Weekly Trinity journal., 1873-11-15
What we Know About the Denizens
of the Depths of the Sea.

What do we know about things ten
miles down in tie stupendous valley of
the ocean On land here the vegetation
of the Alpine base is not that of the sum-
init the wild goat skips upon the peaks
of the Himalayas, but the rhinoeeros has
his lair miles below. Our acquaintance
with theamysteries of the deep must be
absolutely and literally superficial, for we
assume that its mountain tops alone are
revealed to US, and these dimly, and that
TO its valleys our senses can never pene-
trate. All the creatures that disport
themselves on or near its surface are
more or less familiar to us-tbe whales,
the porpoises and the sharks, that come
tumbling over its undulatons much in
the same way that bufaloes come foun-
dering over the waves of the prairie. The
vast broods that feed on its shallow banks
and are taken therefrom to feed shallower
mortals, are oil WITHIN our grasp, and we
grasp them. On the ledge of the iceberg
sits enthroned the walrus, and we salute
him as the elephant of the sea, and es-
TEEN him unspcakably for the CONNER
cial 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 for the noble purpose
of gain. The magnificent sea unicorn,
king Of the arctic waters, is no stranger
for him. We haye cognizance of all these
sea creatures and many more, the range
of which appears TO be in the upper re-
gions of the deep but what can we aver
of the mystic realms that lie far down
about the bases of the great submarine
mountain ranges-mountains compared
with which our highest dry land peaks
are possibly nothing but mere hillocks.
There is a sea monster known to fisher
3. men as the Horned Ray, monster most
fearful in itself, but interesting as an
illustration of that which is, and a sug-
ton Of that which may be-a yeritable
dragon of the sea, whose lateral fins ex-
tend like wings, and frequently measure
more than thirty feet from tip to tip.
This voracious fish will sometimes make
its appearance among the swimmers of
the surf, and taking one under each arm,
so TO speak, descends with them to depths
unknown. Until ocean shall have been
dried up, or drained off, no 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 to US may be creatures of the up
per deep alone, never descending below a
certain depth, lest they encounter far
more hideous and powerful monsters than
themselves, which dwell at the bases of
the marine mountains leagues farther
down. One can easily imagine polypus
anchored there below in some distracted
valley, of which it is the lord and tyrant
"a stupendous mass Of bloated matter,
grasping at everything within a circum-
ference of half a mile, and absorbent Of
all living creatures under the size of a
whale, in the China Sea there are BIZ
yalVas-whether oysters or muscles am
not aertain-the shells of which are large
enough to contain man properly dou-
blee up, If monster like this inhabit
the shadows, there is no limit to ones
imaginings of the enormities at the bot
tom ton miles farther down.-Auantic
Monthly,