The Forrest City times., 1891-01-03
IN THE OCEAN DEPTHS.
q TERRIBLE SQUEEZE DOWN
 THERE.
Interesting Things Abeut the Submarine World .-.Deep Sea Iamrs--A Pressure Thst Cr,shrs Gl,ss ts Fcwder-S,lu
 Ttere's Animal Flfe There.

! est of natural wonders It is difficult to imagine it possessed with lie. or something akin to it It has it's moods, its fancies; to-day is calm. unruffied and serene; tomorrow, torn by emo- tions. rent by seeming passion--a yer itabie demon seeking to destroy. beat ing itself down in impotent rage. ! So vast body of fluid. distributed over different zones where opposite conditions obtain and preserving its : general size. evaporation md flood. seemingly equal, can but excite the wonder of all thinking people. Five miles depth of solid water. with it's Iones of temperature its vast rivers, hot and cold. it's strata of deposits. its little understood conditions, is surely mystery difficult to solve. and until within few years 1t has been sealed book.
 I Twenty years ago the ocean was thought by the majority of people to be vast body of water. warm enough nt the surfs.ce to permit lie and sup port it. but at the greater depths life was supposed, from the enormous pressure, to be impossible. The mathe- ma'ician proved it by simple calcu- lation, so nature was here at fault. Vast areas Of inter-oceanic space were entirely useless. devoid of life. incap- able of supporting it. a gloomy, dark. nnfathomable region. almost beyond human comprehension.
 Modern science has controverted all this, apd us mysterious as the ocean was the revelation of it's wonders has made it still more the object of curious attention. We know that it attains a depth in some parts of from five to six miles. possibly more. We know it be- cause it has been measured, and we have gained some idea of the pressure from the fact that glass instruments lowered into the greater depths have been reduced to powder. and iron, copper. wood and rope are twisted, bent and frayed.
 The temperature at these great dis tances from the surface Is just above the freezing point If it were possible for man 10 descend five miles below the surface he would find himself in this tow temper turc, and still sup posing him to withstand the pressure, he would be in tho same condition that man would be on shore with twenty or thirty carloads of pig.iron piled upon him. This Is of course not curposable. yet it may ccnvey some idea of the state of things in the gub- marine world.
 The human explorer would not Do unaccompanicd in his travels As far as he could penetrata he would pro bably find living creatures adapted by nature to withstand these extraordiu- ary conditions. He would find this nbysmal realm, SO long considered an abode of darkness. gleaming with lights. Every movement would result in a blaze Of illumination. as fl he were gifted with tho light-producing power Every animal in this uncanny world would seem consumed by some internal fro. appearing here and there in iitful gleams. so that far from being involved in gloom the deep sea iy veritable land of enchan,ment full of strange and wondrous lights
 Almost every animal. or every branch Of the animal kingdom. to be plore precise. contains these curious living lamps. They ara found in all parts of tho ocean. Almost invisible ut the surface. they display their gold en splecdors upon the waves crest are hurled aloit by the gate. and appear to be the wraiths of the ocean. Peer into tho depths IS VIC float along on some warm summer night. and the watery Armament appears dotted with living lamps. comets, shooting stars and spheres, while far away their numbers multiply, and the nebula is I reproduced.
 Those spectres might we'll seem tho reflection of the stars overhead. but they arc parts of tho Illuminating economy Of tho ocean. In southern seas the most remarkable scenes may te witnessed, though in the cold wa ters of tho north have observed ex- iibitions that excelled any have ston Ia the Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico. As has been suggested these light bearers beloag to almost evory branch CT group oi animals. In the deep sea :he most striking and marvellous forms arc tho fishes. and judging from the fsw that have been brought to the surface by tho deep sea drodgers and appliances of scientists. we may well consider them the most remarkA- hle of all living creatures
 To withstand the pressure at great depths, which may be roughly stated as amounting to ton weight on the square inch for every 6.00U feet Of depth. tho fishes are constructed upon she principle of sponge. being ex- Jemely porous or cavernous. Tho sones are permeated by pores, and undoubtedly water enters every DOT ,ion. so they are literal living sponges, pressure being capitalized. When these ishes arc taken from the water. they often nearly fall apart. showing how fragile they \, a, and the yertebrm are % loosely oonnected that they