The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1867-12-26
The Ocean Bottom.

Mr.. Green, the famous diver, tells singu-
lar stories of his adventures, when making
search in the deep waters of the ocean,
He gives some new sketches of what he
saw at the "Silver Bank, +" near Hayti
"The banks of coral on which my div
ings were made are about forty miles in
length, and from ten to twenty in breadth.
On this bank of coral is presented to the
diver one of the most beautiful and sublime
scenes the eye ever beheld. The water
varies from ten to one hundred feet in
depth, and so clear that the diver can see
from two to three hundred feet when sub
merged, with but little obstruction to the
sight.
The bottom of the ocean, in many places,
is as smooth as marble floor in others
it is studded with coral columns, from ten
to one hundred feet in height and from
one to eighty feet in diameter. The tops of
those more lofty, support a myriad Of
pyramidal pendants, each forming a my
riad more, giving reality to the imagi-
nary abode of some water-nymph. In
other places the pendants form arch after
arch; and, as the diver stands on the boz
tom of the ocean, and gaze through the
deep winding avenues, he finds they fill
him with as sacred an awe as if he were
in some old cathedral which had long
been buried beneath old oceans wave
Here and there the coral extends even
to the surface of the water, as if the loft
ier columns were towers belonging to
those stately temples that are now in
ruins.
There were countless varieties of dimin-
utive trees, shrubs and plants in every
crevice of the cOrals where water had de-
posted the earth. They were all of a faint
hue, owing to the pale light they received,
although of every shade, and entirely diff
ferent from. plants that 1 am familiar
with that vegetate on dry land. One in
particular attracted my attention; it re-
sembled a sea-fan of immense size, of vari-
egated colOrs and the most brilliant hue
The fishes which inhabit these "Silver
Banks" I found as different in kind as
the scenery was varied. They were of all
forms, cOlOrs and sizes, from the symmet
rical goby to the globe-like sun-tish; from
the dullest hue TO the changeable dolphin /;
from the spots of the leopard to the hues
of the sunbeam; from the harmless min
now to the vOraciOus shark.
Some had heads like squirrels, others
like cats and dOgs-sOme of small size re-
sembled the bulI-terrier. Some darted
through the water like meteors, while
others could scarcely be seen to move.
70 enumerate and explain all the vari-
ous kinds of fish beheld while diving on
these banks would, we're I enough of a
naturalist so to do, require more than my
limits allow, for 1 am convinced that
most of the kinds of fish which inhab bit
the tropical seas can be found there. The
sun-fish, star-tish, white shark and blue or
shovel-nOse shark are often seen.
! There are also fish which resembled
plants, and remained as fixed in their pO-
sition as a shrub the only power they
possessed was to open and shat when in
danger. Some of them resembled the
rose when i'll full bloom, and were of all
hues. There were the ribbon fish, from
four or five inches to three feet in length ;
their eyes were very large. osd I,-,s1' s'>'N
/ like tlltJse of a frog
Another fish is spotted like a leopard,
from three to ten feet in length. They
build their houses like beavers, in which
they spawn, and the male or female watch
es the egg until it matches. 1 saw many
specimens OF the green turtle, some five
/ feet long, which l should think would
weigh from 400 to 500 pounds.