152 MAJOE OWEN ON THE SURFACE-FAUirA OP MID-OCEAN. 



organisms still coustituted to live under tliem to rise to tlie sur- 

 face, or for the remains of these organisms after death to make 

 their appearance in shallow water." If this important proposition 

 at which Dr. "Wallich arrived has been really established, then 

 the rising of the GloMgerince to the surface after having once sub- 

 sided to the bottom, or to any considerable depth, is an impossi- 

 bility. But on the other hand he says, in the same paragraph, 

 " The conditions prevailing on the surface of the ocean render it 

 possible for organisms to subside after death to the greatest depths, 

 provided every portion of their structure is freely pervious to 

 fluid." Now, as the Eoraminifera are found living on the surface, 

 if such laws prevail, they could never have been generated at, nor 

 risen from, the bottom, but they might have been generated at or 

 near the surface, and those found below might have subsided 

 before or after death : we can hardly suppose that the two loca- 

 lities could produce precisely the same living organisms, if all com- 

 munication from below upwards, in consequence of the existence of 

 such a law, had been cut off between them. I therefore think it 

 most probable that the Poraminifera found at the bottom were 

 dead, or that they must have some means of again rising to the 

 surface. To those who consider this impossible it must be left to 

 get over the dif&cult ground interposed in the form of two or three 

 miles of water, if they still consider that the bottom of the ocean 

 is their natural habitat and the place at which they are bred. 



I will now proceed to give the results furnished by my nets in 

 the different localities over which I have Avorked. 



The remarks made on each spot (for which the latitude and 

 longitude are given) may be generally considered applicable to the 

 whole space between it and the preceding one ; for each portion 

 was carefully gone over, day and night, in calm and storm, nets 

 suited to the v^eather and rate of sailing having been used. 



My observations in the Bay of Bengal must be taken as very 

 Incomplete. I was not on any occasion devoting my researches 

 especially to the Foraminifera, but to other forms of life ; and the 

 state of my health on the last occasion when leaving India 

 interfered with my worlc during the first part of the voyage. 



The rest may be depended upon, with the exception of a 

 few degrees near the Caj)e of Good Hope. After leaving lat. 

 37° S., and long. 26° E., I had no nets out for some three or four 

 days. 



At the head of the Bay of Bengal during the months of No- 

 vember and December, February and March, I found a few spe- 



