GEOLOGY. 323 



with what northern voyagers tell us concerning the migration of animals in 

 those regions ; with what Dr. Kane saw and De Haven says ; with the fact 

 that harpoons fastened in whales on the shores of Greenland have been taken 

 out of whales along the shores of Kamtschatka and Japan these facts, taken 

 in connection with the discovery which my own researches have fully deve- 

 loped, that the right whale of Greenland and the right whale of the Xorth 

 Pacific are the same fish, and that to it the torrid zone is as a sea of flame 

 which it cannot pass ; I say these facts, linked together, and taken in connec- 

 tion with other facts and circumstances, seem to form a chain of faultless cir- 

 cumstantial evidence, showing the existence of an open water in the Polar basin. 



Deep sea soundings, with specimens of the bottom, have also been returned 

 to this office from that expedition. They were taken in the North Pacific 

 with Brooke's apparatus, and have been studied through the microscope of 

 Professor Bailey at West Point. 



They all tell the same story. They teach us that the quiet of the grave 

 reigns everywhere in the profound depths of the ocean ; that the repose there 

 is beyond the reach of wind ; it is so perfect that none of the powers of earth 

 save only the earthquake and volcano can disturb it. 



The specimens of deep sea soundings, for which we are indebted to the 

 ingenuity of Lieut. Brooke, are as pure and as free from the sand of the sea 

 as the snow flake that falls when it is calm upon the sea is from the dust of 

 the earth. Indeed, these soundings suggest the idea that the sea, like the 

 snow cloud with its flakes in a calm, is always letting fall upon its bed 

 showers of these microscopic shells ; and we may readily imagine that the 

 " sunless wrecks" which strew its bottom are, in the process of ages, hid 

 under this fleecy covering, presenting the rounded appearance which is seen 

 over the body of the traveller who has perished in the snow storm. The 

 ocean, especially within and near the tropics, swarms with life. The remains 

 of its myriads of moving things are conveyed by currents, and scattered and 

 lodged in the course of time all over its bottom. This process, continued for 

 ages, has covered the depths of the ocean as with a mantle, consisting of 

 organisms as delicate as the macled frost, and as light as the undrifted snow- 

 flake on the mountain. 



Wherever this beautiful sounding rod has reached the bottom of the deep 

 sea, whether hi the Atlantic or Pacific, the bed of the ocean has been found 

 of a downlike softness. The lead appears to sink many feet deep into the 

 oozy matter there which has been strained and filtered through the sea 

 water. This matter consists of the skeletons and casts of insects of the sea of 

 microscopic minuteness. 



CURIOUS FACT IX RELATION TO COAL. 



Mr. J. P. Leslie, in a communication to the American Association, stated, 

 that it is a generally received opinion among the coal districts of Pennsyl- 

 vania, that sulphuret of iron abounds in the synclinal strata of the coal series. 

 Miners and engine drivers insist upon its truth, that where the bed is inclined 

 steeply the coal is purer, and where it lies flat the coal is soft and com- 

 paratively rich in sulphur. 



