70 
Thomson left Belfast in the “ Porcupine ” to take the scientific 
direction of this cruise on the 17th. July 1869, taking with him 
Mr Hunter, F.C.S., chemical assistant in Queen’s College, Belfast, 
to examine and analyse the samples of sea water. At Queenstown 
Mr P. Herbert Carpenter joined the ship to practise the gas 
analysis which he was to undertake on the third cruise. 
The vessel proceeded on her voyage at 7 p.m. on the 19 th July, 
steaming in a south-westerly direction across the mouth of the 
channel. At 4.30 a.m. on the 21st they were still only on the 
plateau of the channel in 95 fathoms of water, hut from midday to 
the afternoon they passed over the edge of the plateau and dredged 
in 725 fathoms, the bathymetrical horizon of vitreous sponges in 
the northern seas, bringing up several specimens of these beautiful 
forms, and a slight admixture of globigerina ooze in sand. On the 
22nd they were in water of about the greatest depth they had reason 
to expect, 2435 fathoms, at a temperature of 2 ‘5° C. A successful 
dredging yielded 1^ cwt. of grey chalk mud, containing examples of 
each of the invertebrate sub-kingdoms, which, though dead, had 
evidently been alive when they entered the dredge. Similar 
results attended a dredging on the 23rd at the same depth, after 
which the party returned to the coast of Ireland, dredging and 
noting the results at intervals on the way. The vessel reached 
Cork on the 2nd August, and Belfast on the 4th. 
She left again on the third cruise for the year, on the 1 1th 
August, under the direction of Dr Carpenter, Mr P. H. ' Car- 
penter undertaking the analyses, and Wyville Thomson accompany- 
ing them. He busied himself in drawing, naming, and describing 
new species, and in noting the great general features of the 
prevailing physical and vital conditions. It is scarcely possible for 
anyone, however little imaginative, to read the graphic accounts of 
the incidents of these voyages without having his enthusiasm 
aroused, and almost wishing to have been present on many of the 
occasions so forcibly depicted. It seems more like a dream than a 
reality that at a single haul the dredge should have brought up 
in its bag and on its tangles not less than 20,000 specimens 
of the pretty little urchin, Echinus norvegicus 1 and we have Dr 
Thomson’s authority for such an event having happened. On 
other occasions, one is irresistibly brought to watch, with bated 
