TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



much imagined, it may be well to ascertain what 

 data modern investigation and discovery have given 

 us, and how far old notions have been superseded. 

 Popular opinion originally favoured the supposition 

 that beyond a certain depth there was only "a waste 

 of utter darkness, subject to such stupendous pres- 

 sure as to make life of any kind impossible, and to 

 throw insuperable difficulties in the way of any 

 attempt at investigation." When Carpenter and 

 Thomson in 1868 found that they could work " not 

 with so much ease, but with as much certainty, at 

 a depth of 600 fathoms as at 100, "great hopes 

 were entertained in the results, which were further 

 strengthened when in 1869 they carried their "ope- 

 rations down to 2,435 fathoms (14,610 feet), nearly 

 three statute miles, with perfect success." Thus was 

 the operation of deep-sea investigation demon- 

 strated as possible, and the celebrated " Challenger " 

 expedition, soon to follow, translated it into fact. 

 With the preliminary experience of the " Porcupine " 

 expedition to guide him, Sir Wyville Thomson 

 wrote : " For the bed of the deep sea, the one hun- 

 dred and forty millions of square miles which we 

 have now added to the legitimate field of Natural 

 History research, is not a barren waste. It is in- 

 habited by a fauna more rich and varied on account 

 of the enormous extent of the area, and with the 

 organisms in many cases apparently even more 



