2 THE FAUNA OF THE DEEP SEA 



ralist it should be remarked that he adds, ' Its 

 confines are yet undetermined, and it is in the 

 exploration of this vast deep-sea region that the 

 finest field for submarine discovery yet remains.' 



Forbes was only expressing the general opinion 

 of naturalists of his time when he refers with evident 

 hesitation to the existence of an azoic region. His 

 own dredging excursions in depths of over one 

 hundred fathoms proved the existence of many 

 peculiar species that were previously unknown to 

 science. ' They were like,' he says, ' the few stray 

 bodies of strange red men, which tradition reports to 

 have been washed on the shores of the Old World 

 before the discovery of the New, and which served to 

 indicate the existence of unexplored realms inhabited 

 by unknown races, but not to supply information 

 about their character, habits, and extent.' 



In the absence of any systematic investigation of 

 the bottom of the deep sea, previous to Forbes's time 

 the only information of deep-sea animals was due 

 to the accidental entanglement of certain forms in 

 sounding lines, or to the minute worms that were 

 found in the mud adhering to the lead. 



As far back as 1 753, Ellis described an Alcyonarian 

 that was brought up by a sounding line from a depth 



