The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-11-30
THE OCEANS DEPTHS.
ssme OF tho wonderful Thinss Discovered
at the Botteai of the Atlantic.


oNy ef Sciences in New York Profes-
scr A. i. Verrill, Of Yale college,
described the physical and geological
character Of the sea bottom off ouI
coast, especially that which lies be-
meath the Gulf stream. He has made
l,500 observations this summer for the
United States fish commissioners. He
has cruised from Labrador to Ches-
peake bay and about 200 miles out to
sea. About sixty miles outside of
Nantucket is streak of very cold
water, and animals dredged up are
like those caught in the waters of
Greenland, Spitzbergen U Siberia.
The water is fifty fathoms deep, and
the bed ef the ocean is of clay.
Boulders weighing 800 or 1000 pounds
are dredged up. Professor Yerrill be
lieves they are brought down by Ice.
bergs from the Arctic regions and
dropped when the ice melts. The
boulders are found as far south as Long
Island. Further out to sea, seventy to
l2O miles south from the southeastern
coast of New England, the bottom OF
the sea, which has inclined very grad
ually eastward. forming a tableland,
takes sudden dip downward, SO that
whereas the water on the edge Of the
bluff is 100 fathoms deep, at the bot
tom Of the basin it is 1000 fathoms
deep. The slope is as high and as
steep as Mount Washington, and
on its summit, which is level,
diver, could he go to so low a depth,
could not put out his hand without
touching a living creature. The hot
tom of the sea is covered just there
with a fauna which has never been
before found outside of the NIediter
ranean sea. the Gulf of Mexico, the
Indies, or other tropical regions. The
number of species of fish dredged up is
800, and over half Of them have never
before been seen by naturalists. Sev-
enty kinds of fish, ninety of crustacea,
and 27O mollusks have been added to
our fauna. The age Of many of the
specimens shows that they must be
permanent in that region. The trowel
let down from the ships by mile of
rope brings up II ton of living and
dead crabs, schrimp, star fish, and
as the trowel simply scrapes over a
small surface, the ocean bed is plainly
carpeted with creatures.
Sharks are seen by thousands in this
region, and countless dolphins, but it
seems strange that not fish bone is
ever dredged up. A piece of wood
may be dredged up once year. but it
is honeycombed by the boring shell fish
and falls to pieces at the touch of the
| hand. This shows what destruction is
constantly going on in those depths.
| If ship sinks at sea with all on board.
it would be eaten up by fish with the
exception of the metal, and that would
corrode and disappear. Not bone OF
human body would remain after Il
few days. 1t is aconstant display of the
law Of the survival of the fittest
was dredged up after cruising foI
months in the track of ocean vessel>
excepting coal clinlers showed over.
board from steamships. Here Profes.
sor Vcrrill corrected himself. Twenty.
five miles from land he dredged up an
india rubber doll. That, he said, wa,
one thing the fish could not cat
Here the Gulf stream is forty miles
further west than any map shows
Professor Verrill continued /; and this
stream Of arm water from the south
nourishes the tropica1 life near Nassa-
chusctts. The temperature further il
shore is thirty-five degrees in August
on the edge Of the submarine Mount
Washington ffty-twO degrees, an'
toward the bottom of the basin thirty
nine degrees, while further out to Sc;
the temperature of the water grow
colder. On the surface the jelly fish
nautilus and the Portuguese man-of
war, with other tropical fish, are found
In this belt the tile fish, about which
so much was said a year ago, wcrt
found in immense quantities, but thi
summer, although expeditions havt
been made for the express purpose 0
catching some not one could be taken
Undoubtedly they had been killed, to
fish, by storm which carried the colc
water into the Gulf stream; indeed, it i
known that u cold current of waite
resting on the oceans bed may contain
Arctic fish, and a current of warn
water floating over it on the surfac
may be alive with tropical fish.
As to the quantity Of light at tn,
bottom of the sea there has been mucI
dispute. Animals dredged from belov
| ROTATIONS either have no eyes, or fain
indications Of them, or else their eyes ar
very large and protruding. Crabs eye
are four OF five times as large as those o
a crab from surface water, whicl
shows that that light is feeble, an,
that eyes to be Of any use must b
very large and sensitive. Anothe
strange thing is that where the crea
lures in those lower depths have an
color, it is of orange or red, or reddisl
orange. Sea anemones, corals, shrim]
and crabs have this brilliant colol
Sometimes it is pure red or scarlet, an,
in many specimens it inclines towar
purple. Not green or blue fish
found. The orange red is the FISH
protection, for the blush green ligh
in the bottom of the ocean makes tn
orange or red fish appear of neutra
tint and hides it from enemies. Man
animals are black, others neutral i
color. Some fishes are provided wit
boring tails, SO that they can burrow i
the mud. Finally, the surface of til
submarine mountain is covered wit
shells, IKE an ordinary sea beach, show
ing that it is the eating-house of va.
schools Of carnivorous animals.
Goldfish takes a whole oyster into il