346 
TEMPERATURE OF THE SEA. 
of the sea in all latitudes diminishes in proportion to its depth, arid has no 
other limit than the eternal congelation of the bottom of the ocean, “ la 
congelation eternelle de ces abimes ,” has endeavoured to explain away the 
consequences of Forster’s experiments. “ Si (he observes) Von Jait attention 
que ces experiences ont ete faites au milieu de Vete de ces regions, c’est a dire 
au mois Decembre, on concevra sans peine que les montagnes de glace qui 
se resolvoient de toute part devoient entretenir d la surface la basse tempera- 
ture observee par Forster ; tandisqiV d des prqfondeurs plus considerables, 
la fusion des glaces n’ ay ant pas lieu, la chaleur que les rayons du sole'll 
powvoient y fair e descendre devoit s’y maintenir momentanement plus grande.” 
This explanation appears scarcely admissible, because, in the next experi- 
ment stated in Forster’s table, and made in a much higher latitude, and 
equally or more amidst the ice, no such comparative cooling occurred ; for in 
this experiment, in lat. 64°, the surface was 33±°, and at the given depth 32° ; 
and because in the first of the two experiments to which he alludes, the air 
was two degrees below the freezing point, and would not therefore admit the 
melting of the ice. Still less would this explanation do away the objectionable 
result of Irving’s experiment made in 80° north, from which it appears that 
below the ice the temperature was found to be at 39°, or 7° above the freezing 
point, that of the surface being 36 \ With equal inconsistency of argument 
and candour of statement, the author, in reasoning upon Irving’s experiments 
has overlooked this result entirely, and drawn from them the same conclusion 
that he had before done from others, that the temperature is constamment 
plus foible au fond qiV d la surface de la mer ; but has in perfect fairness 
given, in his valuable table of experiments by different observers, as well 
the facts which oppose, as favour his opinions.* 
With regard to the hypothesis of the same author, that the bottom of the 
ocean is a body of ice, the following objection of Professor Horner, the 
astronomer to Krusenstern’s expedition, seems almost unanswerable : “ The 
saltness of the sea is inconsistent with the idea of ground ice. As water 
cannot freeze while any foreign matter is mixed with it, the fresh water must 
first separate from its saline contents: but at the instant of its separation, 
before it becomes ice, it must ascend by its greater specific lightness 
into higher and warmer strata ; so that ice can never form in the depth of 
the sea.” 
* Vide Voyage aux Terres Australes, tom. ii. 
