A BROBDINGNAGIAN ISOPOD 127 



course of which we managed to get two highly 

 successful hauls of the trawl, near the Laccadives, in 

 740 and 1000 fathoms. In one of them we dredged 

 up over 200 specimens of a large and beautiful 

 ''solitary" coral {Caryophyllia ambrosia) of a species 

 previously unknown : in the other the most remark- 

 able discoveries were two species of crustaceans which 

 till then had been regarded as characteristic of the 

 depths of the Gulf of Mexico. One of these was 

 Bathynomtis giganteus, a gigantic member of the 

 wood-louse order {Isopoda), but exceeding the wood- 

 louse in size as the ox does the frog, since it attains 

 a length of 1 2 inches and a breadth of 4 inches : the 

 other was the blind lobster, with long, rake-like nippers, 

 named Phoberus ccecus. I need not enlarge upon these 

 hauls here, as I think it will be more convenient to 

 give a concise account of the entire deep-sea fauna 

 brought to light by the Investigator, in a separate 

 series of chapters. 



On the 7th of May, after more than six consecutive 

 months of work at sea, the Investigator reached Bombay. 

 I passed the recess at the Indian Museum, where the 

 late Professor Wood- Mason and I spent several happy 

 months together examining and describing the deep-sea 

 collections made during the season. The immediate 

 results of our labours were published in the Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History for 1890 and 1891. 

 Owing to the kindness of Rear-Admiral Sir John Hext, 



