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The discoveries that had been made indicating the existence of a deep-sea fauna led to the commission of H.M. ships ‘Lightning’ and ‘Porcupine,’ and the systematic investigation that was made by the naturalists on these vessels brought home to the minds of naturalists the fact that there is not only an abysmal fauna, but that in places this deep-sea fauna is very rich and extensive. The ‘Lightning’ was despatched in the spring of 1868 and carried on its investigations in the neighbourhood of the Faeroe Islands, but the vessel was not suitable for the purpose and met with bad weather. The results, however, were of extreme importance; for, besides solving many important points concerning the distribution of ocean temperature, ‘it had been shown beyond question that animal life is both varied and abundant at depths in the ocean down to 650 fathoms at least, notwithstanding the extraordinary conditions to which animals are there exposed.’

Among the remarkable animals dredged by the ‘Lightning’ were the curious Echinoderm, Brisinga coronata, previously discovered by Sars, and the Hexactinellid sponges, Holtenia and Hyalonema, the Crinoids Rhizocrinus and Antedon celticus, and the Pennatulid Bathyptilum Carpenteri, not to mention numerous Foraminifera new to science.