lUi»0 
THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
Statiok 286 . Station 286 (Sounding 431), Tahiti to Valparaiso (see Chart 38 and Diagram 19). 
October IG, 1875 ; lat. 33° 29' S., long. 133° 22' W. 
Temperature of air at noon, 61°’8 ; mean for the day, 60°’0. 
Temperature of water : — 
Surface, . 
63-0 
400 fathoms, . 
42-4 
25 fatlioius. 
62-6 
500 „ 
41-0 
50 „ . . 
59-4 
600 „ 
40-0 
1 0 II 
59-4 
700 „ 
39-0 
100 „ 
59-4 
800 „ 
38-2 
125 „ 
57-3 
900 . „ 
37-7 
150 „ 
54-3 
1000 „ 
37-1 
175 „ 
51-3 
1100 „ 
36-5 
200 ., 
49-0 
1200 „ 
36-2 
225 „ 
47-5 
1300 „ 
36-0 
250 „ 
46-2 
1400 „ 
35-9 
275 „ 
45-3 
1500 „ 
35-8 
300 „ 
44-5 
Bottom, 
34-8 
Density at 60° F.: — 
Surface, . 
. 1-02608 
300 fathoms, 
. 1-02545 
25 fathoms. 
. 1-02602 
400 „ 
. 1-02548 
50 „ 
. 1-02603 
800 „ 
. 1-02536 
100 „ 
. 1-02599 
2290 „ 
. 1-02570 
200 „ . . 
. 1-02563 
Bottom, 
. 1-02570 
Depth, 2335 fathoms ; deposit. Red Clay, containing 25T3 per cent, of carbonate 
of lime (see Murray and Renard, Deep-Sea Deposits Chall. Exp.). 
Under steam all night. At 5.10 a.m. stopped, and at 5.30 a.m. sounded in 
2335 fathoms. Two layers were to be observed in the contents of the sounding-tube ; 
the upper two inches were very dark red and contained very little carbonate of lime, the 
lower four or five inches light yellow, smooth, firm, containing a considerable quantity of 
carlx)nate of lime, and with much less manganese than in the upper layer, this being the 
reverse order in which the layers have been noticed at the last few Stations. At 8 a.m. 
put trawl over and veered 2800 fathoms. Sent whaler away with naturalist for surface 
collecting. Obtained serial temperatures down to 1500 fathoms. At 1 p.m. commenced 
heaving in trawl, which came up with several specimens, about two bushels of manganese 
nodules and pumice-stones, over three hundred sharks’ teeth and fragments, and about 
ninety tympanic bulla) and forty-two detaclied petrous bones, beaks of Ziphioid whales, 
fragments of Hat and Hpongy bones, and numerous other small fragments forming nuclei 
of the manganese no<lules, a large granitic pebble, apparently ice-borne, and numbers of 
