MAJOE OWEN our THE STJETAOE-rATJIirA OF MID'OCEAIS", 151 



tributed organizations of the ocean. They occur in all seas, in 

 more or less abundance. But there is one genus (namely Glohi- 

 gerind) which may be regarded as essentially oceanic, since it is 

 to be found in all latitudes, and at all depths, ranging from 50 to 

 3000 fathoms. Its seat of maximum development is on the 

 deepest areas of the sea-bed. There, like the sands of the shore, 

 it strews hundreds of square miles of surface, and apparently 

 builds up vast strata. The great superficial current of the At- 

 lantic does not bear it away in countless multitudes from tropical 

 coast-lines, nor does the body of the ocean itself constitute its 

 habitation." 



To this there is the foUowiug note affixed at page 137 : — " By 

 sinking very fine gauze nets to considerable depths, I have 

 repeatedly satisfied myself that Olohigerina does not occur in the 

 superficial strata of the ocean. On one occasion a small bag 

 was drawn up through 700 fathoms of water in a locality where 

 Globigerina abounded on the sea-bed, without entrapping a single 

 sheU." 



To those whose minds are so constituted as to admit the con- 

 ception of unlimited time for submarine deposits, the insigni- 

 ficance in size and quantity of this the Colymbitic family of the 

 Eoraminifera will be no obstacle to believing that the surface is 

 their home ; others, who wish for a larger and quicker supply to 

 account for such deposits, must still look, with Dr. Wallich, for 

 the abundance necessary to suit their views, to what may prove 

 to be but their sepulchre. 



I do not think with Dr. "Wallich that it is absolutely necessary 

 for these forms to sink to or to reside at any great depth for the 

 purpose of recruiting their store of carbonate of lime, which is 

 there supposed to be held in solution in greater quantities than 

 at the surface, where, in mid-ocean, it is either altogether absent 

 or very nearly so ; while, on the same authority of Bischoff" as 

 quoted by Dr. "Wallich at page 122, there are more than 3| of 

 chloride of calcium in every 100 parts of soluble material con- 

 tained in the salt water of the ocean, which in itself contains 3| 

 per cent, of such soluble matter ; and the supply of carbonic acid 

 can be drawn from the atmosphere, either directly, or after its 

 having been dissolved by the surface-water which they frequent. 

 Such a little bit of chemistry, I take it, can be easily performed by 

 organized beings. 



A-t page 155 of the same work we find the following : — " The 

 conditions prevailing at great depths render it impossible for 



