1876.] on board the ' Valorous^ in August 1875. 231 



Society, and approved by the Admiralty. Dr. Gfwyn Jeffreys having 

 undertaken the general charge o£ the work, named as his assistant my 

 Son, Mr. P. Herbert Carpenter, who had accompanied me in the ' Light- 

 ning ' and ' Porcupine ' Expeditions ; and it was arranged that, while 

 aiding Dr. Jeffreys in the Biological work, he should take special charge 

 of the Physical. 



A grant from the Donation Fund having been made to Dr. Jeffreys 

 and myself for the expenses of the inquiry, I endeavoured to make such 

 provision for the conduct of the Physical observations as should render 

 them capable of accurate correlation with those of the ' Challenger.' 

 With this view, 1 obtained two water-bottles, on the construction de- 

 vised by Mr. Buchanan (the Physicist of the ' Challenger'), from Messrs. 

 Milne, of Edinburgh, by whom they had been supplied to him ; and 

 also two Hydrometers, on Mr. Buchanan's construction, from Messrs. 

 Kemp, who had previously made them under Mr. B.'s direction. 



Unfortunately, however, my Son was unable to utilize the water-bottles 

 thus provided : for as Captain Nares had not been supplied with any 

 water-bottle, it was deemed right to comply with his pressing request 

 that one of these bottles should be transferred to him ; and the other 

 bottle failed in its work, in consequence of some defect in its construc- 

 tion which the armourer of the ' Yalorous ' was unable to remedy*. 

 No Specific-Gravity observations could be made, therefore, on any but 

 surface-water ; these, however, were very systematically carried out ; 

 and Mr. Buchanan has kindly undertaken to compare our Hydrometers 

 with his own, and to furnish the formula for the exact correction of the 

 'Valorous' observations, so that results maybe worked out which shall be 

 strictly comparable with those obtained in the ' Challenger ' Expedition. 



Having been supplied by my Son with the entire series of Deep-Sea 

 Temperature-observations, the results of which have been embodied in 

 Sections prepared at the Hydrographic OfEce of the Admiralty, I now 

 present a Eeport upon these, in which I have drawn attention to what 

 seem to me their chief features of interest. 



Eepoet. 



In the first of the Serial Soundings taken by the * Valorous' (see 

 Plate 2. Station 6, and Plate 3. No. VI.), nearly in the middle of 

 Davis Strait and on the parallel of Godthaab, the bottom-temperature, 

 at a depth of 410 fathoms, was 34°* 6 Eahr. ; and the descent to this 

 from a surface-temperature of 40° was nearly uniform — 39°, 38°, 37°, 

 36°, and 35° being met with at almost equal intervals. There was here, 

 therefore, no indication of any contrary movement of different strata of 

 water, or of any special superheating of the superficial stratum. But the 



* Mr. Buclianan tells me that the like defect existed in all the water-bottles supplied 

 to the ' Challenger ' by Messrs. Milne, the construction of which he had not personally 

 superintended. 



