The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-02-03

The Utter Desolation Of That Great
Underwater World
From the Hartford Times.
Inc third monthly meeting of the
Society of Natural Sciences was held
tuesday evening at Good Will hail. Prof
H. W. Conn of Wesleyan university de-
HNered an interesting lecture on the Bot
tom OF the Sea-" Professor Conn had a
large number of instructive views of ap-
paratus used in sounding and dredging,
as well as photographs of many of the
unspeaklble creatures that the dredpe
has brought up. There is no sensible
amount of light NJ n greater depth than
80 or 40 feet, the most sensitive photo
graphic plates being unaffected even by
| very long exposure. The fishes are there
| lore Obliged TO hunt their food b. the aid
OF dark lanterns, as Professor Conn ex-
| pressed 1t; in other words, they are phos-
| phorescent, and see by the aid of the light
that they themselves emit.
| one OF the great difficulties of deep-sea
exploration is that it takes about all dav
to throw out one dredge and haul it I'M
again, even although the line is worked
by steam power. The dredges used until
recently had habit of becoming tangled
with the sounding rope, and frequently.
"heh the day was over, ii was found that
VIZ biShEo become entanUIe0 NJ
mediately upon being thrown overheard.
SO that the day was entirely wasted. The
great pressure at the bottom of the sea
from three to six tons on a square incbl
Will crush glass to fine powder, so that
1t has been difficult TO obtain good meas
ures of the temperature in the deeper
parts. The professor described a very in
genious thermo-electric apparatus, by
means OF which this difficulty had been
overcome.
The greater part of the bottom of the |
ocean consists of rcd mud and of gIobi- |
gerlna ooze, the dead shells of a minute |
foramlniferlous creature, so abundant |
that its shells make up a big part OF the !
ocean floor. There is no life below three |
miles. In speaking of some of the fishes
that inhabit the lower depths, the profess |
sor say they often "fall upward" to the |
surface and are killed by the reduction of
pressure. The air IN their swimming /
bladders. he explained, is compressed by /
the pressure of the ocean into a very |
small space. When the fish is so unwise |
as TO leave his native haunts to explore
hall mile or SO above MIN the diminu-
ton in pressure causes tho air to expand
and the fish becomes so boyant that he
cannot swim back again, and the further
he rises the worse his plight becomes, and
after time he reaches the surface. by
which time the expansion of tho air has
become SO great that the fish is often
literally blown to pieces and is found
Heating about in this condition
The professor said that in the lower
depths of the sea the quiet is so profound
that in comparison with it the most bar
rem deserts on the face of the earth are
scenes of tho greatest activity; for on the
desert there are variations I'm wind and i'm
and alterations of dav and
night, while in the great depths of the
ocean there is no life, there are no cur
rents, the temperature is uniformly 80 de-
grees, year in and year out. and night
reigns perpetually. The surface of tho
ocean is the poets favorite metaphor for
unrest, but there is nothing so quiet and
,hangeless as its profound depths.