March 31, 1870] 
NATURE 
565 
Dr. Frankland, have fully confirmed these results, by demon- 
strating the highly azotized character of this organic matter, 
which presents itself in samples of sea-water taken up at from 
500 to 750 fathoms’ depth, in such a proportion that its 
universal diffusion through the oceanic waters may be safely 
predicted. 5 
Until, therefore, any other more probable hypothesis shall 
haye been proposed, the sustenance of animal life on the ocean- 
bottom at any depth may be fairly accounted for on the sup- 
position of Prof. Wyville Thomson, that the protozoic portion 
of that fauna is nourished by direct absorption from the dilute 
protoplasm diffused through the whole mass of oceanic waters, 
just as it draws from the same mass the mineral ingredients of 
the skeletons it forms. This diffused protoplasm, however, 
must be continually undergoing decomposition, and must be as 
continually renewed; and the source of that renewal must lie in 
the surface-life of plants and animals, by which (as pointed out 
by Prof. Wyville Thomson) fresh supplies of organic matter 
must be continually imparted to the oceanic waters, being carried 
down even to their greatest depths by that liquid diffusion 
which was so admirably investigated by the late Professor 
Ce 
Not only, however, has the nutrition of the abyssal fauna to 
be explained ; its respiration also has to be accounted for; and 
on this process also the results of the analyses of the gases of the 
sea-water made during the Porcupine expedition throw very 
important light. Samples were collected not only at the sur- 
face, under a great variety of circumstances, but also from great 
depths ; and the gases expelled by boiling were subjected to 
analysis according to the method of Prof. W. A. Miller—the 
adaptation of his apparatus to the exigencies of ship-board 
having been successfully accomplished during the first cruise by 
Mr. W. L. Carpenter. The general average of thirty analyses 
of surface-water gives the following as the percentage propor- 
tions :—25°I oxygen, 54°2 nitrogen, 20°7 carbonic acid. ‘This 
proportion, however, was subject to great variations, as will be 
presently shown. As a general rule, the proportion of oxygen was 
found to diminish, and that of carbonic acid to increase, with the 
depth ; the results of analyses of intermediate waters giving a per- 
centage of 20°0 oxygen, 52°$ nitrogen, and 26'2 carbonic acid ; 
whilst the results of analyses of bottom-waters gave 19°5 oxygen, 
52°6 nitrogen, and 27°9 carbonic acid. But bottom-water at a 
comparatively small depth often contained as much carbonic acid 
and as little oxygen as intermediate water at much greater depths; 
and the proportion of carbonic acid to oxygen in bottom-water 
was found to bear a much closer relation to the abundance of 
animal life (especially of the more elevated types), as shown by 
the dredge, than to its depth. This was very strikingly shown in 
an instance in which analyses were made of the gases contained 
in samples of water collected at every fifty fathoms, from 400 
fathoms to the bottom at 862 fathoms, the percentage results 
being as follows :— 
750 fath. 800 fath. Bottom 862 fath. 
Oxygen . . 18'8 5 LS, er as eck 
Nitrogen . AG See ASE ST Meier eae 
Carbonic Acid BO) 9 6 Ba bei 2 7h 
The extraordinarily augmented percentage of carbonic acid in 
the stratum of water here immediately overlying the sea-bed was 
accompanied by a great abundance of animal life. On the other 
hand, the lowest percentage of carbonic acid found in bottom- 
water, viz. 7°9, was accompanied by a ‘‘very bad haul.” In 
several cases in which the depths were nearly the same, the 
analyst yentured a prediction as to the abundance, or otherwise, 
of animal life, from the proportion of carbonic acid in the 
botiom-water; and his prediction proved in eyery instance 
correct. 
It would appear, therefore, that the increase in the proportion 
of carbonic acid and the diminution in that of the oxygen, in 
the abyssal waters of the ocean, is due to the respiratory process, 
which is no less a necessary condition of the existence of animal 
life on the sea-bed, than is the presence of food-material for its 
sustenance. And it is further obvious that the continued con- 
sumption of oxygen and liberation of carbonic acid would soon 
render the stratum of water immediately above the bottom com- 
pletely irrespirable—in the absence of any antagonistic process of 
vegetation—were it not for the upward diffusion of the carbonic 
acid through the intermediate waters to the surface, and the 
downward diffusion of oxygen from the surface to the depths 
below. A continual interchange will take place at the surface 
between the gases of the sea-water and those of the atmosphere ; 
and thus the respiration of the abyssal fauna is provided for by a 
process of diffusion, which may have to operate through three 
miles or more of intervening water. 
The varying proportions of carbonic acid and oxygen in the 
surface-waters are doubtless to be accounted for in part by the 
differences in the amount and character of the animal life existing 
beneath ; but a comparison of the results of the analyses made 
during the agitation of the surface by wind, with those made in 
calm weather, showed so decided a reduction in the proportion 
of carbonic acid, with an increase in that of oxygen, under 
the former condition, as almost unequivocally to indicate 
that superficial disturbance of the sea by atmospheric move- 
ment is absolutely necessary for its purification from the 
noxious effects of animal decomposition. Of this view a most 
unexpected and remarkable confirmation has been afforded 
by the following circumstance :—In one of the analyses of surface- 
water made during the second cruise, the percentage of carbonic 
acid fell as low as 3°3, while that of oxygen rose as high as 37°1; 
and in a like analysis made during the third cruise, the percent- 
age of carbonic acid was 5°6, while that of oxygen was 45°3. 
As the results of every other analysis of surface-water were in 
marked contrast to these, it became a question whether they 
should not be thrown out as erroneous ; until it was recollected 
that, whilst the samples of surface-water had been generally 
taken from the bow of the vessel, they had been drawn in these 
two instances from abaft the paddles, and had thus been sub- 
jected to such a violent agitation in contact with the atmosphere, 
as would pre-eminently favour their thorough aération. 
Hence, then, it may be affirmed that every disturbance of the 
ocean-surface by atmospheric movement, from the gentlest ripple 
to the most tremendous storm-wave, contributes, in proportion to 
its amount, to the maintenance of animal life in its abyssal depths 
—doing, in fact, for the aération of the fluids of their inhabitants, 
just what is done by the heaving and falling of the walls of our 
own chest for the aeration of the blood which courses through our 
lungs. A perpetual calm would be as fatal to their con- 
tinued existence as the forcible stoppage of all respiratory 
movement would be to our own. And thus universal stagna- 
tion would become universal death. ~ 
Thus it has been shown that the bed of the deep sea, even in 
the immediate neighbourhood of our own shores, is an area of 
which the conditions have until lately been as completely unknown 
us those of the ice-bound regions of the poles, or of the densest 
forests, the most arid deserts, the most inaccessible mountain- 
summits, that lie between the tropics ; and further, that by the 
systematic employment of the sounding-apparatus, the ther- 
mometer, and the dredge, almost as complete a knowledge can 
be gained of those conditions, as if the explorer could himself 
visit the abyssal depths he desires toexamine. Of the important 
discoveries in almost every department of science, but more par- 
ticularly in what Mr. Kingsley has well termed Bio-Geology, 
which may be anticipated from the continuation and extension of 
an inquiry of which the mere commencement has yielded such an 
abundant harvest, the speaker felt it scarcely possible to form too 
high an expectation. And, in conclusion, he referred to the 
systematic and energetic prosecution of deep-sea explorations by 
the United States Coast Survey and by the Swedish Government 
—the results of which prove to be singularly accordant with those 
now briefly expounded—as showing that other maritime powers 
are strongly interested in the subject ; and expressed the earnest 
hope that the liberal assistance of Her Majesty's Government, 
which has already enabled British naturalists to obtain the lead 
in this inquiry, would be so continued as to enable them to keep 
it inthe future. In particular, he called attention to the sugges- 
tion lately thrown out by M. Alex. Agassiz, that an arrangement 
might be made by our own Admiralty with the naval authorities 
of the United States, by which a thorough survey, physical and 
biological, of the North Atlantic should be divided between the 
two countries ; so that British and American explorers, prose- 
cuting in a spirit of generous rivalry labours most important to 
the science of the future, might meet and shake hands on the 
Mid-Ocean. 
W. B. CARPENTER 
Norr.—Tables I. and II. on the following page give the 
Temperature of the Sea at different Depths—(I.) in the Channel 
between the North of Scotland, the Shetland Isles, and the 
Faroe Islands (the Roman Numericals indicate the Lightning 
Temperature-Soundings, corrected for pressure) ; and (II.) near 
the Western margin of the North Atlantic Basin, as ascertained 
by Serial and by Bottom Soundings, 
