1870.] 



Deep-sea Researches. 



147 



and that the Council of the Royal Society should recommend such an 

 undertaking to the favourable consideration of the Admiralty, with a view 

 to obtain the assistance of Her Majesty's Government as on the previous 

 occasions. 



Resolved, — That a Committee, consisting of the President and Officers, 

 with the Hydrographer, Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, Mr, Siemens, Professor 

 Tyndall, and Dr. Carpenter, with power to add to their number, be 

 appointed, to consider the expediency of adopting the proposal of Dr. 

 Carpenter, and the plan to be followed in carrying it out, as well as the 

 instruments and other appliances that would be required, and to report 

 their opinion thereon to the Council ; but with power previously to com- 

 municate to the Admiralty a draft of such report as they may agree 

 upon, if it shall appear to them expedient to do so in order to save time. 



April 28, 1870. 

 Read the following Report : — 



" The Committee appointed on the 24th of March to consider a proposal 

 for a further Exploration of the Deep Sea during the ensuing summer, as 

 well as the scientific preparations which would be required for a new expe- 

 dition, beg leave to report as follows : — 



" The general course proposed to be followed, and the chief objects ex- 

 pected to be attained in a new expedition, are pointed out in the following 

 extract from the letter of Dr. Carpenter, read to the Council on the 24th 

 ult., which was referred to the Committee. 



" * The plan which has been marked out between my Colleagues in last 

 year's work and myself is as follows : — 



" * Having reason to hope that the f Porcupine ' may be spared towards 

 the end of June, we propose that she should start early in July, and pro- 

 ceed in a S.W. direction towards the furthest point to which our survey 

 was carried last year ; carefully exploring the bottom in depths of 400 to 

 800 fathoms, on which, as experience has shown us, the most interesting 

 collections are to be made ; but also obtaining a few casts of the Dredge 

 with Temperature-soundings at greater depths, as opportunities may occur. 



" 1 The course should then be nearly due South, in a direction of general 

 parallelism with the coast of France, Spain, and Portugal, keeping gene- 

 rally within the depths just mentioned, but occasionally stretching west- 

 wards into yet deeper waters. From what has been already done in about 

 400 fathoms' water off the coast of Portugal, there is no doubt that the 

 ground is there exceedingly rich. When approaching the Straits of Gi- 

 braltar, the survey, both Physical and Zoological, should be carried out with 

 great care and minuteness ; in order that the important problem as to the cur- 

 rents between the Mediterranean and Atlantic Seas, and the relation of the 

 Mediterranean Fauna to that of the Atlantic (on which Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys 



o 2 



