ZOOLOGY. 349 



dretl and sixty fathoms, or two thousand five hundred and twenty 

 yards, whilst the sounding apparatus itself brought up a considerable 

 quantity of minute granular particles, looking like a fine oolite, but 

 which was, in reality, a nearly perfectly pure Globigerina deposit, 

 thirteen star-fishes, from two inches to five inches in diameter from 

 tip to tip of rays, belonging to a genus plentifully represented on 

 our own coasts, came up adhering to the extreme fifty fathoms of 

 sounding-line. These Ophiocomce were not only alive on being 

 brought up out of the water, but some of them continued for fully a 

 quarter of an- hour to move about their long spinous arms. To ren- 

 der intelligible the significancy of the entire circumstances, I must 

 mention that, in order to insure accuracy, it is always necessary, when 

 sounding in deep water, to ascertain the depth by one sort of appara- 

 tus, and" to bring up the sample of bottom by another. In the pres- 

 ent case, the ascertained depth was twelve hundred and sixty fathoms, 

 and fifty fathoms was accordingly "paid out" in the second operation 

 of bringing up bottom, in order to make sure that the more compli- 

 cated and unmanageable apparatus required for this purpose fairly 

 rested on the bottom. 



Now, supposing it possible that these star-fishes were drifting about 

 in some intermediate stratum of water, between the bottom and sur- 

 face, it is evident that they would have attached themselves indis- 

 criminately to any portion of the entire twelve hundred and sixty 

 fathoms of line ; unless, indeed, they chanced to have been directing 

 their course in a closely compacted column, which was traversed by 

 the last extra fifty fathoms of line at the precise moment of their 

 crossing it. Whether it be possible that they were drifting in such 

 a column, or floating on a bed of sea-weed or other substance, is im- 

 material, inasmuch as they could only have attached themselves as 

 they did to the portion of line referred to under this one condition. 

 But the very act of attachment would, I maintain, be impossible in 

 the case of creatures whose movements are so sluggish, when the ob- 

 ject which they had to grasp was moving upwards at the rate of two 

 miles per hour (as it does when hauled up by the steam-engine), and 

 without a moment's intermission. But even assuming it to be possi- 

 ble that they had drifted to the position in which they were captured 

 from distant and less profound depths, the fact of their vitality and 

 vigorously healthy condition would be scarcely less extraordinary; 

 for the distance from the nearest point of land, which is a rock off Ice- 

 land, is two hundred and fifty miles, whilst the next nearest land, 

 Greenland, is distant no less than five hundred miles. But it must 

 be obvious to every one who is at all conversant with the structure 

 of the Ophiocomce and Echinoderms generally, that they are essen- 

 tially creeping and crawling creatures, and of far too great specific 

 gravity to float at all under any circumstances. 



Taking into consideration then the circumstances under which 

 these Opldocomaz were taken, the extreme improbability of their hav- 

 ing drifted to the locality in which they were found from distant and 

 shallower waters, and, lastly, the peculiarities of structure which ren- 

 der them wholly unfit to float or swim for even a brief period, we 

 should have been fully warranted, I think, in believing that they 

 existed in a living state at the bottom. In order to obtain some clue 



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