The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-03-17

upper strata of the sea or on the shore
shadows, have migrated slowly down
ward, generation after generation, as
population above them pressed them
hard, and have adapted themselves
meanwhile to their altered conditions.
How far down in the sea life can be
supported we don't yet know with GER
tainty, but it is settled that, in spite of
Schopenhauer and Mr.. Mallock, some
species find life worth living at depth
Of over three miles from the surface.
If it were only the darkness they had
to endure, that would be bad enough;
but what must prove far trying
to a sensitive nature is the extraOrdi-
nary pressure of the superintendent
mass Of waters. Those persons who
have gone down into the great deep in
a diving bell, must surely have noticed
how very unpleasant this sense of COM
preston becomes, often to the eX-
tent of making blood spirit in little
Outbursts from the mouth and nos
trils. To meet such extra pressure,
the deep-sea fshhave had to ESPECIALLY
organized, and n indirect result OF
this special organization led to the first
suspicion of the existence of life at
these abyssmal depths, long before the
10y . IA OSCNSOObSO ~
found acknowledging.
Forinmid-Atlantic sundry unknown
and odd-looking creatures were, from
time to time, picked up, floating about
dead, which, though frequently differ
ing from one another in other respects.
agreed as a rule in two curious and, at
first sight, seemingly incomprehensible
particulars. For one thing, even when
quite fresh and recently killed, they
seemed SO loosely knit together, that
they tumbled to pieces like mummies
at the slightest touch. In the second
place, they had almost always come to
their death by their own greediness, in
the partially successful attempt to
swallow and digest a brother fish at
least as big rs themselves.
From such data the ingenious
icthyologist of the day deduced the not
very obvious conclusion, that these
hapless victims of their own misguided
appetite must really be inhabitants of
the very profoundest abysses. AS DR..
Gunther clearly explains it. a fish Dr.
ganized to live at a depth of five to
eight hundred fathoms comes across
another, as big as himself, organized
to live at a depth of three to five hun
dred fathoms, about the border-land Of
their respective zones: fish number one
SEXES in his jaws fish number two, and
endeavors to swallow him alive, or en-
close him in his patent e~xtensible
stomach; but the struggles of his vic
tim carry him out of his depth-only
the other way on-into a higher layer
of water, to which it's organs and tissues
r very Ill adapted. Under the dimin-
ished pressure the gases expand, and
the fish rise like a balloon to the sur
face.
There is another difficulty. Vegeta-
ton cannot exist without light, and as
all animals live directly or Indirectly
on vegetation, appears Incompetent
sible that life can exist where light
never penetrates. The answer is that
animals manage to live by preying on
other animals which belong to the
upper strata, just as polar creatures
depend for their support upon the
swarms of pelagic or open-sea animals
carried toward the frozen regions by
warm currents. In like manner, the
deep-sea fishes live upon the organisms
which fall to them continually from
the tOpmOst strata. The surface of the
sea is alive with vast swarms of minute
organism, both plants and animals, and
the Challenger Investigations have
shown c~Onclusively that showers of
these keep dropping day and night like
mamma from heaven, supporting a
whole deep-sea fauna of fish and
~taceans, and nameless creeping-things,
which + in their turn proved upon by
the more predaceOus of their own num-
bers.
The queerest thing about deep-sea
creatures is their Arrangement for
vision. Fish that live at very great
depths have either no eyes at all, or
enormously big ones. Indeed there
are two ways you may get On in these
gloomy ~abysses-by delicate touch or
gains, or by sight that collects the few
rays of light due to phosphorescence or
other accidental sources. Down to the
depth of two hundred fathoms, the
eyes get constantly bigger and bigger.
Beyond that depth, smaIl-eyed forms,
with long f~eelers, developed to supple
plement the eyes. Lower still we find
functiOnless eyes and in the most con-
firmed abyssmal species the eyes have
disappeared entirely. :
But many deep-sea fish havea curious
system of hOllOws in the skull or along
a line on the body, in which they
secrete a mucous slime; and not only
are they thus rendered visible, but
they are further furnished with two
sets of organs buried in their skin and
abundantly supplied with nerves,
which seem to be organs for the pro-
duction and perhaps also for the per-
ception of phOsphOrescent light. On
the subject of these curious mechan-
isms, however, science has not yet said
her last word.
All of these abyssmal types have at,
some time sunk from a higher level,
they have literally gone down in the
world. vet in their own way they show
a marvellous adaptation to the con-
ditions of their. environment. The
struggle for existence is, moreover,