Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1893-09-23
ABYSMAL DEPTH OF THE SEA,



Bottom Of the Ocean.
The new submarine world now ex.
plored and mapped out presents very
different picture from that painted for
us by the poets says the Cosmopoll-
tan. But short time has elapsed
since the bottom Of the ocean was sup
posed to be the counterpart of the face
of the earth above water-with hills
and valleys, with precipitous noun
tains lifting towards the surface and
profound gorges sinking to unfathoma
bic depths. The ocean floor is far less
diversified than the land. Here and
there to be sure, islands In midocean
are the SUBMITS of enormous noun
tains, rising more or less abruptly from
a generally level surface, and the sea
lying over a narrow, depressed region
in northwestern Pacific reaches It's
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
surprise when first learned, is the
entire absence of foreign matters in
the deeper part of the oceans floor.
OF all the vessels lost in midocean, Of
drowned, of all the marine animals
that have persisted, 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 a trace remains; but in
their place water from 1000 to 300
fathomS in depth covers the uniform
deposit of thick, blush, tenacious
slime, called globigerina ooze. A bit
of this under powerful lens is rove
lation Of beauty not readily forgotten.
The ooze Is composed almost entirely
of the daintiest, most delicately beau
tiful shells imaginable. AT depths
greater than twenty-five hundred
fathoms the bottom Of the sea consists
mainly of products arising from cX-
posture, for almost incalculablc peri
DDS, 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 tho
profoundest depths of the ocean Car
Donate of lime, which In the form OF
the shells of foraminifera, makes I'D
so large part Of the globigerina ooze,
Is here almost entirely absent. Sea-
water is very nearly a universal sol
FNh', anu bNlolt any Suel, luISc vi
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 1000
fathoms the weight of the water press
ing on all sides of an object immersed
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 depth 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 Albatross, has
established the fact that forms of sea
life inhabiting the upper waters may
descend to about 1900 feet from the
surface, but that below this to depth
of 300 or 800 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 liv-
ing under conditions of tremendous
pressure and paucity of the life-sus-
tanning element Of oxygen.