424 



Messrs. Carpenter, Jeffreys, and Thomson [Nov. 18, 



F.C.S., Chemical Assistant in Queens College, Belfast, taking charge of 

 the examination and analysis of the sea-water. 



41. The weather was very settled. On the Sunday, as we steamed down the 

 Irish Channel, there was nearly a dead calm, a slight mist hanging over the 

 water, and giving some very beautiful effects of coast scenery. On the 

 evening of Sunday the 18th we anchored for the night off Ballycottin, a 

 pretty little port about fifteen miles from Queenstown, and dropped round 

 to Queenstown on Monday morning, where we anchored off Haulbowline 

 Island at 7 a.m. At Queenstown Mr. P. Herbert Carpenter joined Mr. 

 Hunter in the laboratory, to practise under his direction the gas-analysis, 

 which it had been arranged that he should undertake during the Third 

 Cruise. Monday the 18th was employed in coaling and procuring in Cork 

 some things which were required for the chemical department ; and at 



7 p.m. we cast off from the wharf at Haulbowline and proceeded on our 

 voyage. 



42. During Monday night we steamed in a south-westerly direction across 

 the mouth of the Channel. On Tuesday we dredged in 74 and 75 fathoms 

 on the plateau which extends between Cape Clear and Ushant, on a bottom 

 of mud and gravel with dead shells and a few living examples of the 

 generally diffused species of moderate depths. The weather was remark- 

 ably fine, the barometer 30*25 in., and the temperature of the air 72 0, 5. 



43. On Wednesday, July 21st, we continued our south-westerly course, 

 the chart indicating during the earlier part of the day that we were still in 

 the shallow water of the plateau of the Channel. At 4.30 a.m. we dredged 

 gravel and dead shells in 95 fathoms, but towards mid-day the lead gave a 

 much greater depth ; and in the afternoon, rapidly passing over the edge of 

 the plateau, we dredged in 725 fathoms with a bottom of muddy sand 

 (Station 36). This is about the bathymetrical horizon at which we find 

 the Vitreous Sponges in the northern area ; and although the bottom is here 

 very different, much more sandy with but a slight admixture of Globigerina 

 ooze, we dredged a tolerably perfect, though dead, specimen of Aphro- 

 callistes Bocagei y a vitreous sponge lately described by Dr. E. Perceval 

 Wright from a specimen procured by Professor Barboza du Bocage from 

 the Cape-Yerde Islands, and one or two small specimens of Holtenia 

 Carpenteri. The muddy sand contained a considerable proportion of gravel 

 and dead shells. 



44. On Thursday, July 22nd, the weather was still remarkably fine. The 

 sea was moderate, with a slight swell from the north-west. We sounded 

 in lat. 47° 38' N., long. 12° 08' W., in a depth of 2435 fathoms (Station 37). 

 The Sounding-line used on this occasion was medium No. 2, of the best 

 Italian hemp, the No. of threads 18, the weight per 100. fathoms 12 lbs. 



8 oz., the circumference 0'8 inch, and the breaking-strain, dry, 1402 lbs., 

 soaked a day, 1211 lbs. ; and the 'Hydra' sounding-instrument was weighted 

 with 336 lbs. The weight attached to the sounding-apparatus is of course 

 allowed to descend quite freely without any check, but its velocity is 



