442 



Messrs. Carpenter, Jeffreys, and Thomson [Nov. 18, 



The most remarkable instance of this occurred in regard to the Echinus 

 Xorvegicus, a small sea- egg about the size of the top of the finger. The 

 "hempen tangles" came up so laden with these, that a very moderate 

 estimate would place the number obtained in one "haul" at 20,000, whilst 

 some of our party deemed it to be nearer 50,000. This had formerly been 

 accounted a rare species, of which it was considered a piece of good fortune 

 to find one or two at a time, and was first met with in abundance 

 in Mr. Jeffreys's Shetland Dredgings. — On the following day (Aug. 28th) we 

 anchored in Lerwick harbour, where it was requisite for us to replenish our 

 coal, as well as to obtain a further supply of jars and spirit, the abundance 

 of our collections having nearly exhausted what we had supposed to be our 

 ample provision of both. 



74. Without entering into details which will be more appropriately given 

 hereafter, we may say that our exploration of this Cold area, which we 

 had been led by the results of our last year's dredging to regard as com- 

 paratively poor in Animal life (as, indeed, we should still have believed it 

 to be, had our knowledge of its Fauna been restricted to the contents of 

 the Dredge, instead of being chiefly obtained by the instrumentality of our 

 "hempen tangles"), greatly extended our ideas of the conditions of animal 

 existence ; for we found the Sea-bottom, at depths of from 350 to 640 

 fathoms, at a temperature at or below the freezing-point of fresh water, 

 almost, if not quite, as thickly covered with Animals as in the richest parts 

 of the Warm area. These animals were mostly, however, of a very different 

 character. In the first place, the Globiyerina-mud was entirely wanting, 

 its presence being sharply bounded by the limit of the Warm area, and its 

 composition being modified even on the borders of this by an admixture of 

 the Sand characteristic of the Cold area (§ Gl). Now this fact appears 

 to be a conclusive disproof of the hypothesis that the accumulation of 

 the shells of GloLiy evince on the bottom of the ocean is due to their having 

 fallen to the bottom after death, their lives having been passed at or near 

 the surface. For admitting that they have been occasionally captured 

 by the tow-net*, this only proves that they can float ; whilst, on the 

 other hand, our examination of specimens freshly dredged from great 

 depths enables us to state with positiveness that their sarcodic bodies present 

 all the attributes of life which are exhibited by those of the Rotaline forms 

 whose attachment to solid bodies made it clear that they must pass then- 

 lives at the bottom, and of the Arenaceous types which can only there 

 obtain the materials for their " tests." Now since, as we have repeatedly 

 pointed out, the «s?/;/tfce-temperature of the Cold area does not differ from 

 that of the Warm, and this equality extends to the first 150 or 200 fathoms, 

 there seems no reason whatever why a deposit of Globiyevina-mud should 

 not take place on the bottom of the Cold area, if such deposit be due to 

 the accumulation of the dead shells of individuals which had spent their 



* See Major Owen's account of the Surface-Fauna of the Atlantic; in Journal of the 

 Linnean Society, vol, ix. p. 147. 



