Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-03-18
Pictures Of the Ocean.

clous box filled with the gold of Peru's snow
covered Alps by the side of countless skeletons
gathered from every shore and everv cline
There moulders the bald skull of the grave sea
captain, by the side of the broken arrnor of pi
gantic turtles the whalers harpoon rests peaci
oily near the tooth of the whale, thousands Of
fish dwell in huge bales of costly silks from In
dia, and over them pass in silent crowds mill
lions OF diminutive infusoro enormous whales.
and voracious sharks, chasing before them thick
" packed shoals of frightened herrines. Here
the sea foams and frets restlessly upon curious
iy shaped cliffs, and oddly formed rocks, there
1t moves sluggshly over large plains of white
shining sand In the morning the tidal waves
break In grim fury against the bald peaks of
submarine Alps. or pass in Kissing streams.
through ancient forests on their side in the
evening they glide noiselessly over bottomless
abysses, as if afraid lest they, also, might sink
down into the eternal night below. from which
rises distant thunder; and the locked up wa
tiers roar and whine like evil spirits chained in
the vast deep.
The ocean is q vast cbarnel house There are
millions and millions of animals moulderine.
piled up, layer upon layer IN huge masses or
|
below and under the the thin transparent vail,
there relns endless murder, wild warfare and
herce bloodshed. Infinite, unquenchable ha-
tired seems to dwell in the cold unfeeling deep
Destruction alone maintains life in the bound
less world of the ocean. Lions, tigers, and
wolves reach a gigantic size in its vast caverns
and day after day destroy whole generations OF
smaller animals. Polypi and medusae, in count
less numbers, spread their nets, catching the
thoughtless radiati by tens of thousands, and the
huge whale swallows, at one gulp, millions of
minute, but living creatures. The sword fish
and the sea-hon hunt the elephant and the rhi-
noceros of the Pacific, and tiny parasites dart
upon the sunny fish, to dwell in myriads in his
thick layers of fat. All are hunting. killing,
numbering; but the strife is silent, no war-cry
is heard, no burst of anguish disturbs the etern-
al silence, no shouts of triumph rise up through
the crystal waves to the world of light. The
battles are fought in deep, still secrecy; only
now and then the deep parting waves disclose
the bloody scene for an instant or the dying
whale throws his enormous carcass high into the
| air, driving the water up in lofty columns, cap
ped with foam and tinged with blood.
When Captain Ross in the Arctic ocean ex-
plored the bottom of the sea, dropped his lead
to the depth of 5000 feet, he still brought up
! living animalculae and, at depth exceeding
the hight of our loftiest mountains The water
is alive with countless hosts of diminutive phos-
phorIc creatures, which, when attracted to the
| surface convert every wave into 4 crest of light,
! and the wide ocean into sea of Ere. 1t is well
known that the abundance of these minute be-
ings, and of the animal matter supplied by their
rapid decomposition, is SUCH that the sea wa
ter itself becomes nutritious food to many of
the largest dwellers in the Still they
have their own homes, even their own means of
locomotion. They are not bound to certain re-
g:ons of that great country below the oceans
waters. They travel far and fast; currents un-
known 10 man carry them in vast masses from
the pole 20 the equator, and often from pole TO
pole, so that the whale must travel with loco
motive speed, to follow the nedusae of the Arc
tic to the seas of the Antilles if he will not dis
pense with his daily food. How strange chase.
The giant of The racing in furious haste af-
ter hardly visible, family colored Jelly balls
Now singly, now in shoals, fish constantly
seen moving through the ocean. The delicate
n1ackerel travels toward the south; the small,
delicate sardine of the Mediterranean, moves in
the spring westward and returns, in the fall,
to the east The sturgeon of the northern seas
sails lonely up the rivers of the continent Of Eu
rope, and has been found in the very heart Of
Germany, under the shadow Of the famous ca
thedral of Strasburg. Triangular masses of sal
mon press up nearly all northern rivers, and are
| sometimes so numerous. so closely packed that
they actually impede the current of large rivers
Before the arrival, countless millions of herrings
leave the same water, but where their home is
man has not yet found out. Only in the spring
months there suddenly appear vast banks of this
remarkable fish, two or three miles wide and
twenty or thirty miles long, and so dense are
the crowds, SO great their depth that lances and
harpoons-even the sound-lead-throwR among
them at random, do not sink bot remain stand
ing upright. What numbers are devoured by
sharks and birds of prey Is not known what
immense quantities are caught along the coast
| to be spread as manure on the fields inland, Is
| beyond all calculation and yet, Il has been
certained that over thousand millions alone
are annually salted for winter consumption
| Alike gigantic is the life of the ocean in it.
/ dimensions. Whales of hundred feet in length
and more, are the largest of ali animals on earth
I DFe times rs IcI5 tHe tIe ol
| firm land Turtles weighing thousand pounds
are found in more than sea The rocky
| island of the southern Arctic alone furnish
supply of million OF sea lions, sea-cows, and
seals Huge birds rise from the foam covered
waves, their homes never seen by human eye,
their young ones bred in lands unknown to man
Islands are formed, and mountains raised, by
the mere dung of the smaller birds And yet
nature is here also greater in her small crea-
tions. For how fine, for instance must be the
texture of sinews and muscles, of nerves and
blood vessels, in animals that never reach the
size of a pea even pins head
The ocean has only its mountains and plains,
its turf and moors and sandy deserts. its rivers,
and sweet spring. gushing forth from hidden re-
cesses, and rising through the midst OF salt wa
ter; but it also has lofty forests, with iuxuriant