CHAP. I.] INTRODUCTION. 95 
work, which will be frequently referred to hereafter, 
upon ‘The Atlantic Sea-bed.’' He warmly advocated 
the view that the conditions of the bottom of the sea 
were not such as to preclude the possibility of the 
existence of even the higher forms of animal life, and 
discussed fully and with great ability the arguments 
which had been advanced on the other side. The first 
part only of Dr. Wallich’s book appeared, in a some- 
what costly and cumbrous form, and it scarcely came 
into the hands of working naturalists, or received the 
attention which it deserved. At the time, however, it 
was merely an expression of individual opinion, for 
no new facts had been elicited. Star-fishes had come 
up on several previous occasions adhering to sounding- 
lines, but the absolute proof was still wanting that 
they had lived upon the ground at the depth of the 
sounding. Dr. Wallich referred the star-fishes procured 
-to awell-known littoral species, and complicated their 
history somewhat irrelevantly with the disappearance 
of the ‘Land of Buss.’ Fortunately the artistic if 
not very satisfactory figure which he gives of a star- 
fish clinging to the line does not bear out his deter- 
mination either in appearance or attitude, but suggests 
one or other of two species which we now know to 
be excessively abundant in deep water in the North 
Atlantic, Ophiopholis aculeata, O. F. MiuiEer, or 
Ophiacantha spinulosa; Mittier and 'TROSCHEL. 
1 The North Atlantic Sea-bed: comprising a Diary of the Voyage 
on board H.M.S. ‘Bulldog,’ in 1860; and Observations on the 
presence of Animal Life, and the Formation and Nature of Organic 
Deposits at great Depths in the Ocean. By G. C. Wallich, M.D., 
E.LS., F.G.8S., &. Published with the sanction of the Lords Com- 
missioners of the Admiralty. London, 1862. 
