The Mediterranean Sea- Bed 189 



current from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, which had 

 been ascertained during the previous year, 1 had been fully 

 confirmed by soundings near Gibraltar. The results of 

 dredging in the eastern and western basins, though not yet 

 fully worked out, showed the foraminifera, at any rate, to 

 correspond, in the former basin, with the Red Sea species, 

 and in the latter with Atlantic species. The deeper parts 

 of both basins were azoic, a consequence, he believed, of the 

 small proportion of oxygen in the bottom waters, due to 

 the entire absence of currents in those regions. 



Dec. 2ist, 223rd meeting. Sir C. Lyell, referring to 

 Dr. Carpenter's remarks at the last meeting, gave some 

 additional particulars from a report sent to the Admiralty by 

 Captain Nares, who thought that the Mediterranean tide 

 acted and reacted down to the bottom of the Strait, causing 

 an outflow during flood tide and an inflow during the ebb. 

 At the surface the constant inflowing current is much checked 

 by the flood tide, but is strong during the ebb, except when 

 easterly winds prevail. Admiral Richards, however, con- 

 sidered that the time (six days) devoted to observation was 

 not enough to warrant conclusions about the relative volumes 

 of the outflow and inflow, especially as an easterly wind 

 prevailed for most of the time. 



1872. Jan. 25th, 224th meeting. Mr. Huggins gave 

 particulars of the late solar eclipse from accounts by Dr. 

 Jansen and Colonel Tennant. These showed it could no 

 longer be doubted that the corona belongs to the solar 

 atmosphere, and the latter observer stated that the rifts 

 on the corona had again been noted. 



Dr. Hooker stated that Mr. New, of Mombasa, had made 

 a partial ascent of Kilimanjaro, and had brought back a few 

 plants. 2 



1 Sir Wyville Thomson, The Depths of the Sea (1873), pages 189-195, or 

 "W. B. Carpenter, Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. xx. p. 535. 



2 In August, 1871, he crossed the snow-line (probably rather above 

 13,000 feet) at the south-east base of Kibo, discovering on his return the 

 little crater lake Jala, and observed that the vegetation on Kilimanjaro 

 is divisible into six zones. See Hans Meyer, Across East African Glaciers 

 (translated 1891), page n. 



