THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 107 
in the previous voyage of the For to Arctic Seas. But, exposed to 
the same tempestuous weather which impeded the astronomical ex- 
pedition to the Coast of Labrador, the voyage of the Bulldog and 
Fox was accomplished under circumstances calculated to warn us that 
such triumphs are not to be won without toil and disappointment. 
Continuous bad weather retarded the survey, though it could not 
thwart the persevering energy of those entrusted with its execution ; 
and they effected a series of soundings sufficient to demonstrate the 
practicability of an Atlantic cable carried from the north of Scotland 
to the Faroe Islands, thence to the east shore of Iceland, and from 
its western coast along a sea-bed over which the annual icebergs of 
the Arctic Ocean sweep southward their mighty hulks, like mountains 
torn from their foundations, to waste and perish as strange intruders 
in a southern clime. 
But while we are thus encouraged to anticipate once more, with 
eager longing, the time when the ocean-buried coil shall emerge on 
our own British American coasts, and its wondrous freight of thought 
shall sweep across half a world, swift and noiseless as the stellar rays 
through the blue depths of space ; we have meanwhile other results 
of interest and value to note, as products of this great enterprise. 
Dr. Wallich, the naturalist of the expedition, has recently published a 
valuable series of observations, having for their chief object to deter- 
mine the depths to which animal life extends in the sea. The result 
of these is to establish beyond question that life exists in the vast 
depths of the ocean, under circumstances which have heretofore been 
deemed incompatible with any condition of vitality. The soundings 
in the bed of the Atlantic had previously made us familiar with the 
fact that the oozy deposits along its great basins are to a considerable 
extent made up of the minute calcareous shells of Foraminifera. But 
these have been obtained during the recent expedition, at depths of 
from fifty to nearly two thousand fathoms, with the cell-contents 
entire, and otherwise presenting satisfactory evidence of having been 
in a vital state when disturbed in their ocean habitats by the sounding 
line and lead. Nearly midway between Cape Farewell and Rockall, 
the deep-sea line brought up, along with numerous specimens of the 
Globigerinze, several living star-fishes belonging to the genus Ophi- 
ocoma, recovered from a depth of upwards of twelve hundred fathoms. 
The facts are highly suggestive and replete with interest for us. 
That in the dark caverns of mid-ocean, the solid rock was in process 
