1S97] DISTRIBUTION OF PELAGIC FORAMINIFERA 19 



naturalists was called to the fact. It was Wyville Thomson's 

 opinion, however, that these shells really came from the deep-sea 

 deposits. It was the custom to sift and wash large quantities of 

 the ooze procured in the dredge on the deck of the ship, and it 

 was believed that some of the shells from the deck being washed 

 overboard were subsequently caught by the tow-nets dragging astern. 

 But the appearance of the shells taken in the tow-nets was so different 

 from that of those procured from the bottom that I could not accept 

 the above explanation. When the weather permitted, the tow-nets 

 were dragged, at considerable distances from the ship, from a rowing 

 boat, and Foraminifera were procured in abundance. By using a 

 water-glass I was sometimes able to dip up a single specimen in a 

 glass beaker without in any way touching it. When this specimen 

 was taken on board the ship, and placed under the microscope, the 

 whole sarcode of the animal was to be seen expanded outside of the 

 shell, as represented in Fig. 1. When our attention was once 

 directed to the subject, the pelagic Foraminifera were observed in 

 almost every haul of the tow-net. Many of the Globigerinae, the 

 Orbidinac, and the Hastigerinae are furnished with long spines, and 

 when the animal is expanded the sarcode rests between the spines. 

 In the Pidvinulinae, the Sphacvoidineic, and Pulleniae, which have 

 no spines, the shell is frequently so hidden in the expanded yellow- 

 coloured sarcode that it may escape observation. 



On the return of the Challenger Expedition, the late Mr 

 H. B. Brady 1 and others pointed out that, if the Globigerinae were 

 pelagic organisms, it was a most extraordinary circumstance that no 

 naturalist had recorded them in any of the numerous tow-net 

 gatherings about the British coasts. This, however, quite agreed 

 with the experience of the Challenger naturalists. Whenever the 

 ship entered a bay, an estuary, or, indeed, any coastal waters, the 

 pelagic Foraminifera became very rare or entirely disappeared from 

 the nets, although they may have been abundant fifty miles from 

 the coast. I have never seen a single specimen in the tow-nets 

 around the coasts of Scotland. In the Triton and Knight Errant 

 Expeditions pelagic Foraminifera were found in abundance in the 

 Gulf Stream waters which flow up the Faroe Channel, although not a 

 single specimen was observed in the Minch or North Sea waters. 

 The pelagic Foraminifera are truly oceanic creatures, even more so 

 than the Pteropoda : they are most abundant in true oceanic 

 currents ; where these currents flow directly towards a coast they 

 may be borne close to the shore, but usually they are only to be met 

 with far out at sea. 



From an examination of the large number of microscopic pre- 



1 Quart. Journ. Micro. S'ci., vol. xix., N.S., p. 292. 1879 ; see also Zool. Chall. 

 Exp., part xxii., pp. ix-xv. 1884. 



