Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-12-15
Underneath the Ocean.

Eight subjects were discussed in the Ma
ional Academy of Sciences yesterday in
Columbia College recitation room. G. F.
Becker of the United States Coast Survey,
spoke on the cause OF the intense heat in
the Comstock lode. The temperature is
not abnormal until a depth of 100 feet is
reached. At 500 feet it is much higher
than in most other mines, and at 900 feet
the thermometer stands at 1909 Fahren-
helt, so that if q miner steps in a puddle
Il water. it is as though he scalded his
'oot in pail of boiling water, and If a
drop of water falls on his flannel shirt it
ralses blister. The latest of many theo-
ries advanced to account for this intense
heat is that it IS caused by chemical action
IN the kaollzation of feldspar. MIR. Becker
locks by pulverizing small mass and
heating it with steam in boiler for six
weeks in succession. but found no change.
Furthermore. he could End in the Comstock
lode no falspar, and only very small
quantity of kaolin, go he was compelled to
doubt the truth OF the new theory. The
rocks are decomposed in the lower levels
of the lode rather than on the surface, and
90 probably it was the result of volcanic
action. Observations had been carried to
300 feet below the surface, and indca-
tions are that the source Of heat is over
two miles. probably four miles. below the
lowest level. and is to b. compared In ma
ture with the heat at the centre of an
earthquake.
Prof. A. E Verrill of Yale College de-
scribed the physical and geological charac-
ter of the sea bottom off our coast, espec-
tally that which lies beneath the Gulf
Stream. He has made l 500 observations
this summer for the United States Fish
Commissioners. He has cruised from Lab
rador to Chesapeake Bay. and about 200
miles out to sea. About 60 miles outside
of Nantucket is a streak ofsvery cold wa
ter. and animals dredgpd up are like those
caught in the waters of Greenland, Spi'z-
bergen or Siberia The water is so fathoms
deep. and the bed IF the ocean Is of clay.
Boulders weighing 800 or LOO pounds are
dredged up. Prof. Verril believes that
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
~ to 12U miles south from the sontheas-
ein coast of New England, the bottom of
the sea. which has inclined very gradually
eastward, forming a table land. takes a
sudden dip downward, 80 that whereas the
water on the edge of the bluff Is 100 faith
oms deep, at the bottom of the basin it is
600 fathoms deep. The slope is as high
and as steep as Mount Washington, and
on Its summit, which is level, a diver, could
he 90 to such low depth, could not put
out his hand without touching living
creature. The bottom of the sea is cover
ed just there with fauna which has never
been btfore found outside OF the Mediter-
ranean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the Indies,
or other tropical reei ns. The number of
species Of fish dredged up is 800. and over
half of them have never before been seen
by naturalists. Seventy Ii nds of fish, ninety
of crustacoa. and two hundred and seven
mollusks have b. en- added to our fanna.-.
The age Of many of the specimens shows
that they must be permanent in that re-
gion. The trowel let down from the ships
by a mile of rope brings up ton of living
and dead crabs. shrimp. star fish, and as
the trowel simply pes over a small sur
face, the ocean bed is plainly carpeted with
creatures.
Sharks are seen by thousands In this re-
gion, and COUNTLESS dolphins, but it seems
strange that not fish bone is ever dredged
up. A piece Of y God may be dredged mp
once year, but it is honeycombed by the
boring shell fl h, and falls to pieces st the
touch of the hand. This shows what de-
struction is constantly going on in those
d .pths. II a ship sinks at sea with all ON
hoard, it would he eaten up by fish with
the exception of the metal, and that would |
corr de and disappear. Not a bone of a
human body would remain after a few
days. 1t is a constant display of the la "
of the survival of the fttest. Nothing |
made by the band of man was dredged up
after cruising for months in the track OF
ocean vessels excepting coal clinkers
Prof. Verrill corrected himself. Twenty
Eve miles from land he dredged up an In
dia rubber doll. That, he said, was one !
thing the fish could not eat.
Here the Gulf Stream is 40 miles further
west than any map shows. Prof. Verrill
continued; and this stream OF warm
water fror1 the south nourishes the tropi-
cal life near Massachusetts. The temper
allure further in shore is $50 i'll August,
on the eoge of the submarine Mount Wash
ington $50, and toward the bottom of the
basin 800, while further out to sea the
temperature of the water grows 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 mDch was said
year ago, were found in immense qlanti-
ties, but this summer. although expedi-
tions have been made for the express pur-
p Sc of catching some, not one could be
taken. Undoubtedly they had been killed
to fish, by storm which carried the
cold water into the Gulf Stream; indeed,
1t is known that cold current of water ,
resting on the oceans bed may contain
arctic fish, and current If warm water
floating over it on the surface may be alive :
with tropical fish.
As to the quantity of light at the bot
tom of the sea there has been much dis /
pute. Animals DIR dyed from below 700 7
fathoms either have no eyes, or faint indi- q
cations of them, or else their eyes are very
large and protruding. Crabs eyes are four
or five times as large as those of a crab c
from surface water, which shows that !
That light is feeble, and that eyes to be Ut '