The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-22
FANTASTIC MARINE LIFE.
THE sAMENEss OF THE OCEAN Is
ALL ON ITS SURFACE.

the NHEEaA&E DGglnss
From the San Francisco Chronicle.
within the last quarter Of a century
science has claimed the watery world
a. a part of her heritage equally with
terra firma The territory has been ex-
nlored and mapped out Dredge and
sounding apparatus have been at work.
The ocean bed has revealed its varying
level of hill and dale table and abyss.
From a vast array of facts relating to
diTerent depths, knowledge Of its cur
rents and of the varying temperature and
salinity of its waters has grown to some
thing like a complete whole. The Nor
man conquest is not a more important
landmark in English history than is the
challenger expedition in the story Of deep
sea exploration.
The scientists who cruised for four
wears under the leadership Of Sir Wyville
thomson saw the fog banks of ohscurity
roll away; the dredge brought them trib-
ute of strange forms Of life upon the like
Of which the eye of man had never be-
fore rested. The dark, unfathomed
caves of ocean" merited the epithet no
longer: the deepest abyss was sounded,
though five miles of line ran out before
the usual indications of having touched
the bottom were noted. BY an ingenious
contriyance the dredge brought to the
surface each time a sample OF the cay
ooze or gravel upon which it has rested.
P,1f while knowledge in all its branches
mas grown deeper and richer Tor the
spof which watery PROVINCES nave ylelac
81 our ACQUAINTANCE with the wonders OF
animal life has advanced by leaps ana
II las been the work of twenty years to
sum M in twice as many volumes the dis
coveries made by the Challenger alone. II
becomes more evident mat the sea Is liie
one far distant ancestral home OF animals
In general. of those found IN fossil form,
ali the most ancient ones seem TO nave
made their home in the waters. Inc
-.baneing level of the land may from time
10 time have insulated a bay or inlet ana
turned il into a lake or inland sea. Parted
from the ocean, its waters would become
fresh but SO gradually that the fish and
other occupants had time to adapt them-
selves to new conditions. But further
step, and long one was needed before
the fish could take possession OF announcer
element Perhaps the tadpole in It's change
10 the frog throws out hint or now II
came about The African mudhsh, when
the lake in which it lives, dries up, buries
itself in the mud, and as its gills are now
useless, breathes air, using its swimming
bladder as a lung. Here we seem 10 nave
"a fish on the high road to become a lana
seen from our own standpoint, nothing
could be more uniform than the sea- one
mile of gray, heaving water IS the ounter-
part of the last and OF the many thaI are
10 follow But there is no sameness about
the inmates of the sea; Ire DeloW water
seems to have shaken off some invisible
shackles, so varied, and often fantastic,
are the forms which II assumes. NO ma
gicans wand could have conJured the
spirit of being into stranger guise. Free
swimming fishes may roam at large, nut
most of the tenants of the sea have their
own domains, whose vieWless bounds they
do not pass. The weed-groWn rocks, COW
cred by the flowing tide or left bare as 1t
retires, are peopled by races which know
nothing of life beyond the shadows. With
increasing depth of water the growth OF
seaweeds comes TO an end, and those
forms which depend upon them for shelter
or food do not stray out of reach OF their
graves and pastures.
When the comparatively shallow wat
ers which form a margin of varying
breath around the shores of every CONT
nent, are left behind, and the true ocean
depths are reached, a world is entered
where all is new and strange. The crea-
lures which make their home upon the
sea bottom are not those of the mid-Wat-
ers, and the latter again are totally I'M
like those which haunt the topmost
story, and, like the jelly fish, swim upon
the surface or near it. Instead of three
floors which we have pictured, the zones
may be so many that a house of twelve
stories would furnish a. better illustra-
ton. The surface waters are populous
with those atoms of sentient jelly to which
naturalists have given the names of for
aminifera and radiolaria. Each Speck of eX-
iStence builds for itself q shell or casket
with walls delicately fretted and rarely
sculptured When its inmate dies the
shell sinks slowly through the water to
add new particle of lime or flint Ia
the ooze, which is nothing more than
mass of skeletons of it's myriad prede-
cessors long past change of lever
may have raised Ooze above water and
turned it into chalk, but the microscope
reveals its true composition and shows
mat every lump of chalk is a vast ceme-
,tely OF animalculoe: What the infinitely
sstt!e may accomplish is shown by the
Iact That great part of the bed of the
atlantic consists of this soft, whitish mud.
the ooze has been brought up from a
9epth of nearly three miles; at greater
oeptns 1t is wanting, as the frail shells
are cofroded and dissolved in their de-
scent to such an all but fathon1less abyss.
Other tenants of the waters which have
soHlriDuled to the deeprSea deposits are
Ine sharks and the whales. The sharks
sheIetoh being the nature of gTistle has
M tiot Deen preserved, so that the defunct
t tlsti OF the seas Is represented only by his
tSeth; IN the same was the ear bones of
me whale, hard and compact as stone
nave outlasted every other part of the
munster framework. This wear and tear
Oh surface life ooze and bone and shell
-Iay IN time, by slow additions to the pile
ssedch 10 within a few fathoms of the sur
r ,aTIe.. rms IS the opportunity of the coral
yolPypes, which need for their well-being
ee Hght and movement of the upper wat
~, IN the heap of rejectamerta they
S Soara the foundations of their city. Each
me me water. and benefits by the support
oFqS gained, till, dying, it leaves its fabric
el linle as a basis upon which its success
boo may build. So the structure becomes
Of Gao stl and massive, and spreads by growth
80 90 stem and branch till it nears the sur
fp 80 Inc polypes can carry the work no
M 1ler, but the storms do the rest F'rag-
rr1ia l are broken off and heaped one up
v M auother till the reef is level with the
,Tba.es. The story has been told so often
b bca. we need follow it no further to tell
s, Sm the reef is level with the waves The
f oHy mas been told so often that we need
b enom II no further to tell how the reef
an l5olIes an island, how ocean current
Of OF wandering sea bird bring the germs
eoc onrub and tree, till, sheltered by the
sIfiodhut palms, rise the huts Of brown
oV,a l't re- natives. Kingdoms and States
In Cnelr very being to the coral polype.
tla oQf own seas corals are few and lit
nat Hiotlced. The sea anemones, though
4 renresSeIy near akin, may be called their
4 wbiJIseiltatives. They are the flowers
ont 0tn pIlghten the rock pools, opening
ia II the still water which the ebbine
ann mas left, and with slow waving Of
fsajiT, crimson, or pink, or grass green,
ssr,ls Tor any passer-by which may
4 shrg as food. Woe betide the Juvenile
n mer or other incautious swim
n viii winch comes into contact
"A GAff