The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1891-05-16
pIDOCEAN'SDOWN BED.
AWAY DOWN, FIVE MILES BE-
IA MEATH THEWAvES.
Almost as Level Ms n House Floor. Except
for tho Small Volcanic Mole Hills
from Three to Five Miles
High, or So.

Only fcw years ago the bottoms OF
the great seas of tho world were un-
known and unexplored. and the abys-
SEES beneath their water remained I'M
fathomed. Such sounding as wero at
tempted were made with ropes and
crude apparatus and away from the
shadows, mo bottom was the record
upon the charts. 1t remained for the
ingenuity Of this generation Of man.
kind to map out the deeps, with their
mountains, valleys, and even streams.
The mighty caves OF the ocean have
been to some extent surveyed, and the
very creatures that dwell in them have
become newly familiar to science.
II the ocean water should be affected
by miraculously low tide, so as to
sink by as much as the height of the
Washington monument an astonish-
ing alteration would be made in the
shape OF the North American CONT
nent, the limo OF the Atlantic's breakers
receding so far that New York city
would find itself more than 100 miles
from the sea. as would Boston likewise,
and Savannah, Ga. 1t would be dis
covered that the present shore OF the
| Atlantic is not the edge OF the CONT
nent ut all, but that this edge is away
out to tho eastward, SO that If it form
ed the coast this country would be
enough bigger to make room for four
br five new states. On the Pacific side
1T is quite otherwise. There the con-
tinent's edge is marked pretty closely
by the shore line, and SO abrupt and
precipitous is it that enormous depths
are found close to land along the coast,
great submarine valleys lying along
the very margin Of terra firma.
|, In starting to. take walk over the
floor of the ocean perhaps it would be
as much fun as any other plan to set
out from San Francisco for a view OF
the Pacific's bed. For the first twenty
nine miles of the journey westward
you will proceed over level plateau
formed OF detritus, which the river
water has cast out through the Golden
Gate for q thousand centuries. The
depth of the sea for that distance is
only about 200 feet but ut the end of
it the bottom drops suddenly to two
and a half miles. TO get to the foot
OF this tremendous hill is likely to be
difficult inasmuch as you must climb
from greater relative altitude and by
u much sleeper incline than that by
which the traveller passes from the
summit of the Sierra Nevada range
to the valley Of California below at
Sacramento. AS you go down you will
experience cold that becomes steadily
more intense, and the pressure of water
from above, which makes the cold,
grasps you with such q mighty grip
4 that you would be crushed to Jelly in
its fluid embrace were you not protect
cd by an armor of intense resisting
power. Without such an equipment,
as well as a store OF air and power
full light there Is no use in your
attempting to explore the oceans
abysses.
At the foot OF the great declivity you
will find a seemingly interminable
plain, like prairie. 1t is the begin
ming OF the floor of the Pacific, which
is for the most part so wonderfully
level that you could drive over it with
the utmost comfort in a light carriage,
4 NOhO tiiO "otCi thhCu away. AS
you proceed westward, though the
slope is so smooth and gradual that
you do not notice It, the bottom de-
sends at slight incline until, at 500
miles from the land, the surface of the
ocean is three miles and q quarter
above your head. This is the normal
depth of the vast Pacific plateau.
You travel over it for another 500
miles, when you come upon a gigantic
mountain which towers up from the
ocean floor to the height of nearly
three miles. Its existence has only
been ascertained by soundings, because
half a mile OF sea-water flows over it.
Beyond the mountain is the plain
again. 1t is dead level of shelly
ooze, such as covers pretty much all
the oceans floor. The mixture, some
times greenish and sometimes brown
ish, is partly detritus washed by rivers
from the land, and partly shells of al
most microscopic animals called
'feraminifora, which fall upon the
bottom in gentle and continuous
rain. All the chalk-bcds in the world
are formed of such shells, and the very
stones of which the pyramids of Egypt
are built are composed almost wholly
of them. There is certain monotony
about the aspect of things in these
enormous depths. Ono may well be
oppressed, too, by the absolute
silence which reigns. Frightful storms
may be raging. on the surface, but
here, three miles and a half beneath,
all is as still as death and not even the
murmur OF wavelet reaches the ear.
Everywhere, II you close your lantern,
is the darkness OF absolute black-a
liquid darkness that makes itself felt
by pressure Of two tons to the square
inch. Tho water is so cold as to be
very little above freezing point On
every side spreads a desert Of intcr-
nina lie extent, frightful in its desola-
ton, with not blade or sprout OF any
sort-nothing, in fact but the shelly
ooze into which your foot sinks some
what as you tread. Perchance there
are a few sea lilies in your path. but
you know that they are animals and
not OF tho vegetable nature which
they fcebly counterfeit.