Bibliographical Notices, 381 



passed over by the ' Bulldog' during her voyage of about four months. 

 The first section of the part now before us contains his journal of the 

 voyage, which comprises much interesting information, especially upon 

 the nature and mode of formation of the icebergs and ice-fields which 

 constitute at once the greatest wonder and the chief danger of those 

 northern seas in which his investigations were carried on. This 

 portion of Dr. Wallich's book we shall, however, pass over, in order 

 to direct the reader's attention more particularly to the remarkable 

 results detailed in the second section, which is devoted to the consider- 

 ation of the " Bathymetrical Limits of Animal Life in the Ocean." 



The interest attaching to this section of Dr. "Wallich's work arises 

 from the fact that, in some of his deep-sea soundings, the apparatus 

 employed brought up living animals from those abysses of the ocean 

 which, according to the almost universal opinion of naturalists, were 

 miinhabitable by any creatures, thus at once upsetting all our pre- 

 conceived notions as to the distribution and limits of animal life in 

 the sea. The first notice of Dr. Wallich's remarkable observations 

 appeared in this Journal in December 1860 ; in the present work we 

 have a more detailed account of the mode of occurrence of the ani- 

 mals referred to, which can leave no doubt that the existence of. 

 animal life at enormous depths is an actual fact. 



The most striking of Dr. Wallich's results was obtained in a 

 sounding at a depth of 1260 fathoms : it is to this that his short 

 paper already alluded to refers. The deposit brought up consisted of 

 GlohigerincBy many of them in a fresh condition, amongst which were 

 some small Serpuloid tubes, composed chiefly of the shells of small 

 Glohigerince cemented together, from which Dr. Wallich justly con- 

 cludes that the inhabitants of these tubes live upon the sea-bed 

 among the Glohigerince. But the most astonishing circumstance 

 was the occurrence of numerous living Starfishes of a species {OpTiio- 

 coma granulata) well known as an inhabitant of our coasts, adhering 

 to the sounding-line under such conditions as to prove that they also 

 must find a suitable dwelling-place in the profound abysses of the 

 ocean. The evidence of this fact is furnished partly by their position 

 on the line, and partly by the contents of the stomach of a specimen 

 opened by Dr. Wallich. To explain the former proof, our author 

 tells us that, after the regular operation of sounding had been per- 

 formed, the apparatus for bringing up a portion of the bottom was 

 lowered, and, in order to make sure of its reaching and dragging on 

 the bottom, about fifty fathoms of line were paid out in addition to 

 the quantity indicated by the previous sounding. It was only to this 

 fifty fathoms of line, which must have lain along the bottom of the 

 sea, that the Starfishes adhered ; and as no fewer than thirteen of 

 them were brought up, it would appear that they must be tolerably 

 plentiful over the sea-bed at the point sounded. The contents of 

 the stomach proved that the Ophiocomce feed upon the Glohigerince, 

 furnishing additional evidence that the two forms were cohabitants 

 of the sea-bottom at this point. 



Dr. Wallich refers to other instances in which he obtained living 

 animals, and indications of the existence of other forms, from depths 



