116 ANNUAL KECOKD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



to the bottom, and subsequently torn off by some severe 

 storm; but it is now understood that the plants composing 

 it increase by rapid growth, although in this condition they 

 never produce either roots or fruit. It is therefore supposed, 

 from their multiplying in this manner, that they are a pecul- 

 iar form of one or more species described by botanists, which 

 produce fruit only when rooting in the shallower waters, 

 and that this growth and development may continue indefi- 

 nitely for an immense number of years. 



This meadow of sea-weed is remarkable not only for the 

 immense extent of vegetation, but for the great variety of 

 animal life abounding in its midst. Innumerable species of 

 Crustacea, many annelids, mollusca, polyzoa, polyps, and fish- 

 es are found in it. Investigations of patches of the weed al- 

 ways furnish a fruitful field of research to naturalists. It is 

 mentioned as an interesting circumstance that all the animals 

 found harboring in the Sargasso sea-weed are of the same 

 general tint as that of the weed itself, assimilating themselves 

 so closely that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them 

 at first sight. It is not at all improbable that, in view of 

 the immense amount of minute animal life in these locali- 

 ties, many of our wandering fishes, such as various species of 

 mackerel, etc., find in such places those breeding regions that 

 we have hitherto sought for in vain. 



The position of the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic, as well as 

 similar patches in other oceans, is believed to be determined 

 by the course of the greater oceanic currents, as it occupies 

 the eddy formed by the northern drift of the Gulf Stream 

 toward the west, and its southward branch, which is deflected 

 from the Banks of Newfoundland, and extends to the south, 

 by the way of the Azores, along the coast of Africa. 



Another tract of the Sargasso Sea is found in the Pacific, 

 off the coast of Lower California; and still another extends 

 along in the antarctic waters from Australia to the Falkland 

 Islands. 9 A, October, 1870, 383. 



CHARACTER OF KARA SEA. 



Dr. Petermaniijin a late article on the opening up of a por- 

 tion of the northern Polar Sea by the voyages and observa- 

 tions of sundry Norwegian navigators in 1870, states that 

 the most important result of these expeditions consists in 



