202 DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN 



Description of GlOBIGERINA Ooze — dirty white colour, coherent, granular. 



typical deposit Calcium CARBONATE — 78,59 per Cent; pelagic and bottom-living 



kcTidVy°the foraminifera, ostracods, coccoliths, and rhabdoliths. 



"Michael RESIDUE, 21.41 percent: — 



Sars." Siliceous Organisms — 2 per cent ; radiolaria, sponge spicules. 



Minerals — 4 per cent, m. di. 0.09 mm., one angular fragment of 

 volcanic glass exceeded 2 mm. in length ; quartz, plagioclase, 

 volcanic glass, augite (?), magnetite, mica. 

 Fine Washings — 15.41 per cent; amorphous clayey matter with 

 minute mineral particles. 

 Note. — The sounding-tube brought up a roll about 9 inches in length 

 of a creamy white colour throughout. 



All the rock fragments dredged during the " Michael Sars " 

 Expedition, as well as those collected by H.M. ships " Knight 

 Errant" and "Triton" in 1880 and 1882, have been carefully 

 examined and studied by Dr. B. N. Peach. ^ Drs. Peach and 

 Home have prepared the folio w^ing note on the general results: — 



Rock frag- The materials collected by the " Michael Sars " Expedition fall under 



ments dredged |-^q categories: (i) those whose presence on the sea -floor is due to 



"\lichael natural agencies, and (2) those distributed by human agencies. The 



Sars." materials belonging to the first group consist chiefly of rock fragments, 



the remains of floating or swimming organisms that lived at or near the 



surface of the sea (such as barnacles and the ear-bone of a whale), and 



fragments of wood. The members of the second group are mainly 



furnace clinkers and pieces of coal, small pieces of glazed pottery, and 



oyster-shells, together with a cannon-bone of a small ox. 



By far the most interesting collection of the " Michael Sars" series 

 was obtained from Station 95, which lies about 230 miles south-west 

 of Mizen Head, Ireland, at a depth of 5886 feet, or a little over a mile. 

 The rock fragments, comprising over 200 specimens, included upwards 

 of 100 of sedimentary origin, 58 of igneous origin, and 40 belonging 

 to the metamorphic series. Some of the specimens were referred to the 

 Cretaceous and Carboniferous periods by means of their fossil contents ; 

 the remainder were grouped with the Devonian or Old Red Sandstone 

 and Silurian systems solely on lithological grounds. 



The fragments regarded as of Silurian age include greywacke- 

 sandstones, dark shales, and black lydian stone identical in lithological 

 characters with rocks that floor a large part of the southern uplands 

 of Scotland and the north of Ireland. Those referred to Devonian 

 time resemble the Glengariff grits of the Dingle peninsula in the south- 

 west of Ireland. The carboniferous specimens comprise encrinital 

 limestones with chert, like those of Galway and Clare. One sandstone 

 fragment was crowded with ScJiizodus and Edinondia similar to rocks 

 occurring in places along the Solway shore in Scotland and in London- 

 derry and Tyrone in Ireland. The specimens of chalk and chalk-flints 

 are like the rocks in the Antrim plateau. 



^ See detailed report in Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., 19 12. 



