Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-09-06

piercing the aqueous gloom from ABOVE.
Even were there light you could hardly
make an observation, inasmuch as the pressure
Of the superintendent weight of water is at
least three tons to the square inch and would
srush your body like an egg shell into shape
less mass.
But suppose, just for fun. that you we're able
10 descend five miles to the ocean bottom at its
greatest depth and survey your surroundings
with the aid of some brilliant artificial light
To begin with. you gaze with curiosity upon
the ground beneath your feet. You find that
it is composed Of a grayish mixture of minute
shells and mud. The shells are those of little
animals called rhizopods which live near the
surface, and, dying. sink to the bottom. thus
paving with their small tenements of lime the
ocean floor. Everywhere this floor is found
composed of the same shelly material. stretch
ing for mile after mile in every direction
whichever way you walk. The surface pre-
cents the same sort Of irregularities that mark
DRY land Here will be hills. there valleys. and
plain, like a western prairie. But the likeness
to terrestrial landscape ends with the geo
graphical contour.
AN INTERMINABLE DESERT.
What most impresses you about this strange
scene is its frightful desolation. II is q desert
of interminable extent where nothing grows
Not blade sprout of any sort Of vegeta-
ton is to be discovered. for the simple reason
that there is no sunlight to support vegetable
life. Over the endless expanse of plain, hill
and valley your eye wanders fruitlessly in
search OF tree, shrub or even seaweed. There
Is nothing save the grayish shelly ooze.
Most dreadful of all is the silence of the
depths. absolute and unbroken by sound of
any sort. There Is not even the sound of the
sea. With five miles of ink-black ocean above
you there is not even the murmur of a wavelet
to cheer your awful solitude.
And yet you are not alone. The great fishes
that haunt the lowest abysses of ocean fero-
eious and predatory beyond all other fishes be-
cause thew are obliged to depend wholly upon
each other for food in the absence of vegeta-
ton, come fearlessly to gaze at you with the
enormous goggfng eyes characteristic OF the
fishes of the depths. They have never seen
man and are not afraid OF you. You are rather
in luck if some Of them do not attempt to eat
you up For instance, here comes a fish re-
Gently made known to science as the black
swallower." In the initial picture to this article
you will see a specimen represented 1t il fire.
quently accustomed to devour fishes ten and
even twelve times as big as itself, literally
climbing over its victim. first with one Jaw and
then with the other. Very often this extraordi-
nary glutton of the deep dies of indigestion in
consequence OF such q meal. Now and then
there looms up before your affrighted vision
the form Of some vast monster with which hu-
man knowledge has no acquaintance because
its habitat IL In the inky floods far down out OF
OOcerFdIlOUb redcu anu IL was 100 big to be
caught and drawn to the surface by the dredges
OF H.M-S. Challenger. For all any one can tell
the ichthyosau-us and other gigantic creatures
antediluvlan may haunt these fathomlsss realms
Of ocean
BLACK AND UNcANSY.
One unpleasant thing about the fish 10 that
they are all black. Every one of them is of
the same inky hue, with fierce jaws and enor-
nous eyes that stare at you greedilv Some
are eel-like-for instance. q kind of shark that
you would imagine was a big eel which exists
only III these depths. There are plenty of
actual eels, too. In fact, the water is aswarm
with lie SO constituted as to be able to with
stand the extraordinary conditions. In order
that they shall be able to live comfortably I'M
der pressure of three tons per square inch
these tish are made with skeletons 90 soft and
deficient in lime that you can thrust
and needle ssa . sss through rough the bones sas
Is composed is loose and pulpy. Under
the pressure to which they are ordinarily sub
jected they are as firm and compact Of body
as any surface fishes. But when taken out Of
the water with deep sea dredge or otherwise
being suddenly relieved of the pressure, thee
are very apt to literally burst and fy all to
pieces before they can be examined. The fish
ermen of Madeira catch a fish called the
''cherne' that swims ]. 200 feet below the sur
face OF the sea. When one is caught and
pulled into the boat its eyes stick out Of its
head like lobsters and IT is almost dead, if
not quite.
METHODS OF ILLUMINATION.
One Of the most interesting things you take
notice Of in walking about the oceans floor is
the method Of artificial lighting employed by
very many of the fishes. You see whole torch
light professions go by, each fish actually car
rylng torch OF its own. which serves the
double purpose OF lighting its path and at
tracing Its prey. The new invention of lumin-
Gus bait was an idea applied by the so-calIed
angler fishes of the deep sea ages ago.