LISBON. 
11 
of the weather outside; but on the evening of the 12th we again passed the Tower of Belem, 
and on the following day, when off Cape Espichel, we resumed what was to be for the next 
three years and a-half our almost daily routine of life at sea : shortening sail, getting up steam, 
sounding, lowering and hauling in the dredge, sorting and bottling the contents of the 
latter, &c.—proceedings which generally occupied the whole day between sunrise and sunset, 
amidst the monotonous thump of our busy little deck-engine. On the 15th we rounded Cape 
St. Vincent, and on the succeeding day an experiment was made which largely contributed 
to the success of our future dredging operations. It had been observed that the dredge, with 
its iron frame and weights, had a tendency to sink into the ooze, and, once choked with mud, 
it was rendered useless for catching the animals which might come in its way. Some 
one suggested the substitution of the ordinary 
trawl used by English fishermen. This consists 
of a triangular bag-shaped net about thirty feet 
long, attached to the iron runners of a wooden 
beam measuring fifteen feet. Having been lowered 
to the bottom at a depth of 600 fathoms, it 
returned to the surface with numerous specimens 
of animal life, some of which were new to the 
zoologist; and the success of this experiment 
justified its frequent repetition, though the dredge 
was not altogether discarded. During the pro¬ 
gress of the expedition, the trawl was often seen 
to rise from the sea studded with a perfect 
coruscation of star-fishes and other denizens of 
the deep. From the day we left the Tagus, we 
had been favoured with blue skies and a summer 
atmosphere—a great inducement to linger on 
CASTELLO DA PEN HA, GINTRA. 
deck up to a late hour. Midnight of the 17th 
found some of us still on the bridge ; the moon was up, and we were running before the 
breeze under all sail without the least sensation of motion, the light of Cape Trafalgar on 
our right, that of Cape Spartel on our left. I had turned into my cabin and taken a 
few hours’ sleep, when I was roused by a message from the officer of the watch. A 
moment after, I was looking at the mountains of Europe and of Africa fronting each other 
in the gloom of the early morn ; then I suddenly saw rising before me in the east a tall 
mass of whitish rock tinged with the rosy light of dawn, and standing out grand and 
weird from the deep-blue background of the retreating night-clouds. It was the rock 
of Gibraltar; and as the sun rose, he revealed a panorama of sea and mountain more 
lovely and majestic than any I had seen before. A few hours after, we were anchored 
off Gibraltar in company of H.M.SS. “Minotaur,” “ Agincourt,” “Sultan,” “Hercules,” and 
“ Bellerophon.” 
