Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/358

332 from the sea or foreign matter, suggest most forcibly the idea of perfect repose at the bottom of the deep sea. Some of the specimens are as pure and as free from the sand of the sea as the freshly fallen snow-flake is from the dust of the earth. Indeed, these soundings suggest the idea that the sea, like the snow-cloud with its flakes in a calm, is always letting fall upon its bed showers of these microscopic shells; and we may readily imagine that the "sunless wrecks," which strew its bottom, are, in the process of ages, hid under this fleecy covering, presenting the rounded appearance which is seen over the body of the traveller who has perished in the snow-storm. The ocean, especially within and near the tropics, swarms with life. The remains of its myriads of moving things are conveyed by currents, and scattered and lodged in the course of time all over its bottom. This process, continued for ages, has covered the depths of the ocean as with a mantle, consisting of organisms as delicate as the macled frost, and as light in the water as is down in the air.

polar forms, but, as I have recently determined, occur also in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Gulf Stream,

"8th. The perfect condition of the organism in these soundings, and the fact that some of them retain their soft portions, indicate that they were very recently in a living condition, but it does not follow that they were living when collected at such immense depths. As among them are forms which are known to live along the shores as parasites upon the algae, etc., it is certain that a portion, at least, have been carried by oceanic currents, by drift ice, by animals which have fed upon them, or by other agents, to their present position. It is hence probable that all were removed from shallower waters, in which they once lived. These forms are so minute, and would float so far when buoyed up by these gases evolved during decomposition, that there would be nothing surprising in finding them in any part of the ocean, even if they were not transported, as it is certain they often are, by the agents above referred to.

"9th. In conclusion, it is to be hoped that the example set by Lieutenant Brooke will be followed by others, and that, in all attempts to make deep soundings, the effort to bring up a portion of the bottom will be made. The soundings from any part of the ocean are sure to yield something of interest to microscopic analysis, and it is as yet impossible to tell what important results may yet flow from their study.

"The above is only a preliminary notice' of the soundings referred to. I shall proceed without delay to describe and figure the highly interesting and novel forms which I have detected, and I hope soon to have them ready for publication.

"Yours, very respectfully, "." "Lieutenant, National Observatory, Washington City, D. C."