ANNIVEESAEY ADDEESS. 17 



discovery of creatures removed far above them in the scale of 

 organization, the vitality of which remained unimpaired for some 

 time after they had been brought up from a depth of nearly 1,300 

 fathoms * * * 



" They (the Opliiuridce) nevertheless do exist there and were 

 found at a point where the Globigerince constitute as much as 95 

 per cent, of the deposit on which they rest. (p. 11.) *'*.,'* 



" The smallest Qlobigerina shell met with by me in this 

 material measured -g^o-th of an inch in diameter, and contained 

 but two chambers, the size of the free ' coccoliths' being siro^th 

 of an inch in diameter, or five times smaller. 



" It is worthy of record that the occurrence of Globigerince in 

 two soundings between Cape Farewell and Rockall, in 1,260 and 

 1,607 fathoms, the one containing 95 per cent., the other 98 per 

 cent, of clean shells, with hardly a trace of 'any other organic 

 or inorganic matter, affords an almost direct proof that their 

 respence is not due to drift or deposition by currents." (p. 15.) 



Two questions suggest themselves to me from the above 

 discussion : — (1.) Assuming that the Qlobigerina ooze is a 

 deposit of very similar character to that of the old cretaceous 

 formation, was the ancient chalk deposited in the same way in 

 cold water and in a very deep sea ? (2.) And in those days was 

 there any ocean stream, like the modern Grulf Stream, which Dr. 

 "VVallich (p. 19) associates in an intimate manner with Globigerince, 

 " when in any quantity in the deep sea deposits ;" quoting the 

 case of the ocean bottom " between Ireland and Newfoundland," 

 and " between the Faroe Islands and Iceland ? " 



Some other extraordinary circumstances are connected with the 

 sea bottom of the Atlantic. In a paper by Professor Wyville 

 Thomson, entitled " Preliminary Notes on the Nature of the Sea 

 bottom, procured by the soundings of II. M.S. 'Challenger' in the 

 Southern Sea, in the early part of 1874," and read before the 

 Royal Society of England on 26th November last, we find some 

 remarkable facts, which can only be briefly alluded to here. 



B 



