Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1886-01-14
Origin of Gulf Stream Life.

Origin OF Gulf Stream Life.
In speaking some time ago of the
almost incredible profusion of animal
fe in the surface waters of the Gulf
Stream; the suggestion was made that
biological question of no small in
terest and Importance was forced upon
us by the facts there presented. The
question is this: Where shall we look
to find an origin for the bioplasm there
displayed? From the lowest to the
highest, from the infusoria to the fishes
and the cetaceans, they are preying
upon one another. We see how the
blackfsh and the dolphin live. They
are but appropriating the flesh of
fishes, sluids, ETC., already existing as
perfectly formed animal food, and di-
gesting it for their own ntitriment.
This is plain, and in accordance with
common experience, but as we go on
down in the scale we must presently be
brought to pause.
Animal bioplasm, according to all
the recognized laws of modern physi-
ology, can not be produced from inor-
ganic materials. No one principle has
seemed to be more thoroughly estab-
lished than this-that it is the peculiar
function of the vegetable kingdom to
absorb the proper inorganic materials,
say carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hy-
drogen, and transform them by its
wonderful life giving power into or
ganic substances, into bioplasm first
and then into the various tissues re-
quired. 1t has been held that the food,
properly speaking, of all forms of ami
NAL life must have had these inorganic
materials transformed into organic sub
stances before ingestion, otherwise
there was no possibi ity of its assimila-
tion; that carbon, oxygen, and hydro
gen were all of them foreign bodies to
us, and when introduced into our sys-
tenn, perhaps mechanically with our
food, must rema'n n of no service to US,
and could never be by or powers of
digestion transformed into hydro
carbon, like sugar, for instance, or
starch, or fat.
This has been, and is, the accepted
theory and belief, and yet if we adopt
it and follow it out to its legitimate
conclusions, we shall find the facts
which were previously stated as to the
teeming life of the Gulf Stream exceed
ingly difficult of explanation. The vast
proportion of that life must originate
in the region where it lives and dies
Some favored wanderers come in from
out tide, for the cetaceans, the sharks,
the albicore, barracuda, dolphin, ETC.,
travel fast and far, but they are of
small Importance in the aggregate.
There must be of necessity very large
amount of new bioplasm in constant
and daily orignation from inorganic
materials. The question is, Whence
does it come?
1t is the unanimous testimony of the
observers on the staff of the Fish Com
mission, from whom the facts as to the
abundance of the surface life are de-
rived, that the water of the Gulf Stream
is remarkably clear and transparent;
that the manifestations of vegetable
life in it are very small indeed. There
are masses of gulf weed floating here
and there, but not in any great quantity,
nor is there reason to believe that the
gulf weed is used for food, except very
slightly, by the animals around it.
Many of the hydroid polyps are at.
tached to it, and drift with it, but they
use it only as n moving houses boat OIL
raft, so to speak, while they industrious.
| ly collect their food from the water
around them. Some of the small fishes,
especially the curious, grotesque-look
ing Chironectes, make the same use oi
the gulf weed tangles as do the polyps,
but they never touch it as food. 1t is
quite sure that the Sargassum furnishe;
small amount of material for new bio
plasm. Nor does there seem evidence
that any of the alge are sufficiently
abundant to afford any relief from the
perplexity. Even the minute, micro
scopic diatomacee which swarm so In.
finitely in many parts of our shallow
waters are apparently in small mum
bers in the Gulf Stream, and we have
therefore, no profusion of vegetable
life which in the slightest degree cor
responds to that of animal life.
The only explanation that seems
available is this-tbat some, or perhap:
all, of the lower forms of animal life
have really the power which has hith
erto been reckoned the peculiar prerog
ative of vegetable organisms, that O.
Transforming inorganic matter into or
ganic. IL we assume this, the mystery
of the swarming myriads is at once re
moved. Nor is the assumption one tha
need startle us, for we well understand
that along the border line, on either
hand, the functions VIII ch are showi
in the higher grades to be clearly ami
NAL or vegetable are so slightly special
lied or differentiated as to have mucl
less significance than in the more com
plicated types.