THE BASIX AKD BED OF THE ATLANTIC. 319 



ocean's bed has been found everywhere, wberever Brooke's sonnd- 

 ing-rod has touched, to be soft, consisting -almost entirely of 

 the remains of infusoria. The Gulf Stream has hterally strewed 

 the bottom of the Atlantic -with these microscopic shells ; for 

 the Coast Survey has caught wp the same infusoria in the Gulf 

 of Mexico and at the bottom of the GuK Stream off the shores of 

 the Carolinas that Brooke's apparatus brought up from the bottom 

 of the Atlantic off the Irish coast. 



617. The unabraded appearance of these shells, and the almost 

 Their suggestions, total abscnco amoug them of any detritus from the 

 sea or foreign matter, suggest most forcibly the idea of perfect 

 repose at the bottom of the deep sea. Some of the specimens are 

 as pm'e and as free from the sand of the sea as the freshly fallen 

 snow-flake is from the dust of the earth. Indeed, these soundings 

 suggest the idea that the sea, like the snow-cloud with its flakes in a 

 calm, is always letting fall upon its bed showers of these microscopic 

 shells; and we may readily imagine that the "sunless wrecks," 

 which strew its bottom, are, in the process of ages, hid under this 

 fleecy covering, presenting the rounded appearance wiiich is seen 

 over the body of the traveller who has perished in the snow-storm. 

 The ocean, especially within and near the tropics, swarms with life. 

 The remains of its myriads of moving things are conveyed by 

 cm-rents, and scattered and lodged in the com'se of time all over its 

 bottom. This process, continued for ages, has covered the depths 

 of the ocean as with a mantle, consisting of organisms as de- 

 Hcate as the mailed frost, and as light in the water as is down in 

 the air. 



that all were removed from shallower waters, in which they once lived. These 

 forms are so minute, and would float so far when buoyed up by these gases 

 evolved during decomposition, that there would be nothing surprising in finding 

 them in any part of the ocean, even if they were not transported, as it is certain 

 they often are, by the agents above referred to. 



"9tli. In conclusion, it is to be hoped that the example set by Lieutenant 

 Brooke will be followed by others, and that, in all attempts to make deep 

 soundings-, the effort to bring up a portion of the bottom will be made. The 

 soundings from any part of the ocean are sure to yield something of interest to 

 microscopic analysis, and it is as yet impossible to tell what important results may 

 yet flow from their study. 



"The above is only a preliminary notice of the soundings referred to. I shall 

 proceed without del^ to describe and figure the highly interesting and novel 

 forms which I have detected, and I hope soon to have them ready for publication. 

 " Yours, very respectfully, " J. W. Bailey."' 



" Lieutenant M. F. Mauky, National Observatory, Washington City, D, C." 



