332 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



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 pure 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 cover- 

 ing, presenting the rounded appearance which 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 currents, and scattered and lodged in the course 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 delicate as the macled frost, and as light in the water as is 

 down in the air. 



polar forms, but, as I have recently determined, occur also in the Gulf of 

 Mexico and along the Gulf Stream, 



•' 8th. The perfect condition of the organism in these soundings, and the 

 fact that some of them retain their soft portions, indicate that they were very 

 recently in a living condition, but it does not follow that they were living when 

 collected at such immense depths. As among them are forms which are known 

 to live along the shores as parasites upon the algae, etc., it is certain that a por- 

 tion, at least, have been carried by oceanic currents, by drift ice, by animals 

 which have fed upon them, or by other agents, to their present position. It is 

 hence probable 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 sur- 

 prising in finding them in any part of the ocean, even if they were not trans- 

 ported, as it is certain they often are, by the agents above referred to. 



" 9th. 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 cfifort 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 tlie soundings referred to. I 

 shall proceed without delay to describe and figure the highly interesting and 

 novel forms which 1 have detected, and I hope soon to have them ready for 

 publication. 



"Yours, very respectfully, "J. W. Bau^ey." i 



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



