In a former jjaper to this Society, we pointed out the important role played by carbonic acid in modern seas, with special reference to the vast deposits of carbonate of lime now taking place in coral reefs and those other calcareous deposits known as Globigerina and Pteropod Oozes. It was pointed out that carbonic acid was the chief agent in the disintegration of felspars and other silicates of the earth's surface, that it was concerned in all the changes that result in the secretion of carbonate of lime by marine organisms from any of the lime salts in sea-water, that a vast amount of Carbonic acid was being locked up in the calcareous deposits now in process of formation on the sea-bed, and that there was an accumulation of these calcareous deposits chiefly towards the equatorial regions of the ocean basins. In the present paper we propose to deal with the great antagonistic power to carbonic acid, viz., silica, and with the siliceous organic remains in the ocean.
The vast organic accumulations known as coral reefs are, undoubtedly, among the most striking ‘phenomena of tropical oceanic waters. The picturesque beauty of coral atolls and barrier reefs, with their shallow placid lagoons, and their wonderful submarine zoological and botanical gardens, fixed at once the attention of the early voyagers into the seas of equatorial regions of the ocean. Questions connected with the peculiar form, the structure, the origin, and the distribution of these great natural productions have, from the very outset, puzzled and interested all those who delight in the study of natural things. In this communication we propose to point out and discuss some of the more general phenomena of oceanic deposits, with special reference to the functions of corals and other lime-secreting organisms, and the accumulation of their dead shells and skeletons on the floor of the great oceans.
In a paper read before this Society, on May 7, 1888, on the “Secretion of Carbonate of Lime by Animals,” we gave the result of experiments made upon domestic fowls, which established the fact that they could elaborate carbonate from sulphate of lime in the formation of the calcareous covering of their eggs.
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