32 AMERICAN JOURNAL 



the idea occurs to him that, from 60 or 80 fathoms down to the 

 greatest depth known to be inhabited by animals, the bottom is 

 everywhere covered with a soft and fine mud or clay, and that 

 there exists from pole to pole, in all latitudes, a deep-sea fauna 

 of the same general character, many species of which have a very 

 wide distribution. He also thinks it probable that in the vicinity 

 of both poles such a uniform fauna approaches the surface ; while 

 in tropical seas it occupies the depths of the ocean, the coast-line 

 there being represented by vast regions of distinct faunas, the 

 circumferences or areas of which are much more limited. But, 

 in the face of the discovery made by Professor Sars that large 

 Brachiopoda, stony corals, and Polyzoa, as well as certain Mol- 

 lusca (e. g. Aiiomia and Saxicava) which are peculiar to a hard 

 or even to a rocky bottom, inhabit a depth of 300 fathoms, and 

 seeing that Dr. Wallich found a living Serpula attached to a 

 stone at the depth of 682 fathoms, I am not prepared to accept, 

 without considerable qualification, Professor Loven's notion that 

 the sea-bottom from 60 or 80 fathoms downwards is everywhere 

 formed of soft material ; indeed we need not go far from home 

 to seek a refutation of thislidea. Captain Beechey's dredgings 

 off the Mull of Galloway, in 145 fathoms (as reported by the 

 late Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, in the ' Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History ' for September 1842, p. 21), yielded live spe- 

 cimens of Chiton fascieularis, 0. cinereus, Trochus millegranus, 

 and Trophon Barvicensis, all of which are inhabitants of hard 

 or stony, and never of soft ground, besides dead shells of the 

 same and similar species. That is more than twice the average 

 depth supposed by Professor Loven to be the limit of hard 

 ground. 



