318 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



the waters near the surface ; and when they die, their shells set- 

 tle to the bottom. With reference to this point, I shall be very 

 glad to examine bottles of water from various depths which were 

 brought home by the Dolphin, and any similar materials, either 

 ' bottom,' or water from other localities. I shall study them care- 

 fully. . . . The results already obtained are of very great inter- 

 est, and have many important bearings on geology and zoology. 



I hope you will induce as many as possible to collect 



soundings with Brooke's lead, in all parts of the world, so that we 

 can map out the animalculas as you have the whales. Get your 

 whalers also to collect mud from pancake ice, etc., in the polar re- 

 gions ; this is always full of interesting microscopic forms." 



588. Lieutenant Brooke, of the North Pacific Exploring Ex- 

 specimens from the pcditiou, procurcd spccimcns of the bottom from the 

 coral sea. depth of 2150 fathoms in the coral sea, lat. 13° S., 



long. 162° E. With regard to these, the admirable and lamented 

 Bailey wrote in 1855, " You may be sure I was not backward in 

 taking a look at the specimens you sent me, which, from their lo- 

 cality, promised to be so interesting. The sounding from 2150 

 fathoms, although very small in quantity^ is not so bad in quality^ 

 yielding representatives of most of the great groups of microscop- 

 ic organisms usually found in marine sediments. The predomi- 

 nant forms are silicious spicules of sponges. Yarious forms of 

 these occur : some long and spindle-shaped, or acicular ; others 

 pin-headed ; some three-spined, etc., etc. The Diatomes (silicious 

 infusoria of Ehrenberg) are very few in number, and mostly frag- 

 mentary. I found, however, some perfect valves of a coscino- 

 discus. The Foraminifera (Polythalamia of Ehrenberg) are very 

 rare, only one perfect shell being seen, with a few fragments of 

 others. The polycistineas are present, and some species of hali- 

 omma were quite perfect. Fragments of other forms of this group 

 indicate that various interesting species might be obtained if we 

 had more of the material. You will see by the above that this 

 deep sounding differs considerably from those obtained in the At- 

 lantic. The Atlantic soundings were almost wholly composed of 

 calcareous shells of the Foraminifera ; these, on the contrary, con- 

 tain very few Foraminifera, and are of a silicious rather than a 

 calcareous nature. This only makes the condition of things in 

 the Northern Atlantic the more interesting." 



