Dec. 3, 1 8 74 J 



NATURE 



95 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Great Kangaroos {Macropus giganteus), 

 from New South Wales, presented by Mr. A. Nicol ; two 

 Common Boas [Boa constridci), t« o Agoutis (Dasyprocia ?), 

 from St. Lucia, presented by Mr. Neville Holland ; a Virginian 

 Deer (Cervus virsininiiiis), from South America, presented by 

 Capt. E. H. Cobbett; a Gazelle (Gazella dorcas), from Egypt, pre- 

 sented by Miss Lancaster ; a Common Peafowl (Pin'o cristatus), 

 from India, presented by the Hon. A. S. G. Canning ; a Vervet 

 Monkey [Ccrcopithcciis lalatidii), from South Africa ; and a Sun 

 Badger {Ildictis viosc/inia), from East Asia, new to the col- 

 lection. 



THE "CHALLENGER" EXPEDITION* 

 "POURING our soutliem cruise the sounding-lead brought up 

 five absolutely distinct kinds of sea-bottom, without taking 

 into account the rock and detritus of shallow soundings in the 

 neighbourhood of land. Our first two soundings in gS and 150 

 fathoms on the 17th and iSth of December were in the region of 

 the Agulhas current. These soundings would have been natu- 

 rally logged "greenish sand," but on examining the sandy par- 

 ticles with the microscope, they were found to consist almost 

 without exception of the casts of foraminifera in one of the com- 

 plex silicates of alumina, iron, and pot.ash, probably some form 

 of glauconite. The genera principally represented by these 

 casts were Milio!a, Biloculina, Uvigerina, Planorbulina, Rotalia, 

 Textularia, Eulimina, and Nummulina ; Globigerina, Orbulina, 

 and Pulvinulina were present, but not nearly in so great abun- 

 dmce. There were very few foraminifera on the surface of the 

 sea at the time. This kind of bottom has been met with once 

 or twice before ; but it is evidtntly exceptional, depending upon 

 some peculiar local conditions. 



Fiom the Cape, as far south as our station in lat. 46° 16', we 

 found no depth greater than 1,900 fathoms, and the bottom was 

 in every case "Globigerina ooze;" that is to say, it consisted of 

 little else than the shells of Globigerina, whole, or more or less 

 broken up, with a small proportion of the shells of Pulvinulina 

 and of Orbulina, and the spines and tests of ladiolarians and 

 frjBnients of the spicules of sponges. 



Mr. Murray has been paying the closest attention since the 

 time of our departure to the question of the origin of this cal- 

 careous formation, which is of so great interest and importance 

 on account of its anomalous character and its enormous exten- 

 sion. Very early in the voyage he formed the opinion that all 

 the organisms entering into its composition at the bottom are 

 dead, and that all of tliem live almndantly at the surface and at 

 intermediate depths over the Globigerina- ooze area, the ooze 

 ,being formed by the subsiding of these shells to the bottom after 

 death. 



This is by no means a new view. It was advocated by the 

 late Prof Bailey, of West Point, shortly after the discovery, by 

 means of Lieut. Broke's ingenious sounding instrument, that such 

 a formation had a wide extension in the Atlantic. Johannes 

 Midler, Count Pourtales, Krohn, and Max-Schiiltzc, observed 

 Globigerina and Orbulina living on the surface ; and Ernst 

 Hosckel, in his important work upon the Radiolaria, remarks 

 that " we olten find upon, and carried along by the floating 

 pieces of seaweed which are so frequently met with in all seas, 

 foraminifera as well as other animal forms which habitually live 

 at the bottom." However, setting aside these accidental in- 

 stances, certain foraminifera, particularly in their younger stages, 

 occur in some localities so constantly and in such numbers, float- 

 ing on the surface of the sta, that the suspicion seems justifiable 

 that they possess, at all events at a certain period of their exist- 

 ence, a pelagic mode of life, differing in this respect from most 

 of the remainder cf their class. Thus Miiller often found in the 

 contents of the nirfacenet off the coast of France the young of 

 Rotalia, but more paiticularly Globigerina; and Orbulina;, the 

 two latter frequently covered witli fine calcareous tubes, pro- 

 longations of the borders of the fine pores through which the 

 pseudogradia protrude through the shell. I took similar Globi- 

 gerina; and Orbulina; almost daily in a fine net at Messina, often 



* " Preliminary Notes on the Nature of the Sea-botlom procured by the 

 Souadings of H.M.S Challenger ^\ir\n^ her Cruise in the Southern Sea I 

 in the early part of the year 1^74." By Prof. C. Wyville Thomson. F.R S., 

 director of the Civilian Scientific Staff on board. Read before the Royal 

 Society, Nov. 26, 1874. J 



in great numbers, particularly in Febrtiary. Often lire shell was 

 covered with a whole forest of extremely long and delicate cal- 

 careous tubes projecting from all sides, and probably contributing 

 essentially to enalile these little animals to float below the surface 

 of the water by increasing their surface greatly, and consequently 

 their friction against the water, and rendering it more difficult 

 for them to sink. " * In 1S65 and 1S66 two papers were read 

 by Major Owen, F.L.S., before the Liimean Society, "On the 

 Surface Fauna of Mid-Ocean." In these communications the 

 author stated that he had taken foraminifera of the genera 

 Globigerina and Pulvinulina, living, in the tow-net on the surface 

 at many stations in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. He de- 

 scribed the special forms of these genera which were most com- 

 mon, and gave an interesting account of their habits, proposino- 

 for a family whicli should include Globigerina, with Orbulina at 

 a sub-genus, and Pulvinulina, the name Colymbita;, from the 

 circumstance that, like the Radiolaria, these foraminifera are 

 found on the surface after sunset, "diving" to some depth 

 beneath it during the heat of the day. Our colleague, Mr. Gwyn 

 Jeffreys, chiefly on the strength of Major Owen's papers, main- 

 tained that certain foraminifera were surface animals, in oppo- 

 sition to Dr. Carpenter and myself, f I had formed and expressed 

 a very strong opinion on the matter. It seemed to me tliat the 

 evidence was conclusive tliat the foraminifera which formed the 

 Globigerina ooze lived on the bottom, and that the occurrence of 

 individuals on the surface was accidental and exceptional ; but 

 after going into the thing carefully, and considering the mass of 

 evidence which has been accumulated by Mr. Murray, I now 

 admit that I was in error ; and I agree with him that it may be 

 taken as proved that all the materials of such deposits, with the 

 exception, of course, of the remains of animals which we now 

 know to live at the bottom at all depths, which occur in the 

 deposit as foreign bodies, are derived frnn the surface. 



Mr. Murray has combined witli a careful examination of the 

 soundings a constant use of the tow-net, usually at the surface, 

 but also at depths of from ten to one hundred fathoms ; and he 

 Imds the closest relation to exist between the surface fauna of 

 any particular locality and the deposit which is taking place at 

 tl}e bottom. In all seas, from the equator to the polar ice, the 

 low-net contains Globigerina;. They are more abundant and of 

 a larger size in warmer seas ; several varieties, attaining a large 

 size and presenting marked varietal characters, are found in the 

 intertropical area of the Atlantic. In the latitude of Ktr- 

 guelen they are less numerous and smaller, while further 

 south they are slill more dwarfed, and only one variety, tlie 

 typical Globigcnna bitlloidcs, is represented. The living Globi- 

 gerina; from the tow-net are singularly different in appear- 

 ance from the dead shells we find at the bottom. The shell is 

 ilear and transparent, and each of the pores which penetrate 

 it is surrounded by a raised crest, the crest round adjacent pores 

 coalescing into a roughly hexagonal network, so that the pores 

 appears to lie at the bottom of a hexagon.al pit. At each angle 

 of_ this hexagon the crest gives off a delicate flexible calcareous 

 spine, which is sometimes four or five times the diameter of the 

 sliell in length. The spines radiate symmetrically from the 

 direction of the centre of each chamber of the shell, and the 

 slieaves of long transparent needles crossing one another in 

 different directions have a very beautiful effect. The smaller 

 inner chambers of the shell are entirely filled with an orange- 

 yellow granular sarcode ; and the large terminal chamber usually 

 contains only a small irregular mass, or two or three small 

 masses run together, of the same yellow sarcode stuck against 

 one side, the remainder of the chamber being empty. NcT defi- 

 nite arrangement and no approach to structure was observed in 

 tlie sarcode, and no differentiation, with the exception of 

 round bright-yellow oil-globules, very much like those found in 

 some of the radio'arians, which are scattered apparently irregu- 

 larly in the sarcode. We never have been able to detect in any 

 of the large number of Globigerina: which we have examined the 

 least trace of pseudopodia, or any extension in any form of the 

 sarcode beyond the shell. 



Major Owen {op. cil.) has referred the Globigerina with spines 

 to a distinct species, under the name of G. hirsuta. I am 

 inclined rather to believe that all Globigerince are to a greater or 



• '■ Die Radlolarien." Eine Monographie von Dr. Ernst Haickel. Berlin, 

 lo'jj, pp. 16^, 167 



t Mr. Jeffreys desires to record his dissent from this conclusion, since 

 'from his own observations, as well as those of Major Owen and Lieut, 

 .^^'r^^r) he believes Globigerina to be exclusively an oceanic foraminifera 

 inhabiting only the superficial stratum of the sea. (Preliminary Report of 

 the Scientific E.\ploration of the Deep Sea, "Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society," No. 121, page 443.) 



