Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1888-11-17
DEEP SEA DEsoLATIoN.
The Ocean Bed a Desert of ooze and
Slime.

Despite the fanciful pictures which
some writers have drawn of the
ocean bed, lis desolation, at least in
its deepest parts, must be extreme.
Beyond the first mile it is a vast DIES.
ert of slime and ooze, upon which is
constantly dripping rain of carcasses
from the surface, which carcasses sup
ply the nourishment for the scanty
fauna inhabiting the abyssal region
in some places more than five miles
from sunshine-and the microscope
reveals that the Shiny matter cover
ing this deepest ocean bed is very
similar in composition to the ancient
chalk of the cretaceous period, while
mixed with it here and there are
minute metallic and magnetic bodies,
which have been proved to be dust
from meteorites. AT long intervals a
phosphorescent light CLEANS from the
head of some passing fish which has
strayed hither from a higher and hap
pier zone. But it is not until we
have mounted good deal nearer the
surface that the scene changes for the
better. We now meet with forests of
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brilliantly colored sponges, while the
phosphOrescent animals swimming
about are much more numerous; and
the nearer we get to the littoral zone
more and more phosphorescent lights
appear, till at length the scene be-
comes truly animated.
When only 1900 feet separated us
from the sunshine, we came upon the
first seaweed and kelp (1,200 feet is
the deepest limit of plant life in wa
terri but we must rise still another
1000 feet and more, and get as near
the top as 100 feet before we
find any reef-building corals. AS
plants do not live in deep sea, the
deep-sea animals either prey on one
another or get their food from dead
organism and plants which sink to
them. Thus Maury says: "The sea,
like the snow cloud with its flakes in
a calm, is always letting fall upon its
bed showers of microscopic Shells" An
experiment proves that tiny shell
would take about a week to fall from
the surface to the deepest depths.
Since sunlight does not penetrate
much farther than the littoral zone,
there would be beyond this perpetual
darkness except for phosphorescence.
Many of the animals inhabiting the
continental and abyssal zones have
merely rudimentary eyes; but these
blind creatures have very long feelers,
which help them to grope their way
along the bottom. Other deep-sea
animals, ON the contrary, have enor-
nous eyes, and these very likely con.
gregate around such of their number
as are phosphorescent, and may per-
haps follow the moving lamp-posts
about wherever they go. And SC
bright is this light on many of the
fish brought up by the dredge that
during the brief space the animals
survive it is not difficult to read by it
, The reason why fishes and mol.
lusks living more than three miles
under water are able to bear a pres
sure of several tons is that they have
exceedingly loose tissues, which al
low the water to flow through every
interstice and thus to equalize the
, weight. When the pressure is re,
, moved they perish. In the Challen'
ger expedition sent out by the British
government, all the sharks brought
up from depth of little less than
three-quarters of a mile were dead
when they got to the surface.