368 BULLETIN OF THE 



to the depth and consequent pressure of the water, or to the absence 

 of light, but rather to the nature of the soil ; for we find in it 

 many animals to which such a habitat is congenial, — a variety of 

 worms, for instance, and such shells as seek muddy bottoms. I have 

 not the least doubt that a rocky foundation at eight hundred or even 

 a thousand and more fathoms would yield a large harvest of animals ; 

 unquestionably fewer than are found in shallower waters, but yet as 

 varied and as numerous comparatively as are the Alpine plants on the 

 very limits of perpetual snow, wherever, in various latitudes, that vege- 

 tation can be compared with the flora of lower levels. If we have not 

 succeeded in finding such a fauna in the deepest waters of the Gulf 

 Stream, I hold that the cause lies chiefly in the absence of rocky bot- 

 toms in the deepest parts of the basin through which the great current 

 of our southern coast flows. The character of the mud in the chan- 

 nel of the Gulf Stream does not warrant the supposition that the 

 mud deposits derived from the turbid waters of the Amazons and 

 Orinoco have extended as far north as the Gulf of Mexico, even 

 though the great equatorial current sweeps past the mouths of these 

 rivers. 



There is one subject of scientific research, the connection of which 

 with deep-sea soundings cannot fail to lead to unexpected results. 

 "When attempting to explain the structure of the stratified rocks, and 

 many other phenomena connected with the general appearance of the 

 earth's surface, geologists have not hesitated to ascribe, in a general 

 way, the facts under observation to the agency of water ; but they 

 have rarely entered into such specific details as would establish a 

 causal connection between all these facts, and the cause appealed to. 

 In proportion as the sea-bottom becomes more extensively known, and 

 the character of the materials lying beneath the water and their mode 

 of arrangement are ascertained with greater precision, more accurate 

 comparisons, in consequence of which current views may have to 

 undergo considerable modifications, will certainly be made between 

 geological formations of past age-, including all their deposits of 

 various kinds, and the materials at present scattered in special ways 

 over the ocean floor. 



From what I have seen of the deep-sea bottom, I am already led to 

 infer that among the rocks forming the bulk of the stratified crust of 

 our globe, from the oldest to the youngest formation, there are probably 



