The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-02-07
Underneath the Ocean.

LiOls Al
lrgr, recently delivered a lecture In
Nva York CITY. telling uf the won
derful c,uutry living beneath the
depths of the sea-, especially that ~
ing beneath the Gulf Stream. he
said he had made 1.500 observations
this summer for the United States
Fish Commissioners. He had cruis-
ell from Labrador TO Chesapeake
Bay and about two hundred miles
10 sea.
Abou; sixty miles outside of Main
tucket is a streak of very cold water,
and amin Ills dredged up are like
those caught in the waters of Green
land, SpiIzbergen, or Siberia. The
water Is fifty fathoms deep, and the
bed of the ocean is of clay. Bowl
ders weighing 500 or 1000 pounds
are dredged up. Prof. VerrIll be-
lieves that they are brought down
by icebergs from the arctic regions
and dropped when the ice melts.
The powders are found as lar south
as Long Island. Further out to Sea,
seventy to one hundred aud twenty
miles south from the southeastern
coast of New England, the bottom
of the sea, which has inclined yer,
gradually eastward, forming a table
land, takes a sudden dip downward,
so that whereas the water on the
edge OF the bluff is one hundred
fathoms deep, at the bottom OF the
basin it is 1000 fathoms deep. The
slope is as high and as steep as Mt.
Washington, and on its summit,
which is level, a diver. could he 60
to so low a depth, could not put out
his hand without touching a living
creature. The bottom of the sea is
covered Just there with a fauna
which has never been before found
outside of the Mediterranean Sea,
the Gulf of Mexico, the Indies, or
other tropical regions. The num-
Der of species of fish dredged up is
eight hundred, and over half of
them have never before been seen
by naturalists. Seventy kinds OF
fish, ninety of crustacea, and two
hundred and seventy mollusks have
been added to our fauna. The age
of many of the specimens shows
that they must be permanentin that
region. The trowel let down from
the ships by a mile of rope brings
up a ton of living and dead crabs,
shrimp, star fish, and as the trowel
simply scrapes owe a SIN all surface,
the ocean bed is plainly carpeted
with creatures.
Sharks are seen by thousand in
this region, aud countless dolphIns,
hut 1t seems strange that not IL fish
bone is ever dredged up. A piece
of wood may he dredged up once "A
year, but it Is hoheycunbe'i 10y the
boring shell fish. This shows what
destruction is constantly going on in
those depths. If a ship sinks at
sea with all on board it would be
eaten up by fish with the exception
of the metal. and that would cor
rode and disappear. Not a bone of
a human body would remain after
a few days. 1t is aconstant display
OF the law of the survival of the
fttest. Nothing made by the hand
of man was dredged up after cruis
ing for months in the track of ocean
vessels excepting coal clinkers SHOW
ed overheard from steam ships.
Here Prof Verrill corrected himself
Twenty-Five miles from land he
dredged up an India rubber doll.
That, be said, was one thing the fish
could not eat.
Here the Gulf Stream is forty
miles further west than any map
shows, Prof. Verrill continued; and
this stream of warm water from the
south nourishes the tropical life near
Massachusetts,. The temperature
further in shore is thirty-ive degrees
in August, on the edge of the sub
marine Mount Washington ffty-two
degrees, and toward the bottom of
the basin thirty-nine degrees, 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
much was said a year ago. were
found in immense quantities, but
this summer, although expeditions
have been made for the express pur-
pose of catching some, not one could
be taken. Undoubtedly they had
been killed, to a fish. by a storm
which carried the cold water into
the Gulf Stream; indeed, it is known
that a cold current of water resting
on the oceans bed may contain arc
tic fish, and a current Of warm wa
ter floating over it on the surface
may be alive with tropical fish.
As to the quantity of light at the
bottom of the sea there has been
much dispute. Animal. dredged
from below seven hundred fathoms
either have no eyes. or faint indica-
tons of them. or else their eyes are
very large and protruding. Crabs
eyes are four or five times as large
as those of q crab from surface wa
ter, which shows that the light is
feeble. and that eyes TO be o. sny use
must be very large aud sensitivs.
Another strange thing is that where
the creatures in those lower depths
have any color, it is of orange or
red, or reddish orange. Sea ane-
mones, corals shrimp and crabs have
this brilliant color. Sometimes it is
pure red or scarlet, and in many
specimens it inclines toward purple.
Not a green or blue fish is found.
The orange red is the 6sh's protec-
ton, for the blueish green light in
the bottom of the ocean makes
the orange or red FISH appear of a
neutral tint, and hides it from enc.
mics. Many animals are black,
others neutral in color. Some fish
are provided with boring tails, 80
that they can burrow in the mud
!, Finally, the surface of the subma
rine mountain is covered with shells
like an ordinary e beach, showing
that it is the eating house Of vas'
schools Of carnivorous animals. A