CHAP. V1. ] DEEP-SEA DREDGING. OFA 
I have referred likewise (p. 26) to Professor 
Fleeming Jenkin’s notes on the living animals 
attached to the Mediterranean cable at a depth of 
1,200 fathoms, and to the results of Dr. Wallich’s 
special investigations on board H.M.S. ‘ Bull-dog.’ 
In a general review of the progress of knowledge as 
to the conditions of life at great depths, these investi- 
gations deserve special notice, as, even if they must 
still be regarded as somewhat unsatisfactory, they 
distinctly mark a stage in advance. Although, from 
the imperfection of the means at his disposal, Dr. 
Wallich could not bring home evidence sufficient 
absolutely to satisfy others, he was convinced in his 
own mind from what he saw, that living beings high 
in the scale of organization might exist at any depth 
in the ocean; he expounded clearly and forcibly - 
the train of reasoning which led him to this belief, 
and subsequent events have amply justified his con- 
clusion. The space at my disposal will not allow 
me to quote and discuss Dr. Wallich’s arguments, in 
some of which I thoroughly concur, while from 
others I am compelled to dissent. The facts were 
most important, and their significance increases now 
that they are fully confirmed and illustrated by ope- 
rations on a large scale. In lat. 59° 27’ N., long. 
26° 41' W., a depth of 1,260 fathoms having been 
previously ascertained, ‘‘ a new kind of deep-sea dredge 
was lowered; but in consequence of its partial failure, 
a second apparatus (namely, the conical cup) was em- 
ployed, fifty fathoms of line in excess of the recorded 
depth being paid out in order to ensure the unchecked 
descent and impact of the instrument at the bottom. 
The dredge had already brought up a small quantity 
