THE BASIN AKD BED OF THE ATLANTIC. 315 



brought up fleshy matter from the deev sea as cleep doTvn as ^ve have 

 gone ; and ^e may infer that if we were to go to 4000 fathoms, we 

 should still find j)ulpy matter among the dead organisms there. At 

 that depth, or a httle over, common air, according to " Mariotte's 

 laiv,'' would be heayier than water, and an air-bubble do^n there, 

 if one may imagine such a thing, would be heav^^ enough to sink. 

 Under such conditions, and mth the antiseptic agencies of the sea, 

 the fleshy matter of these infusoria might be preserved at the bot- 

 tom of the deep sea for a great length of time. 



612. Moreover (§ 604), the anti-biotics pointed to the first chap- 

 Arguments from the fer of Genesis to show that light and heat were 

 ^'^^^- ordained before the waters were commanded to bring 

 forth. Hence they maintained that light and heat are necessary 

 to maiine life. In the depth of the sea there is neither light nor 

 heat, wherefore they brought in circumstantial evidence from the 

 Bible to sustain them in their view. 



613. This was an exceedingly interesting question, and we could 

 A plan for solving suggcst but ouo Way of deciding it, which was this : 

 the question. Many of thcse httle organisms of the sea are in the 

 shape of plano-convex discs ; all such, when ahve, live with the 

 convex side up, the flat side dowTi ; but when placed dead in the 

 water and allowed freely to sink, the force of gravity always, and 

 for ob\dous reasons, causes all such forms to sink with the convex 

 side do'^n. Brooke's lead will bring up these shells exactly as they 

 lie on the bottom, and so he proposed to observe with regard to 

 their manner of lying. Of course, if they lived at the bottom, they 

 would die as they hved, and he as they died, for (§ 590) there is 

 nothing to turn them over after death at the bottom of the deep sea, 

 consequently their skeletons would be brought up in the quills of 

 the sounding machine flat side down, convex side up ; but if they 

 lived near the surface, and reached the bottom after death, they 

 would be foimd flat side up. 



614. But, before there was an opportunity of trying this plan. 

 An unexpected soiu- Ehrenbcrg IfimseK afibrded the solution in a most 

 tion afforded. unexpccted Way : — in examining soundings from a 

 great depth in the Mediterranean, he found many fresh-water shells 

 ^\'ith their fleshy parts still in them, though the specimens were 

 taken from the middle of that sea. That savant, vdth his practised 

 eye, detected among them Swiss forms, which must have come down 

 the Danube, and so out into the Mediterranean hundreds of miles, 

 and on journeys which would require months, if not years, for these 



