River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1873-10-07
What is in the Depths Of The Sea ,

What do we know about things ter
miles down In the stupendous valleys
of the oceans On land, here, the veg
citation Of the Alpine basc is not that OF
its summit the wild goat skips upon
the peaks of the Himalayas, but the
rhinoceros has his lair miles below.
Our acquaintance with the mysteries OF
the deep must be absolutely and liter
ally superficial, for we may assume that
its mountain tops alone are revealed TO
us, and these dimly. and that to
its valleys our senses can never
penetrate. All the creatures that
disport themselves ON or near
its surface, are more or less familiar to
MS, the whales, the porpoises, and the
sharks, that come tumbling over its
undulations much in the same way that
butfaloes come houndering over the
waves of the prairie. The countless
breads that feed on it's shallow banks.
and are taken therefrom to feed shall
lower mortals, are all within our grasp.
aud we grasp them. On the edge of
the iceberg sits enthroned the walrus,
and we salute him as the elephant OF
the sea, and esteem him unspeakably
for the commercial value of his ivory
tusks The huge sea cow has no
mystery for us. We wake the
harmless creature up from its
bed of seaweed on the isolated
rock, and having wished it
good morning, we stick spears into it,
and convert it to the noble purpose of
main fVI,n unconditional go ,,,,.e~...
king OF the Arctic waters, is no stran-
ger to us, which is just so much the
worse for him. We have cognizance
Of all these sea creatures and many
more, the range of which appears to
be IN the upper regions of the deep
but what can we aver of the mystic
realms that lie far, lar down about the
bases of the great submarine mountain
ranges-m mountains compared with
which our highest dry land peaks are
possibly nothing but mere hillocks 2
There is a sea monster known 10 fish
ermen as the Horned Ray, monster
most fearful IN itself, but interesting
as an illustration of that which is, and
a suggestion of that which may be, -
u veritable dragon Of the sea, whose
lateral fins extend like wings, and fire.
quently measure more than thirty feet
from tip to tip. This voracious fish
will sometimes make its appearance
among the swimmers in the surf, and
taking one under each arm, so to
speak, descend with them to
depths unknown. Until the ocean
shall have been dried up, or drained
off, 40 human being can ever explore
the strange grottoes Into which this
hideous man-eater glides with his
prey. The great fishes and sea beasts
that are known to us may be creatures
of the upperdeep alone, never descend
ing below a certain depth, lest they
encounter far more hideous and power
full monsters than themselves, which
dwell mt the bases of marine noun
tains leagues farther down. One can
easily imagine polypus anchored
there below in some distracting
valley, of which it is lord and
tyrant,-a stupendous mass Of
bloated matter, grasping at everything
within circumference OF half a mile,
and absorbent of all living creatures
under the size of whale. In the China
Sea there are Observation-Disclosures oysters
or mussels L am not certain-the shells
of which are large enough to contain q
man properly doubled up. liza monster
like this inhabit comparative shadows,
there is no limit TO ones imaginings OF
the bivalvular enormIties at the bottom
ten miles farther down Atlantic
Monthly TOR October.