The Portland daily press., 1883-02-08
Under the Ocean.
An Eminence Like Mount Washington
Submerged Off Our Coast.
New York SUM-

Eight subjects were discussed in the ma
tional academy of sciences yesterday in
Columbia college recitation room. Prof A.
e. Verrill of Yale college described the
physical and geological character of the sea
bottom off our coast, especially that which
lies beneath the gulf stream. He has made
$500 observations this summer for the
United States fish commissioners, He has
cruised from Labrador to Chesapeake bay
and about 200 miles out to sea. About go
miles outside of Nantucket is streak of
very cold water, and animals dredged up are
like those CAUGHT in the waters of Green
land, Spitzbergen, or Siberia. The water is
fifty fathoms deep, and the bed of the ocean
is of clay. Boulders weighing 800 or 1000
pounds are dredged up. Prof. verrill be-
lieves that they are brought down by ice
bergs from the arctic regions and dropped
when the ice melts. The Bouders are found
as far south as Long Island. Further out
to sea, 10 to 120 miles south from the south
eastern coast of New England, the bottom
of the sea, which has inclined very gradual
ly eastward, forming table land, takes a
sudden dip downward, so that whereas the
water on the edge of the bluff is 100 fathoms
deep, at the bottom of the basin it is 1000
fathoms deep. The slope is as high and as
steep as Mount Washington, and on its sum-
NIT, which is level, diver. could he 90 TO
so low depth, could not put out his hand
without touching a living creature. The
bottom of the sea is covered just there with
fauna which has never been before found
outside of the Mediterranean sea. the gulf
of Mexico, the indies and other tropical re-
gions. The number of species of fish
dredged up is 800, and over half of them
have never before been seen by naturalists.
Seventy kinds of fish. 90 of crustacea and 30
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 hy
mile of rope brings up a ton of living and
dead crabs, shrimp, star fish, and as the
trowel simply scrapes over small surface.
{ the ocean bed is plainly carpeted with creal-
lures.
Sharks are seen by thousands in this re-
gion, a countless dolphins, but it seems
strange that not a fish bone is ever dredged
up. A piece of wood may be dredged up
once a year, butt is honeycombed by the
boring she'll fish, and falls to pieces at the
touch of the hand. This shows what de-
struction is constantly going on in these
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 bone of human
body would remain after few days. 1t is
constant display of the law of the survival
of the fittest. Nothing made bv the hand
OF man was dredged up after cruising for
months in the track of ocean vessels except
ing coal clinkers showed overheard from
steamships. Here Prof. Verrill corrected
himself twenty-five miles from land he
dredged up an India 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. VerIill con-
tinued; and this stream of warm water from
the south nourishes the tropical life near
Massachusetts. The temperature further in
shore is 80 Q in August, on the edge
Of the submarine Mount Washington
81 2, and toward the bottom of the basin
80 ?, while further out to sea the water
grows colder. On the surface The ielly 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 year ago, were found in immense
quantities, but this summer, although expe-
ditions have been made for the express mr..
pose of catching some, not one could be TAX
en-. Undoubtedly they had been killed to
Hsu, NY STORM Wnlcn carried the cold wat
er into the gulf stream; indeed it is known
that cold current of water resting on the
oceans bed may contain arctic fish, and a
current of warm water 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. An
imals dredged from below 700 fathoms either
have no eyes, or faint indications of them.
or else their eyes are very large and protrud-
ing. Crabs eyes are four or five times as
large as those of the crab from surface water
which shows that the light is feeble, and
that eyes to be of any use must be large and
sensitive. Another strange thing is that
where the creatures in those lower depths
have any color. it is of orange or red. or r. d.
dish orange. Sea anemones, corals, shrimp
and crabs have this brilliant color. Some
times it is Dure red or scarlet, and in manv
specimens it incines towards purple Not
green or blue fish is found The orange
red is the fishes protection, for the BLUSH
green light in the bottom of the ocean makes
the orange or red fish appear of neutral
tint and hides it from enemies, MANY ami
mails are black, others neutral in colors.
Som fisl are provided with boring tails so
that they can burrow in the mud Finally
the surface OF the submarine mountain is
crowded with shells, like an ordinary sea
beach, showing that it is the eating house
OF vast schools of carniverous animals. A
Goldfish takes whole oyster into its mouth.
cracks the shells, digests the meat and spits
cut the-rest. Crabs crack the shells and
suck out the meat. In this way come whole
mounds OF shells that are dredged up.