I*-!. 



!!N 



^ 



*^ 





^f 





^1 







-V V 



'-^. 



BockhaUBaBi 

 ^ 4o to m 



■wvii 



k 



the 



vre. 



■d of fish-bones 

 I the bottom of 



r.^re met witl, 

 d ■ ± of 23o 



the snbmaAs 



rthof 



} 



th- DO 



^ continno'"* 



J 



andentirt 



atr 



--aflr at tfle 





be 



of tins 



extPi- 



up 





H^ 



r 



eu 







Ch. XLYIIL] 



IN SUBAQUEOUS STEATA. 



577 



stone of recent origin. This is precisely the difference in 

 character which we might have expected to exist between 

 the British marine formations now in progress and those of 

 the Adriatic ; for calcareous and other mineral springs 

 abound in the Mediterranean and lands adjoining, while 

 they are almost entirely wanting in our own country. I 

 have already adverted to the eight regions of different depths 

 in the jiEo-ean Sea, each characterised by a peculiar assem- 

 blao-e of shells, which have been described by Professor E. 



them 



(See above, p. 372.) 



But since Edward Forbes fixed the zero of animal life in 



Sea at 300 fathoms, other observers^ Captain 



the ^gean 

 McClintock 



example, have found living 



m 



Greenland and Iceland, and Dr. Hooker in his Antarctic 

 voyage with Captain Sir J. C. Eoss established the fact from 

 soundings made off Victoria Land between lats. 71° and 78° 

 south, that the bottom of the ocean was inhabited, at depths 

 of from 200 to 400 fathoms, by Crustacea, moUusca, serpulse, 

 sponges, and other invertebrata.'^ 



In all these cases, it is only necessary that there should 

 be some deposition of sedimentary matter, however minute, 

 such as may be supplied by rivers draining a continent, or 

 currents preying on a line of cliffs, or melting icebergs loaded 

 with mud, sand, and boulders, in order that stratified forma- 

 tions, hundreds of feet in thickness, and replete with organic 

 remains, should result in the course of ages. 



We frequently observe, on the sea-beach, very perfect 

 specimens of fossil shells, quite detached from their matrix, 

 which have been washed out of older formations, consti- 



may 



species 



tuting the sea-cliffs. They 

 like the Eocene freshwater and marine shells strewed over 

 the southern shores of Hampshire, yet when they become 

 mingled with the shells of the present period, and buried in 



same 



upraised and examined by future geologists, to have been all 



* ' 



Antiquity of Man,' p. 268, and Appendix H., p. 528 



VOL. II. 



P P 





