San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-08-19
In the Deep Sea.
Edinburgh Review.

EOlNDulHn Review.
Animal life is ultimately dependent
upon the vegetable kingdom, and that
kingdom in return is dependent upon
the light of the sun. Miles below the
ocean surface the sun can not pene-
trate, or at all events, vegetation with
all it's powers OF bottling up the solar
rays, can not there, so far as at
present known, maintain an eX-
istence. The water at very great
depths is in most parts of the
world near the freezing point. Fur
Their, the pressure upon every square
inch of the surface of q body under
three miles of sea water, instead OF
being about Is pounds, as in atmos-
pheric air, is three tons, or in other
words, 5720 pounds. 1t was not, per-
haps, irrational 20 suppose that q
sponge or a delicate fish would be
crushed into nothingness if each
square inch of it's surface were sub
iected to such a weight as score OF
the strongest coal-heavers in the
world would stagger under. 1t
rather humbles ones pride in the
proves of human reason to see how
sometimes it's apparently most cogent
and most readily accepted arguments
suddenly lose all their force when
UNEXPECTEDLY confronted with facts.
The skilled orritholOgist, after
pointing out that the owl in the bar
ber's shop was so badly stuffed that
it could not be taken to represent
either an owl or any other possible
member of the bird creation, might
well be disconnected when the impos-
sibility stepped down from its perch
and proved to be not a stuffed owl,
but live one. Even lawyers and
law-givers, theologians and politl-
cal economists have OCCASION
ally made mistakes, and the vota-
ries OF natural science are also
human. Now, that we know that
animal life can be and is supported
under enormous pressure in the cold,
dark depths, where even help and
sea moss take no foothold, reason is
equal to the task of explaining now
the difficulties of the position may be
encountered. Though plants cannot
grow without sunlight, yet when
their life in the upper region of the
sea is over they may sink, as diatoms
undoubtedly do, through all depths
to the bottom. Even if the deepest
living animals had no access to vege-
tation they might derive the benefit
of it through a chain of consumers,
ending with themselves, but begin
ing with vegetable feeders.
Many of the jewellers in the deep
sea have no eyes, and are, therefore,
comparatively unaffected by the alb
sence of light; for others that have
eyes the gloom is relieved by the lu-
minous organs which they or their
neigh bors possess. The temperature,
we may be assured, Is well suited to
the permanent inhabitants of each
region, So that those surrounded by
water nearly at the freezing point
would not thank US for warming it for
them, any more than the Esqui-
meauX is pleased when rise
in temperature sets everything
adrift in his pavilion of ice.
The pressure, too, however stipend
Gus to our imagination, is evidently
borne without concern by creatures
which are themselves permeated by
fluids of the same density as the sur
rounding medium. Though also to
our taste the chemistry OF sea water
is unpalataOle, we know that most
marine animals can not live without
it, and while terrestrial life is limited
in it's distribution, and often put to
sore straits by the scanity supply OF
fresh water, to the deniZens of the
sea the resources for the quenching
of thirst are always at hand, never
failing, and practically infinite.