Sample of surface layer of Globigerina ooze collected by HMS Bulldog, 1860

Sample of surface layer of Globigerina ooze with unbroken specimens of Foraminifera, collected by HMS Bulldog from the ocean bottom, depth 1260 fathoms, between Greenland and Iceland, North Atlantic Ocean, 1860. This sample is from the sounding in which naturalist George Charles Wallich found living starfish on the ocean floor – demonstrating, for the first time, that life could exist at the bottom of the ocean.

In 1860, the paddle steamer HMS Bulldog was conducting telegraph survey operations around the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland, collecting samples from the sea bottom to investigate the feasibility for a new submarine cable to be laid. The soundings suggested that there might be living organisms at great depths, fuelling an ongoing debate about whether the deep sea did harbour life or whether it was azoic.