THE PRECIPITATION OF CALCIUM CARBONATE IN THE SEA. 



513 



E.N.E. I E. of Golding Cay. The wind was east, of about force 4: 

 as it Imd been blowing for the previous ten days without inter- 

 mission, the sea was so rough that it was only possible to work 

 when steaming slowly ahead into the wind. This resulted in the 

 production of a great deal of stray on the sounding wire, so that the 

 number of fathoms of wire run out is greater than the actual depth 

 at which the samples were taken ; these differences will be large for 

 the more superficial samples, but small at greater depths, as the wire 

 strays in a curve whose gradient becomes very steep a little below 

 the surface, under these conditions. 



The following temperatures were recorded : — 



Length of wire run out 

 in fathoms. 



Surface 



20 



100 



160 



250 



350 



Temperature in degrees Centigrade. 



27-10 



26-50 



22-80 



18-83 



••• 15-00/ average =14-98 



10-851 ,^Q. 



••• 10-84/ average = 10-85 



At this point the station had to be abandoned owing to the bad 

 weather. The samples down to 160 fathoms were diluted 1 in 100 

 with sterilized sea-water before plating in Peptone Agar ; the remain- 

 ing two were plated undiluted. At the end of 48 hours the following 

 counts were made : — 



These numbers represent the mean of the number of colonies in 

 the two plates made from each sample. 



