The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-07-28
BOTTOMS OF THE OCEANS.
FACTS DIsCoVERED ny THE CHhL-
LEN0ER ExPLoRBRs.
Tcmpersturc Of the water OF the Ocean ut
Great Depths-A Continual shower OF Lit
tic 5ketctens-The He'd CLAY Puzzie.

Prom Ae Scotsr,an.
On July 7. Prof. Sir Wyvile Thomson
and other members Of the Challenger exploring
party were entertained at a puoio dinner IN
Huxley, who said "Some OF the discoveries
which have been made by the CHALLENGER are
ideas OF the operation Of natur Il causes In the
sea Take. for exsmple, the very remarkable
se siwsvs sess DOWN pret,y mScn co ,Sa, Of
freezing fresh water. That lie a very STRANGE
fact In itself, a fact which certainly could not
I)us discovery that over large orcas OF the sea
the bottom Is covered with kind OF chalk.
q substance made up entirely Of the shells
Of minute crsatures-a sort OF ReoloR,-
cal sbOddy made OF the cast-on clothes OF those
animals. The fact had been known for a long
time. and W. were greatly puzzled to know how
those things got to tie there. But the researches
OF the On Ilenger have proved beyond question
or yanisms which live at the surface and not ut
the bottom, and that this deposit, which Ia OF
the same nature as the ancient chalk. differing
In some minor respects, but essentially the
same, Is absolutely formed bv rain OF ekele-
OF the surface; and when they die their skeIe-
tons are rained down IN one continui Al shower.
falling through mile or couple Of miles OF sei
ter. How long they take about 1t imagina
ton fails one IN surprising, but at last
they get to the bottom. and there, piled
up, they form great stratum Of a substance
which, " upheaved, would he exactly like chalk.
But thisis by no means the most wonderful
thing: When they got 60 the depth OF 5000 and
miles, which was tho efeatest depth at witch
the Challenger nshed anything from the bottom,
they found I NJ, willis the surface OF tho
water might he full of those cac ireous organ
isms, the bottom was not. There they found
mystery-bow It comes there what 1t arises
from, whether It Ia the ash OF fOram nifere
whether IL Is decomposed pumice stone vom-
tied out by VOLCANOES. and scat cred over the sur
face, or whether, lastly, II has something to d o
with that Ineteorio dust which IL being con-
tinually riined upon US from the spaces OF the
untperse."
Prof. Sir wyville Thomson said AT depth
OF about four miles we were always able to
drodge and trawl with considsrabie certainty.
Instead Of using a small Balls dredge about Is
inches long, trawl with beam 20 feet across
was ragged across the bottom OF the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans and In this way we covered
consider ,ble amount Of ground, and obtained
far better idea OF the Larger organisms OF those
regions. No doubt we mis- ed a great many OF
the smaller things. Little hard and heavy bod
less, very good idea Of the I ,una OF the bottom
81 the sea. number OF the forms from these
extreme depths were comparatively large and
spiny. and these stuck In the large dredge net.
The depth OF the Atlantic apparently aver
| ages something about two thousand faith oms,
| hundred fatboms. There did not seem to be
any great difference between the Atlantic and
| the Pacific Occans-s general characteristic be.
| ing that the bottom OF each was a tolerably
| level expaDse. with slight fluctuations. In the
| Temperature OF these great depths we took a
mining the Temperature at the bottom we would
| be able to trace the direction In which the
water was moving III any particular way, De-
| cause water Is an extremely bad condu and
| u maintains. for great length OF time. unless
| there IS some special re son for Its mixing with
other water the emperaturs OF Its source. We
| usually at most Of the stations mentioned de
termined correctly the bottom temperature and
tnen that of the various strata from the bottom
up 20 TIE surface, and we were inclined to come
| to the conclusion that the great mass Of the
| water We found In the truughs OF the Unite
| and Pacinc IA derived from the southern
sea. or course the idea was prevalent
that there were no animals at those
| great depths, but the conclusion We have
arrived at now IL, that there are animals at all
| depths, though undouo tedly they decrease In
number as the depth increases. In regard to
what these anims ais are, u large proportion OF
them Is yet iDdescrib able. The collection we
have brought home, nevertheless, NAV be reck-
oncd 10y thousands. The whole region which
We have been ex mining has been hitherto to-
tally unknown. and consequently all the ami
mails we have got over this Immense mum Der Of
square miles are totally unknown also. The
deep-sea fauna we found to be very generally
dinused, so that the animals we found In one
| region are practically yer C9nuch the same, and
though differing certainly IN some respects In
the various loo aitios. still there Ia general re-
| semblanco In the form OF the whole"