572 Transactions of the American Institute. 



accuracy. These photographs have been thus tested at the Observa- 

 tory at Cambridge, Mass., and have been found to yield results equal 

 in accuracy to those obtained by direct observation in the best tele- 

 scopes. By these photographs the relative motions of the different 

 stars in this group can be ascertained. 



Mr. J. K. Fisher — It is not unreasonable to expect that the passage 

 of a strong light may be made to record itself. That has been done 

 in the firing of a cannon at noon by the rays of the sun. It is not 

 impossible that it may be done at some time with all the precision 

 possible in human observations. 



V. Deep Sea Life. 

 Dr. Carpenter has returned safely from the third trip in deep sea 

 dredgings. His results quite bear out the conclusions drawn from the 

 two previous ones. Some new facts, however, of extreme interest 

 have been discovered, the publication of which we may expect shortly. 

 It is hardly possible to exaggerate the importance of these investiga- 

 tions in their bearings on the most important general problems of 

 biology, physical geography and geology. They teach us that the 

 bottom of the deep ocean is the home of many creatures, who live 

 there in the absence of light, under great pressure, in water often 

 excessively cold — just above freezing point — abounding in carbonic 

 acid and in organic matter. Of these influences the one which makes 

 itself most felt is that of cold. It is this, and not the pressure, not 

 the bright sunlight that stunts the creatures and makes them repro- 

 duce at the bottom of equatorial seas the fauna of arctic surface 

 regions. Nor is the life at these depths confined to low-born Fora- 

 minifera, or to that wonderful protoplasmic Bathybius which Profes- 

 sor Huxley told the British Association, at Exeter, he had now found 

 in soundings from many quarters of the globe, and which therefore 

 seems to be a vast thin sheet of living matter, enveloping the whole earth 

 beneath the seas. Where, as in certain regions, the deep waters are 

 warm, highly organized beings of bright colors and well-appointed eyes 

 are brought up by the dredge. These researches press upon us the 

 question : " Is it possible for living matter to be born and nourished 

 in the absence of light, in the presence of carbonic acid, and in the 

 absence of any heat higher than the temperature of about 32° F., in 

 the absence, that is, of almost any force which can be transmuted 

 into vital force ? " At these great depths there is no vegetation, 

 properly so called, and Professor Wyville Thomson, who is associated 

 with Dr. Carpenter in these researches, is of opinion, that here the 



