The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-03-30
WONDERS OF THE DEEP SEI

UUNIlERS OF TIL DEEP SIT
Agassiz preiaced his lecture with re-
marks concerning the importance OF ex-
petitions sent by English authorities
during the past ten years. He had been
at two examinations of specimens pro-
cured, and had just returned from ex-
aiming the collection brought back to
England by the chall niger. The chal-
lenger was gone over two years, and
travelled over fifty thousand miles. 1t
was the most important expedition ever
sent out.
Twenty years ago we began 70 know
something of the bottom of the sea. Tn
til lately there has been no study Of
animals and plants very far below low
water mark. Three sets of animals and
plants are exposed at the seashore; one
at high water, one st low and one be
tween. We supposed that the forms of
animal and plant life were limited to
four or five fathoms below the surface
The extension of shore animals into deep
As early as 1874 memoir was published,
in which the distributions of sea animals
was treated on, and we have since proved
by investigation the truth of these early
statements. As We ascend high noun
tains, animal life gradually disappears,
because of the diminution of the atmos-
phere. The pressure of the atmosphere
is equal, as Is well known, to a column of
water thirty-two feet high. The pressure
at great depth in the sea must therefore
be enormous, and it. IS most natural to
susppose that animal tissues could not
exist at the bottom of the sea, unless
they were far different in structure from
forms at the surface. A large number of
fishes were known to live at two hun
dred fathoms below the surface. Shark
have been taken at a depth Of five hun
bred fathoms. These facts were passed
unnoticed, and scientific observations
made on them in 1918 awaited con-
firmation until 1860. Based upon the
researches of Forbes, who found very
little life below three hundred fathoms
in the Mediterranean sea, statements
were advanced, that below low-water
mark the life decreased until it disap-
pears at three hundred fathoms. Forbes
was unfortunate in choosing this sea,
because its temperature was the cause Of
the absence of life in its depths
In 1851 n series of memoirs was written
showing that amin fo~ms existed at
great depths, but it was always an
swered that these forms had lived at the
surface, and only sunk when dead. In
1874 the fishermen on the coast IF Nor
way brought up many forms on their
lines, which were described by LOven.
But these descriptions were unnoticed.
In 1864 DIR. Sars published an account
ola large number of forms, including all
classes of the animal kingdom, and en-
tirely different forms from those that
lived along the coast itself. This could
not be overlooked. Sweden and Nor
way led in the researches that followed.
In 1857 the United States coast survey
tooka prominent part in the deep-sea
explorations.
Up to 1867 few animal forms were
brought up, for the instruments used
were very imperfect. In this year the-I
dredgings by the coast survey between
Florida and Cuba were productive of
enough material TO prove that the fauna
was similar to that ofthe coast of Norway.
In 1868 Sir Wyville Thompson and Dr.
Carpenter took the deep sea tempera-
lures, and sketched the reasons for the
geographical distribution of animals in
the sea. As we 90 down, the tempera-
ture falls until we reach a certain depth
beyond which the temperature is uni
form.
Mr.. Agassiz then described a large
number of the devices which are used in
deep sea sounding, dredging and eb-
tanning temperature. Forty-three hun.
ored fathoms is the greatest depth that
has certainly been reached by sounding.
All over the bottom of the ocean We
have body of cold water uniform in ,
temperature-about forty-five dsgrees
centigrade-and this explains the SINH
laritv of the deep-sea faune Dana
showed that the extremes OF cold and
not the extremes of heat determined the ,
distribution of animals, and this law is /
he same for the ocean depths. tits the {
emperature and not the pressure, then,
hat governs the existence Of life at the
'ottom of the sea. Deep sea fauna is
otally unlike any found at the surface.
Animal forms found at the bottom re- I
smble closely the fossil forms Of the /
reataceous period, and this indicates {
hat large areas in the deep-sea have re. '
lained unchanged since this period, and
bat the forms living in them have been /
hanged but little.
Deposits At the sea are entirely dif ,
rent from those near tbe shore, and {
MS shows us that the continents have