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a small star-iish was found attached to it, below the point marking 800
fathoms.”
And lastly, on the 2nd of October, lat. 62° N., long. 62° 25' AV., “ Before
noon it fell calm and became foggy. AVe sounded in 650 fathoms, and obtained
from the bottom several small stones and shells.” In the table of soundings in
the appendix it is mentioned that “ Serpulæ, shrimps, and fragments of shells ”
were contained in this material.
I f we bear in mind that the maintenance of animal life has been held to be
impossible at great depths, on account of certain physical conditions which have
been clearly and repeatedly laid down, we can readily understand why these
bare statements should have been disregarded ; for, on carefully weighing the
evidence they supply, it will be found, whilst no facts whatever are advanced to
show the fallacy of the received opinions concerning the bathymetrical limits of
marine life, that the whole of the details bearing on the vitality or otherwise
of the creatures brought up are "withheld; and, moreover, it is irreconcilable
with what we know of the habits and structure of the Echinoderms to
suppose that the “ Caput Medusæ ” (Eui7 ale) and “ small star-fish ” referred
to could have been found free-floating and alive at a distance of 200 fathoms from
the bottom.
In Sh" James Ross’s Voyage to the Antarctic regions between the years 1839
and 1843*, the following passage occurs:—“ January 19, I84I. Becalmed for
two or three hours after noon ; the dredge was put over in 270 fathoms water,
and after trailing on the ground for some time was hauled in.” After detailing
the characters of certain pieces of rock brought up, and which are stated to
have been deposited probably by an iceberg, he continues, “ Besides this there
were a great many stones of various kinds of granitic and volcanic structure ;
but the most remarkable circumstance was drawing up from so great a depth
beautiful specimens of living coral, which naturalists and geologists have hitherto
concurred in believing unable to work beyond the pressure of a few fathoms
below the surface. Corallines, Flustræ, and a great variety of marine invertebrate
animals, also came up in the net, showing an abundance and gi'eat variety
of animal life. Amongst them I detected two species of Pycdogonum ; Idotæa
* ‘ A Voyage of Discovery in the Southern and Antarctic Regions/ hy Captain Sir James Clark
lloss, R.N., K.N.T., F.R.S., &c. &c. London, 1847 vol. i. p. 201 et seq.
Baffini, hitherto considered peculiar to the Arctic seas; a Chiton, seven or eight
bivalves and univalves, an unknown species of Gammarus, and two kinds of Serpula
adhering to the pebbles and shells.” After stating that an account of these,
by Charles Stokes, Esq., appears in the appendix, he adds, “ I t was interesting
amongst these creatures to recognize several that I had been in the habit of
taking in equally high northern latitudes; and, although contrary to the general
belief of naturalists, I have no doubt that from however great a depth we may be
enabled to bring up the mud and stones of the bed of the ocean, we shall find
them teeming with animal life ; the extreme pressure at the greatest depth does
not appear to affect these creatures; hitherto we have not been able to determine
this point beyond a thousand fathoms, but from that depth several shellfish
have been brought up with the mud ”*.
I t will thus be seen that Sir James Ross alluded to Sir John Ross’s sounding
taken in 1819, when he referred to “ sheU-fish ” having been obtained with the
mud from a depth of a thousand fathoms,—there being no prior sounding
described by him as taken in the Antarctic regions, in which living creatures
were brought up at as great a depth as 270 fathoms, although subsequently
Crustacea were brought up fi'om 400 fathoms. I should not have deemed it
necessary to point out the misconception which has arisen on this subject,
had it not become general. Thus Mrs. Somemlle declaresf, in language
distinctly denoting its reference to this sounding, that “ before Sir James Ross’s
voyage to the Antarctic regions, the profound and dark abysses of the ocean
were supposed to be entirely destitute of animal life; now it may be presumed
that no part is uninhabited, since during that expedition live creatures
were fished up from a depth of 6000 feet.” In attempting to reconcile these
* Under the head of “ Remarks on. some corals obtained from g;reat depths iu the Antarctic Ocean,”
in a letter from Charles Stokes, Esq., F.R.S., in the appendix to Sir John Ross’s work, Mr. Stokes,
after alluding to a previous sounding at 400 fathoms, in which none of the shells and corals
“ appear to have been brought up in a living state,” enters into a description of the organisms obtained
in the sounding to Avhich the above extract refers, and states th at a small piece of “ Retepora cellulosa,”
and a “ Retepora or Homera ” resembling “ H. frondiculata ” of Lamouroux, were evidently taken in
a living condition, adding his surprise at these and certain other organisms having been found, “ except
in a warm ehmate and at a small depth,” and antithetically pointing out the occurrence of living
specimens of a species of “ Premnoa ” at from 150 to 300 fathoms on the coast of Norway. (Appendix
to Sir James Ross’s work, vol. i. p. 334 et seq.)
t ‘ Physical Geography,’ hy Mary Somerville. London, 1851; vol, ii. p. 246.
M