doubt forbade the recognition of statements so opposed to the established
riews of naturalists, and that nothing but the foregone conclusion already
referred to could have led to their being so unhesitatingly ignored. That
the presence of animal life at great depths was ignored until the period
at which the question was unequivocally set at rest by the capture of the
star-fishes on board the ‘ Bulldog ’ may be fairly inferred, I think, from the
circumstance that, with one exception entirely unconnected with the above
observations, no naturalist or physiologist had previously ventured to prove that
animal life extends indefinitely below the limit of the deep-coral zone; but, on
the contrary, so universal was the assent given, both in Europe and America,
to the views propounded by the late Professor Edward Forbes, that, in one
of the most recent and authoritative works published on the subject, the belief
is unhesitatingly expressed, that, at 300 fathoms below the surface of the sea,
life is extinct.
A few extracts from the writings of some of the most eminent authorities on
the geographical distribution of marine creatures will suffice to show that, up to
the period at which my Notes on the presence of animal life at vast depths
in the Ocean * were published (that is, immediately after the termination of
the North-Atlantic Cruise in 1860), “ the extreme depressions of the sea, like the
extreme elevations of the land, were supposed to be barren and lifeless solitudes; ”
and they will at the same time prove, whatever may have been the value of the
data furnished by any previous soundings, that an entirely new series of proofs
was rendered indispensable, before the fact of the extension of the bathymetrical
limits of life by many hundred additional fathoms could be presented to the
scientific public as deserving their credence.
In ‘ The Natural History of the European Seas f ,’ Professor Edward Forbes
writes as follows:—“ Last and lowest of our regions of submarine existence is that
of the deep-sea corals, so named on account of the great stony zoophytes characteristic
of it in the oceanic seas of Europe. In its depths the number of
peculiar creatures is few, yet sufficient to give a marked character to i t ; whilst
the other portions of its population are derived from the higher zones, and must
* ‘ Notes on the Presence of Animal Life at Vast Depths in the Sea.’ Taylor & F rancis: Lond., 1860.
t ‘The Natural History of the European Seas/ by the late Professor Edward Forbes, F.Ii.S.
Edited by E. G.-Austen, F.R.S. London, 1859: pp. 11, 26, and 246.
be regarded as colonists. As we descend deeper and deeper in this region, its
inhabitants become more and more modified, and fewer and fewer, indicating our
approach toward an abyss where life is either extinguished or exhibits but a few
sparks to mark its lingering existence. Its confines are yet undetermined, and
it is in the exploration of this vast deep-sea region that the finest field for
submarine discovery yet remains.” Again, alluding to the entirely new field of
inquiry opened out to the naturalist by the investigation of the various prorinces
of marine life, and the delight experienced by him the first time he “ saw the
dredge hauled up after it had been dragging the sea-bottom at a depth of more
than 100 fathoms,” he says, “ Fishing-lines had now and then entangled creatures
at as great and greater depths, but these were few and far between, and only
served to whet our curiosity, without affording the information we thirsted for.”
Towards the close of the same volume, Mr. R. Godwin-Austen expresses his
adherence to the same opinions, in these words:—“ The sublittoral zone of every
sea and ocean presents the fulness of its fauna; and from that it decreases progressively
and rapidly, tiU, in regions far within those in which the finer
sedimentary deposits are distributed, animal life altogether ceases. Far beyond
the zones where the members of a marine fauna live, there are areas of wide
extent where animals of oceanic habits strew their delicate structures: this is
the zone of the ‘ free-swimmers ’—Pteropods, Nucleobranchs, Pelagic Cephalo-
pods, and Crustaceans. The depositions of all past times present every gradation
of bathymetrical distribution, down to the ‘ azoic zones ’ of d ep th ; and the mere
geologist must beware not to misinterpret the evidence presented to him, and
suppose that some old world of waters was without life, merely because he finds
no traces of it. Still less, on such negative evidence, must he speculate as to
the ‘ dawn of life ’ and ‘ primordial zones.’ The history of our own seas, and
of all seas, teaches us that there is a law of proportion in the classes and orders
of the living things that dwell there, and that the presence of one form is safe
ground of inference as to the co-existence of countless others.”
Sir Charles Lyell, in his remarks on the migrations of the Testacea*, says,
“ Professor E. Forbes has shown, as the result of his dredging in the ^ g e a n Sea,
that there are eight well-marked regions of depth, each characterized by its own
testaceous fauna.” And again, “ a copious list of species is given as characteristic
* Lycll’s ‘ Principles of Geology.’ London, 1853: pp. 649 and 773.
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