132 ANOTHER VISIT TO THE ANDAMANS 



state of the skin of these two survivors ; for though 

 they were brown men, their skin, by prolonged 

 maceration, appeared white, and the whole thickness 

 of the epidermis was peeling off in great flakes. We 

 landed them in a little inhabited bay near the Great 

 Basses Lighthouse. Captain Hoskyn allowed them 

 to keep the blanket suits, the pockets of which he 

 caused to overflow with ships' biscuit ; we also col- 

 lected a few rupees for them on board, to compensate 

 them in some measure for the loss of their boat and 

 fishing-gear, and to carry them safely home. 



From Ceylon to the Coco Islands our course lay 

 nearly north-east across the ingens aequor of Bengal. 

 Though on this passage we had a good deal of foul 

 weather, we managed to take several soundings and 

 to get three hauls of the trawl, one of them in the 

 great depth of 1997 fathoms, and another in 1644 

 fathoms. 



The bottom, at 1997 fathoms, in the middle of the 

 Bay, was pure Globigerina-ooze, with spicules of siliceous 

 sponges, and (brought up in the trawl) waterworn 

 pebbles of pumice : the temperature at the bottom, 

 corrected for pressure, was 35° Fahr. 



At 1644 fathoms, exactly 100 miles to the west 

 of Middle Andaman Island, the sample of the bottom 

 brought up by the sounding-tube was calcareous ooze, 

 but in the trawl there were some fragments of rude 

 earthen pottery and numerous decomposing leaves. 



