588 



Dr. W. B. Carpenter on the 



[June 13, 



80. The Marine Fauna of the Mediterranean, it must be borne in mind, 

 has been carefully explored by numerous Zoologists ; and the barrenness of 

 its depths seems to leave little to be added by those explorations which have 

 been so productive elsewhere. True it is that in the ' Porcupine ' Expedition 

 of the previous year, a dredging at 1415 fathoms depth brought up several 

 species of Shells, — some of them of considerable interest as having been pre- 

 viously known only in a fossil condition (Report for 1870, § 50). But that 

 dredging was taken in the comparatively narrow extension of the Mediterra- 

 nean basin between the coasts of Spain and Africa, which is most within the 

 influence of the Gibraltar Currents, and in which, therefore, the stagnation 

 which I believe to exist elsewhere may be somewhat disturbed by their 

 agency. And the fact that among these shells was a freshwater Planorbis, 

 was an indication that either by gravitation or by some horizontal travelling 

 of bottom-water (such as might be there produced by the Gibraltar under- 

 current), the shells properly inhabiting the littoral zone might have been 

 conveyed thither. And this view of the case is not invalidated by the 

 fact that many of these shells are the representatives of types previously 

 known only as fossils ; since the same is true of many species found in 

 shallow water in this extension of the Mediteranean, which seems to have 

 been less explored than most other parts of its shores (Report for 1870, 

 §§48,49). 



81. I am disposed to believe, therefore, that in the Mediterranean Basin 

 the existence of Animal life in any abundance at a depth greater than 200 

 fathoms will be found quite exceptional ; and that, without pronouncing its 

 depths to be absolutely azoic, we may safely assert them to present a most 

 striking contrast, in respect of Animal life, to those marine Paradises* which 

 we continually met with in the Eastern and Northern Atlantic at depths 

 between 500 and 1200 fathoms. And I have the satisfaction of finding 

 that my conclusion on this point is entirely borne out by the results of the 

 dredgings carried on in the Adriatic by Dr. Oscar Schmidt ; who found 

 the like barrenness at depths below 150 fathoms, except as regards Fora- 

 tninifera, Bathybius, and Coccolithsf. After a most careful microscopic 

 examination of the mud obtained from the depths of the Mediterranean, 

 I feel justified in saying that even of these lowest organisms scarcely any 

 traces are to be found. — Thus it appears that Edward Forbes was quite 

 justified in the conclusion he drew as regards the particular locality he 

 had investigated; and that his only mistake lay in supposing that the 

 same conditions would prevail in the open Ocean. 



82. I venture to think, however, that I have shown that the Physical 

 conditions of any Inland Sea, which, like the Mediterranean, is cut off from 

 the General Oceanic Circulation, must be such as greatly to modify its relation 



* I use this word in the sense familiar to every Greek scholar. 



t " On Coccoliths and Rhabdoliths," in Ann. of Nat. Hist., Nov. 1872, from 1 Sit- 

 zungsbericht der k. k. Akad. der Wissenschaften in Wien,' Bd. lxii. (1870) Abth. i. 

 pp. 669-682. 



