1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 297 



A Floating Scientific Station 

 An important proposal was laid before the International Geological 

 Congress by Professor Andrussow. It was that a ship, fitted with 

 scientific laboratories and apparatus, should constantly be maintained 

 at sea by international contributions, and that geologists and biolo- 

 gists of all contributory nations should be allowed a place on board 

 for carrying out observations. The importance of the study of the 

 ocean-floor, and of all marine deposits now forming, will be denied 

 by no geologist, but the opportunity as a rule is lacking. Hence 

 geologists no less than biologists are interested in the maintenance 

 of such a floating scientific station. The difficulties in the way of 

 the proposal are too obvious to need comment, but if there is a real 

 desire to see it put into effect nothing need prove insuperable. Since 

 the idea received the warm support of Dr John Murray, Professors 

 von Zittel, Haeckel, Walther, Prinz, and other influential scientific 

 men, there is no doubt but that we shall hear more of it, and we 

 wish it all success. 



The Black Sea 

 An excellent illustration of the geological value of thalassography was 

 afforded by the Black Sea. On the steamer that conveyed the main 

 body of geologists from Batoum to Odessa, dredging apparatus was 

 provided and a small laboratory fitted up, enabling those who wished 

 to verify for themselves the interesting account of this sea given by 

 Professor Andrussov in the Livret Guide. The most striking 

 peculiarity of the Black Sea is the absence of all life except bacterial 

 at depths exceeding 100 fathoms. The cause of this may be put 

 briefly thus. Into the deep and steep-sided Euxine basin there is 

 poured, especially on the northern side, a vast amount of cold fresh 

 water from the rivers. Thus there is started in the direction of 

 the Bosphorus a surface stream, 



" Whose icy current and compulsive course 

 Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on 

 To the Propontic and the Hellespont." 



From the Bosphorus into the Black Sea a very slow under-current 

 brings the warmer but Salter and therefore heavier waters of the 

 Aegean. These scarcely mingle at all with the surface waters, but 

 sink to the bottom. The exchange takes place so slowly that, ac- 

 cording to the calculations of Admiral Makarov, it requires at least 

 1700 years to renew the water of the lower strata, whereas the 

 water of the upper 100 fathoms is renewed annually. Below 100 

 fathoms, therefore, the quantity of oxygen contained in the water 

 diminishes rapidly, and while the cold brackish water of the surface 

 and of the narrow shelving shore is unfavourable to the develop- 

 ment of ordinary marine life, the deoxygenated water of the depth, 

 despite its saltness and warmth, is absolutely fatal to all organisms 

 other than bacteria. 



