CHAP. I. | INTRODUCTION. it 
we shall find them teeming with animal life; the 
extreme pressure at the greatest depth does not 
appear to affect these creatures; hitherto we have 
not been able to determine this point beyond a 
thousand fathoms, but from that depth several shell- 
fish have been brought up with the mud.” 
On the 28th of June, 1845, Mr. Henry Goodsir, 
who was a member of Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated 
expedition, obtained in Davis’ Strait from a depth of 
300 fathoms, ‘‘a capital haul,—mollusca, crustacea, 
asterida, spatangi, corallines, &c.”’* The bottom was 
composed of fine green mud like that mentioned by 
Sir Edward Sabine. 
About the year 1854 Passed-midshipman Brooke, 
U.S.N., invented his ingenious sounding instrument 
for bringing up samples from the bottom. It only 
brought up a small quantity in a quill. These trophies 
from any depth over 1,000 fathoms were eagerly sought 
for by naturalists and submitted to a searching micro- 
‘scopic examination; and the result was very surpris- 
ing. All over the Atlantic basin the sediment brought 
up was nearly uniform in character, and consisted 
almost entirely of the calcareous shells, whole or in 
fragments, of one species of foraminifer, Globigerina 
bulloides (Fig. 2). Mixed with these were the shells 
of some other foraminifera, and particularly a little 
perforated sphere, Orbulina universa (Fig. 3), which 
in some localities entirely replaces Globigerina ; 
with a few shields of diatoms, and spines and 
trellised skeletons of Radiolaria. Some soundings 
from the Pacific were of the same character, so 
1 Natural History of the British Seas. By Professor Edward 
Forbes and kK. Godwin-Austen. P. 51. 
