1868.] 



on Deep-sea Dr edgings. 



179 



with on the spot on which it drops. This method of examination must 

 obviously be very inferior to Dredging in collecting-power ; nevertheless 

 it has yielded some very important results. 



In the year 1855, Prof. Bailey (of 'VYest Point, U.S.) published a "Mi- 

 croscopic Examination of Deep Soundings from the xltlantic Ocean"*, 

 between lat. 42° 4' and 54° 1 7' North, and long. 9° 8' and 29° 0' West, and at 

 depths of from 1080 to 2000 fathoms. He stated that " none of these 

 soundings contain a particle of gravel, sand, or other recognizable Mineral 

 matter ; and that they are all made up of the shells of Globigerince and 

 Orbulince, with a fine calcareous mud derived from the disintegration of 

 those shells, containing a few siliceous skeletons of Polycystina and spi- 

 cules of Sponges." Connecting these results with those furnished by pre- 

 vious Soundings in the western portions of the Atlantic, Prof. Bailey in- 

 ferred that with the exception of a spot near the bank of Newfoundland, 

 in which the bottom at 1/5 fathoms was found to be made up of 

 quartzose sand without any traces of organic forms, " the bottom of the 

 North Atlantic Ocean, so far as examined, from the depth of about 

 60 fathoms to that of 2000 fathoms, is literally nothing but a mass of mi- 

 croscopic shells;" and he explicitly likened this deposit to the Chalk of 

 England and the Calcareous Marls of the Upper Missouri. After stating 

 that examination of samples of ocean-water, taken at different depths in 

 situations in close proximity to the places where the soundings were made, 

 yielded no trace of Foraminifera, he concludes with the following ques- 

 tions : — " Do they live on the bottom at the immense depths where they 

 are found, or are they borne by submarine currents from their real habitat ? 

 Has the Gulf-stream any connexion, by means of its temperature or its cur- 

 rent, with their distribution?" Upon these questions Prof. Bailey does not 

 seem ever to have given a decided opinion ; although he inclined to the be- 

 lief that the Globigerince and Orbulince had not lived on the bottom where 

 they were found, but had either been transported thither by currents, or had 

 lived nearer the surface of the sea, and had fallen to the bottom after death. 

 On the other hand, Prof. Ehrenberg, to whom specimens of these Sound- 

 ings were forwarded, expressed his conviction (based on the condition of 

 the organic substance contained in the cavities of the shells) that these 

 Foraminifera had lived on the bottom from which they were brought up. 



Similar conclusions regarding the extensive diffusion of Globigerince over 

 the deep-sea bottom of the North Atlantic were drawn by Prof. Huxley 

 from his examination of the Soundings brought up by Lieut. -Commander 

 Dayman, from depths of from 1/00 to 2400 fathoms f. Of the whole 

 mass of the fine muddy sediment of which these soundings consisted, it is 

 estimated by Prof. Huxley that 85 per cent, consisted of Globigerince ; 

 5 per cent, of other Foraminifera, of, at most, not more than four or five 



* Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, vol. iii. (1855) p. 89. 

 f Deep-sea Soundings in the North Atlantic Ocean, between Ireland and Newfound- 

 land, made in H.M.S. ' Cyclops,' in June and July 1857. 



