326 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



606. As soon as tlie deep-sea specimens were mounted on the 

 The arguments of slides of tlic microscope, the two great masters of 

 the biotics. ||^^^ instrument — Bailey of West Point, and Ehren- 

 berg of Berlin, discovered the greater part of the small calcareous 

 carapaces to be filled with a soft pulp, which both admitted to be 

 fleshy matter. From this fact the German argued that there is 

 life at the bottom of the deep sea ; the American (§ 587), that 

 there is only death and repose there. 



607. "The other argument," says Ehrenberg, "for life in the 

 Eiirenber^'s state- ^^^P which I havc established is the surprising 

 meut of them. quantity of new forms which are wanting in other 

 parts of the sea. If the bottom were nothing but the sediment 

 of the troubled sea, like the fall of snow in the air, and if the bi- 

 olithic curves of the bottom were nothing else than the product 

 of the currents of the sea which heap up the flakes, similarly to 

 the glaciers, there would necessarily be much less of unknown and 

 peculiar forms in the depths. The surface and the borders of the 

 sea are much more productive and much more extended than the 

 depths; hence the forms peculiar to the depths should not be 

 perceived. The great quantity of peculiar forms and of soft 

 bodies existing in the innumerable carapaces, accompanied by the 

 observation of the number of unknowns, increasing with the deptlis 

 — these are the arguments which seem to me to hold firmly to the 

 opinion of stationary life at the bottom of the deep sea." 



608. The anti-biotics, on the other hand, quoted the observa- 

 The anti-biotic vie\r. tious of Profcssor Forbcs, who has showu that, the 

 deeper you go in the littoral waters of the Mediterranean, the 

 fewer are the living forms. 



609. As for the number of unknowns increasing with the depth 

 Their ar nments (§ ^^'^)) ^^^7 coutcud that thc tidcs, thc currcuts, and 

 based on thc tides. ^^^ agitatiou of thc wavcs all reach to the bottom in 

 shallow water ; that they sweep and scour from it the feculences 

 of the sea, as these insect remains may be called, and bear them oft 

 into deep water. After reaching a certain depth, then this sedi- 

 ment passes into the stratum of quiet waters that underlie the 

 roaring waves and tossing currents of the surface, and through 

 this stratum these organic remains slowly find their way to the 

 final place of repose as ooze at the bottom of the deep sea: 

 Through such agencies the ooze of thc deep sea ought, said the 



