178 



Dr. Carpenter's Preliminary Report [Dec. 17, 



that can fairly be thrown upon the value of this observation has reference 

 to the precise depth indicated by the Sounding, this having been made 

 according to the old method now abandoned as unreliable. The circum- 

 stances under which this sounding was taken, however, render it probable 

 that the actual depth was not much less than that recorded. 



In another Sounding, in calm water, and with a smooth sea (lat. 72° 23' 

 N., long. 73° 7' W.), a depth of 1050 fathoms was obtained with great 

 precision ; and a small Starfish was found attached to the line below the 

 point marking 800 fathoms. 



The subsequent explorations of Prof. Edward Forbes *, on which he 

 founded the opinion that a zero of animal life would be found at 300 fathoms 

 [548 metres], did not themselves go deeper than 230 fathoms [420 metres] ; 

 yet his high authority on questions of this nature caused his opinion to be 

 very generally adopted, alike by Zoologists, Physical Geographers, and Geo- 

 logists. 



The fallacy of Prof. E. Forbes' s assumption, however, was demon- 

 strated by the results of Dredgings carried on in Sir James Ross's Antarctic 

 Expedition, at depths of from 2/0 to 400 fathoms, which yielded evi- 

 dence of great abundance and variety of Animal life between those depths. 

 Dr. J. D. Hooker has kindly placed in my hands some extracts from 

 his Journal, which give much fuller particulars of these results than are to 

 be found in Sir James Ross's Narrative f. 



On the 28th of June, 1845, the ill-fated Mr. Harry Goodsir, who was a 

 member of Sir John Franklin's expedition, obtained in Davis's Straits, from 

 a depth of 300 fathoms, " a capital haul, — Mollusca, Crustacea, Asterida, 

 Spatangi, Corallines, &c.J " The bottom was composed of very fine green 

 mud, apparently corresponding to that mentioned by General Sabine. 



I am not aware that between this date and that at which the researches 

 of MM. Sars commenced, any Dredging was carried on at depths exceeding 

 those now specified ; and the additions to our knowledge of the Life of the 

 deep sea, with one remarkable exception to be presently noticed (p. 182), were 

 made through the instrumentality of the improved Sounding-apparatus, 

 which brings up a specimen of the superficial deposit (of whatever nature 

 this may be) covering the sea-bottom, with such Animals as it may meet 



* " Report on the Mollusca and Radiata of the Egean Sea, and on their distribution 

 considered as bearing on Geology;" in Report of the British Association, 1843, p. 130. 



t ' Yoyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions, during 

 the Years 1839-1843,' vol. i. p. 207, and Appendix, p. 334. — It is much to be regretted 

 that the specimens obtained should never have been systematically catalogued, and that 

 the many novelties which presented themselves (among them a Pycnogonid twelve inches 

 across) should not have been described. The specimens, with drawings made at the 

 ime by Dr. Hooker, were kept by Sir James Ross, with a view to their publication ; 

 but he died without carrying that intention into effect ; and neither specimens nor 

 drawings are now recoverable. 



t See the ' Natural History of the European Seas,' by Prof. E. Forbes and R. God- 

 win-Austen 1859, p 51. 



