60 SELECTIONS FROM HUXLEY 



mud was almost entirely composed of the skeletons of living 

 organisms the greater proportion of these being just like 

 the Globigerince already known to occur in the chalk. 



Thus far, the work had been carried on simply in the 

 5 interests of science, but Lieut. Brooke's method of sounding 

 acquired a high commercial value, when the enterprise of 

 laying down the telegraph cable between this country and 

 the United States was undertaken. For it became a matter 

 of immense importance to know, not only the depth of the 



10 sea over the whole line along which the cable was to be laid, 

 but the exact nature of the bottom, so as to guard against 

 chances of cutting or fraying the strands of that costly rope. 

 The Admiralty consequently ordered Captain Dayman, an 

 old friend and shipmate of mine, to ascertain the depth over 



1 5 the whole line of the cable, and to bring back specimens of 

 the bottom. In former days, such a command as this might 

 have sounded very much like one of the impossible things 

 which the young prince in the Fairy Tales is ordered to do 

 before he can obtain the hand of the Princess. However, 



20 in the months of June and July, 1857, my friend performed 

 the task assigned to him with great expedition and precision, 

 without, so far as I know, having met with any reward of 

 that kind. The specimens of Atlantic mud which he pro- 

 cured were sent to me to be examined and reported upon. 1 



25 The result of all these operations is, that we know the con- 

 tours and the nature of the surface-soil covered by the North 

 Atlantic, for a distance of 1,700 miles from east to west, as 

 well as we know that of any part of the dry land. 



It is a prodigious plain one of the widest and most even 



30 plains in the world. If the sea were drained off, you might 



1 See Appendix to Captain Dayman's "Deep-sea Soundings in the North 

 Atlantic Ocean, between Ireland and Newfoundland, made in H. M. S. Cyclops. 

 Published by order of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, 1858." They 

 have since formed the subject of an elaborate Memoir by Messrs. Parker and 

 Jones, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1865. 



