CHAP, IX. | THE DEEP-SEA FAUNA. 409 
they play in the economy of nature, would seem to 
entitle them to a systematic position of more than 
ordinal value. The German naturalists of the new 
school, in their enthusiastic adoption of the Dar- 
winian theory of evolution, naturally welcome in 
these ‘moners’ the essential attribute of the ‘ Ur- 
sehleim,’ an infinite capacity for improvement in 
every conceivable direction; and to more prosaic 
physiologists they are of the deepest interest, as 
presenting the essential phenomena of life, nutri- 
tion and irritability, existing apparently simply as 
the properties of a homopencous chemical compound, 
and independent of organization. 
The monera pass into the rhizopoda, which give 
a slight indication of advance, in the definite form 
of the graceful calcareous shell-like structures which 
most of them secrete, and the poe groups may be 
taken together. 
The dredging at 2,435 fathoms at the mouth of 
the Bay of Biscay gave a very fair idea of the con- 
dition of the bottom of the sea over an enormous 
area, as we know from many observations which 
have now been made, with the various sounding 
instruments contrived to bring up a sample of the 
bottom. On that occasion the dredge brought up 
about 13 ewt. of calcareous mud. There could be 
little doubt, from the appearance of the contents of 
the dredge, that the heavy dredge-frame had gone 
down with a plunge, and partly buried itself in 
the soft, yielding bottom. ‘The throat of the dredge 
thus became partly choked, and the free entrance 
of the organisms on the sea-floor had been thus 
prevented. The matter contained in the dredge con- 
