New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-10-22
rhe ocean Records of Duration.
rFrom the PhIladslpbta Ledger.


We are now in position to learn something
more of the bottom of the ocean than ever before,
and also to form a conjecture of the vast duration
of time it must have taken 10 form some OF those
strata which every geologist ana even some OF me
miners and quarrymen, are now familiar with. On
the 18th Of August a part Of the Atlantic cable OF
1865 was first raised TO the surface OF the ocean,
after it had laid buried just about year. Here IS
the reporters account: ON the appearance OF
the cable we were all struck with the fact that
one-haIf of it was covered with ooze staining it
muddy white, while the other half was just in its
state it left the tank last year, with Its tarred
surface and strands unchanged, which proved that
it simply lay in the ooZe only halt Undecided. Inc
strain on the cable gave it twist, and 1t looked
like pole painted spirally with black and white"
That muddy white ooze the microscope shows
us to consist of millions of shell fish mixed, pro-
baby, with some of the bone dust dissolved from
| the remains of larger fishes dying mile or two
above but still in the depths of the ocean. In
fact this whitish ooze is just OF that nature that,
4 dried and hardened, forms the limestone strata
found so copiously all over the earth, and formed
\ in this very way, by the deposition of shells at the
| bottom of the ocean.
At first sight it might therefore seem that this
coat of oose had formed on that side OF the cable
that lay Uppermost at the bottom OF the ATLANTIC
But that was not the case The uppermost side
of the gutta percha g was as new inappearance as
when it left the mandatory in the City road.
This fact so important to the electrician as show
ing the perfect protection afforded by the insulating
substance is still more importantto the geologist
as showing the amazingly slow raEe at which thu
limestone ooze is deposited. In whole year tht
deposit was not so appreciate as the dust tina
would have gathered on the furniture OF well
kept and closed up drawng-room in half the time
And yet who shall tell the average thickness il
feet of the limestone strata that have in ages beer
deposited thus on the surface OF the bottoms
former seas?
The London Times goes further. Itsays: Thu
vast submarine desert consists apparently of i'm
mense plains with mountainous ridges, the Whol'
covered with a fine oose,, the slow deposit Q
consist of shells. All the ages, it would seem
have not covered the bottom to depth more thai
, sufficient to bury half the cable, which came "
partially colored like snake with black back an
| white BELLY This is quite wrong inference
+ The solid limestone underneath formed IN Ions
! ages may be and probablyis lying many feet the
underneath the Dose not yet more firmly solldlhed
i Still, viewed in any light, IN circumstances mos
favorable for testing the rate OF formation, tn
\ whole process appears extremely slow, Their
are here no currents that draw away the depos
ton. Everything is as calm as can be conceive
:. possible, so that the shells brought home are NJ
: broken or worm but most perfect in their tormi
. ton; and yet with two miles of sea above, teen
i ling, near the surface, at least, with millions
Il inhabitants of the deep of all sorts and sizes,
i little is the limy deposit of shell and bone du
e from the whole, at the bottom of the Atlanti
4 that in whole year it does not discolor the top
!. the gutta- percha cable as it lies on the bottom
n Perhaps indeed, it will be said the deposit WI
q formed, but SO loosely and lightly that the actit
y Of the current, produced by drawing the cable I
: through the sea, had displaced it. But then won
If come the question-Tf this deposition could
Of less adhesive than that formed by the pressure
of the cable lying on the top OF the ooze which
ID ID hered? The strain of hauling, indeed, so f
n. twisted the cable that it came up to the surfa
" like q BARRIERS pole, and yet, while white wi
hs ooze in what had laid underneath. the top was
Nv perceptibly discolored. Whoshall tell the Wonde
a y Of the deep or fathom the oceans not of watt
we but Of time, which they to make known to u