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of locomotive animals at the bottom. This is not proved; Scoresby gives 
an instance of a stricken and frightened whale sounding (as it is termed) 
1000 fathoms deep, and breaking the crown of its skull against the 
bottom. Surely when one of the mammalia, formed for living at or near 
the surface, could so easily by its muscular power overcome the supposed 
pressure of the element, it is conceivable that Infinite Wisdom could so 
endow his creatures with a structure and functions as to enable them to 
sustain or evade the pressure of the superincumbent waters* Some 
writers have, indeed, professed to calculate the exact depth at which 
owing to the increasing density of the element, bodies cease to sink; yet 
experiment shows that the deep-sea lead goes on descending as long as 
line is given, and it does not stop even at 4000 fathoms, nearly five miles.f 
Another objection may be taken in respect of temperature. Our 
experience hitherto has shown that organic life cannot exist and be pro¬ 
pagated, except within certain limits of temperature. What may he the 
exact point of heat incompatible with the existence of life we need not 
discuss. In respect of cold, the point at which water becomes ice, as far 
as we know, suspends the functions of all animal and vegetable life 
enclosed therein. Now, the data we possess of the temperature of the 
ocean, are far too scanty to enable us to form any very decided conclusion, 
especially in respect of the extreme depths; although soundings of 4000 
fathoms have been in some rare instances obtained, we have not been able 
to find any experiments on the temperature beyond about half that depth 
(two miles). Up to this point the temperature has been found to de¬ 
crease rapidly at first, more slowly afterwards, until, if the results of the 
experiments at the greatest depths are to be trusted, it has become sta¬ 
tionary, or even shown some trace of increasing again. The absolute 
temperature at the surface, and throughout such depths as have been 
tried, varies somewhat with the latitude and the state of the atmosphere; 
but the general results point towards some common temperature at the 
greatest depths. The reader may judge for himself by examination of 
the following table, taken in order from the works consulted. 
* Darwin the naturalist gives one or two most astonishing instances, under what 
unexpected conditions animal life is found. “ In the mud of the Salinas (salt lakes) 
of South America, though thoroughly saturated with brine, and containing crystals of 
sulphate of soda and lime, hardened into a solid layer of salt in summer, numbers of 
some kind of worm or anellidous animals are found. A species of cancer described 
in vol. ii. page 205, of Linnaean Transactions, is found in the brine pits at Symington, 
and in the salt lakes of Siberia.— Zoology of Beagle's Voyage , page 77. 
f Franklin’s Voyage to the South Pole. 
B 
