182 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 527. 



track of the current at not too great dis- 

 tances from the coast we invariably 

 brought, even from very considerable 

 depths, sticks and twigs and fragments of 

 vegetable matter. On two occasions we 

 brought up in the trawl specimens of Oe- 

 tacnemus; the trawl had been working at 

 2,235 and at 2,222 fathoms. Both Moseley 

 and Ilerdman described this interesting 

 ascidian as attached to the bottom by a 

 small peduncle. While the presence of 

 the peduncle can not be denied, yet its at- 

 tachment, if attached at all, must be of the 

 slightest, its transparent slightly translu- 

 cent body, with its eight large lobes, sug- 

 gesting rather a pelagic type than a seden- 

 tary form. This ascidian was discovered 

 by the Challenger west of Valparaiso. 



Mr. Chamberlain made two daily obser- 

 vations of the density of the water, and 

 found the same discrepancies between our 

 observations and those of 1891, with those 

 given by the Challenger and in the German 

 Atlas of the Pacific Ocean. Whenever we 

 took a serial temperature, he also deter- 

 mined the density at 800 fathoms. We oc- 

 cupied six stations for the serial tempera- 

 tures, two on the western termini of the 

 lines normal to the coast across the great 

 Peruvian current, two in the center of the 

 current, and two at a moderate distance 

 from the coast. These serials developed 

 an unusually rapid fall in the temperature 

 between the surface and 50 fathoms — 

 nearly 12° at the western extremity of the 

 northern line, the temperature having 

 dropped from 71.7° at the surface to 59.2°. 

 At 200 fathoms it was 51°, and at 600 

 fathoms it had dropped to 40.7°, the bot- 

 tom temperature at 2,005 fathoms being 

 36.4°. The temperature of the station in 

 the central part of the current in 2,235 

 fathoms agreed with the western series. 

 At the eastern part of the line, in 2,222 

 fathoms, with a bottom temperature of 

 36.4°, the .surface being only 67°, we found 



again a close agreement at 50 and 100 

 fathoms, the lower depths at 400 and 60Q 

 fathoms being from one to two degrees 

 warmer than the outer temperatures. On 

 taking a serial from the surface to 100 

 fathoms, we found that the greatest drop 

 in temperature took place between 5 and 

 30 fathoms. 



The temperatures of a line running due 

 west from Callao showed a very close agree- 

 ment both at the western end of the line, 

 about 780 miles from the coast, and in the 

 central part of the line, as well as in the 

 shore station about 80 miles from the coast 

 in 3,209 fathoms. The bottom temperature 

 in nearly all the depths we sounded was 

 36°, a high temperature for that depth. I 

 do not at present make any comparison with 

 the serials taken in the Panamic district in 

 1891, but wait until Ave shall have comple- 

 ted our lines to the south and to the west. 



We leave for Easter Island on the third 

 of December, where we shall coal, and from 

 there go to the Galapagos, and thence to 

 Manga Reva and Acapulco, where we ought 

 to arrive in the early days of IMarch. 



The changes made in the working ap- 

 paratus of the Albatross under the super- 

 intendence of Lieutenant Franklin Swift, 

 U. S. Navy, have proved most satisfactory. 

 The alterations in the main drum and the 

 device for preventing the piling of the 

 wire on the surging drum and the accom- 

 panying shock, have greatly reduced the 

 risk of breaking the wire rope when trawl- 

 ing at great depths. The wire rope has 

 proved an excellent piece of workmanship, 

 and has served admirably in the compara- 

 tively deep water in which most of our 

 trawling has been done thus far. A new 

 dredging boom has also been installed, and 

 everything relating to the equipment of the 

 Albatross has been carefully overhauled. 



Lieut.-Commander L.M.Garrett has been 

 indefatigable in his interest for the expedi- 

 tion ; the officers and crew have been de- 



