Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1892-08-11
BELOW OCEAN WAVES
LIFE AT GREAT AND ALMOST UN-
FATHOMABLE DEPTHS.

I ENlE1SNfrNOe1 Ut no
/ Strange and Startling Structures of the
Down Have Been Crowded from the
| | Surface of the Sea.
For a century or more naturalists have
known a great deal concerning the
marine organisms which dwell in the
shallow water next the shore. They
long ago learned the amazing richness
/ Of these littoral forms. The census of
! species amounts now to more than 100. 600
distinct forms; it is, however, of late
! that they have ascertained that the deep
er parts of the ocean floors have also an
abundant and varied peopling. The
greater part of these shore dwellers are
exceedingly intolerant of the enormous
pressure of the deeper waters, as well as
of the low temperature and total dark
ness which exists there.
Certain forms have, however, acquired
the ability to Withstand these peculiar
conditions, as generation by generation
through the geologic ages they have
crept away from the realms of fierce
combat next the shores TO the less con-
tested fields of the open and deeper
seas. Through all the geologic ages
this selection of especially prepared
groups for the singular stations or hab-
its of the ocean depths has been going
on. with the result that those dark and
pressure burdened regions are now ten
anted by eminently peculiar animals,
by species which ever surprise the stu
dent who is accustomed alone to the
forms which dwell near the shore.
One of the most striking features con-
nected with the animals of the deep
seas is the frequency with which we
find their living specimens which remind
us of kinds which in former geologic
periods dwelt in the coastal districts of
the oceans. 1t seems that many of these
ancient creatures, when they could no
longer hold their own against the ore
highly organized and developed animals
which inhabited the favored stations
next the shores, shrunk away into the
deep water, and in that undesired part
of the world found an asylum, where,
amid the changeless environment, they
have dwelt for ages unaltered. Thus
the vast profounds of the deephave be
come a sort of almshouse, whereunto
antiquated forms have retired before
the overwhelming pressure which the
newer and higher life ever imposes on
its ancestors.
From the results of tine relatively tri-
fling explorations which have yet been
made, there seems good reason to hope
that in time we may win from the deep
the nearest living representations of
many creatures which once occupied a
large place in the seas, but now have
abandoned the fields of more active com
bat, which are usually the seat of the
greatest advance.
In the profounder seas the invertebrate
life appears to have larger share than
is secured by the vertebrate or back
boned animals: yet there are number
of fishes known in these depths, and it
seems likely that these tenants of the
deep may be numbered by thousands of
species. Among the filmed tenants of
the profounder parts of the ocean we
find the most startling departures from
the types with which we are familiar i'll
coastal waters. In general shape they
differ little from their kindred which
dwell in the sunlit shadows.
The differences are largely in the
mechanism of the senses, especially of
the eyes. These organs undergo sur
prising variations with reference to the
enduring of the darkness of these deeps.
In certain of the species the sight not
only fails, but the visual apparatus en-
tirely disappears; in others the eyeball
becomes very much enlarged and the
nervous apparatus incrassated, and are
evidently arranged to catch mere Gimp
ses of the light. AS it is certain that no
trace of sunlight can ever penetrate
through the deep which overlies the
realm where these animals dwell, the
adaptation of these eyes to the needs of
different vision at first appeared to be a
very ineXplicable matter.
Some recent discoveries provide rs
with what seems to be an adequate ex-
planation of the enigma. 1t has been
found that certain of the denizens of
the deep sea floors have phosphorescent
parts of their bodies which serve to
give light in a manner in which it is
yielded by the familiar firefiies and
glowworms.
The end secured by these light giving
parts is probably the attraction of the
sexual mates of the creatures. In the
utter darkness of the ocean this indis-
pensable end could be attained in no
other way. Professor N. S. Shaler in
Scribner's.