The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-08-09
CREATURES OF THE OCEAN DEPTHS
Fall 10 Pieces When Water Pressure
Fails to Hold Them Together.

The new submarine world now ex-
plored and mapped out presents a very
different picture from that painted for
us by the poets But a short time has
elapsed since the bottom of the ocean
was supposed TO be the counterpart of
the face of the earth above water-with
hills and valleys. with precipitous mount
aims lifting toward the surface and pro-
found gorges sinking 70 unfathomable
depths. The ocean floor is far less di-
versified than the land
Here and there, to be sure, islands in
midocean are the SUBMITS of enormous
mountains, rising, more or less abruptly.
from generally level surface, and the
sea lying over a narrow, depressed re-
gion in the northwestern Pacific reaches
its greatest depth. But this is exception
al; in its general character the ocean
bottom consists of vast fiat or slightly
undulating plains. An extraordinary
circumstance that has been noticed with
interest, and that always creates sur
prise when first learned, is the entire
absence of foreign matter in the deeper
part of the oceans floor
OF all the vessels lost in midocean, of
all the human beings that have been
drowned, Of all the marine animals that
have persisted, of all the clay. sand and
gravel let fall by dissolVing iceburgs, of
all the the various substances drifted
from every shore by shifting currents.
not trace remains, but in their place
water from 1000 to 1000 fathomS in
depth covers the uniform deposit of
thick, blush. tenacious slime. called
globigerina ooze. A bit Of this under
powerful lens is a revelation of beauty
not readily forgotten. The ooZe is COM
posed almost entirely of the daintiest,
most delicate beautiful shells magma
BILE.
At depths greater than $500 fathoms
the bottom of the sea consists mainly
of products arising from exposure, for
almost incalculable periods, to the chemi-
cal action Of sea water, Of pumice and
other volcanic matters. This finally re-
suits in the formation of the red clay
deposits that are considered character
istic of the profOundest depths of the
ocean. Carbonate of lime, which in the
form Of the shells Of foramlnifer9 makes
up so large a part of the globigerina
ooze, is here almost entirely absent.
Sea water Is very nearly a universal
solvent, and before any shell, large or
small, reaches the bottom of these ire
mendous abysms il is chemically eaten
up, literally dissolved-a result which
the enormous pressure of the water
must materially hasten. At 1000 faith
oms the weight of the water pressing
on all sides Of an object immersed
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 tin fact, heavy metal
cylinders let down with the sounding
apparatus are sometimes. on being
drawn up again to the surface, found
bent and collapsed; strongly made glass
vessels which the metals enclosed are
shattered into fragments.
In the prOfoundest abysms of the sea
are strange forms of life that never.
xx-h hro oh nv ha wi
the upper light. The work carried on
by means of the U. S. fish commission
vessel. the Albatross, has established the
fact that forms Of sea life inhabiting
upper waters may descend to about 1,200
feet from the surface but that below
this, to a depth of 300 to SEQ fathoms. a
barren zone intervenes where marine
life seems absent But still deeper,
strange to say, has been discovered an
abundant and varied fauna, new to
science, living under conditions of ire
mendous pressure, and paucity of the
DEMONSTRATING element Of oxygen, that
induced an eminent zo-ologist to say
quite recently: What we know OF the
greatest ocean depths forbids us TO eX-
pect to find them inhabited by living
organisms Here. indeed. survive
forms Of life of which no inhabitant of
the upper world, not even the sun him
self. has looked upon before the dredges
of the Challenger, the Albatros. the
Blake. and similarly equipped vessels
dragged up marine creations from con-
genial cold and dark.
1t might reasonably be supposed that
these denizens Of great sea depths
would be built more firmly and strongly
than surface animals to resist the pres
sure Of the element in which they live,
but il is just the contrary. The most
universal characteristics of these Great
ures is the looseness and habbines of
texture they exhibit Indeed, they seem
to need the excessive pressure of the
water about them to keep their parts
together. for when they are brought to
the surface they are ready to fall to
pieces. 1t is a problem, strangely are
some Of them formed, how they can
move from place to place; were they not
entirely below the distributing element
of wave action they would, to all APP
pearances, be helpless.
Inhabiting these abysmal spaces, as
completely cut off from communication
with the upper waters as we are from
the inhabitants of other planets, we can
only vaguely speculate on their habits
and judge their manners of life from
their somewhat remote analogies to the
surface species nearest akin to them.
Plant life is entirely absent from their
place of abode, and although they doubt
less prey upon each other, some original
source of food supply must, of course
be connected to exist.