198 Prof. W. King on Oceanic Sediments, and 



XXVI. — Oceanic Sediments, and their Relation to Geological 

 Formations. By Professor William King, Sc.D. &c. 



The valuable "preliminary reports" by Professor Wyville 

 Thomson, M.D. &c., in parts 154 ct 156 of tlie ' Proceedings ' 

 of the Royal Society, demand tlie special attention of geolo- 

 gists, as making known some important facts elucidating the 

 sedimentary or depositional phenomena of the ocean in past 

 periods of our globe. 



When my ^«otices* were published on the various objects 

 obtained by the soundings of H.M.S. * Porcupine,' during her 

 Atlantic-Telegraj)h Survey Expedition off the west coast of 

 Ireland, in 1862, the belief was gaining ground that the cal- 

 careous ooze occuiTing at great depths in the ocean is formed 

 of the testaceous dc^bris of Foraminifera that habitually live 

 on its bottom. Ehrenberg, finding sarcode in the foraminifer- 

 shclls brought up from the bed of the subarctic Atlantic by 

 Colonel Schafiher, appears to have been the first to give a 

 decided expression to this view ; though it had previously 

 found favour with Professor Bailey, and was forcibly advo- 

 cated afterwards by Wallich. The discoveries of Huxloy, 

 Berryman, and others strongly tended in the same direc- 

 tion. Influenced by these authorities, and taking various 

 matters into consideration, I was induced to express the belief 

 that the floor of the deep Atlantic is crowded with living 

 GIobigeri)ice and Orhulince. Subsequently, in 1869, Doctors 

 W. B. Carpenter and Wyville Thomson formed and expressed 

 a veiy strong opinion on the same side. However, the re- 

 searches lately made by the latter have led him to renounce 

 this opinion, and to contend, like Major Owen and Dr. 

 Gwyn Jeffreys, that the ooze-forming organisms inhabit the 

 superficial stratum of the ocean, from the surface to about 

 100 fathoms in depth. I should have readily subscribed to 

 the same view, but for certain facts which appear to oppose 

 it. There are no unequivocal instances of living examples 

 of the organisms referred to having been found in mid- 

 ocean at the surface f. Major Owen's accounts (also appa- 

 rently Lieut. Palmer's, which I have not been able to con- 

 sult) have been accepted as proving tiiat Glohigerina and 

 Orhulina are inhabitants of the superficial stratum, rising and 



* See ' Nautical Magazine,' December 18C2 ; and * Fraser's Magazine,' 

 October 1863. 



t The cases cited of Miiller and Hiickel having taken live specimens 

 of Globiyerina and Orbulina in the tow-net must be eliminated, as they 

 belong to shallow depths not far from land, where the creatures may not 

 only live at the bottom, but may occasionally rise to the surface, or be 

 brought up through adhering to pieces of seaweed that have got detached 

 from till- bottiini. 



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