156 



ABSTRACT OF THE RESULTS OF RECENT EXPLORA- 

 TIONS OF THE DEEP SEA. 



By Db. arCULLOUGH. 



Until a very recent period the nature of the sea bottom beyond a depth 

 of a few hundred feet was almost unknown. About 1843, Professor Edward 

 Forbes, having dredged to the depth of two hundred and thirty fathoms, formed 

 the opinion that animal life probably ceased about three hundred fathoms, and, 

 in spite of facts which militated against this conclusion, his authority caused 

 this opinion to be very generally held. In Sir John Ross's Antarctic Expedition, 

 1839-1840, dredgings at depths of from two hundred and twenty to four hundred 

 fathoms yielded evidence of animal life in great abundance and variety. Star 

 fishes had at various times been brought up from much greater depths attached 

 to sounding lines. In 1851 Lieut. Brooke, of the United States navj', brought 

 up by means of an apparatus attached to the sounding line a portion of mud 

 from the bottom of the North Atlantic at a depth of more than two mUes. In 

 1857 the Admiralty sent a surveying vessel, under the command of Captain 

 Dayman, to sound along the route of the proposed American Telegraph Cable, 

 and an expedition was sent out for a similar purpose in ISGO under the command 

 of Sir Leopold M'Clintock, with Dr. 'Wallich as naturalist. In both these expe- 

 ditions very many specimens of the bottom sediment were brought up from 

 depths up to two thousand four hundred fathoms. In 1861, when a Telegraph 

 Cable in the Mediterranean was taken up for repair, several living Polyparies 

 and Mollusks were foimd attached to portions of it which had been submerged 

 to depths of from one thousand and ninety-three to fifteen hundred and seventy- 

 seven fathoms. In 1864 and following years, M. Sars, Sweedish Government 

 Inspector of Fisheries, while dredging oflE the LoflEoden Islands within the 

 Arctic circle, at a depth of three hundred fathoms, obtained results of the 

 greatest interest and importance. These were brought before theKoyal Society, 

 at the instance of Professor Wyville Thompson, and led to the Admiralty 

 granting a vessel for carrying out deep sea operations in the summer of 1868 

 and again in 1869. 



The expedition of 1868, in the " Lightning," was under the direction of 

 Dr. Carpenter and Professor Wyville Thompson, and lasted from August 11th 

 to September 21st. These investigations were directed to the channel between 

 the North of Scotland and the Faroe Banks, and they dredged at various 

 depths up to six hundred and fifty fathoms. In the expedition of the 

 " Porcupine," in 1869, three trips were made. In the first, on the West coast 



