with 

 green mud and rich hauls. The Little Ki group are wrongly 

 placed on the charts. Bird Island is also much out in Hors- 

 burgh's Directory ; it is a volcano, with a truncated cone 980 feet 

 high, with the slope of 30°. 



incidentally, we are informed by Captain Wares, that the squatters on the 

 Grulf of Carpentaria are said to be abandoning their stations because cattle 

 did not thrive well, and sheep not at all. He recommends the retention of 

 Somerset as the best spot for a settlement. 



f The town of Dobbo is a dirty place, with population varying, from March 

 to August, from 400 to 1,500, and in November there are only a few Chinese 

 merchants and slaves. In Wamma Island the Dutch have established school- 

 masters. Supplies being scanty — poor fowls cost 2s., and eggs 2d. each ; fish 

 rare. Three hundred tons of Borneo coal (Tertiary, I believe) were met 

 with. 



