speaking of the fourth or lowest, he observes, " A more difficult task, and which can be hardly hoped for fulfilment without the aid of a steam-vessel and continued calm weather, is the dredging of the deeps off the Hebrides in the open ocean. Much of the deep sea round the Zetlands is sure to reward the explorer .... And lastly, though I fear the consummation, however devoutly to be wished for, is not likely soon to be effected, a series of dredgings between the Zetland and the Faroe Islands, where the greatest depth is under 700 fathoms, would throw more light on the natural history of the North Atlantic and on marine zoology generally, than any investigation that has yet been undertaken."
All who knew Edward Forbes must feel satisfied that, had his valuable life been spared, he would have been in the foremost rank of the investigators^of those new fields to which he pointed, and the exploration of which has now been so successfully commenced. His untimely death unfortunately left his investigations with all the weight of his authority, at a point that he doubtless would have considered the first stage in the inquiry, instead of being accepted, as it has occasionally been, as an approximate conclusion.
In 1846, Capt. Spratt, the friend and companion of Forbes, dredged at a depth of 1880 ft., forty miles east of Malta, eight distinct species of Mollusca, among which was the Pleurotoma carinata *, a supposed extinct species of the Coralline Crag ; and he observes† that he believed animal life to " exist much lower, although the general character of the AEgean is to limit it to 300 fathoms." In his survey of the Mediterranean, between Malta and Crete‡, Capt. Spratt afterwards found at the depth of 9720 ft. "numerous dead shells and fragments of shells."
The preliminary observations necessary before laying the different lines of Atlantic telegraphs next came in aid of natural science. In 1855 a United-States steamer made a series of deep- sea soundings across the Atlantic. The fine calcareous mud brought up from depths of from 6000 to 12,000 ft. was examined by Prof. Bailey, who discovered in it numerous shells of Globigerinoe and Orbulinoe, with Diatoms and sponge-spicules. He doubted whether these Foraminifera could have lived on the sea-bottom, and thought they might rather have fallen upon it from upper sea-zones-
- ' Nature,' vol. i. p. 166, Dec. 1869.
† Brit. Assoc. Reports for 1848, p. 81. The depth given above is corrected on Capt. Spratt's authority.
‡' Travels and Researches in Crete,' vol. ii. p. 329.
