ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



On SOME Organisms living at Great Depths in the North 

 Atlantic Ocean. By Professor Huxley, F.R.S. 



In the year 1857, H.M.S. *' Cyclops," under the com- 

 mand of Cajitain Dayman, was despatched by the Admiralty 

 to ascertain the depth of the sea and the nature of the bot- 

 tom in that part of the North Atlantic in which it was pro- 

 posed to lay the telegraph cable, and which is now commonly 

 known as the " Telegraph plateau." 



The specimens of mud brought up were sent to me for 

 examination, and a brief account of the results of my obser- 

 vations is given in ' Appendix A ' of Captain Dayman^s 

 Report, which was published in 1858 under the title of 

 " Deep-Sea Soundings in the North Atlantic Ocean." In 

 this Ajjpendix (p. 64) the following passage occurs : 



" Hut I find in almost all these deposits a mvdtitude of 

 very curious rounded bodies, to all appearance consisting of 

 several concentric layers surrounding a minute clear centre, 

 and looking, at first sight, somewhat like single cells of the 

 plant Protococcus ; as these bodies, however, are rapidly 

 and completely dissolved by dilute acids, they cannot be 

 organic, and I will, for convenience sake, simply call them 

 coccoliths." 



In 1860, Dr. Wallich accompanied Sir Leopold McClin- 

 tock in H.M.S. " Bulldog," which was employed in taking a 

 line of soundings between the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and 

 Labrador ; and, on his return, printed, for private circula- 

 tion, some " Notes (m the presence of Animal Life at vast 

 depths in the Sea." In addition to the coccoliths noted by 

 me. Dr. Wallich discovered peculiar spheroidal bodies, 

 which he terms " coccospheres," in the ooze of the deep-sea 

 mud, and he throws out the suggestion that the coccoliths 

 proceed from the coccospheres. In 1861, the same writer 

 pubHshed a paper in the ' Annals of Natural History,' en- 

 titled " Researches on some novel Phases of Organic Life, 



VOL. VIII. NEW SER. (i 



