126 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



by water between the eastern and western sides of America, 

 these occurrences tend to furnish an interesting corrobora- 

 tion of the fact. New Bedford Mercury . 



SITUATION OF THE GESORIACUM OF THE ROMANS. 



According to Professor Airy, the Gesoriacum of the histo- 

 rians of the Roman Empire is not the modern Boulogne-sur- 

 Mer, as has generally been supposed. On the contrary, he 

 thinks that Dunkirk has the best claim to identification with 

 the place in question. 15 A, November 12, 1870, 625. 



DEEP-SEA SOUNDINGS IN THE ADRIATIC. 



As a result of some recent deep-sea explorations in the 

 Adriatic, Dr. Schmid announces that at depths of from 50 to 

 630 fathoms he found but little trace of animal life, excepting 

 the foraminifera, a fact which he attributes to the absence of 

 the great natural currents, to which the variety of animal life 

 in the depths of the Atlantic appears to be due. Of Bathyb- 

 ius, however, as Professor Huxley calls a peculiar amorphous 

 animal matter found at great depths, an enormous quantity 

 was brought up by every cast of the net below fifty fathoms. 

 These are always accompanied by coccoliths, one of the con- 

 stituents of the ancient chalk. 13-4, August 13,293. 



BED OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC. 



Captain Sherrard Osborne, well known as an arctic explor- 

 er, has lately presented a communication to the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society of London in reference to the Atlantic sea- 

 bed. In this paper he states that the bottom of the North 

 Atlantic is occupied by two valleys, the eastern extending 

 from ten to thirty degrees west longitude, and traceable as 

 far as the equator, with an extreme depth of less than 13,000 

 feet.' The western valley reaches from the thirtieth to the 

 fiftieth degree of west longitude ; and the two are separated 

 by a ridge in thirty degrees west longitude, along which the 

 average depth is only 1600 fathoms, and which can be traced 

 northward to Iceland and southward to the Azores, so that 

 it is volcanic in character at both extremities. Its extreme 

 breadth is somewhat less than 500 miles, and the depth of 

 the water increases on both sides of it according to the dis- 

 tance from the axis. 



