1869.] on the Scientific Exploration of the Deep Sea. 443 



lives at or near the surface. "Whereas if they really inhabit during: their 

 lives the bottom on which they are found in such extraordinary abundance, 

 we have at once the explanation, in the difference of temperature between 

 the two Areas, of their definite restriction to the Warm *. 



75. The simple Protozoic type represented by the Globigerince, how- 

 ever, has its parallel in the Cold area, though presenting itself under a 

 very different aspect. Every Zoologist now recognizes the close Physio- 

 logical relationship between Foraminifera and Sponges, notwithstanding 

 their wide morphological divarication ; and we believe them to agree in 

 this most important particular, — that the animals of both groups are capable 

 of obtaining their nutriment by the imbibition of the Organic matter dif- 

 fused through sea-water (§ 23), just as they derive from the same source 

 the Carbonate of Lime or the Silex which forms the Mineral basis of their 

 skeletons. The Sponges of the Cold area were very diverse in type, and 

 some of them extremely numerous individually. Magnificent specimens 

 of most of the species hitherto known only as inhabitants of the deep water 

 off Shetland were found to be yery generally diffused ; but the most 

 peculiar and novel type of this group was met with at our yery entrance 

 upon the Cold area (Station 52), and presented itself in such abundance 

 at almost every other Station having the same bottom-temperature, that 

 we came to look upon it as one of the most characteristic inhabitants cf 

 this area, covering (as it seems to do) hundreds of square miles of the Sea- 

 bed. This Sponge is distinguished by the possession of a firm branching 

 axis, of a pale sea-green colour, rising from a spreading root, and extending 

 itself like a shrub or a large branching Gorgonia. The axis is clothed with 

 the soft pale-yellow sarcodic substance of the Sponge ; and both axis and 

 sponge-substance are crowded with Siliceous spicules, resembling those of 

 Esperia, a well-known Mediterranean and Adriatic form, near which our 

 Sponge must be placed, though it clearly forms the type of a new genus. 

 It is curious that scarcely eyen fragments of this Sponge came up in the 

 dredge, our specimens being almost entirely obtained through the instru- 

 mentality of the "hempen tangles " attached to it. We had last year ob- 

 tained some minute fragments of the axial portions of the branches of this 

 Sponge ; but they were so imperfect that we had not been able to make 

 out their true characters. 



76. The most remarkable Foraminifera obtained in this area belonged to 

 the Arenaceous Order ; and it is singular that whilst yery abundant in the 

 localities in which they were met with, they seemed very restricted in Geogra- 

 phical range. Thus at Station 51, which was intermediate between the 



* Mr. Jeffreys desires to record his dissent from this conclusion, since (from his own 

 observations, as well as those of Major Owen and Lieut. Palmer) he believes Globigerina 

 to be exclusively an Oceanic Foraminifer inhabiting only the superficial stratum of the 

 sea ; he considers also that the strength of the submarine current in the Cold area is 

 sufficient to sweep away and remove these very slight and delicate organisms. Accord- 

 ing to him the protrusion of pseudopodia is the only satisfactory proof that the Glo- 

 bigerina is living. 



