312 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



behold them now, serving not only as compensations by whicb 

 the motions of the water in its channels of circulation are regu- 

 lated and climates softened, but acting also as checks and balances 

 by which the equipoise between the solid and the fluid matter 

 of the earth is preserved. Should it be estabhshed that these 

 microscopic creatures live at the surface, and are only buried 

 at the bottom of the sea, we may then view them as con- 

 servators of the ocean ; for, in the offices which they performy 

 they assist to preserve its status by maintaining the purity of its- 

 waters. 



604. Does any portion of the shells which Brooke's sounding- 

 The anti-biotic view rod briugs up froui the bottom of the deep sea live- 

 the mo.t natural. h^q^q .^ or are they all the remains of those that 

 lived near the surface in the light and heat of sun, and were buried 

 at the bottom of the deep after death ? Philosophers are divided 

 in opinion upon this subject. The facts, as far as they go, 

 seem at first to favour the one conjecture nearly as well as the 

 other. Under these ch^cumstances, I mcline to the anti-biotic 

 hypothesis, and chiefly because it w^ould seem to conform better 

 with the Mosaic account of creation. The sun and moon were set 

 in the firmament before the waters were commanded to bring forth 

 the living creature ; and hence we infer that light and heat are 

 necessary to the creation and preservation of marine life ; and since 

 the light and heat of the sun cannot reach to the bottom of the 

 deep sea, my q-WlI conclusion, in the absence of positive evidence- 

 upon the subject, has been, that the habitat of these mites of thingR. 

 hauled up from the bottom of the great deep is at and near the 

 surface. On the contrary, others maintain, and perhaps with 

 equal reason, the biotic side of the question. Professor Ehren- 

 berg, of Berhn, is of this latter class. 



605. This is an interesting question. It is a new one ; and it 

 The question stated, bclougs to that class of questious whicli mere dis- 

 cussion helps to settle. It is therefore deshable to state both 

 sides — present all the known facts ; and then, pro^dded ^vith such 

 lights as they afford, we may draw conclusions. 



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

 The arguments of slidcs of the microscopo, the two great masters of 

 thebiotics. ^\^r^i^ instrument in Europe and America — Bailey o£ 

 West Point, and Ehrenberg of Berlin — discovered the greater part 

 of the small calcareous caraimces to be filled mth a soft pulp, which 

 both admitted to be fleshy matter. From tliis fact the German 



