The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1874-08-06
From Harper's Magazine.
HUMAN Bellies ON THE OCEAN
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The dream that afflicted the wretched
Clarence, after due allowance is made for
poetic exaggeration, probably gives g fair
though sombre representation of what
was till lately supposed to be the condi-
ton of the ocean bed. 1t were easy to
show by abundant quotations that the
sounding seas were supposed to wash be-
meath their surface the bones of unnum.
bered hapless mariners, and that the high
way OF nations was believed to be paved
with the relics Of disaster. To this pic
ture there was afterward added We,
more weird feature. The notion derived
from experiments on the compressibility
of air, gained acceptance that water at
great depths was rendered SO lepse by
pressure that nothing could sink to the
bottom in the ocean. = According to this
theory each substance would descend
only to certain depth, determined in
each case by its specific gravity. Thus,
while the victims of shipwreck might
rest at few hundred feet below the sur
face, the heavier articles of the cargo
would remain at various distances below
them; bur- in the greatest depths, even the
anchor itself would never reach the ocean
floor. And thus the sea becomes mauso
leum more strangely occupied than that
in which Mohammed's coffin hung sus-
pended Underwater being substituted for
mid air.
Each Of these conceptions is exactly the
reverse offact. Water is not compressible,
and does not at any depth hold heavy
substances suspended in it. Relics Of hu-
manity of any sort whatever are among
The very rarest curiosities obtained in
deep-sea dredging: Professor E. S Morse,
In the course of discussion on the evolu-
ton tn cory, has cited two good illustra-
tions in proof Of the latter statement.
When the Lake of HARLEM was drained,
on whose surface the commerce Of ten
centuries had foated and several naval
battles had taken place, no trace of man
or his works was found in the land re-
deemed from the ocean. In the course Of
twelve years. dredging of the coast of
New England, right in the track where
sailing vessels constantly piled, one iron
spike was the sole evidence of mans ex.
isteace brought up from the bottom. The
writer of this article had, however, the
luck to be present on the occasion OF one
of the rare exceptions to this general rule.
In dredging cruise Of the Blue Light,
asst summer, in Casco bay, the trawl
brought up, along with anemones, star
f9h,skates and sculpins, shoe of modern
manufacture, and only remarkable, # at
all, as to its size. What seems still more
singular coinsl dence was that tbs next
haul of the trawls brought up the mate of
this big shoe. The pair were In very
dilapitated condition, as shoes, but they
rank high as curiosities. The occurrence
was so unusual that it has been suggested
that there YVES some legerdemain about it
that it was neatly contrived hoax. To
this the only reply must be that 'seeing
IS believing No one that saw the shoe
taken out of the midst of the mud of the
traWl pocket was troubled with the doubt
that harassed King George about the APP
pie dumpling.
Tough ON BUNYAN.In the Catholic Review We
FILL Anxysx. 49, rs Al 1870