Deep Sea Dredgings, and this address would not be complete without some 

 mention of them ; but Dr. M'CuUough's paper on the subject has given the 

 results of the enterprise so concisely and so clearly that I shall trouble you with 

 very few remarks on the subject. 



The most general and important results of the investigation seem to he- 

 ist, the establishment of the fact that there exist under currents of water in 

 the ocean of very various temperatures, some being as low as 32° fah., and that 

 therefore a uniform deep water temperature of 39° fah. is not, as formerly 

 supposed, the condition of all deep water. This consideration leads us on to 

 suspect a corresponding modification of the fauna, and this may be called the 

 second great result, that submarine faimas are much more widely distributed, 

 and at the same time often very rigidly restricted to definite areas by these 

 currents than has been hitherto supposed. As an example of what is meant we 

 may suppose a cold Arctic submarine current to flow southwards as far as the 

 Straits of Gibraltar— and there is considerable probability of there being such a 

 current— this would enable the fauna living in deep water to extend through a 

 very considerable range of latitude, and in after ages rocks might be found in 

 Bub-tropical climes having shells of an Arctic type, and this would of course 

 suggest to geologists some great differences in the distribution of heat and cold 

 from what obtains at present, which might be altogether erroneous, and easily 

 comprehended by the knowledge of submarine currents. 



On the other hand a warm current like the Gulf Stream might flow 

 northwards and enable tropical and temperate forms to exist iu Arctic regions. 

 If these two currents flowed side by side, as they might easily do, and the rocks 

 were at a future period raised above water, geologists would find in the same 

 latitude, but in different longitudes, quite a distinct fauna. These considera- 

 tions of the possible distribution of submarine fauna will no doubt have a very 

 important residt on geology. 



Another important fact brought to light by Dr. Carpenter's dredging, is 

 that highly organised beings are now known to live at very great depths ; and, 

 what is more, forms supposed to have been long extinct have been found still 

 living at the bottom of the sea. 



These considerations plainly show that any deductions as to the age of 

 geological formations from their organic remains must be of a most uncertain 

 character. 



Another very interesting discovery is that the ooze or semi-animal sub- 

 stance found at the bottom of the sea covers immense areas, and appears to 

 be the pabulum of the Khizopods and Sponges which are imbedded in it. 



Several eminent naturalists have pointed out the similarity of this deposit 

 to the chalk, and it seems very probable that this lowly organised material, which 

 Huxley has named Bathybius, has some power of deriving its nourishment 

 from the sea water, and then forming a pabulum for higher organisms. There 



