Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-10-30
Mice UaseT Tatsf.
a HALE MoUa's STROLL ON THE
.ana ps IssE oCEAE.
.[From the Washington STAR

I.W lrtom tle NHSntpStOu SlaF.l {S@E
What is IL like at the bottom OF
the s%ea--in the unfathomed depths,
that is to say, five miles below the
surface of the ocean?
If you mean to ask what is the
aspect of things on the ocean floor,
so far down, it is only possible to
reply that there is none. The dark
ness of that watery abyss is as the
blacklist of ink, no ray of sunlight,
even whom the day is at it's brightest,
piercing the aqueous gloom from
above.
Even if there were a light you
could hardly make an observation,
inasmuch as tho pressure Of tho
superintendent weight of water is
at least threc tons to the square inch,
and would crush your body like an
egg shell into a shapelcss mass.
But suppose, just for fun, that you
were able to descend five miles to
the ocean bottom at its greatest
depth, and survey your surroundings
with the aid of some brilliant artifi-
cial light. i.
TO begin with, you gaze with curl
osity upon the ground beneath your
feot. 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 mate
rial, stretching for mile after mile In
every direction whichever way you
walk. The surface presents the
same sort of irregularities that mark
the dry land. Here will DO hills,
there valleys, and perhaps you will
come across a great level plain, like
a Western prairie. But the likeness
to terrestrial landscape ends with the
geographical contour.
AN INTERMlNABLE DESERT.
What most imprcsscs you about
this strange scene is its frightful
desolatinn!- It il q 2 desert. of inter
minable extent, where nothing grows.
Not a blade or sprout of any sort Of
vegetation is to DO discovered, for
the simple reason that there is no
sunlight to support vegetable life.
Over the endless oxpanse of plain,
hill and valley your eye wanders
fruitlessly in search of tree, shrub or
even scawcod. There is nothing save
the grayish shelly ooze.
Most dreadful of all is the silence
of the depths, absolute and unbro-
ken by sounds Of any sort. There is
not even the sound of the sea.
Within five miles of ink-black ocean
above you there is not even the muir
muir Of a wavelet to cheer your awful
solitude.
And yet you are not alone. The
great fishes that haunt the lowest
abysscs of the ocean, fcrocious and
predatory beyond all other fishes
because they are obliged to depend
wholly upon each other for food in
the absence of vegetation, come
fearlessly to gaze at you with enor-
nous goggling eyes characteristic of
Che fishes of the depths. They have
never seen mar 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 q fish
re- emily made known to science as
the "black swallowcr." 1t is fire.
quently accustomed to dcvour fishes
ten and even twelve times rs big as
itself, literally climbing over its VIC
tim, first with II jaw and then the
other. Very often this extraordinary
glutton of the deep dies Of indigcs-
ton in. consequence Of such a meal.
Now and then there looms up before
your affrightcd vision the form of
some vast monster with which human
knowledge has no acquaintance be-
cause its habitat is in the inky floods
far down out of observations reach
and it was too big to be caught and
drawn to the surface by the dredges
of ii. M. S. Challenger. For all any
one can tell the ichthyosaurus and
other gigantic creatures antediluvian
may haunt these fathomless realms
of the ocean.
BLACK N UNCANNY.
One unpleasant thing about the
fish is that they arc all black. Every
one OF them is of the same inky hue,
with fierce jaws and enormous eyes
that stare at you grccdily. Some
are e~el-iikc-for instance, q kind Of