REPORT ON THE DEEP-SEA DEPOSITS. 
3(31 
sometimes be observed in the body of the nodules, incorporated between the successive 
layers. There were six rounded or rolled pebbles ; the largest, having in one direction 
a diameter of over 3 cm., was a basaltic rock, while the others were fragments of 
granitic and gneissic rocks. These pebbles are believed to have been ice-borne, this 
station being just beyond the borders of the region of floating ice in the southern 
hemisphere. 
Twelve rounded pieces of pumice, the largest about the size of a hen’s egg, were 
also met with ; the outer portions were decomposed into earthy matter, and covered 
with layers of manganese, which also penetrated in the form of dendrites throughout the 
whole of the mass. 
The magnetic spherules extracted from the deposit at this station, as well as 
from the manganese nodules, were numerous ; some of them are represented in PI. 
XXIII. figs. 1, 4, and 8. 
Station 286, 2335 fathoms. — There were two layers in the sample of deposit obtained 
in the sounding tube, an upper dark-coloured layer containing but little carbonate 
of lime, and a lower light-coloured layer containing many Glohigerinse and Coccoliths. 
The trawl contained about two bushels^ of manganese nodules and pumice stones, 
along with a large number of sharks’ teeth and bones of Cetaceans. PI. II. fig. 6 
shows five of the nodules from this station. They are formed around sharks’ teeth, or 
splinters of teeth, and small particles of pumice, and it will be seen from the figure that 
these are cemented into little groups of an irregular form. The striking characteristic 
of the nodules at this station is that the great majority of them are formed round frag- 
ments of teeth or of bone. Sometimes these organic fragments are surrounded by layers 
of manganese of considerable thickness, while at other times there is only a slight coating, 
although the bone may have dendrites of manganese ramifying throughout its whole 
mass, and the teeth are usually filled with manganese depositions. The manner in which 
the manganese penetrates and covers these organic fragments is represented by the figures 
on PI. X. 
Over 350 sharks’ teeth and fragments were observed among the nodules ; some 
of them are represented in PI. V. figs. 8 and 9, PI. VI. figs. 14 and 22, PI. X. 
figs. 4 and 5. Numerous bones of Cetaceans were obtained at this station, including 
tympanic bullse and detached petrous bones, beaks of Ziphioid whales, fragments of flat 
and spongy bones, and numerous other small fragments forming nuclei of the manganese 
nodules. Some of these are represented in PI. VII. figs. 2, 3, 4, and 5, PI. VIII. 
figs. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 14, and PI. X. figs. 1, 2, and 3. 
A few of the nodules contained nuclei of basic volcanic glass and palagonite. There 
were several pieces of rolled pumice, and one large granitic pebble, over 3 inches in 
diameter, apparently ice-borne. Among the nodules were numbers of clayey concretions 
(deep-sea deposits chall. exp. — 1891.) 
Over 70 litres. 
46 
