806 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AKD ITS METEOROLOGY. 



indicate that various interesting species might be obtained if we 

 had more of the material. You ^ill 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 sihcious rather than a 

 calcareous nature. Tliis only makes the condition of things in 

 the Northern Atlantic the more interesting." 



589. The first noticeable thing the microscope gives of these 

 They belong to the spccimens is, that nearly all of them are of the 

 vegTtabiTo/minerai animal, fcw of the mineral or vegetable kmgdom. 

 kingdom. The occau teems with life, we know. Of the fom* ele- 

 ments of the old philosophers — fire, earth, air, and water — perhaps 

 the sea most of all abounds with living creatures. The space 

 occupied on the surface of our planet by the difierent famihes of 

 animals and their remains seems to be inversely as the size of the 

 individual. The smaller the animal, the greater the space occupied 

 by its remains. Though not invariably the case, yet this rule, to a 

 certain extent, is true, and will, therefore, answer our present pur- 

 poses, which are simply those of illustration. Take the elephant 

 and his remams, or a microscopic animal and liis, and compare 

 them. The contrast, as to space occupied, is as striking as the 

 difierence between great and small. The graveyard that would 

 hold the remains of the coral insect is larger than the graveyard 

 that would hold those of the elephant. 



590. We notice another practical bearing in tliis group of physi- 

 Quiet reigns in the cal facts that Brookc's apparatus has fished up from 

 depth of the sea. ^j-^g bottom of the deep sea. Bailey, with liis micro- 

 scope (§ 587), could detect scarcely a single particle of sand or 

 gravel among these httle mites of shells. They were from the 

 great telegraphic plateau (§ 585), and the inference is that there, if 

 anywhere, the waters of the sea are at rest. There was not mo- 

 tion enough to abrade these very delicate organisms, nor current 

 enough to sweep them about and mix up with them a grain of 

 the fimest sand, nor the smallest particle of gravel torn from the 

 loose beds of debris that here and there strew the bottom of the sea. 

 This plateau is not too deep for the whe to sink down and rest 

 upon, yet it is not so shallow that currents, or icebergs, or any 

 abrading force can derange the we after it is once lodged there. 



591. As Professor Bailey remarks (§ 587), the animalculse, whose 

 Is there life'in them.? remains Brooke's lead has brought up from the 



