ctIAP . i.] INTRODUCTION, 25 



work which will be frequently referred to hereafter, 

 upon ' The Atlantic Sea-bed.' x 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 a well-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. P. Muller, or 

 Ophiacantha spinulosa, Mtjller 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., 

 F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. Published with the sanction of the Lords Com- 

 missioners of the Admiralty. London, 1862. 



