Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1877-03-31
WONDERy OF THE DEEP SEA.

| 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 challenger. 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 TO know
something of the bottom of the sea. I'm
| til lately there has been nc 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 at 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
sea was but little known until lately.
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 we'll known, to 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 knewn to live at two hun
bred fathoms below the surface. Shark
have been taken at depth of five hun
dred fathOms. These facts were passed
unnOticed, and scientific observations
made on them in 1918 awaited con-
d, 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
thu absence of life in its depths.
In 1851 series OF memoirs was written
showing that amin f0: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 OF Nor
way brought up many forms on their
lines, which were described by Loven.
But these descriptions were unnoticcd.
In 1864 DIR. Sars published an account
of a 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
took a prominent part in the deep-sea
explorations.
Upt to 1867 few animal forms were
brought up, for the instruments used
were very imperfect. In this year the
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 60 down, the tempera-
ture falls until we reach a certain depth,
beyond which the temperature is uni
form.
4 Mr.. Agassiz then described large
number of the devices which are used in
deepse sea sounding, dredging and OBJ
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
superintendent forty-five dsgrees
centigrade-and this explains the SINH
: laritv of the deep-sea fauna. Dana
showed that the extremes OF cold and
not the extremes of heat determined the
: distribution of animals, and this law is
r the same for the ocean depths. 1t is the
5 temperature and not the pressure, then,