THE DEPOSITS OF THE SEA-BOTTOM. 



compensation I have had at my disposal some material consisting of larger and smaller stones taken 

 in the trawl or the dredge; the number of these stones, however, has not been nearly so great as 

 desirable or necessary, if I was to draw more general inferences with regard to their distribution. 



As to the working up I have followed a plan somewhat different from that of my predecessors; 

 while they have mostly regarded each single class of deposits as a rather separate group, and described 

 alle their qualities jointly, I have taken another view; in my opinion each bottom - specimen is a 

 mechanic compound of many different elements, deposited on the locality in question in a mutually 

 rather accidental ratio of multitude. The charts showing the different distribution, will show this 

 distribution to be regulated by quite different laws, and accordingly it is not to be collected under 

 one head, but to be specified as much as possible. I have tried to show the distribution, and, if pos- 

 sible, to point out the laws by which it is regulated, for each single mineral and organic ingredient, 

 as well as for each single size of grain, and for still more particulars of the specimens. If I have not 

 even-where succeded so well, as it might be desired, it is, I hope, to be ascribed partly to the insuf- 

 ficiency of the material as to the showing of the effect of each of the great many factors that together 

 are the condition of the distribution, and the particulars of many of which are comparatively little 

 known, partly also to the comparatively great want of predecessors in the method, the consequence 

 of which has been that to begin with I was uncertain as to most of the phenomena which only 

 gradually during the proceeding of the work have become clear to me. In the present report there 

 will be missed, perhaps, the mentioning of many of the curious phenomena commonly thought to be 

 found in the deeper parts of the sea-bottom, especially with regard to the new-formation of minerals; 

 I, however, have found no trace of such formations, excepting, perhaps, the coccoliths; the tract of 

 the sea, treated of here, has upon the whole many disadvantages in this respect. On account of the 

 land being everywhere rather close at hand, the deposition of terrigenous material takes place so 

 quickly, that the ingredients taken in the sounding- tube presumably everywhere are so lately depos- 

 ited, that no perceptible new-formations have taken place. I have not been able to find any means 

 whatever for making out how quickly the deposition takes place; but from the fact that siibmarine 

 rocks constantly can exist, especially between the Faroe Islands and Iceland, and between this latter 

 island and Greenland, may be drawn the inference, that the deposition is rather slow. To be sure 

 many thousand years have passed since these regions were sunk below the surface, and even if we 

 suppose that originally very high perpendicular rocks were found, the result will not be perceptibly 

 altered by this supposition, . as we shall have to suppose, that at the bottom of such high rocks material 

 will be deposited on a far greater scale than farther out. 



In conclusion I have to pay my best thanks to Professor, Dr. phil. N. V. U s s i n g for his kind 

 assistance by the examination of the mineral material, and for the readiness with which he has placed 

 the rooms and apparatus of the mineralogical museum at my disposal during my work. 



