The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1884-10-09
The BRITISH sClEMIlSIS-No. a.

In the biology section, at one of
its meetings, Professor Moseley
dealt with the subject Of Life in
the Ocean Depths" He was one of
the scientific party on board II. B.
NJ. =. Challenger. in the famous
dredging expedition round the world.
Many of our residents will remem-
Der the visit of that ship here, which
is enthusiastically mentioned in
Lieutenant Spry's narrative of the
voyage. Speaking of the gases
existing in ocean water. he said that
possibly the immense quantities of
dead and blackcned coral brought
up 10y the Challenger from deep
water off the Azores, showed the
effects of discharge of carbonic
acid gas from submarine volcano.
The smallest amount of oxygen ever
found was in sample of water from
depth of lG,2jO feet, and even
that contained three times the oXy-
gen in which some fish can live.
Far more oxygen was found in
sample from much greater depth,
proving that the water is not stag
nant at those vast depths. Expert
ments by Regnard showed that q
fish without swimming bladder
was killed by beng submitted to
pressure of 800 atmospheres. equal
to depth of $4,000 feet; but the
professor thought the result might
have been different if the fish were
allowed time to accommodate itself
to the greater pressure. Deep sea
Inhabitants derived much of their
food from the remains of animals
sinking slowly down from the sur
face. also from material carried out
from the shore, and deep sea life
seemed to diminish as coasts are
rcceded from. Professor Vcrril had
recently made the suggestion that at
depth of l2,000 to $4,000 feet the
sunlight is about equal to partial
moonlight at the surface. lie eau
Toned his audience against accept
ing implicitly all the published re-
suits of the Challcngcr'S eXplora-
tions. rs some specimens labelled rs
coming from great depths may have
entered the net near the surface.
The conclusion of Professor Nose
ley's address is reported rs follows:
There used to he tendency
among naturalists to deny the exist
encc of animal life on decp-sea bot
toms; now there is IN opposite
tendency to accept animals as be-
longing to great depths when posi-
bly, they only come from the sur
face. With regard to the origin Of
the deep sea animals, there can be
little doubt that they were derived,
along with all land animals. almost
entirely from those on the shore.
From the shore u gradual migration
must have taken place to the deep
sea, when the shore animals were
fully established and were subject
ed to. considerable pressure in the
struggle for existence. 1t is likely
that this migration extended over
long series of generations, moving
downwards from shallow water by
perhaps Il fathom or so in century.
Only in this way, by almost insensi-
bic steps, could these animals sur
vive an entire change of food, light,
temperature and surroundings. As
much of the deep-sea fishes food
comes from the shore, and as that
supply can only have reached its
present abundance when vegetable
and animal life had been developed
on the land Gas in the Carboniferous
period) it is just possible that, if
deep oceans existed at all in Palm-
ozoic times, they may not have been
then colonized at all.