330 THYSIC^VL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



suggests many beautiful fancies, some touching thouglits, and a 

 few useful ideas ; and among tliese last are found reasons for the 

 conjecture that the gutta pcrcha or other insulating material in 

 which the conducting wires of the sub-Atlantic telegraph and 

 other deep-sea lines are incased, becomes, when lodged beyond a 

 certain depth, impervious to the powers of decay ; that, with the 

 weight of the sea upon them, the destructive agents which are 

 so busy upon organic matter in the air and near the surface 

 cannot find room for j)lay. Curious that destruction and decay 

 should be imprisoned and rendered inoperative at the bottom of 

 the great deep ! 



616. Specimens of the three oceans all tell the same story. — Speci- 

 mens of the " ooze and bottom of the sea " have also been 

 obtained by the ingenuity of Brooke from the depth of 2700 

 fathoms in the North Pacific, and examined by Professor 

 Bailey.* "We have now had specimens from the bottom of 

 " blue water " in the narrow Coral Sea, the broad Pacific, and 

 the long Atlantic, and they all tell the same story, namely, that 

 the bed of the ocean is a vast cemeteiy. The ocean's bed has 

 been found everywhere, wherever Brooke's sounding-rod has 

 touched, to be soft, consisting almost entirely of the remains 

 of infusoria. The Gulf Stream has literally strewed the bottom 

 of the Atlantic with these microscopic shells ; for the Coast 

 Survey has caught up the same infusoria in the Gulf of Mexico 

 and at the bottom of the Gulf Stream off the shores of the 



to account for their being afloat so far out at sea ; but how often are frogs and 

 fishes found under circumstances and in conditions which cannot be accounted 

 for ! Their coming out of the sea adherent to the line proves nothing. 



But the creature had Glohigerina-shells in its stomach ; therefore, say the 

 biotics, these shells must also have hved at the dejDth of 1260 fathoms. Not so : 

 wherever the star-fish lived, he must have food, and he could collect these 

 mites of things as well near the top as the bottom of the sea. 



Its anatomical structure, and the brilliancy of its colour — red and pink — 

 seem to prove the antl-hiotic view quite as much as the other circumstances of 

 the case prove the hiotic. 



Life in the depths of the sea is an interesting question, and the plan which 

 seems most capable of settling it has been already suggested, vide § G13. 



* " West Point, N, Y, January 29, 1856. 



" My dear Sir, — I have examined with much pleasure the highly interest- 

 ing specimens collected by Lieutenant Brooke, of the United States Navy, 

 which you kindly sent me for microscopic analysis, and I will now briefly 

 report to you the residts of general interest which I have obtained, leaving the 

 enimieration of the organic contents and the description of new species for a 



