Abstract
THE name of George Ossian Sacs is honourably connected with a very interesting chapter in the history of deep-sea research. As early as 1850, his illustrious father, Dr. Michael Sars, had challenged Edward Forbes's conclusions respecting the bathymetrical terminus of animal life. He remarked,† that at least in the Norwegian Seas, it appeared to extend much beyond the limit which the English naturalist had fixed for it. Forbes had not dredged below 230 fathoms, and at this depth he had only obtained two living Mollusca and a couple of Serpulæ; hence he was led to place the zero of animal life at 300 fathoms. Sars, on the contrary, even at the early period just mentioned, had obtained from a depth of 300 fathoms a number of animals, including a species of Coral, Molluscs, Polyzoa, &c.; and he sagaciously remarked that there was evidence of the existence of a vigorous animal life at this great depth, inasmuch as some of the species (e.g. Terabratula sepligera and Lima excavata) were the largest known representatives of their respective genera. In confirmation of his opinion, he was able to offer, in 1864, a Catalogue of 92 animals, which had been obtained in depths varying from 200 to 300 fathoms. More recently his son has devoted himself with much energy and success to deep-sea investigation, and in 1868 had extended his dredgings to 450 fathoms, and added no less than 335 species to those already published. He says:—“I found to my great surprise at this enormous depth, not . . . a poor and oppressed Fauna, but on the contrary a richly developed and varied animal life. . . . And so far was I from observing any sign of diminished intensity in this animal life at increased depths that it seemed, on the contrary, as if there was just beginning to appear a rich and in many respects peculiar deep-sea fauna, of which only a very incomplete notion had previously existed.” Amongst the new forms thus obtained was the famous Rhizocrinus Lofotensis, descended from Oolitic ancestry, which furnished, according to Dr. Carpenter, “a principal ‘motive’” of the Lightning expedition. It is interesting to learn that these productive dredgings at the great depth of 200–450 fathoms were accomplished in an ordinary fishing-boat with a crew of three men.
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HINCKS, T. On Some Remarkable Forms of Animal Life from Great Deeps off the Norwegian Coast * . Nature 8, 189–191 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008189a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008189a0