1028 DR. G. HERBERT EOWLER Otf THE [Dec. 13, 



varying forms, all terms of which were represented in the ' Research' 

 collections. The range in depth is now extended to 480-350 

 fathoms ; the lowest temperature to 31-33 F. It has not been 

 recorded except from the Faeroe Channel. 



For the horizons of capture, see the table on pp. 1022-3. 



FORAMITQFERA. . 



GLOBIGERINA spp. 



1. A very small species, probably a dwarfed 61. bulloides, was 

 fairly plentiful whenever the finest net was used at the surface. 

 The specimens were spinous when captured \ 



2. On the occasion when the Mesoplankton net touched bottom, 

 a very small quantity of bottom deposit was found in it, containing 

 minute spineless Globigerinse, which seemed to be referable to the 

 species G. bulloides and G.pachy derma. It is very noticeable in balsam 

 mounts of this sample that most of the supposed G.pachyderma are 

 quite filled with what looks like brownish protoplasm, as are most 

 of the bottom-living Foraminifera, but that most of the thin-shelled 

 G. bulloides are clear and empty. The brownish material, while 

 yellowing slightly with nitric acid, does not give the brilliant tint 

 of the usual xanthoproteic reaction. It would seem to be of a clayey 

 nature, and is possibly, as Sir John Murray suggests, a stage in the 

 formation of glauconite. It is extremely soft and friable, and when 

 stained is almost indistinguishable from the similarly stained proto- 

 plasm of surface specimens. 



The dependence of the formation of glauconite upon the presence 

 of protoplasm has been pointed out in detail by Sir John Murray 

 and the Abbe Renaud (Chall. Rep., Deep-Sea Deposits, pp. 385- 

 390). If this material be of a glauconitic nature, its method of 

 occurrence would seem to indicate that G. pachyderma on reaching 

 the bottom contains more protoplasm than G. bulloides, and in that 

 case probably lives nearer to the bottom. It is very desirable 

 that voluminous samples of the bottom deposit should be taken in 

 the Faeroe Channel in order to test this suggestion, and for the 

 following reason. 



The whole discussion as to whether Globigerina was a purely 

 planktonic form, or could both float and creep at the bottom 

 indifferently, would probably have been settled by the acceptance 

 of t he first alternative years ago, had it not been for an observation 

 by Dr. Carpenter during the third cruise of the ' Porcupine ' 2 

 which was recorded in his general discussion of the Globigerina 

 question in 1875. This was to the effect that samples of water 

 taken from immediately above the Globigerina ooze at 500-750 

 fathoms, in the Faeroe Channel, yielded on filtration " multitudes 

 of young Globigerince" plentiful and small enough to make the 

 water appear turbid. 



The " cold area " of the Faeroe Channel is apparently the 



1 Cf. Brady : Proc. Boy. Soc. Edinburgh, xi. p. 717. 



2 W. B. Carpenter : Proc. Eoy. Soc. xxiii. p. 235. 



