Professor King. "Although little is known regarding the subject just mentioned" (rate of growth), "still we may form some idea of the rate at which Foraminifera increase or multiply by a reference to facts supplied by other living objects."-Preliminary Notice, p. 654 (top). "They" (Foraminifera) "evidently play the same important part in our seas as the coral-forming Zoophytes in warmer latitudes; and although the latter are labouring in shallow depths, and building up the more striking atolls, and fringing reefs, the latter" (sic) 66 are nevertheless working quite as efficiently in the abysses of the Atlantic, and forming an enormously wide-spread calcareous deposit. ***In conclusion, reflecting on all the considerations which have been noticed, I feel my convictions strongly supported that a telegraph cable, if laid down on the Orbuloglobigerinous bottom of the Atlantic, will, after a lapse of a few years, become sufficiently covered up to be protected from any ordinary danger." Preliminary Notice, p. 654. "Dried specimens of deep-sea ooze procured from 1500 to 1750 fathoms off the west coast of Ireland, bear a striking resemblance to the roe of a fish, owing to their containing myriads of Globigerina and Orbulinæ. This circumstance led me to suspect that the roe-stone or oolitic limestone, instead of being, as is generally conceived, a concretionary deposit, is a purely foraminiferous formation. In prosecuting my investigations on this point, although I have failed to detect any well-defined specimens of Globigerinæ in oolite, I have been rewarded by discovering that it consists essentially of an allied monothalamous genus. Having carefully examined type specimens of Carboniferous, Permian, and Jurassic Oolitic limestones respectively from Edenderry in Kildare, Sunderland in Durham, and the Isle of Portland, I have no hesitation in stating that they consist for the most part of an organism identical Although the presence of Foraminifera in the ovules of this formation might be inferred from their occurrence in the oolitic beds of the Carboniferous Limestone, and from the fact of the Chalk being to a large extent composed of these shells, as has been shown by Mr. Lonsdale, yet Mr. Etheridge, who has examined numerous specimens, has never yet been able to deteet their presence. He says, 'I have made sections of the oolitic beds of the Great and Inferior Oolite, and find the spherules of which the rock is composed made up entirely of concentric layers of carbonate of Professor King. with, or allied to, Orbulina universa.” Preliminary Notice, pp. 655, 656. Dr. Wallich. lime, having from eight to fifteen distinct layers, but in no instance have I detected any organism within the spherule."-P. 36. To this I have only to add, that, under the polariscope, the entire absence of Foraminifera of any kind in the granules of the oolitic limestones is remarkably manifest, the characteristic black cross never presenting itself either in the walls or interior of the granules. But my task, painful enough heretofore, does not end here. Not. content with the appropriation of my arguments and facts, Professor King appropriates my error! At page 122 of my "North-Atlantic Sea-bed" I insert Bibra's table of the saline constituents of sea water as given above. In that table there occurs an important clerical error, Chloride of CALCIUM having been inadvertently written by me instead of Chloride of POTASSIUM. I say clerical because, as may be seen from the context, my reasoning does not apply to Chloride of Calcium. Professor King, however, adopts my error and bases his argument on the assumed presence in Bibra's table of Chloride of CALCIUM! (See extracts to which are attached an asterisk.) In a footnote I mention having copied my table from the English edition of Bischof. In that edition there is no reference in the same page to the "Pacific, Atlantic, and German Oceans;" and the expression "as deduced from the analyses of Bibra" is mine, not Bischof's. G. C. WALLICH. Note.-Professor King alludes to the map appended to my "NorthAtlantic Sea-bed." The Italics are mine throughout.—G. C. W. THE WRECK REGISTER AND CHART FOR 1861. Shakespeare compares England to a fortress, and the Channel to a moat; but if he saw the leviathan steamers now coming up that channel, he would be the first to acknowledge that the comparison did not hold good in the present day. We do not now look upon the sea as itself giving us a defence; it is only our chief medium of defence. But it is now, as in the days of Drake, our great commercial highway and source of our strength, girdling us, if it does not guard us, and bearing into our havens all the products of the known globe. All who leave us or approach us must do so by this great highway, which carries on its bosom in the course of one year alone, to and from our own ports, no less than 267,770 ships, including repeated voyages, and which ships have probably been manned by 1,600,000 souls. Such is the field of operations over which these dry statistics of the Board of Trade carry us. As usual, they have been most ably drawn up and collated in every possible form. Yet on nearly every page of this Register these startling facts, in admonitory terms, face us, that 1,494 shipwrecks occurred on British shores last year, from which 884 people are known to have perished. The number of wrecks last year has unfortunately exceeded the number during any of the preceding nine years, and it is 260 in excess of the annual average of the last six years. It is a lamentable fact that shipwrecks on our coasts have been of late years on the increase. Thus, during the last seven years, we find the following account:-in 1855, 1,141; 1856, 1,153; 1857, 1,143; 1858, 1,170; 1859, 1,416: 1860, 1,379; 1861, 1,494. The accompanying Wreck Chart clearly shows the spot where each casualty occurred, and the number of lives lost by it. We are told that this great increase of disasters in 1861 was owing to the fearful gales of January, February, and November of that year, when 842 wrecks took place, principally amongst our rotten collier class of vessels. Gales, even of a moderate character, are always destructive to these ships; or, in other words, they are doomed to certain destruction under circumstances in which a ship, if seaworthy, and properly manned and found, ought to be able to keep the sea. The best harbours of refuge in the world would not, therefore, prevent a tithe of these disasters, which unfortunately too often occur where neither the lifeboat nor the rocket apparatus is available to succour their unfortunate crews. 8; We regret to find that the number of collisions is also on the increase. No calamity is more fearful than that of a collision at sea during a dark stormy night. Its destructive effects are instantaneous, and frequently a large number of persons go down with either ship. The collisions in British waters were in 1859, 349; in 1860, 298 and in 1861, 323! But what is very remarkable in regard to these fearful collisions is the fact that, during the past six years, 750 collisions have taken place in clear and fine weather, 378 from bad lookout, 264 from neglect of rule of road at sea, and 61 from actual want of seamanship. The gross total of collisions during the past six years having been 1,864. A natural sequence of the increase of vessels wrecked is the increase of precious lives lost. The number of persons who thus lost their lives in 1861 was, as previously stated, 884; while in 1860, it was only 536. This, let it be remembered, is not a casual loss. It is a continual, if not an ever increasing one. The drain on our sailors and fishermen goes on year after year, notwithstanding all the benevolent and strenuous efforts made at the present day to stay the ravage. The sea is dreadfully exacting in its demands; and season after season, when the equinoctial gales blow, when the winter sets in, or when the summer, as our last one did, yields to the temporary but powerful influence of storms, our shores are converted into altars, on which the Ocean offers his victims. It is unlikely that we shall ever effectually obtain the mastery over the waves; but, even at this moment, we are able to contend successfully with them in their blind efforts to swallow up life against our endeavours to save. If, for instance, during 1861, eight hundred and eighty-four people lost their lives on our coasts by shipwreck, yet no less than four thousand six hundred and twenty-four were directly saved from such a fate. The whole number makes up a considerable fleet of seamen,-men for whom, perhaps, in moments of national emergency, we would give any money,and many of these were preserved under the most perilous circumstances by the craft of the National Life-boat Institution. The total number of casualties in two years is 2,873, out of which 1,660, or about seven-twelfths of the whole, happened to ships of the collier class—a fearful disproportion, and calling loudly for a thorough and searching investigation. The following table distinguishes clearly the description and tonnage of the ships lost during the past year: Let us briefly analyse the causes of this great destruction of property:-We find that 10 wrecks took place in a perfectly still sea, 14 in light airs, 51 in light breezes, 43 in gentle breezes, 103 in moderate breezes, 171 in fresh breezes, 149 in strong breezes, 66 in moderate gales, 124 in fresh gales, 230 in strong gales, 311 in whole gales, 102 in storms, 52 in hurricanes, and 68 in unknown and variable weather. Total wrecks, 1,494. Of these 619 took place amongst ships in the home and coasting trade, commanded by men not required by law to have certificates of competency. 266 wrecks only occurred amongst vessels in the home trade, commanded by masters holding certificates of service; so that the rivalry between ignorance and knowledge is an unequal one, as it ever has been and ever will be, The estimated loss on these 1,494 wrecks is upwards of one million sterling. But who can estimate the loss of the valuable lives who also thus perished with the ships! Many a widow and orphan in our seaport towns and fishing villages will tell us how severely they have felt their bereavement ! The accompanying roll of the loss of life on British shores and NO. 1.-VOL. XXXII. F waters during the past twelve years will be perused with melancholy The districts are thus classified : nterest. and Skerries, Anglesey 969 Skerries and Lambay to Fair Head and Mull of Cantire 1,597 Cape Wrath to Buchan Ness. Buchan Ness to Farn Islands... All other parts of the Coast Total lives lost... 257 280 922 7,645 It is thus seen that the most serious wrecks, as was urged in Parliament last session, do not happen on the N.E. coast of England, but in those seas and channels mostly frequented by large foreign-going ships. This is a matter deserving earnest public attention. Some hundred thousands of pounds judiciously laid out in improving our great natural harbours of refuge would, we think, be attended with the greatest possible benefit. sea. Again this fearful list tells us in legible terms that man cannot avert the storm-nor prevent the occurrence of wreck and violent death at The proudest vessels that he builds of wood and iron are but as larger straws before the winds of heaven. A breath can dash them on the shore, and they perish in their pride, and our vanity is humbled. We may never hope to rise superior to every storm or cause of wreck. It is our duty, however, to strive for safety-to continue to wrestle hard with danger-to confine disaster and death within the narrowest limits which human efforts can impose upon them. How happily then the efforts of the National Life-boat Institution, the Board of Trade, and kindred bodies on the coast have been blessed during the past six years! During that period alone 16,119 persons have been saved from shipwrecks by means of the lifeboats, the lifepreserving apparatus, shore boats, and other appliances, as the annexed list shows: |