The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1898-02-26
THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA.
The Utter Dcsolatlon OF the Deepest Parts
of the Underwater World.

The third monthly meeting of the
Society of Natural Sciences was held
Tuesday evening at Good Will hall,
says the Hartford Times. Prof. II. w.
Conn of Wesleyan university delivered
an interesting lecture on the Bottom
of the Sea-" Prof. Conn had a largo
number of instructive views of APP
paratus used in sounding aud dredging,
as well as photographs of many OF the
unspeakable creatures that the dredge
has brought up. There is no sensible
amount Of light at a greater depth than
800 or 400 feet, the most sensitive
Photographic plates being unaffected
even by very prolonged exposure. The
fishes are therefore obliged to hunt
their food by the aid of dark lantern, as
Prof. Conn expressed it; in other words,
they ne phosphoresceut, 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
day to throw out one dredge and haul it
up again, lei although the line is
worked by steam power. The dred ges
used until recently had a habit of be-
coming tangled with the sounding rope,
when,the day was over, it was found
that the dredge had become e%ntangled
immediately upon being thrown over
board, SO that the day was entirely
wasted. The great pressure at the bot
tom of the sea (from three to six tons
on a square inch) will crush glass to n
fine powder, SO that it has been difficult
to obtain good measures of the tenn
perature in the deepest parts. The pro-
fessor described a very ingenious ther-
moelectric apparatus, by which this diff.
tculty had been overcome.
The greater part of the bottom Of the
ocean consists of red mud and of rlobi-
gerina ooze. the dead shells of a minute
foraminiferons creature, so abundant
that its shells make up u 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 professor said hat they often "fall
upward" to the surface and are killed
by the reduction of pressure. The air
in their swimming bladders, he explnin-
ed. is compressed by the pressure of the
ocean into a very small space. When
the fish is so unwise as to leave his ma
llNe uauutS ~ explore regions halt q
mile or so above him tie diminution in
pressure causes the nir to expand and
the fish becomes SO %buoyant that he
cannot swim back again, aud the further
he rises the worse his plight becomes,
and after a time he reaches the surface,
by which time the expansion of the air
becomes SO great that the fish is often
literally blown to pieces, and is found
floating about in this condition.
The professor said that in the lower
depths of the sea the quiet is SO pro-
found that in comparison with it the
most barren deserts on the face of the
earth are scenes Of the greatest activity;
for on the desert there are variations in
wind and in temperature. and alter
atious of day and night, while in the
great depths of the ocean there is no
life, there are no currents, the temper
ature is uniformity SO degrees. year in
and year out, and night reigns perpet-
ually. The surface Of the ocean is the
poets favorite metaphor for unrest, but
there is nothing SO quiet and change
llss as its profound depths.