Notes 071 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., K.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 wall 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 
polythalamim 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^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 
