F. GEOGRAPHY. 213 



F. GEOGRAPHY. 



LIFE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 



In carefully discussing the observations made in the Medi- 

 terranean in 1871 on the /Sheancater, Dr. Csn'penter finds his 

 former inferences that the excess of carbonic acid and dim- 

 inution of oxygen in these waters is incompatible with the 

 full development of animal life verified by the facts, this 

 being mainly in consequence of the want of proper circula- 

 tion, induced by the occurrence of a bar at the Straits of 

 Gibraltar. He thinks that nearly the whole available oxygen 

 has been converted into carbonic acid, so that, while the pro- 

 portion of oxygen to carbonic acid is never less than one 

 third in the open sea, it is here no more than one twelfth a 

 difference sufficient to account for the paucity of animal life 

 on the deep bottom of the Mediterranean. 



The dredgings carried on between Sicily and the coast of 

 Africa furthermore showed that below a depth of 150 fathoms 

 animal life was very scanty, and Dr. Carpenter is inclined 

 to believe that in the Mediterranean the existence of animal 

 life in any abundance at a greater depth than 200 fathoms 

 will be found quite exceptional, in this respect presenting a 

 striking contrast to the great variety of organisms found in 

 the eastern and northern Atlantic at depths between 500 and 

 1200 fathGms. 13 A, Jcmuarij 15, 1872, 32. 



UNEXPLORED REGIONS OF THE 'SVORLD. 



According to a writer in The Academy, there are four vast 

 areas which have never been traversed by civilized man, and 

 which, among them, constitute about one seventeenth of the 

 whole area of the globe. Of these the greatest is the antarc- 

 tic region, the extent of which is about seventy-five times 

 that of Great Britain. The second lies about the north pole ; 

 the third is in Central Africa ; and the fourth in Western 

 Australia. The south polar region referred to is almost 

 conterminous with the antarctic circle, to which the nearest 

 approach was made by Ross in February, 1842, in latitude 78 

 10', south of New Zealand. The nearest approach to the 



