The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-08-18
CREATURES OF OCEAN DEPTHS.
They Fall TO Pieces When the Pressure of
Water No Longer Holds Them Together.

The new submarine world now ex
| plored and mapped out presents very
different picture from that painted for
us 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 water-with
| hills and valleys, with PERCEPTIONS
mountains lifting toward the surface
and profound gorges sinking to un-
| fathomable depths. The ocean floor is
| far less diversified than the land
Here and there, TO be sure, islands
/ in mid-ocean are the submits of
enormous mountains, rising more
| or less abruptly, from gener-
ally level surface, and the sea
! lying over a narrow, depressed
region in the northwestern Pacific
reaches its greatest depth. But
this is exceptional; in its general char
acter the ocean bottom consists of vast
fiat or slightly undulating plains An
extraordinary circumstance that has
been noticed with interest, and that
always creates surprise when first
learned, is the entire absence of for
eign 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 CLAW,
sand and gravel let fall by dissolving
icebergs; of all the various substances
drifted from every shore by shifting
oar or1+c NJ
their place water from one thousand
to twenty-five hundred 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 beau
ty not readily forgotten. The ooze is
composed almost entirely of the dain-
test. most delicately beautiful shells
Imaginable.
Al depths greater than two thousand
five hundred fathoms 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 volcanic
matters. This finally results in the
formation of the red clay deposits that
are considered characteristic of the
profoundest depths of the ocean. Car
Donate of lime, which in the form of
the shells of foraminifera, makes up so
large a part of the globigerina ooze, is
here almost entirely absent
Sea water is very nearly universal
solvent, and before any shell, large or
small, reaches the bottom of these ire
mendous abysms it is chemically eaten
up, literally dissolved-a result which
the enormous pressure of the water
must materially hasten. At one thou
sand fathoms the weight of the water
pressing on all sides OF an object i'm
mersed to that depth is very nearly one
ton to the square inch, or more than one
hundred 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 some
times, on being drawn up again TO the
surface, found bent and collapsed:
strongly-made glass vessels which the
metal inclosed are shattered into frag-
ments.
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 vessel, the Albasross, has
established the fact that forms % sea
life inhabiting upper waters MAJ de-
scend 10 abont twelve hundred feet !
from the surface, but that below this,
to depth Of three hundred or three |
hundred and sixty fathoms, a barren
zone intervenes where marine life /
seems absent. Bot still deeper, !
strange 20 say, has been discov- !
cred an abundant and varied /
fauna, new 20 science. living
under conditions % tremendous /
pressure, and paucity of the Iife-Sus-
tanning element Of oxygen, that in /
duced an eminent zoolegist 70 say quite /
recently. What ws know Of the great /
est ocean depths forbisss us To expect /
20 find them inhabited By living /
organisms Here, indeed, survive /
forms of life the Ike Of which no in /
habitznt of the upper world. not even 4
tic sun himself, has LOOKED upoa De-
fore the dredres q tbs Challenger. the 1
hlbatrcrss, the Bake. and similarly
equipped vessels dragged up marine
creatures from congenisl cold and
DARK
II might reasonably be supposed
that the deuizefzs Of great SEA depsas /.
would be built more firmly and strong
Il than surface animals TO resist TIE
pressure 81 the eleracn: ia whieh .hev /
live. bet II - jusi the contrary. The
most universal characteristics Of fhsse
c-catures Is the iooseness and Habbs.
Eess OF texture they exhibit Indeed. !
they seem 70 ned tie exe<s-
sire pressure of -. water about
:aera 20 keep their parts together. for
when they are ls-oazSt ~ the surface
they are Tezdy 20 fasl 70 pieeex IL lisa
prchSszn- 50 strangely are s1zss Of sl.esn
formed Ecss TO- ss2 ssoTe ken Mace