Arizona weekly citizen., 1888-12-15
DEEP SEA DESOLATION.
The Ocean Bed a Desert of Oozs and slin.
 .u-- ,h. F---.r ugt.


 After the First Mile.
 Despite the fanciiul picture which some writers have drsvI Of the ocean bod, it dcsolstion, at least in its deepe parts, must be extreme. Beyond th first mile 1t IS a vsst desert of slime and ooze. upon which is constantly dripping a rain of dead csrcssses from the surfsce which csrcssses supply the rourIshment for the scsDty fsuns inbsbItIng the sbys- 6 region-In some places more than five miles from she suushlne-snd the microscope reveals that the shiny mat ter covering this deepest ocean bed Is very similar in composition 70 the ancient cha of the oretacIous perIod, vhlle mixed with 1t here and ihers a-e minute meta lIo and magnetic bodies, which have been proved Co be dust from metor- ltes. At long inserVsls phosphores- cent light glesms Iron tue head of som DassiDg fish which has strsyed hith. r from 0 higher and happier gone. B1I it Is pot until we ESve mountel good
 teal nearer the surface that the rcert ccsoRes for the better. We nov meet
 sish forests ot bTill'enily colored spon-
 .e%, while tbe phospso.e5csnt Rn.Eats swimming sbous are much more D1m- U, s.sLd as we Eet Ueritr to the lI,- oral znns more nd more phos9hoTes-
 eat hsbis appear, till st lensbt tte ac-na n comes truly Apiml,s3. Hh-n ouiy 20 fec separate us from Ibe eun- q inc, W- c me upon the fi--t 8rswe i. d kr q POO fee; h tke "a. pest l'mu % p,aBt v..'Tl hVt Se must rise stiil ,-o-h-f l,c00 ise' sns more, a5d get B. n TT ihs To ss l20 feet before we fino any retf-buildIng oorals. As plants do uo: live in deep ssa. snimsls either prey ou one another or get their food from deed organism and plants that sink down 10 them. Thus Msury says: "The sea, like the snow-cloud with it's flakes in a calm, is always letting fsll upon it's bed showers of microscopic shells" ." And experiment. proves that tiny shell would take about 6 week to fsll from the surface to the deepest depths. Sirce sunlight does not penetrate much farther | than the littorsl zo1e. and there would be beyond this perpetual darkness except for phosphorescent. Many of the sni- malls inhsbitirg the continental and sbyssal zone have merely rudimentary eyes but these blind creatures have very long feelers, which help them grope their way along the bottcm. Other deep sea animals oD the contrary. have enor- mons eyes, and these very likely coDgre- gate such of their number ss are phos- phorescent, and many perhaps follow | the moving lamp-poets about wherever ttey go, and SO bright is tbis light CD many of the fish brought up by the dredge that during the brief space the animals survive it is Dos didic1li to resd by it.
 The reason why fishes and mollosks living more than three miles under wat CT are able to beal pressure of several tons IS that they have exceedingly loose tissues. which allows the water to How through every Interstic sDd thus to squs- lize the weight. When the pressure is removed they perish. In the Challenger expedition sent out by the Bridish gov ernment all the sharks brought up from. sdeptL of little less than three quar- ters of a mile were dead when got Co the to the surface.-Catholic Magazine.