326 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



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 off into deep water. After reaching a certain 

 depth, then this sediment 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 the deep sea 

 ought, said the anti-biotics, to be richer than that of shallow 

 water with infusorial remains ; mud and all the light sedimentary- 

 matter of river waters are deposited in the deep pools, and not in 

 the shoals and rapids of our fresh-water streams ; so we ought, 

 reasoned they of this school, to have the most abundant deposits 

 at the bottom of the deep sea. 



610. On the antiseptic properties of sea water. — The anti-biotics 

 referred to the antiseptic properties of sea water, and told how it 

 is customary with mariners, especially with the masters of the 

 sailing packets between Europe and America, to " com " fresh 

 meat by sinking it to great depths overboard. If they sink it too 

 deep, or let it stay down too long, it becomes too salt. According 

 to them, this process is so quick and thorough, because of the 

 pressure and the affinity which not only forces the water among 

 the fibres of the meat, but which also induces the salt to leave the 

 water and strike into the meat ; and that the fleshy part of these 

 microscopic organisms have been exposed to powerful antiseptic 

 agents is proved by the fact that they are brought up in the 

 middle of the ocean, and remain on board the vessel exposed to 

 the air for months before they reach the hands of the microsco- 

 pist ; some of them have remained so exposed for more than a 

 year, and then been found full of fleshy matter : a sure proof that 

 it had been preserved from putrefaction andjdecay by processes 

 which it had undergone in the sea, and before it was brought up 

 into the air. 



611. On pressure. — Thus the anti-biotics held that these little 

 creatui-es were preserved for a while after death, and until they 

 reached a certain depth, by salt, and afterwards by pressure^ 

 They held that certain conditions are requisite in order that the 

 decay of organic matter may take place ; that the animal tissues 

 of these shells during the process of decay are for the most part 

 converted into gases ; that these gases, in separating from the 

 animal compound, are capable of exerting only a certain mechan- 



