1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 297 
A FLOATING SCIENTIFIC STATION 
AN important proposal was laid before the International Geological 
Congress by Professor Andrussow. It was that a ship, fitted with 
scientific laboratories and apparatus, should constantly be maintained 
at sea by international contributions, and that geologists and biolo- 
gists of all contributory nations should be allowed a place on board 
for carrying out observations. The importance of the study of the 
ocean-floor, and of all marine deposits now forming, will be denied 
by no geologist, but the opportunity as a rule is lacking. Hence 
geologists no less than biologists are interested in the maintenance 
of such a floating scientific station. The difficulties in the way of 
the proposal are too obvious to need comment, but if there is a real 
desire to see it put into effect nothing need prove insuperable. Since 
the idea received the warm support of Dr John Murray, Professors 
von Zittel, Haeckel, Walther, Prinz, and other influential scientific 
men, there is no doubt but that we shall hear more of it, and we 
wish it all success. 
THE BLACK SEA 
AN excellent illustration of the geological value of thalassography was 
afforded by the Black Sea. On the steamer that conveyed the main 
body of geologists from Batoum to Odessa, dredging apparatus was 
provided anda small laboratory fitted up, enabling those who wished 
to verify for themselves the interesting account of this sea given by 
Professor Andrussov in the Livret Guide. The most striking 
peculiarity of the Black Sea is the absence of all life except bacterial 
at depths exceeding 100 fathoms. The cause of this may be put 
briefly thus. Into the deep and steep-sided Euxine basin there is 
poured, especially on the northern side, a vast amount of cold fresh 
water from the rivers. Thus there is started in the direction of 
the Bosphorus a surface stream, 
“Whose icy current and compulsive course 
Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on 
To the Propontic and the Hellespont.” 
From the Bosphorus into the Black Sea a very slow under-current 
brings the warmer but salter and therefore heavier waters of the 
Aegean. These scarcely mingle at all with the surface waters, but 
sink to the bottom. The exchange takes place so slowly that, ac- 
cording to the calculations of Admiral Makarov, it requires at least 
1700 years to renew the water of the lower strata, whereas the 
water of the upper 100 fathoms is renewed annually. Below 100 
fathoms, therefore, the quantity of oxygen contained in the water 
diminishes rapidly, and while the cold brackish water of the surface 
and of the narrow shelving shore is unfavourable to the develop- 
ment of ordinary marine life, the deoxygenated water of the depth, 
despite its saltness and warmth, is absolutely fatal to all organisms 
other than bacteria. 
