The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-08-08
DEEP SEA OSCILLATION.
Strange and Startling Sights Seen in tn
Depths of the Ocean.

Depths of the Ocean.
Despite the fanciful pictures which
some writers have drawn of the ocean
bed, its desolation. al least in its deep
est parts, must be extreme Bevotld
the first mile IL IS a vast deser. OF slime
and ooze, upon which is constantly
dripping rain of dead carcasses from
the surface, which carcasses supply
the nourishment for the scanty fauna
inhabiting the abyssal region-in some
places more than FIVE miles from
the sunshine-and the microscope re-
veals that the Shiny matter covering
the deepest ocean bed is very similar
in composition to the ancient chalk of
the cetaceous period, while mixed
with it here and there are minute me-
tallic and magnetic bodies which have
been proved to be dust from meteor
ties. At long distances phosphores-
cent light CLEANS from the head of
some passing fish which has strayed
thither 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 an
finals swimming about are much more
numerous, and the nearer we get to
the littoral zone more and more phos-
phorescent lights appear, till at length
the scene becomes truly animated.
When only 1,200 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 water,
but we must rise still another /, 900 feet
and more, and get as near the top as
$50 feet before we find any reef build
ing corals. As plants do not live in
deep sea the deep sea animals either
prey on one another or get their food
from dead organisms and plants which
sink down to the bottom.
Thus Maury says: The sea, like
the snow cloud with its fakes in a
calm, is always letting fail upon its
bed showers of microscopic shells. :"
An experiment proves that tiny shell
would take about a week to fall from
the surface to the deepest depths.
Since sunlight does not penetrate
much farther than the literal zone
there would be beyond this perpetual
darkness but for phosphorescence.
Many of the animals inhabiting the
continental and abyssal zones have
merely rudimentary eyes; but these
blind creatures have very long feel
ers, which help them to grope their way
along the bottom. Other deep sea an
finals, on the contrary, have enor-
nous eyes, and these very likely con-
gregate around such of their number
as are phosphorescent, and may per-
haps follow the moving lampposts
about wherever they may 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 if
is not difficult to read by it.
The reasons why fishes and mol
lusks living more than three miles un-
der water are able to bear a pressure
of several tons is that they have ex-
ceedingly loose tissues, which allow
the water to flow through every in
terstice and thus to equalize the
weight When the pressure is removed
they perish In the Challenger expe-
dition sent out by the British govern
ment all the sharks brought up from
depth of little less than three-ouar-
tiers of a mile were dead when they
got to the surface of the sea- Catholic
MAGAZINE