PART PLAYED BY CABLE-LAYING 21 



awaited by zoologists and geographers of every 

 country. The Discovery and the Gauss, although 

 primarily fitted for ice-work, have added much to 

 what is known of the sea-bottom of the Antarctic ; 

 and amongst men of science there is no abatement 

 of interest and curiosity as to that terra incognita. 



Before we attempt to describe the conditions which 

 prevail at great depths of the ocean, a few words 

 should be said as to the part played by cable-laying in 

 the investigation of the subaqueous crust of the earth. 

 This part, though undoubtedly important, is sometimes 

 exaggerated ; and we have seen how large an array of 

 facts has been accumulated by expeditions made mainly 

 in the interest of pure science. The laying of the 

 Atlantic cable was preceded, in 1856, by a careful 

 survey of a submerged plateau, extending from the 

 British Isles to Newfoundland, by Lieutenant Berryman 

 of the Arctic. He brought back samples of the bottom 

 from thirty-four stations between Valentia and St. 

 John's. In the following year Captain Pullen, of 

 H.M.S. Cyclops, surveyed a parallel line slightly to the 

 north. His specimens were examined by Huxley, and 

 from them he derived the Bathybius, a primeval slime 

 which was thought to occur widely spread over the 

 sea-bottom. The interest in this ' Urschleim ' has, 

 however, become merely historic, since John Y. 

 Buchanan, of the Challenger, showed that it is only a 

 gelatinous form of sulphate of lime thrown down from 

 the sea-water by the alcohol used in preserving the 

 organisms found in the deep-sea deposits. 



The important generalizations of Dr. Wallich, who 

 was on board H.M.S. Bulldog, which, in 1860, again 

 traversed the Atlantic to survey a route for the cable, 

 largely helped to elucidate the problems of the deep. 

 He noticed that no algce live at a depth greater than 

 200 fathoms ; he collected animals from great depths, 

 and showed that they utilize in many ways organisms 



