The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1868-06-04
NUMBER Is.
THE OCEAN BOTTOM.

Mr.. Green, the famous diver, tells sin.
gular stories of his adventures. when max
ing search in the deep waters of the ocean.
He gives some new sketches of what hs
saw at the 'Silver Bank" near Hayti:
The banks of coral on which my diyings
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 studied with coral columns,
from ten 10 one hundred feet in hight, and
from one to eighty feet in diameter. The
| tops of those more lofty support myriad
of Pyramidal pendants, each forming
myriad more, giving reality to the ima-
| glnary abode Of some water nymph. In
| other places the pendants form arch after
| arch, and as the diver stands on the bot~
! tom OF the ocean, and gazes thro' in the
! deep winding avenues, he finds that they
/ tlll him with as sacred an awe as if be
were IN some Old cathedral which has
! long been buried beneath old oceans wave.
! Here and there the choral extends even to
| the surface Of the water, as if the loftiest
columns were towers belonging to those
stately temples that are now in ruins.
There were countless varieties Of trees,
shrubs and plants in every crevice Of the
corals where the water had deposited the
/ earth. They were all of faint hue, ow-
ing TO the pale light they received, al
though of every shade, and entirely diff
feremt from plants that vegetate upon dry
| land. One in particular attracted my
attention II resembles sea fan of I'M
| rnense size, of variegated coiors, and the
most brilliant hue. The fish Thich in
habit these "Silver Banks" l found as
| different in kind as the scenery WAS varied.
| They were of al forms, cclors and sizes
| from .the symmetrical goby to the globe
| like sunffsh from the dulIest hue to the
| changeabe dolphin; from the spots Of the
leopard 10 the hue of the sunbeam from
the harmless minnow 10 The voraeious
| shark. Some had heads like squirrels,
! others Ike cats and dogs some OF small
| size resembled the bull terrier Sons
darted through the water Ike mcteors,
while others could scarcely be seen TO
move. 10 enumerate and explain all the
| various kinds of fish I beheld while diving
on these banks would, were l enough of 4
| naturalist SO to do, require more than my
limits allow, for | am convinced that most
Of the kinds of fish which inhabit the trop-
ical seas can be found there The sun
| fish, star fish, white shark and blue or
| shovel nose shark were often seen. There
were also Ssh which resembled plants, and
| remained as fixed in their position as a
| shrub: the only power they possessed
| was to open and shut when in danger
Some of them resembled the rose when in
| full bloom and were Of all hues. There
were the ribbon fish, from four or five in
ches 10 three feet iii length their eyes are
very large and protrude like those Of u
| frog. Another fish is spotted like leop-
ard, 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 / saw many
specimens of the green turtle, some FIVE
feet long, which / should think would
weigh four or five hundred pounds"