BY THE PRESIDENT. 189 



found on tlio surface, wliioh undouhtiMlly came from the bottom, 

 has yet been met with. The foregoing observations appear to 

 justify the opinion that tliese organisms live only in the surface 

 and subsurface vraters of the ocean." 



I -will not, however, presume to assert that Dr. Carpenter may 

 not be right; but is he justified in taking for granted "that the 

 omis probandi rests on those who maintain that the Glohigcrincz 

 do not live on the bottom " ? It is rather difficult to prove a 

 negative. 



The colour of the " Red Clay" was attributed by Mr. Murray to 

 the presence of oxide of iron. 



Mr. Ethoridge obligingly examined some of the pebbles and 

 minerals which I had dredged in the ' Valorous ' Expedition at 

 depths of from 690 to 1750 fathoms. He reported that many of 

 them were "most likely derived from Iceland." If this were the 

 case, the pebbles and minerals might have been transported by a 

 deep submarine current. 



The deposits in very deep water, and beyond the range of fluvia- 

 tile and tidal action, are so slight as to be almost filmy, and are 

 chiefly composed of the skeletons or hard parts of Glohigervm, 

 diatoms, and Radiolarice. The subjacent layer of mud or ooze, 

 where it is beyond the scope of river-action, may have been formed 

 from the ruins of a sunken continent. 



The proportion of carbonate of lime contained in the deep-sea mud 

 or ooze of the iS'orth Atlantic, which was procured in the first two 

 cruises of the 'Porcupine' Expedition of 1869, slightly differed. In 

 a sample from 1443 fathoms, dredged off the west coast of Ireland 

 in the first cruise, the proportion given by the late Mr. David Forbes 

 was only about one-half, while in another sample from 2435 fathoms, 

 di'edged off the south coast of Ireland in the second cruise, Mr. 

 Hunter found a little over 60 per cent. 



As to a mysterious deposit called Bathyhias, Mr. Buchanan, who 

 had charge of the chemical work on board the ' Challenger,' proved 

 by careful and repeated analysis that this substance was not organic ; 

 and he " detennined it to be sulphate of lime, which had been eli- 

 minated from the sea-water, always present in the mud, as an amor- 

 phous precipitate, on the addition of spirits of wine." Mr. Murray 

 came to the same conclusion ; and the lifeless and inorganic natiu'e 

 of Batlujhius may now be considered settled. This gelatinous slime 

 was once imagined to be primordial, and to constitute the basis of 

 life. But the sea-bed is the tomb of past generations, not the 

 Avomb of creation. 



