The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-08-01 00:00:00

A SCIENTIFIC EXCURSION ON THE
"CHALLENGER."

The Sydney Morning Herald of the sth of June says :
On Wednesday morning, shortly after eight o'clock,
her Majesty's ship Challenger weighed anchor in Farm
Cove, and proceeded to sea with a large party on
board, chiefly consisting of gentlemen more or less
interested in scientific pursuits and maritime affairs.
Between thirty and forty excursionists availed them-
selves, on this occasion, of the hospitality of Captain
Nares and his officers. Everything was decidedly
conducive to that agreeable end; for the weather was
extremely fine, and the water as smooth as glass. The
dredge apparatus was first thrown out from the port
side in about forty fathoms, at the distance of about
three and a half miles from the coast near the Heads,
and on the apparatus being drawn up little or nothing
appeared to have been caught. Small as the "haul"
was, however, it included specimens of the Nassa with
the restless little hermit crab, one or two Polvzoa
(aphrodite), a small bivalve shell the "Venus
roboralis," the pleurotoma, the marginella (an
anelid), the Leda Dorni, and cardium. A
second similar haul a mile further off—secured
specimens of the Turratella gunni (a not uncommon
but very curiously shaped shellfish), several new crabs,
a shell called the Voluta undulate, a Pecten bifrons—
a shell to be found on the coast of South Australia—
a Cassis, a Trigonia, several pretty pink starfish, a
long and delicate brown tinted shell called " Myr-
tilius," Bryozoa, the Sphrotna, a small sea urchin,
and the Raniaa. A new species of the rare crustacean
called Scrolls was here also found in this "haul," and
was carefully preserved. The long pink legs and small
body of the Stenorynchus here also put in an appear-
ance. The next adventure was not made with the
dredge, but with the trawl or large net, which was let
down when the ship was about six or seven miles off
the land. What was brought up included five speci-
mens of gorgonia, a zoophyte (to the uninitiated)
exactly resembling fern leaves ; an animal of the star-
fish kind—order " Comatula," Antedon genus—a very
rare and beautiful object. The leaf-like upper ap-
pendages of this animal were red and white,
and the root-like shoots below were of a fine
deep purple. The trawl also secured specimens
of sponges, a curious zoophyte resembling a long
sprig of heath priumoa, a fish like a "flathead," and a
bright little scarlet fish recognised by some of the party
as "Nanigai." Again the trawl was let down, in 35
fathoms, at 1.35 p.m., the vessel then standing in
towards the land, and the lighthouse bearing away to
the north-west. The party now secured great numbers
of specimens of the comatula adverted to, two or three
gorgonia Of different kinds (white and dark), and a
very remarkable specimen of primnoa, &c. The officer
in immediate charge of the dredging, &c., then sent
down the dredge with the pendent swabs, but the
apparatus broke off below. The Challenger was con-
siderably to the south-east of Heads (off Bondi) at the
last throw of the dredge at four o'clock, but from this
also they got nothing. The vessel at length returned
towards the mouth of the harbour, and finally reached
a point near her former anchorage at Fix r. in.