20 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



of thought as places him in the foremost rank of pioneers in 

 the investigation of the biological conditions of the Deep Sea. 

 He viewed the existence of bathybial life in its relation to atmo- 

 spheric pressure, light, temperature, and chemical composition 

 of the sea-water, ocean-currents, and discusses its evolution. 

 He is decidedly of opinion that bathjbial forms are direct de- 

 scendants of littoral, and that change of abode is not necessarily 

 accompanied by modification of specific characters ; that bathybial 

 forms may return to littoral life. He thinks that Glohigerina is 

 widely spread over the ocean-bed, and that it lives at tlie bottom. 

 Some of his conclusions have not survived the test of subsequent 

 research, whilst others are now treated as generally accepted 

 truths. I am ignorant of the causes by which he has been pre- 

 vented from publishing more than a fragment of his work*; but, 

 when some years ago I had an opportunity of examining bis 

 manuscript notes and drawings, I could not help regretting that 

 observations, so carelully made and so novel at the time, were 

 not published by him thirty years ago. 



British zoologists did not resume Deep-sea work in tliis area 

 until 1875, the year of the last British North Polar Expedition. 

 As you may remember, that expedition was accompanied as far 

 as Disco by a storeship, the ' Valorous.' The late Mr. Grwyn 

 Jeffreys went out in her, with the object of utilizing on the 

 retui'n-journey such opportunities as would present themselves 

 for deep-sea dredging. Actually only eight of these operations 

 were successful t; five within Davis Straits (the northernmost at 

 Disco), the three others on the passage across the Atlantic. No 

 trawl was used, and therefore Invertebrates only were taken, 

 many of high interest, particularly as throwing light upon the 

 remarkable affinity between the Arctic and Antarctic faunas, and 

 foreboding the important results that would reward a more 

 systematic investigation of some part of the Arctic sea. 



This was regarded by the Scandinavians as their own special 

 task. Prom the year 1858 exj)edition after expedition left 

 Sweden under the scientific direction of the late Dr. 0. Torell, 

 Baron von Nordenskjold, Drs. F. A. Smitt, W. Ljunginan, 

 H. Theel, A. Stuxberg, C. Forsstrand, J. Lindahl, A. J. Malm- 

 gren, and others, to explore the coasts and seas surrounding 

 Novaja Zemlia, Spitzbergen, and Grreenland. Uufoi'tunately the 

 zoological results do not seem to have been published in a com- 

 prehensive form, so that it is difficult to obtain the requisite 

 information for the purposes of this sketch. But I gather from, 

 the scattered papers in the literature accessible to me that a 

 great number of Invertebrates were collected, partly by means 

 of the sounding apparatus from depths as great as 260D fathoms, 



* ' The North Atlantic Sea-bed : conajjrising a Diary of the Voyage on board 

 of H.M.S. ' Bulldog,' in 18(10.' Part 1. London, 1862. 4to. 

 t Proc. Eoy. Soc. 1876, No. 173. 



