24 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [chap. i. 



" How can animal life be conceived to exist under 

 such conditions of light, temperature, pressure, and 

 aeration as must obtain at these vast depths ? To this 

 one can only reply that we know for a certainty that 

 even very highly- organized animals do contrive to live 

 at a depth of 300 or 400 fathoms, inasmuch as they 

 have been brought up thence, and that the difference 

 in the amount of light and heat at 400 and at 2,000 

 fathoms is probably, so to speak, very far less than 

 the difference in complexity of organization between 

 these animals and the humble Protozoa and Proto- 

 phyta of the deep-sea soundings. I confess, though, 

 as yet, far from regarding it proved that the GIg- 

 bigerincB live at these depths, the balance of proba- 

 bilities seems to me to incline in that direction." 



In 1860 Dr. Wallich accompanied Captain Sir 

 Leopold McClintock in H.M.S. 'Bulldog' on her 

 sounding expedition to Iceland, Greenland, and New- 

 foundland, as naturalist. During the cruise soundings 

 were taken, and specimens of the bottom were brought 

 up from depths from 600 to 2,000 fathoms ; many of 

 these were the now well-known grey 'Globigerina ooze,' 

 while others were volcanic detritus from Iceland, and 

 clay and gravel the product of the disintegration of the 

 metamorphic rocks of Greenland and Labrador. On 

 the return voyage, about midway between Cape Pare- 

 well and Eockall, thirteen star-fishes came up from a 

 sounding of 1,260 fathoms, " convulsively embracing 

 a portion of the sounding-line which had been payed 

 out in excess of the already ascertained depth, and 

 rested for a sufficient period at the bottom to permit 

 of their attaching themselves to it." On his return 

 Dr. Wallich published in 1862, an extremely valuable 



