BED OF THE ATLANTIC. 



Therefore, the object of this paper is to give simply a sketch or outline of 

 those minute and beautiful microscopic creatures brought up from a depth of 

 2000 fathoms (12,000 feet), under the influence of the Gulf Stream, and from 

 which locality no specimens have as yet been collected, excepting those five 

 hundred miles north on the line of the Atlantic cable, for the most part 

 under the influence of Polar waters. 



These few illustrations must be considered simply introductory : it is not 

 easy for one not a naturalist to give every detail, but there is little difficulty 

 in describing in a general manner what he sees. 



A voyage through the Gulf Stream (by orders of the Lords Commissioners of 

 the Admiralty) for the purpose of defining its limits, depths, currents, and tem- 

 peratures, gave the writer an opportunity of sounding and bringing up the 

 bottom, between the Newfoundland Banks and the Azores a portion of the 

 Atlantic which had not been before examined, and where it was supposed many 

 banks and volcanic rocks existed, 



The bottom has been found, for 60,000 square miles, to be a comparatively 

 level chalk bed, made up of all those minute calcareous and silicious creatures 

 found in the chalk cliffs of our own shores, chiefly Infusoria in general, 

 Foraminiferse, in all its varied organic forms ; frustules of Diatomacese, and 

 Sponge Spicules, surrounded and closely packed by minute granules of inorganic 

 silicious forms. 



Around the great Banks of Newftnindland, and in those places under the 

 influence of cool Polar waters, the colour of the ground was for the most part 

 dark, brown, or green, and contained a greater number of silicious forms ; while 

 in the deeper waters, near the axis of the Gulf Stream, and where land was 

 departed from, the colour changed to a pale yellow tint, and contained Foramini- 

 ferse, for the most part, with few Diatoms, illustrating, in a very practical manner, 

 the absence of plants. 



On the sloping Banks of Newfoundland, which incline in a remarkably regular 

 manner, from a depth of 1000 fathoms to 30 fathoms, at an angle of about 35, 

 and before leaving the shoal waters (at 600 fathoms), where the temperature 

 was 38, the bottom at that comparatively shoal depth may be said to be 

 vegetative, with Sponge Spicules, fine silicious granules, and fragments of 

 Coscinodiscus. 



