Formation of Centyal Oceanic Plateaux. 133 



at a distance of a few miles from each other, so the results of 

 the " Challenger " expedition tend to prove that the paucity or total 

 absence of organic remains in a geological stratum is no evidence of 

 its relative antiquity. The difference which is observed between 

 the deposits found in areas of depression and those accumulated in 

 areas of elevation, shows that a comparatively rapid accumulation 

 of organic remains may take place in one portion of an oceanic 

 basin, contemporaneously with the slower deposit of a formation 

 which is almost or nearly destitute of organic remains in another 

 portion of the same basin. This remark may be extended to 

 the remains of the hig-her forms of animal life. Some astonish- 

 ment was created on board the " Challenger " that the dredge, 

 after havino- been draofo-ed over miles and miles of the bottom 

 of the sea, and up and down almost every oceanic basin, should 

 never bring up any bones of fish or whale, or any remains of 

 other large animals which inhabit the sea, or whose bodies 

 may have been carried down to the sea ; for, with the exception 

 of a few shark's teeth and some ear-bones of whales, no portion 

 of one of the more highly organised animals was ever found in 

 the dredge or in the bag of the trawl, always excepting those 

 forms which we had learned to associate with the bottom of the 

 sea, and which have also been found in abundance in the strata 

 of former geological periods. What becomes of the wrecks 

 innumerable and of the bones of the multitudes who have, in the 

 service of their country and their race, found an honourable 

 grave in the depths of the sea ? No portion of a ship or any 

 other article of human manufacture, no human bones, ever came 

 to the surface ; and though a satisfactory explanation of this 

 curious fact may yet be found, it shows that we should hesitate 

 before accepting the absence of these remains as conclusive 

 evidence of the antiquity of a geological stratum, or of the 

 non-existence of higher organisms, including man, in former 

 periods. 



