DEEP-SEA STARFISHES. 175 



finding out the exact moment at which ground is 

 struck, a considerable quantity of line in excess of the 

 already ascertained depth is usually paid out. This 

 quantity, therefore, rests on the bottom for a short 

 time, until the sounding machine is again hauled up. 

 The Ophiocomce were adherent to this last fifty fathoms 

 only, and were not secured at all by the sounding 

 machine. It is quite clear, therefore, that they were 

 met with on the surface-layer of the deposit. The 

 distance from the nearest point of Greenland to the 

 spot at which this sounding was made is five hundred 

 miles, and to the nearest point of Iceland (namely, an 

 isolated rock called the ' Blinde Skier/ about seventy 

 miles from the mainland) two hundred and fifty 

 miles ; so that, admitting the possibility of the star- 

 fishes having been drifted by currents, for argument's 

 sake, the character of the fact would be in no way 

 affected. The structure and habits of the Echino- 

 derms generally are too well known, however, to ren- 

 der such a mode of accounting for their presence in 

 the position referred to possible. 



" On careful dissection, I found no appreciable ana- 

 tomical difference between these Ophiocomce and the 

 species frequenting shoal waters. The deposit on 

 which they rested consists of [certain Foraminifera, 

 named] Globigerince, so pure as to constitute ninety- 

 five per cent, of the entire mass. Their occurrence 

 where ihe^Globigerince are to be met with both in 

 greatest quantity and purity, together with the cir- 

 cumstance that in the stomach of the Ophiocomce the 



