The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-12-15
THE OCEANS BED.
A Desert of Ooze and Slime After til
First Mile in Depth.

Desert of Ooze and Slime After the
First Mile in Depth.
Despite the fanciful pictures which
some writer's have drawn of the ocean
bed, its desolation, at least in its deep
est parts, must be extreme, Beyond
the first mile it is a vast desert of slime
and ooze, upon which is constantly
dripping rain of dead carcasses from
the surface, which carcasseS supply
nourishment for the scanty fauna in
habiting the abyssal region-in some
places more than five miles from the
sunshine and the microscope re-
veals that the Shiny matter covering
this deepest ocean bed is similar in
composition to the ancient chalk of
the Cretaceous period, while mixed
with it here and there are minute me-
tallic and magnetic bodies, which have
been proved to be dust from meteorites.
At long intervals a phosphorescentl light
CLEANS from the head Of some passing
fish which has strayed hither from a
higher and happier zone. But it is
not until we have mounted a good deal
nearer the surface that the scene
changes for the better. We now meet
with forests Of brilliantly colored
sponges, while the phosphorescent ami
mails swimming about are much more
numerous; and the nearer we get to the
littoral zone more and more phosphores-
centlightS appear, till atlengththe scene
becomes truly animated. When only
200 feet separate US from the sunshine
we come upon the first seaweed and
kelp Q,200 feet is the deepest limit of
plant life in the water); but we must
rise still another thousand feet and
more, and get as near the top as 12O
corals. As plants do not live in the
deep sea. the deep-sea animals either
prey on one another or get their food
from dead organisms and plants which
sink down to them. Thus Maury says:
'The sea, like the snow-cloud with its
flakes in calm, is always letting fall
upon its bed showers of microscopic
shells" And experiment proves that
tiny shell would take a week to fall
from the surface to the deepest depths.
Since sunlight does not penetrate much
further than the littoral zone there
would be beyond this perpetual dark
ness except for phosphorescence.
Many of the animals inhabiting the
continental and abyssal zones have
merely rudimentary eyes. But these
blind creatures have long feelers, which
help them to grope their way along
the bottom. Other deep-sea animals,
on the contrary, have enormous eyes,
and these likely congregate around
such of their 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 not difficult to
read by it.
The reason why fishes and mollusks
living moro than three miles under
water are able to bear a pressure OF
several tons is, that they have exceed
inply loose tissues, which allow the
water to flow through every interstice
and thus to equalize the weight. When
the pressure is removed they perish.
In the Challenger expedition, sent out
by the British Government, all the
sharks brought up from depth of a
little less than three-quarters of Il mile
we're dead when they got to the surface
49, CornhiH Magazine.