180 Dr. Hooker's Flora Antarctica. 



only known living in the waters of the south polar ocean have, 

 during past ages, contributed to the formation of rocks; and 

 thus they outlive several successive creations of organized beings. 

 The Phonolite stones of the Rhine, and the Tripoli stone 

 contain species identical with what are now contributing to form 

 a sedimentary deposit (and perhaps at some future period a bed 

 of rock), extending in one continuous stratum for four hundred 

 measured miles. I allude to the shores of the Victoria Barrier ; 

 along whose coast the soundings examined were invariably charg- 

 ed with Diatomaceous remains, constituting a bank which stretches 

 200 miles north from the base of Victoria Barrier, while the aver- 

 age depth of water above it is 300 fathoms, or 1800 feet. 



"Again, some of the antarctic species have been detected float- 

 ing in the atmosphere which overhangs the wide ocean between 

 Africa and America. * * # 



" The existence of the remains of many species of this order 

 (and amongst them some antarctic ones) in the volcanic ashes, 

 pumice, and scoria of active and extinct volcanoes (those of the 

 Mediterranean sea and Ascension Island for instance) is a fact bear- 

 ing immediately upon the present subject. Mt. Erebus a volcano 

 12,400 feet high, of the first class in dimensions and energetic 

 action, rises at once from the ocean in the 78th degree of south 

 latitude, and abreast of the Diatomacea) bank, which reposes in 

 part on its base. Hence, it may not appear preposterous to con- 

 clude that, as Vesuvius receives the waters of the Mediterranean, 

 with its fish, to eject them by its crater, so the subterranean and 

 subaqueous forces which maintain Mount Erebus in activity, may 

 occasionally receive organic matter from this bank, and disgorge 

 it, together with those volcanic products, ashes and pumice. 



In the descriptive portion, it should be mentioned that Dr. 

 Hooker, although himself no mean proficient in Cryptogamic 

 botany, especially in Muscology, has received the valuable assist- 

 ance of some of the best Cryptogamists of the age in the elabo- 

 ration of the large part of this work which is devoted to these 

 lower orders; Mr. Wilson having been associated with him ill 

 the preparation of the Mosses ; the late Dr. Taylor, in that of the 

 Hepaticae and the Lichenes ; Mr. Berkeley in the Fungi ; and 

 Professor Harvey in the Algse. Making due allowance for all 

 this important aid, we are more and more surprised at the amount 

 of the results here embodied and the thoroughness with which 

 they have been elaborated; the labor, enough as it would seem 

 for a life-time, having been performed in the course of a few short 

 years. May he long continue, in the new scientific undertakings 

 in which he is at present so zealously engaged, to add new lustre 

 to the honored name he bears. 



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