190 



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



tion as affecting Temperature, so it is obvious that, with the evidence we are 

 enabled to present of an abundant and varied Fauna at a depth of even 650 

 fathoms [1189 metres], the Zoologist is fully justified in attributing the far 

 different character of the Fauna we encountered at 500 fathoms [914 metres] 

 with a Temperature of 32° [0° Cent.] to that remarkable reduction. — 

 Further, although the nature of the bottom has doubtless an important 

 influence on the Animal life which it sustains, yet this very condition, 

 as will presently appear, is itself dominated in great degree by Tem- 

 perature. 



Y. The results of our Dredgings fully confirm the indications afforded by 

 the specimens of the bottom previously brought up by the Soundings already 

 noticed, in regard to the existence, on the sea-bottom of large areas of the 

 North Atlantic, of a stratum of cf calcareous mud," partly composed of living 

 Globigerince, partly of the disintegrated materials of the shells of former 

 generations, and partly of the " coccoliths " of Prof. Huxley (loc. cit.) and 

 the "coccospheres " of Dr. Wallich *, with a greater or less admixture of 

 other constituents. And they further indicate that the prevalence of this 

 deposit is connected with a bottom-temperature of 45° and upwards, 

 which, in latitudes above 56°, can scarcely be attributed to any other influ- 

 ence than that of the Gulf-stream. The examination which Prof. Hux- 

 ley has been good enough to make of the peculiarly viscid mud brought 

 up in our last dredging at the depth of 650 fathoms [1189 metres], has 

 afforded him a remarkable confirmation of the conclusion he announced at 

 the recent Meeting of the British Association, that the coccoliths and 

 coccospheres are imbedded in a living expanse of protoplasmic substance, to 

 which they bear the same relation as the spicules of Sponges or of Radiolaria 

 do to the soft parts of those animals. Thus it would seem that the whole 

 mass of this mud is penetrated by a living organism of a type even lower, 

 because less definite, than that of Sponges and Rhizopods ; and to this 

 organism Professor Huxley has given the name of Bathybius f . In what 

 manner the materials for its protoplasm, as for that of the Globigerince which 

 usually accompany it in larger or smaller proportion, are obtained, is a most 

 perplexing problem. All the evidence we at present possess in regard to 

 the alimentation of Rhizopods, leads to the belief that, in common with 

 higher Animals, they depend upon the Organic Compounds previously ela- 

 borated by Vegetative agency under the influence of the light and heat of 

 the Sun. But every form of Vegetable life that is visible to the naked eye 

 seems entirely wanting at great depths in the ocean : and although this 

 deposit is found by the Microscope to contain the siliceous loricce of Diatoms, 

 yet these do not present themselves in anything like the abundance that 

 would be required for the nutrition of so large a mass of Animal life as that 



* " Remarks on some novel Phases of Organic Life at great depths in the Sea," in 

 'Ann. of Nat. Hist.' ser. 3, vol. viii. (1861) p. 52. 



t "On some Organisms living at Great Depths in the North Atlantic Ocean;" in 

 Quart. Journ. of Microsc. Society, yol. viii. N.S. p. 203. 



