almost universally present, generally
eludes the search of the naturalist; except when its species are
congregated amongst that mucous scum which is sometimes seen floating on
the waves, and of whose real nature we are ignorant; or when the coloured
contents of the marine animals who feed on these Algae are examined. To
the south, however, of the belt of ice which encircles the globe, between
the parallels of 50 deg. and 70 deg. S., and in the waters comprised between that
belt and the highest latitude ever attained by man, this vegetation is
very conspicuous, from the contrast between its colour and the white snow
and ice in which it is imbedded. Insomuch, that in the eightieth degree,
all the surface ice carried along by the currents, the sides of every
berg and the base of the great Victoria Barrier itself, within reach of
the swell, were tinged brown, as if the polar waters were charged with
oxide of iron.

"As the majority of these plants consist of very simple vegetable cells,
enclosed in indestructible silex (as other Algae are in carbonate of
lime), it is obvious that the death and decomposition of such multitudes
must form sedimentary deposits, proportionate in their extent to the
length and exposure of the coast against which they are washed, in
thickness to the power of such agents as the winds, currents, and sea,
which sweep them more energetically to certain positions, and in purity,
to the depth of the water and nature of the bottom. Hence we detected
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