72 EXPEDITION OF THE "CHALLENGER" in 



Sea of Kamschatka, had succeeded in obtaining 

 specimens of the sea bottom from gi'eater depths 

 than any hitherto reached, namely from 2,700 

 fathoms (16,200 feet) in 56° 46' N., and 168° 18' E. ; 

 and from 1,700 fathoms (10,200 feet) in 60° 15' N- 

 and 170° 53' E. On examining these microscopically, 

 Professor Bailey found, as Ehrenberg had done in 

 the case of mud obtained on the opj^osite side of 

 the Arctic region, that the fine mud was made up 

 of shells of Biatcmacce, of spicula of sponges, and 

 of Radiolaria, with a small admixture of mineral 

 matters, but without a trace of any calcareous 

 organisms. 



Still more complete information has been ob- 

 tained concerning the nature of the sea bottom 

 in the cold zone aroimd the south pole. Between 

 the years 1839 and 1843, Sir James Clark Boss 

 executed his famous Antarctic expedition, in the 

 course of which he penetrated, at two widely dis- 

 tant points of the Antarctic zone, into the high 

 latitudes of the shores of Victoria Land and of 

 Graham's Land, and reached the parallel of 80° S. 

 Sir James Boss was himself a naturalist of no 

 mean acquirements, and Dr. Hooker,^ the present 

 President of the Boyal Society, accompanied him 

 as naturalist to the expedition, so that the obser- 

 vations upon the fauna and flora of the Antarctic 

 reo^ions made during- this cruise were sure to have 

 a peculiar value and importance, even had not the 

 * [Now Sir Joseph Hooker. 1894.] 



