40 Original Articles. | Jan. 
But the facts just set forth involve another very important con- 
sideration, which, as supporters of no particular creed, we deem it 
necessary to notice. In assuring ourselves of the absence of currents 
as a source of danger in Oceanic Telegraphy, we no doubt gain a 
material point. But to some extent the gain is counterbalanced, and 
in this wise. Assuming that the bed of the present ocean has been 
subject, at some antecedent period of the world’s history, to the de- 
nuding action of atmospheric and terrestrial influences, and has thus 
been impressed with characters similar to those we see around us on 
dry land (and that it has been so, there is no valid reason to doubt), 
whatever asperities may have marked its surface when it was first sub- 
merged, must remain stamped upon it up to the present time. The 
denuding action of water in a state of motion is very great; but that 
of water in a state of comparative quiescence, such as prevails along 
the sea-bed, must be extremely limited, if it operates at all. Atmo- 
spheric agencies which wear away the rugged features of one district 
on land and reproduce them on another, are powerless either for good 
or for evil at the sea-bed. And hence it is certain, that however 
much the muddy deposits may be constantly contributing towards the 
toning down of the minor inequalities, they can exercise very little 
effect as regards those more extensive alternations of level, the 
absence of which along the sea has been assumed, solely because the 
means heretofore adopted have been inadequate for their detection. 
But let us now turn to the living tenants of these deep abysses. 
It has already been stated, that although the evidence of the vitality 
of the minute shell-covered creatures, obtained in the course of the 
earlier soundings, was altogether inconclusive, more recent observa- 
tions have established the fact that the conditions prevailing at extreme 
depths are not incompatible with the maintenance of animal life. The 
observations in question were made at the close of 1860, during the 
survey of the North Atlantic route by H.M.S. ‘Bulldog.’ Into the 
details of these it would be out of place to enter at present; but the 
proofs they involve, may be stated in a very few words. 
Thirteen living star-fishes, differing in no important particular 
from a species common on our own and most northern coasts, were 
brought up from a depth of 1,260 fathoms—or very nearly a mile and 
a half—at a point midway between the Southern extremity of Green- 
land and Rockall, and 250 miles distant from the nearest land. These 
star-fishes, however, cannot be said to have been captured by the 
sounding-machine, for they came up adhering by their spine-covered 
arms to the last 50 fathoms of the sounding-line, not as voluntary 
exiles from below, but owing to their having coiled themselves around 
a material from which they found it impossible afterwards to disen- 
gage themselves. Now, apart from all other evidence, the facts in 
connection with this particular sounding were suflicient to indicate 
that the star-fishes had been raised from the sea-bed itself, and had 
not grasped the line while floating in some stratum of water inter- 
mediate between it and the surface. But, by a singular piece of good 
fortune, the question as to their last resting-place admitted of definite 
determination on evidence that they bore along with them. To com- 
. 
