Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-01-09
Five Miles Down.

Ine deepest spot III the ocean has
been found. More than five miles OF
wire ran out without the bottom being
reached. Then the wire broke. This
spot was recently discovered by the sur
veying ship Penguin, near the Friendly
Islands, in the South Pacific. Com
mander Balfour. OF that ship. reports
that this remarkable discovery was
made i'm latitude 23.40 south. longitude
1910 west. When he first discovered
this extraordinary hole, which so far
as we know now is bOttomless, Captain
BalfOur attempted to take the depth
and the sounding line was run out.
After 1900 fathOms had run out over
the side of the ship, the wire broke, and
Il rising sea and wind prevented any
Upon the second attempt he managed
to pass 1900 fathoms, of 29,4OO feet Of
the wire over the ships side before the
wire broke, and put an end to the ex-
pertinent.
The deepest hole in the ocean pre-
viOusly known was close to the coast
Of Japan, where sounding had been
made of 1866 fathoms. This is 245
fathoms. or more than 1,40O feet
shallower than the deep hole which has
now been discovered.
How much deeper il goes than 1900
fathoms no man IAN know. Tt is a
piece Of water more than five miles
deep. What the pr assure must he at
the bottom no scientist has yet been
bold enough to conjecture. There is
no glass instrument that could resist
this pressure. 1t would be impossible
with the most approved scientific APP
pliances to take the temperature at this
enormous depth.
No living thing that Is known to sci
ence could exist at a depth so great as
this, where the pressure must be equal
to many hundred or thousand foot
tons, sufficient to squeeze the life out
Of any fish. Even brass and iron in
struments lowered to this enormous
depth would be twisted and distorted.
The most painstaking work i'm lower
ing piano wire to sound depth such
az this will not suffice to keep 1t from
breaking. This is because of the fric-
ton of the water against the wire.
In spite of every appliance of bal
ance and spring in the machinery on
deck. designed to counterfeit the mo-
ton Of the vessel, the increase and de-
crease of pressure caused by rising
and falling on a wave will snap the
strongest wire when 1t has been low
cred to so great distance.
All of the water at the bottom must
support the weight Of the water on
top of it. The consequence Is that the
water in the lowest depths is COM
pressed under enormous pressure.
The theory has been advanced that
some strange unknown creatures may
live in this highly compressed water
There may be fish of kind 50 peculiar
that they cannot exist closer To the
surface. where the water n thinner
and the pressure less.
Through countless ages Of living i'm
the darkest, deepest depths of ocean
these fish may have evolved forms and
natures unknown to men of science,
because hitherto such vast depths have
been UNEMPLOYED. What the bottom OF
such place may be like is only mat
ter of conjecture.
1t may support a fauna and fora of
it's own. 1t may have its own plant
and animal life, which some daring
scientist will bring to light to aston
ish and amaze the scientific world.
Here. where there can be no light, the
fish, IL fish ehere be, must he eycless,
like that queer breed Of fiSh which
Darwin cited existed In the rivers or
the Mammoth Cave, but still, under the
scalpel of the scientist disclosing what
is known In biology as parliamentary
eye" The fishes of these deepest
depths may have rudimentary eyes
and rudimentary lungs.
They may have been pressed hard
and fiat like n pancake by the enor-
nous weight of the water above them
and may indeed move about b- a
method as strange and curious as was
that Of the kangaroo when first brought
to the attention OF Europe. These are
questions for the scientific world to
solve. They have been brought to the
front by the discovery OF the Penguin
of n spot In the ocean deeper than any
that has been known hitherto.