440 



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



our arrangements for an early start ; and invited our kind host and hostess to 

 give us the pleasure of their company. The fine weather lasted throughout 

 Sunday, two consecutive days of such brightness being a most unusual 

 occurrence in this locality ; but early the next morning the Faroese cli- 

 mate vindicated its character by a copious downpour of rain, which put our 

 start at 4 o'clock out of the question, and, for the reason just mentioned, 

 obliged us to give up the excursion altogether. 



70. Our good fortune in regard to weather returned to us on the following 

 day ; when we left Thorshavn (Aug. 24th) about noon, shaping our course 

 about East by South, so as to cross the channel separating the Faroe from 

 the Shetland Islands, the depth of which had been indicated by previous 

 Soundings to be in some parts considerable. Our first two Soundings 

 showed that we were still over a plateau at little more than 100 fathoms 

 from the surface ; but a third Sounding taken in the evening after a run 

 of about 80 miles, gave us a depth of 31/ fathoms, and a bottom-tem- 

 perature of 30°* 1 . It became evident, therefore, that we were here again 

 in the course of the frigid stream ; and we looked with much interest to 

 the phenomena it would present in a still deeper part of the channel. 

 Having kept the same course under easy steam during the night, we took a 

 Sounding the next morning at Station 64 (Lat. Gl° 21', Long. 3° 44') ; and 

 found that the depth had increased to 640 fathoms, and that the bottom- 

 temperature was somewhat below 30°. The dredge having been put down, 

 the " haul " was a less satisfactory one than usual, though one very valuable 

 specimen (a large example of the Pourtalesia already mentioned, § 36) was 

 obtained here ; and in a subsequent trial the dredge came up empty. As 

 this result appeared due to the circumstance that the drift of the ship was too 

 great, in consequence of an increase of wind and swell, to permit the dredge 

 to hold the ground, it was determined to devote the morning to a series of 

 Temperature-soundings taken at every 50 fathoms from the surface down- 

 wards. This was very satisfactorily accomplished, with the result shown 

 in Table I. (p. 456), from which it appeared that, with a lower surface- 

 temperature than in the series previously taken (§ 65), the rate of decrease 

 during the first 150 fathoms was nearly the same, but that the rapid descent 

 of the thermometer wdiich showed itself at Station 52 between 200 and 

 300 fathoms, here began somewhat earlier, and proceeded somewhat more 

 gradually, with the result, however, of bringing clown the temperature to 

 32 3 at a little below 300 fathoms, the whole of the water beneath that 



the latter was regulated, we found that as there is not even a Sun-dial in the Inlands, 

 the time is kept by the turn of the tides, the periods of which are precisely known for 

 each day of the lunation. As nearly all the intercouse hetween different villages and farm- 

 houses is carried on by water, and as every Faroese is a boatman and fisherman as well 

 as a farmer, it is not to be wondered at that he should be practically versed in the perio- 

 dical changes of the currents by which his power of locomotion is so greatly influenced, 

 and that these should take the place of the meridian passage of the sun (which he has 

 no means of observing with precision) as his best time-regulators. 



