VI. A FORAMINIFEROUS DEPOSIT FROM BOTTOM OF THE 



NORTH ATLANTIC. BY A. H. MAC KAY, LL. D. 



(Read 10th December, 1894.) 



The exact location of this deposit cannot be more tersely 

 described than it is in the following note from Captain Trott, of 

 the steamship Minia, dated Halifax, 31st April, 1894, which 

 accompanied the material sent to Dr. Murphy, Provincial 

 Engineer, who duly passed it on to me. 



" Herewith the stones I spoke to you about. They came 

 " from a depth of 2450 fathoms, in latitude 49 CO' N., longitude 

 " 40 15' W. The current in this vicinity runs strong to N. E., 

 " varying sometimes two or three points either way, doubtless 

 " influenced by the moon. The surface temperature ranges from 

 " 54 to 59 Fahrenheit. This is as it is found nearly all the 

 " months of June and July. A little further west we found cold 

 " water and very little current. I am also sending some 

 " Globigerina ooze which came up in the same mushroom anchor 

 " with the stones the anchor being full except on one side 

 " where it had beeu washed out while heaving up, thereby 

 " exposing the stones." 



The spot, roughly estimating, is therefore not far from 700 

 miles south-easterly from Cape Farewell, Greenland, and some 

 300 or 400 miles east from Labrador, or 300 miles east by north 

 of Newfoundland. This is beyond the Great Banks and well 

 down into the profounder depths of the Atlantic. It would 

 appear then to lie near the circle which, like the circumference 

 of a vast oceanic eddy, lies tangential to the Gulf Stream on the 

 south-east, the westerly Arctic current from Iceland to Green- 

 land on the north, and the southerly Arctic current along the 

 Labrador Coast. The character of the deposit suggests the exist- 

 ence of such an eddy, no matter how circumscribed and swaying 

 its position may be. 



(64) 



