DEEP-SEA j:\I'I.<)i;ation. 1')3 



was generally doubted or denied u\> to a comparatively re- 

 cent time. 



Between 1840 and l.S.")(), I'n.f. ]:d\vard I\)rbes, of Britain, 

 prosecuted extensive researches into the fauna of the ocran 

 around Great Britain. and also in the .Egean sea durin^^ the 

 Mediterranean survey. Assisted by Jetlreys, MacAndivw, 

 Ball, and otlurs, dredging in moderate depths was energeti- 

 cally pro.secuted and facts gathered together. Forbes was 

 the first to philosophically treat these question.s, and was a 

 true pioneer in this work. But some peculiarities of the 

 particular part of the Mediterranean, in which his researches 

 were conducted, led him to the belief, true only for that 

 locality, that animal life dies out in the region between two 

 hundred and three hundred fathoms in depth, and that a 

 zero of life is reached about the latter point. 



The j)remature death of Forbes l)rought to an untimely 

 end those studies which would have doubtless modified his 

 views, while the weight of his oiiinion, and the i)eculiar 

 charm of his personality fingered after him with such eflect 

 as to render naturalists, in general, incredulous or indifferent 

 to evidence which gradually accumulated to show that he 

 was in error. 



In LS4G, Admiral 8pratt, K. X., dredged in olO fathoms 

 several shell-fish, in the vicinity of Malta. 



In 1850, the veteran professor Michael Sars enumerated 

 nineteen kinds of animals, obtained by him otl" the coast of 

 Norway, in more than 300 fathoms. 



In 1800, Dr. G. G. Wallich, naturalist to a Briti.sh sound- 

 ing exi»edition in the North Atlantic, in H. M. S. Bulldog, 

 commanded by Gai>tain Sir Leojiold McClintock, obtained a 

 mnnber of star-li<hes whirh had attached themselves to a 

 sounding-line which ha<l re-^ted on the bottom at a tlepth of 

 1,2<)0 fathoms. On his return hi. Wallich i»ui)lished the 

 tirst part of a work on " The Atlantic Sea-bed,' in which he 

 warmly advocated the view of the existence of life at great 

 depths. About the same time a broken cable was taken up 

 from a depth of 1.200 fathoms, in the Mediterranean, u[M)n 

 which a small true coral had ;:rown ~^i>"" tlir cal)le was laid. 



