One of the most interesting deep-sea creatures discovered by the "Challenger" proved to be closely allied to our little Rhabdopleura, and received the name "Cephalodiscus." Several species of this second kind have been discovered in the last twenty years in the deep sea, and the largest and most remarkable in some respects was one which "jumped to my eyes" among the booty of marine dredgings sent home from the Antarctic expedition of the "Discovery" by Captain Scott, when I unpacked the cases containing these marine treasures, in the basement of the Natural History Museum. I published a photograph of it in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society," and named it "Cephalodiscus nigrescens." But nothing more of importance has, as yet, been brought to light as to "Rhabdopleura."
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--A piece of the white branching coral (Lophohelia prolifera) dredged in great quantity by the author off Lervik in 1882. Drawn of the natural size.]
Our rule at Lervik was to go out dredging from seven to twelve, and work at the material with microscope and pencil for some three or four hours after lunch. Of all the many beautiful things we dredged, the most striking were the various kinds of corals, the large, glass-like shrimps, the strange apple-green worm Hamingia (actually known previously by two specimens only), and the large, disc-like and branched, sand-covered or sausage-like Protozoa (from a shelly bottom of 200 fathoms depth). My friend Dr. Norman joined me at Lervik after I had been there for a month, and showed his extraordinary skill in choosing the most favourable spots for sinking the dredge and in pouncing on interesting specimens as we sorted the contents of the dredge (when we had been on a soft bottom) by passing them through the sieves, specially provided for naturalists' use, as we gently rocked on the dark surface of the clear, deep water, many miles from our island. The colours and light of that region are wonderful--the mountains of a yellow tint, far paler than the purple sea, whilst the rocky islands are fringed with seaweed of rich orange-brown colour, and clothed with grass and innumerable flowers.
The white coral of two kinds (Lophohelia and Amphihelia) is accompanied by beautiful purple and salmon-coloured softer kinds of coral (Alcyonarians), known as Primnoa, and by the gigantic Paragorgia. On one occasion our dredge became fast. For long nothing would move it, and we feared we should have to cut it and lose some 300 fathoms of rope. At last the efforts of four men at the oars set it free, and we wound it in. As the dredge came up we found entangled in the rope an enormous tree-like growth, as thick as a man's arm, seven feet long, and spreading out into branches, the whole of a pale vermilion colour (like pink lacquer)--a magnificent sight! It was a branch of the great tree-coral of these waters--the Paragorgia--and we preserved many pieces of it in alcohol and dried the rest. But the gorgeous colour could not be retained.
