The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1888-12-01
pEEr SEA pksoLArroN.
The Ocean Bed . Desert 81 Slime
After the First Mile I'm Depth.


Catholic Magazine
Despite the fancifui pictures which
some writers have drawn Of the ocean
bed. It's desoIarion. AT least in the deep
est parts. must be extreme Beyond
the first mile IL is a vast desert OF
slime and ooze, which IS constantly
dripping a rain OF dead czrcasses from
the surface. which c4rcasses supply
the noarishnent for the scanty fauna
inhabiting the abysmal region-in
some placs< more THAI five miles from
TIE sunshine-aIsd the microscope re-
yezls that the shiny matter covering
the deepest ocean bed is very similar
in composition 10 the ancient
chalk OF the eretaceous period,
while mixed with ii here and
there are minute metallic and magnetic
bodies. which have been proved 70 be
dust froiA meteorites. At long inter
walls a phosphoreSeent light CLEANS
from the head Of some passing fish
which has ssraved hither from higher
and happier zone. But II i not until
we have mounted good deal nearer
the surface that the scene changes for
the better. We nov meet with forests
Of 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 becomes
truly animated. When only 100 feet
separate Us from the sunshine we come
upon the first sea-weed and keip
tf200feet j. the deepest limits OF plant
life in waterb; but We must rise stun
another 100 feet and more. and get
up a. near the top as I'D 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
do<n to them. Thus Maury says:
The sea, ike the Snow cloud with
its flakes IN calm, is always letting
fall upon it, bed showers of micro
scDpic Shells And experiment
proves that a tiny shell would take
about week 10 fall from the surface
to the deepest depths. Since sunlight
does not penetrate much further than
the littoral zone, there would be be-
yond this perpetual darkness, except
for phosphorescence- Many OF the
animals inhabiting the continental
and abysmal zones have merely rudl-
mentaTy eyes DGt THESE Diind Great
ures have very long feelers, which
help them to grope their way along the
bottom. Other deep-sea animals on
the contrary. have enormous eyes, and
these very likely eongregate around
such oftheir number as are phosphor-
escent, and may perhaps follow the
moving lamp-posts about wherever
they go. And so bright is this light
on many of the fish brought up by
the dredge that during the brief space
the animals survive it is no: difficult
TO read by it.
The reason why fishes and mollusks
living more than three miles under
water are able to bear pressure OF
several tons is that that they have ex-
eeedingly loose tissues, which allow
the water to flow through every in
terstice and thus to equalize the
weight. When the pressure is re-
moved they perish. In the Chai-
lenger expedition sent out by the
British government, all the sharks
brought up from depth of a little
less than three-quarters of a mile were
dead when they got to the surface.