476 



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



may have been the case at any Geological epoch ; for there must have 

 been deep seas in all periods, and the Physical forces which maintain the 

 Oceanic circulation at the present time must have been always in operation, 

 though modified in their local action by the distribution of land and water 

 existing at any particular date. And as the elevation of the present deep 

 sea-bed of even the intertropical Oceanic area would (if we have correctly 

 interpreted the results of our own and others' observations) offer to the 

 study of the Geologist of the future a deposit characterized by the presence 

 of Polar types, so must the Geologist of the present hesitate in regarding 

 the occurrence of Boreal types in any marine deposit as adequate evidence 

 per se of the general extension of Glacial action into Temperate or Tropical 

 regions. At any rate, it may be considered as having been now placed 

 beyond reasonable doubt that a Glacial Submarine Climate may prevail 

 over any Area, without having any relation whatever to the Terrestrial 

 Climate of that Area* . 



125. Composition of Sea-Water. — A considerable number of samples 

 of Sea-water were collected in different localities and at different depths, 

 for the purpose of being submitted, on our return home, to the complete 

 analysis which Dr. Frankland had been kind enough to undertake. As the 

 quantities collected in the first two cruises, however, proved insufficient for 

 his special purpose — the determination of the quantity of Organic matter, — 

 a set of Winchester quart bottles was taken out in the Third cruise ; and 

 these were filled from surface- and from bottom-waters in four localities,t\vo in 

 the Warm and two in the Cold area. The important results of Dr. Frank- 

 land's analyses of these samples are given in Appendix II. The differences 

 in Specific Gravity, and in the proportion of the ordinary Saline constituents 

 (as indicated by that of the chlorine) are scarcely as great as might have 

 been anticipated ; but in so far as they extend, they are generally conform- 

 able to the doctrine of Forchammer, that Polar water is more dilute than 

 Equatorial. In particular it may be noted that the lowest Specific Gra- 

 vity (r0262), which coincided with a still lower proportion in the total of 

 Solid matter, presented itself in the waters taken from the Arctic stream 

 nearest its presumed source (§ 70). But the most noyel and important 

 feature in these analyses is the large quantity of Organic Hatter indicated 

 by them as universally present in the water of the open Ocean at great 

 distances from land and at all depths. This has a direct bearing on a 

 question of the greatest Biological interest, — What is the source of Nutri- 

 ment for the vast mass of Animal life covering the abyssal Sea-bed? 



126. That Animals have no power of themselves generating the Organic 

 Compounds which serve as the materials of their bodies — and that the 

 production of these materials from the carbonic acid, water, and ammonia 



* Since the above was written, we have learned from Prof. Liveing, of Cambridge, that 

 Mr. Lucas Barrett, formerly Assistant to Prof. Sedgwick, ascertained, not long before his 

 lamented death, the existence of a temperature not far above the freezing-point in the 

 deepest part of the sea near Jamaica. 



