Saint Mary's beacon., 1893-09-28
Saint Maru's Beacon


explored and mapped out presents
very different picture from that
painted for as by the poets. But
short time has elapsed since the
bottom Of the ocean was supposed
to be the counterpart Of the face of
the earth above the water-with
hill and valleys, with precipitous
mountains lifting toward the sur
face and profound gorges sinking
to unfath h omable depths. The
ocean floor is far less diversified
than the land.
Here and there, to be sure, is
lands in mid-ocean are the sum
mits Of enormous mountains, ris-
ing more or less abruptly from a
generally level surface, and the sea
lying over a narrow, depressed re-
gion in the northwestern Pacific
reaches its greatest depth. But
this is exceptional. In its general
character the ocean bottom con-
sists Of vast fiat or slightly undula-
ting plains. An extraordinary cir
cumstance that has been noticed
with interest and that always creates
surprise when first learned is the
entire absence Of foreign matter in
the deeper part of the oceans floor.
OF all the vessels lost in mid
ocean Of all the human being that
have been drowned of all the
marine animals that have perished:
Of all the clay, sand and gravel let
fall by dissOlving icebergs of all
the various substances drifted from
every shore by shifting currents,
not trace remains, but in their
place water from 1000 to $500
fathoms in depth covers the uni
form deposit Of thick, blush, tena-
clous slime called globigerina ooze.
A bit Of this under a powerful lens
is revelation Of beauty not readi-
iy forgotten. The ooze is composed
almost entirely Of the daintest,
most delicately beautiful shells i'm
aginable.
At depths greater than 2, 800 faith
oms the bottom of the sea consists
mainly of products arising from
exposure, for almost incalculable
periods, to the chemical action of
sea water, Of pumice and other vol
canic matters. This finally results
in the formation OF the red clay de-
posits that are considered character
lstic of the profoundest depths of
the ocean. Carbonate Of lime,
which in the form of the shells
of foraminifera, makes up so large
n part of the glohigcrina ooze, is
here almost entirely absent.
Sea water is very nearly uni.
vcrsal solvent, and before any shell.
large or small, reaches the bottom
OF these tremendous abysms it is
chemically eaten up, literally dis
sOlved-a result which the enorm-
nous pressure of the water must
materially hasten. At 900 faith
oms the weight of the water press
ing on all sides of an object i'm
mersed to that depth is very nearly
one ton to the square inch, or more
than 100 times that sustained at
the sea level, and at the greatest
depths the pressure is so increased
that it would seem nothing could
withstand it. In fact, heavy metal
cylinders let down with the sound
ing apparatus are sometimes, being
drawn up again to the surface,
bent and collapsed; strongly made
glass vessels which the metal en-
closed are shattered into fragments.
In the profoundest abysms of the
sea are strange forms of life that
never, save when brought up BY
the trawl, see the upper light. The
work carried on by means Of the
United States fish commission yes
sci, the AlbatrOss, has established
the fact that forms Of sea life in
habiting upper waters may descend
to about 1900 feet from the sur
face, but that below this, to depth
Of 800 or $50 fathoms, barren
zone intervenes where marine life
seems absent. But still deeper.
strange to say, has been discovered
an abundant andyaried fauna, new to
science, living under conditions Of
tremendous pressure and paucity OF
the life sustaining element Of Oxy-
gen that induced an eminent zoolo-
gist to say quite recently, "What
we know OF the greatest ocean depths
foFhids uE In exnaet IN find then