Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1873-10-11
The Ocean.

What do we know about things ten
miles down in the stupendous valleys
of the ocean? On land, here, the vepct-
alton of the Alpine base is not that Of
its summit; the wild-goat skips upon the
peaks of the HimaIayas, but the rhinoc-
eros has his lair miles below. Our ac-
quaintance with the mysteries of the
deep must be absolutely and literally
superficial, for we may assume that it's
mountain tops alone are revealed to us.
and these dimly; and that to it's valleys
our senses can never penetrate. All the
creatures that disport themselves on or
near its surface are more or less famil-
air to us-the whale, the porpoises. and
the sharks, that come tumbling over its
unduations much in the same way that
buffaloes come Houndering over the
waves of the prairie. The countless
broods that feed on its shallow banks.
and are taken therefrom to feed shallow
or mortals, are all within our grasp. and
we grasp them. On the ledge of the
iceberg sits enthroned, the warus. 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 morn
ing, we stick spears into it, and convert
it to the noble purpose of gain. The
magnificent sea unicorn, King of the
Arctic waters, is no stranger 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,
far down about the bases of the great
submarine mountain ranges-moun-
tains compared with which our highest
dry land peaks are possibly nothing but
mere hillocks?
There is Il sea monster known to fish
ermcn as the Horned Ray-a monster
most fearful in itself, but interesting as
an illustration of that which is, and "A
suggestion of that which may be-a
veritable dragon of the sea, whose later
al fins extend like wings, and frequently
measure more than thirty ft. from tip to
tip. This voracious fish will sometimes
make its appearance among the swim
mers in the surf, and taking one under
each arm, SO to speak, descend 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 the hideous
man-eater glides with his prey. The
great fishes and sea beasts that are
known to us may be creatures of the up
per deep alone, never descending below
Il certain depth, lest they encounter far
more hideous and powerful monsters
than themselves, which dwell at the
bases of the the marine mountains
leagues farther down. One can easily
a polypus anchored there be-
low in some distracting valley, of
which he is lord and tyrant--a stupen-
GUS mass of bloated matter grasping at
everything that comes within circum-
ference of half mile, and absorbent of
all living creatures under the size of
whale. In the China Sea there are BIZ
oyster or mussels am
not certain-the shell of which are large
enough to contain man properly
doubled up. If monster like this in
habits comparative shadows, there is no
limit to ones imaginings of the bivalvu-
lar enormities at the bottom ten miles
farther down-Alantic Monthly.