CHAP. III.] TENERIFFE TO SOMBBEIW.

197

bottom water, amounting to about two litres, was brought up

on each occasion, except on the one ah'eacly mentioned where
the instrument was lost, and on two others where the valves
did not completely close : its specific gravity was determined,
and the water was either subjected to further analysis or re-
tained for future investigation.
In thirteen cases a dredge, measuring 54: inches in length of
opening and 15 in width, and weighing 137 pounds, or in very
deep water one somewhat smaller, was lowered ; and in nine
instances, notwithstanding the great depths and the extreme
difhculty of the operation, brought iip a sample of the bottom
usually weighing one hundred-weight or more, and what we
could scarcely doubt was a fair representation of the fauna of
the ground which it had gone over at the bottom.
At almost every station a serial temperature sounding was
taken, the temperature being ascertained at certain stated in-
tervals, usually at intervals of 100 fathoms from the surface to
1500. In many cases samples of water were brought up from
intermediate depths for examination, and in every case the sur-
face temperature of the sea was taken, the temperature of the
air with dry and wet bulb thermometers, and the amount of
atmospheric pressure.
Every single operation, whether of sounding or dredging,
was conducted from beginning to end by Captain Nares, and
in every case the conditions required were determined with an
amount of care which left no reasonable doubt of their accu-
racy within very narrow limits of error. I should therefore

say, with reference to this first section, that the results were
thoroughly satisfactory.
In the length of the section at the foot of Plate Y. one cen-
timetre division represents 100 nautical miles, so that 1 mm.
corresponds with 10 miles. In order to make the differences
in depth perceptible, and at the same time to avoid too great

an amount of exaggeration, this proportion has been multiplied

198 THE ATLANTIC. [CHU>. ill.

ia a vertical direction twenty-five times; so that while 1 mm.

represents 10 miles in distance, 2*5 mm. represent one mile or
1000 fathoms in depth or height.
A reference to this section shows that the bottom of the
Atlantic, along a line which corresponds ronghly with the
Tropic of Cancer, presents very much the same character which
it does farther north — that of a plateau showing comparatively
gentle undulations on a large scale. The section does not dif-
fer very materially from the general outline given in some of
the latest atlases of physical geography — for example, in Plate
XLI®' of Stieler's Hand Atlas ; and it confirms, upon the Avhole,

to a remarkable degree, the soundings of Lieutenant-command-

ing Lee and Lieutenant-commanding Berryman, of the United
States Navy, in the surveying -ship DoIj)hrn, which have fur-
nished nearly all the data for this particular region.
After passing over about 80 miles of volcanic mud and sand,
products of the disintegration of the volcanic rocks of the isl-

ands of the Canary group, the first four soundings, to a distance

of 300 miles from Santa Cruz at depths varying from 1525 to
2220 fathoms, yielded " globigerina ooze " of the usual charac-
ter. This " modern chalk " consists, first of all, of a creamy
surface layer made up of little else than the shells, most of
them almost entire, of Globigerina, Pulvlnulhia, and Orhid'ma,
with a relatively small proportion of finely divided matter, con-
sisting chiefly of coccoliths and rhabdoliths, and a still smaller
proportion of the spines and tests of radiolarians, and frag-
ments of the spicules of sponges. Mixed with these there are
usually a considerable number of the dead shells of pteropods
of the genera Cleodora, Diacria, CavoUnia, Trijptera, and Styli-
ola in a more or less mutilated and disintegrated condition ;

and living among the ooze, at all events at moderate depths,

there are scattered examples of many foraminifera of the cris-

tellarian and milioline groups, and the sponges, corals, star-

fishes, and higher invertebrates, which, with a few fishes be-

CHAP. III.] TENERIFFE TO SOMBRERO. 199

longing to certain well-defined families, complete the fauna of

the region. Next we have a layer an inch or two in thickness,
somewhat more firm in consistence, in which most of the shells
of all kinds are more or less broken up, and their fragments
cemented together by a calcareous paste, the result of the com-
plete disintegration of many of them ; and beneath this a near-
ly uniform calcareous paste, colored gray by decomposed or-

ganic matter, and containing whole and fragmentary shells only

sparsely scattered through it. Excellent samples, showing the
gradual passage from one condition into the other, are often
brought up in the tube of the sounding-machine.
Since the time of our departure, Mr. Murray has been paying
the closest attention to the question of the origin of this calca-
reous formation, which is of so great interest and importance
on account of its anomalous character and its enormous exten-
sion. Yery early in the voyage, he formed the opinion that all

the organisms entering into its composition at the bottom are

dead, and that all of them live abundantly at the surface and
at intermediate depths, over the globigerina-ooze area, the ooze
being formed by the subsiding of these shells to the bottom
after death.
This is by no means a new view. It was advocated by the
late Professor Bailey, of West Point, shortly after the discov-
ery, by means of Lieutenant Brooke's ingenious sounding- in-

strument, that such a formation had a wide extension in the

Atlantic. Johannes Miiller, Count Pourtales, Krohn, and Max
Schultze observed Glcibigerina and Orhullna living on the sur-
face ; and Ernst Haeckel, in his important work upon the Radi-
olaria, remarks "that we often find upon, and carried along by,
the floating pieces of sea -weed which are so frequently met
with in all seas, foraminifera as well as other animal forms
which habitually live at the bottom. However, setting aside
these accidental instances, certain foraminifera, particularly in
their younger stages, occur in some localities so constantly, and
200 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. iii.

ill such numbers, floating on the surface of the sea, that the sus-
picion seems justifiable that they possess, at all events at a cer-
tain period of their existence, a pelagic mode of life, differing
in this respect from most of the remainder of their class. Thus
Miiller often found in the contents of the surface-net off the
coast of France, the young of liotalia, but more particularly
Glohigerince and OrhulincB., the two latter frequently covered

with fine calcareous tubes, ^prolongations of the borders of the

fine pores through which the pseudopodia protrude through the
shell. I took similar Glohigerinm and Orhulinm almost daily
in a fine net at Messina, often in great numbers, particularly in
February. Often the shell was covered with a whole forest
of extremely long and delicate calcareous tubes projecting from
all sides, and probably contributing essentially to enable these
little animals to float below the surface of the water by greatly
increasing their surface, and consequently their friction against
the water, and rendering it more difficult for them to sink."*

In 1865 and 18G6 two papers w^ere read by Major Owen, F.L.S.,
before the Linngean Society, " On the Surface Fauna of Mid-
ocean.'" In these communications the author stated that he
had taken foraminifera of the genera Glohigerina and Pulvi-
milina living, in the tow-net on the surface, at many stations
in the Indian and Atlantic oceans. lie described the special
forms of these genera which were most common, and gave an
interesting account of their habits; proposing for a family
which should include Globigerina with Orhulina as a subge-
nus,and PulvinvMna, the name Colymbitse, from the circum-
stance that, like the radiolaria, these foraminifera are found on
the surface after sunset, " diving " to some depth beneath it dur-
ing the heat of the day. Our colleague, Mr. Gywm Jeffreys,

chiefly on the strength of Major Owen's papers, maintained

* "Die Radiolarien." Eine Monographie von Dr. Ernst Haeckel. Berlin, 1862.

Pases 166,167.
CHAP. 111.] TENEBIFFE TO SOMBRERO. 201

that certain foraminifera were surface animals, in opposition to

Dr. Carjienter and myself.* had formed and expressed a very
I
strong 023inion on the matter. It seemed to me that the evi-
dence was conclusive that the foraminifera which formed the
globigerina ooze lived on the bottom, and that the occurrence
of individuals on the surface was accidental and excej^tional
but after going into the thing carefully, and considering the
mass of evidence which has been accumulated by Mr. Murray,
Inow admit that I was in error and I agree with him that it
;

may be taken as proved, that all the materials of such deposits

(with the exception, of course, of the remains of animals which
we now know to live at the bottom at all depths, and which oc-
cur in the deposit as foreign bodies) are derived from the sur-
face.

Mr. Murray has combined with a careful examination of the

soundings a constant use of the tow-net, usually at the surface,
but also at depths from ten to a thousand fathoms ; and he
finds the closest relation to exist between the surface fauna of
any particular locality and the deposit which is taking place at
the bottom. In all seas, from the equator to the polar ice, the

tow-net contains Globigerince. They are more abundant, and

of a larger size, in warmer seas several varieties attaining a
:

large size, and presenting marked varietal characters, are found

in the intertropical area of the Atlantic. In the latitude of
Kerguelen they are less numerous and smaller, while farther

south they are still more dwarfed and only one variety, the
;

typical Globigerina huUoides, is represented. The living Glo-

higerince from the tow-net are singularly different in appear-
ance from the dead shells we find at the bottom (Fig. 46). The

* " Mr. Jeffreys desires to record his dissent from this conclusion, since (from his
own observations, as well as those of Major Owen and Lieutenant Palmer) he be-
lieves Globigerina to be exclusively an Oceanic Foraminifer inhabiting only the su-
perficial stratum of the sea." Prelimhiary Report of the Scientific Exploration of the
Betp Sea, "Proceedings of the Royal Society," No. 121, page 443.
202 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. ui.

Fig. 46. Glohigerina bulloides, from the sui'face.

shell is clear and transparent, and each of the pores which pen-
etrate it is surrounded by a raised crest, the crest round adja-