their remains along every icebound shore, in the depths of the adjacent
ocean, between 80 and 400 fathoms. Off Victoria Barrier (a perpendicular
wall of ice between one and two hundred feet above the level of the sea)
the bottom of the ocean was covered with a stratum of pure white or green
mud, composed principally of the silicious shells of the _Diatomaceoe_.
These, on being put into water, rendered it cloudy like milk, and took
many hours to subside. In the very deep water off Victoria and Graham's
Land, this mud was particularly pure and fine; but towards the shallow
shores there existed a greater or less admixture of disintegrated rock
and sand; so that the organic compounds of the bottom frequently bore but
a small proportion to the inorganic." ...

"The universal existence of such an invisible vegetation as that of the
Antarctic Ocean, is a truly wonderful fact, and the more from its not
being accompanied by plants of a high order. During the years we spent
there, I had been accustomed to regard the phenomena of life as differing
totally from what obtains throughout all other latitudes, for everything
living appeared to be of animal origin. The ocean swarmed with
_Mollusca_, and particularly entomostracous _Crustacea_, small whales,
and porpoises; the sea abounded with penguins and seals, and the air with
birds; the animal kingdom was ever present, the larger creatures preying
on the smaller, and these again on smaller still; all seemed carnivorous.
The herbivorous were not recognised, because feeding on a microscopic
herbage, of whose true nature I had formed an erroneous impression. It
is, therefore, with no little satisfaction that I now class the
_Diatomaceoe_ with plants, probably maintaining in the South Polar Ocean
that balance between the vegetable and the animal kingdoms which prevails
over the surface of our globe. Nor is the sustenance and nutrition of the
animal kingdom the only function these minute productions may perform;
they may also be the purifiers of the vitiated atmosphere, and thus