io6 DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN 



found in Chapter VI. A few particulars may, however, be 

 given here. 



Among the exceedingly diminutive plants found in the 



open sea, calcareous flagellates or coccolithophoridse are the 



most important, especially in the w^armer waters. During the 



"Challenger" Expedition, Murray discovered that they were 



distributed everywhere over the surface of all warm seas, and 



he stated that they were plants. These small organisms occur 



in far greater abundance, both of species and individuals, than 



had hitherto been supposed. In reality they, together with 



Great diatoms and other algse, constitute the fundamental source of 



cocc"omho-°^ food for all animals in tropical and sub-tropical waters. In the 



phorida; in the Sargasso Sea there were in every litre 12 or 15 species and 



. argabso -ea. ^qoo to 3000 individuals. In colder masses of water they 



decrease very greatly in quantity, yet even on the edge of the 



Newfoundland Bank, with a temperature of 2^^ C, we still met 



with one or two species numbering 50 individuals to the litre. 



In the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, on the other hand, they 



are not found at all. 



After occupying Station 64 we were compelled to turn 

 northwards and steer for our next coaling station, St. John's, 

 Newfoundland. We had to abandon any idea of following up 

 in a southerly direction the remarkable finds we had made, and 

 probably thus lost the chance of making the most interesting 

 discovery of all, namely, the earliest stages of eels, Gastrostomiis, 

 and other forms. Still there was the possibility of learning 

 something about the currents off the coast of North America, 

 as well as the connection between the different water-layers and 

 the plants and animal forms existing in them. 



Fig. 93 shows a temperature and salinity section from the 

 Sargasso Sea to Newfoundland. At Stations 64 and 65 we see 

 the vast layer, with a salinity of over 35 per thousand and high 

 temperature down to considerable depths, the same as found 

 by us over the whole distance from away beyond the Canary 

 Islands. 



On our way north from Station 64 on 28th June we saw 

 patches of Sargasso weed all the morning, and numbers of flying 

 fish, about 10 centimetres long, started up in front of our bows. 

 This led us to believe that we should capture the same forms as 

 before, when we lowered our pelagic appliances in the evening 

 at Station 66. Great was our astonishment, therefore, to discover 

 next morning on hauling in our appliances that the catches 



