Botany and Zoology. 417 
on the like process. 
A possible solution of this difficulty, offered by Prof. Wyville 
Thomson in a lecture delivered last spring, has received so remark- 
able a confirmation from the researches made in the ‘Porcupine’ 
often exists there in quantity so small as to elude detection by 
chemical tests. All sea-water contains a certain amount of organic 
matter in solution. Its sources are obvious. rivers contain a 
large quantity ; every shore is surrounde a fringe, which ay- 
erages about a mile in width, e and red sea-weeds; in th 
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animals which are constantly dying and decaying; and the water 
of the Gulf Stream, especially, courses around coasts where the 
supply of organic i us. Iti 
telligible that a world of animals should live in these dark abysses : 
but it is a necessary condition that they should chiefly belong to 
a class capable of being supported by absorption t 
each cruise of the ‘ Porcupine,’ samples of sea-water ob- 
from the surface, at stations 
Dr. Angus Smith for the purpose of distinguishing the organic 
Matter in @ wigs of decomposition from ge which is only decom- 
! fee = 
appreciable quantity of matter of the latter kind, whi ch, not hav. 
mg passed into a state of decomposition, may be assimilable as 
Depths of the ” » Tectire deli e Rg Ce ae 8 Roy In. 
lin Society, April 10, ae 
am cas Serres, Vou. XLIX, No. 147.—Mar, 1870. 
26 
Am. Jour. Scr.~—Szconp 
