lO 



DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN 



the fact that members of the higher groups of animals really 

 lived at great depths in the sea. 



Since 1861 Swedish and Norwegian expeditions to the 

 Arctic regions and the North Atlantic have been numerous, 

 and during one of these in 1864 many animals were dredged 

 from depths of 1000 to 1400 fathoms by Otto Torell. In the 

 same year Bocage published a paper on the occurrence of the 

 glass-rope sponge {Hyalonema) at depths of 500 fathoms off the 

 coast of Portugal, which was confirmed in 1868 by Perceval 

 Wright, who went there for the purpose and dredged up 

 specimens from 480 fathoms. 



From the year 1867 dredgings as well as soundings were 

 carried out under the auspices of the United States Coast 

 Survey by Pourtales and Louis 

 Agassiz off the coast of Florida, and 

 between Cuba and Florida. Pour- 

 tales took up the examination of the 

 deposit-samples after the death of 

 Bailey, the number of samples 

 collected up to 1870 being nine 

 thousand. Louis Agassiz reported 

 on the results of the dredgings, and 

 compared some of the dredged 

 forms with fossil types ; he con- 

 cluded by stating his conviction that 

 the continental areas and the oceanic 

 areas have occupied from the earliest 

 times much the same positions as at 

 the present day. 



■' Sir C. Wvvili.e ThOxMson. 



In 1868 were commenced a series of short cruises in the 

 North Atlantic and Mediterranean, under the direction of 

 British naturalists, which may be regarded as preliminary and 

 leading up to the great "Challenger" Expedition. Thus in 

 1868 Wyville Thomson and W. B. Carpenter carried out 

 oceanographical work on board H.M.S. "Lightning," taking 

 dredgings in depths down to 650 fathoms, and showing beyond 

 question that animal life is there varied and abundant, repre- 

 sented by all the invertebrate groups, a large proportion of 

 the forms belonging to species hitherto unknown, others being 

 specifically Identical with tertiary fossils hitherto believed to 

 be extinct, or illustrating extinct groups of the fauna of more 

 remote periods. The temperature observations seemed to 



