Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1878-06-01
THE OCEAN's MYSTERIES.


to,age al gteP.aca ENrIorn-io ion
AmonS she ButGerhisS Deep.sea Lite.
Sir C. Wvyiile Thompson has lust
published an sccount OF the cruise OF the
Shin Challenger. O. England, Captain
Mares, sent out from Portsmouth IN
December. 1872, for q series OF deCp,sea
explors.ious. The course OF the vessel
was successfully to Gibraltar, Canary
islands, the West Indies, the Bermudas,
Halifax, the B=rmudas again, the Azores,
Caps Verde, Bsnis and The Cape OF Good
Hope. From this point the vessel passed
into the Indiin and Pacific oceans.
After her temperance in the Atlantic
ocean through the Straits OF Magellan,
the Challenger visited the Falkland
islands, Mon;evideo. Ascension, and so
back to England. She arrived At Ports
mouth, completing the cruise, after an
absence OF three snd q halt years on
May .. 1876. From the narrative o
Professor Thompson, the director OF the
civilian scientific staff, we quote these
interesting extracts:
The absence Of eyes 10 many deep sea
animals. and their full development in
Others, is very remarkable. In deep
water, say 10 to $40 fathoms, e~ye-stalks
afe present, but the animal is apparently
blind. the eyes being replaced by rounded
~calcsre0us examinations to 8 eye-sta.Es.
In examples taken from SEQ to 700
tathoms, in other localities the eye.s.alks
have lost their special character, hare
become fixed, and the examinations
combine into q strong pointed IostruIp.
In this case vi have 50 gradua, mCdlii-
cation, depending apparently upon 8
gradual diminut!5n and final disappear
aace OF solar light. on the other Hand
some animals from equal depths have
their ewes unusually developed and
apparently Of great dslicacy. 1t Is
possible that in certain cases, as the
sun's Ugh. diminishes, the power Of
vision becomes more acute, until st
length the eve becomes susceptible Of
the stimulus of the fainter light OF phos-
ph0re-csEcs.
In ths course Of the Challenger from
the Canary Islands 70 the West Indies,
i. wss found that the depth went on in
crez,irg 70 q distance Of ], $50 miles from
TsaerlHt-. reaching, finally 3,I55 tathoms,
or about three and q half miles. There
the clay !. pure and smooth, with scarce.
II q trace OF lime From this great
depth the bottom gradually rises, and
with decreasing depth the gray color and
the ca'csre0us composition OF the o0za
return. Passing from the middle plateau
of the atlantic to the western trou!h,
with depth. a little over 900 fathoms,
the red clay return. in sli its purity,
The genera! concurrence o msny ob.erva-
tons would 60 far to prove, what seems
now, indeed, 10 stand in the position Of
an unsscertained fact, that wherever the
depth increased from about 1900 to
300 fsthoms, the modern chalk forma,
ton of the Atlantic passes into q clay.
OF the Brazilian coast the ship en-.
ceuntcred an immense swarm of butter,
flies, which futtered over the sea Is lar
as the eye could reach, ~quivering in the
air like withered leaves. such showers
OF these Insects are not uncommon in
this locality. Sometimes the country is
absolutely devastated by the caterpillar.
The moths or butterflies, when caught
by the land bree IL, are waited out to sea,
where myriads are drowned. a remnant,
perhaps, floating back again by the usual
shifting Of the wind in the evening.
The most prominent and remarkable
biographical result Of the recent inyesti.
CATION, is the final Establishment Of the
fact that the distribution OF living beings
mas no depth limit; but that ami.
mails of all the marine iuyertebrate
glasses, and probably fishes also, exist
over the whole floor Of the ocean, and
some of the most interesting of the prob.
lens which are now before us have ref
erence to the nature and distribution Of
the deep sea fauna and to its relations
with the fauna Of a shallOwer water;
and with the fauna OF past periods in the
earth's history. The fauna at great
depths was found to be remarkably uni.
form, Species of many familiar genera,
and nearly allied to those found in shallow
water, were taken in the deepest hsuls,
80 that it would seem that the enormous
pressure, the utter darkness, and the
difference in the chemical and physical
conditions Of the water and in the pro-
portions of the contained gases, depend.
ing upon such extreme conditions, do not
influence animal life to any great extent,