Notes on Deep Sea Soundings. 



287 



Owen mentions polycistince as also occurring in speci- 

 mens from the bottom of the North Atlantic. 



Through the kindness of T. C. Scott, Esq.., B.N., I am en- 

 abled to lay before you various samples, likewise, from the 

 telegraph plateau, the result of soundings made in H.M.S, 

 Bulldog. They are of a light yellow colour, and effervesce 

 strongly with acid. 



In the microscopical slides before you, you will readily 

 perceive numbers of calcareous foraminifers of genera re- 

 sembling Botalia and others ; besides there are here and 

 there, but usually in fragments, the beautiful tessellated 

 siliceous shields of coscinodiscus. 



It is a curious circumstance, that, in many instances the 

 polytlialamice were brought up from the same locality with 

 the soft parts still preserved. Lieutenant Maury conjectures 

 that perhaps the bodies of persons buried in the deep 

 sea may in like manner be preserved for long periods, the 

 great pressure to which they are subjected preventing de- 

 composition, by opposing an 'obstacle to the separation of 

 gaseous bodies. 



Prior to the laying down of the submarine cable between 

 Kurrachee in Scinde and Muscat in Arabia, a number of 

 soundings were made along the proposed route by Captain 

 Pullen in the Cyclops. I obtained two specimens which 

 were brought up, one from a depth of about 200, the other 

 from about 700 fathoms, off the south coast of Beloochistan. 

 The sea is very deep in this locality, especially towards the 

 sea of Oman which parts Beloochistan from Arabia. "While 

 the temperature of the air where these soundings were being- 

 taken was almost tropical in character, the thermometer 

 attached to the sounding apparatus show r ed that the tem- 

 perature at the bottom of the ocean was under 40° Fahr. 



The matter collected at 200 fathoms resembles bluish 

 clay. It does not effervesce with acid, and under the micro- 

 scope it presents to view a number of clear angular fragments, 

 many of them undoubtedly of mineral origin. 



The calcareous foraminifers so plentiful in the deposits 

 from the North Atlantic are here very rare. After diligent 

 search I could only recognise two or three. Here and there 



