CH. XVI.] FORAMINIFERAL LAND. 261 



Almost everything that is known about the deep-sea bottom 

 and its inhabitants has been learnt within the last quarter of a 

 century. When it was first proposed to bring the Old World 

 into relation with the New, by means of a telegraph-cable, it 

 became necessary to make a careful survey of that portion 

 of the sea-bed on which the cable was to rest. The bed of 

 the North Atlantic was first examined, in detail, in 1853, by 

 Lieutenant Berryman, in the United States brig Dolphin : 

 and, in 1857, it was thoroughly surveyed, between Ireland 

 and Newfoundland, by Captain Dayman in H.M.S. Cyclops. 

 During these surveys, numerous samples of the sea-bottom 

 were procured; and those which were brought up by the 

 American survey were submitted to Ehrenberg and Bailey, 

 while those from the English survey were examined by 

 myself In subsequent years, the exploration of the sea- 

 bottom has been actively carried on in various parts of the 

 world ; and the valuable series of observations made during 

 the expedition of H.M.S. Chaiknger has given us exact 

 information of its nature, at a series of stations, in all the 

 great oceans. 



In the ordinary method of sounding, or ascertaining the 

 depth of the sea, a leaden weight is attached to the end of a 

 graduated line, and rapidly run out until the weight strikes' 

 the bottom. To procure a sample of this bottom, the lead 

 is " armed ; " that is to say, the bottom of the weight, which 

 should be slightly hollow, is covered with tallow, and a small 

 quantity of the mud or other material at the bottom sticks 

 to this grease, and may thus be brought up for examination. 

 Such rude mean's are sufficient for sounding in shallow 

 water, but more complicated instruments are required for 

 deq)-sea soundings. Most of these instruments act upon a 

 principle first suggested by Lieutenant Brooke, of the U.S. 

 Navy — that of causing the weight to detach itself from the 



