Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-11-07
THE OCEAN RECORDS OF DURA-
TTON-

THE OCEAN RECORDS o oOhA-
TON.
We are now in u position to learn some
thing more Of the bottom Of the ocean
than ever before, and also to form q con-
lecture OF the vast duration of time 1t mus
have taken TO form some Of those strata
which every g~eologist, and even some OF
the miners and quarrymen, are now ia
miliar with. On the 18th Of August q
part OF the Atlantic cable Of 1865 was
frs, raised to the surface Of the ocean,
after it had laid buried just about a year.
Here is the reporters account: On the
appearance Of the cable, we were all
struck with the fact that one-half Of Il was
covered with ooze. staining it a muddy
white. while the other half was just in its
state as it left the tank last year, with its
tarred surface and strands unchanged,
which proved that it simply lay in the
ooze only half imbeded. The strain on
the cable gave it q twist, and It looked
like a pole painted spirally with black and
white.
That muddy white ooze the microscope
shows us to consist Of millions Of she'll
fish, mixed, probably, with some OF the
| bone dust dissolved from the remains OF
larger fishes dying a mile or two above,
but still in the depths of the ocean. In
fact, this whitish ooze is just Of that ma
,ure that, dried and hardened, forms the
limestone strata found so eopiously all
over the earth, and formed in this very
way, BY the deposition Of shells At the
bottom Of the ocean.
At first ,igh, i, might, therefore. seem
,ha. this coat Of ooze had formed on that
side of the cable that lay uppermost at the
bottom OF the Atlantic. But that waa
not the case. The uppermost side OF the
gu,ta percha was as new in appearances
as when it left the mandatory in the
City road" This fact, so important to
the electrician. as showing the perfect
protection afforded BY the insulating sub.
stance, Is still more important to the geol-
ogist, as showing the amazingly slow rate
at which the limestone ooze 10 deposited.
In a whole year the deposit was not SO
appreciable as the dust that would have
gathered on the furniture OF a well-kep'
and closed up drawing-room in half the
time. And ye, who shall tell the average
thickness in feet Of the limestone strata
that have in ages been deposited thus on
the surface Of the bottoms Of former seas
The London Time, goes further. 1.
says: The vast submarine desert con-
sists apparently Of immense plains and
mountainous ridges, the whole covered
with a fine ooze, the slow deposit Of
countless ages, and found BY the micro.
scope to consis, OF shells. All tho ages,
it would seem, have not covered the bot
tom to a depth more than sufficient to
bury half the cable, which came up parti-
colored, like . snake with black back and
white belly" This is quite 4 wrong in
ference. The solid limestone underneath
formed in long ages may be and probably
is lying many feet thick underneath the
ooze not yet more firmly solidi6ed. Still.
viewed in any light, in circumstances most
favorable for testing the rate Of formation,
the whole process appears extremely slow.
There are here no currents that draw
away the deposition. Everything is a.
calm as can be conceived possible, so that
the shells brought home are not broken or
worn but most perfect in their formation
and yet, with two miles Of sea above,
teeming, near the surface, at least, with
millions Of inhabitants Of the deep OF all
sorts and sizes, so little is the limy de-
post Of shell and bone-dust from the
whole, a, the bottom Of the Atlantic, tina,
in a whole year it does not discolor the
top Of the gutta-percha cable as it lies on
the bottom. Perhaps, indeed, it will be
said the deposit Ca, formed, but SO loosely
and lightly the, the action Of the current,
produced by drawing the cable up through
the sea, had displaced it. But then would
come the question III this deposition
could be less adhesive than that formed
by the pressure of the cable lying on tho
top Of the ooze which adhered? The
strain Of hauling, indeed. so far twisted
the cable that it came up to the surface
like a BARRIERS pole, and yet while white
with ooze in what had laid underneath,
the top was not perceptibly discolored.
Who shall tell the wonders Of the deep or
fathom the oceans, not Of water, but Of
time, which they are to make known to
US?