The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-22

lining Its direct course over maintain
denfb .osS sudden abysses Of lower
burst; "Ioueh the turbulence of up
D Jung submarine torrents where long
Pent up rivers compel the snnerincnrn
untn Ian 10 admit their saltless waters:
nac,i ON continent to continent the con-
with rnan anaue, and man holds converse
49, man at his ease as though distance
"ele not Recent inyestiga lions 90 ia
PtoNe that chief among the causes thai
catir LOT destruction of those commune
ritars cdples are the upheavals of lost
lNers: In spite of the protection ,bat
cor'.tlhc invention has provided for the
rosts.n az core or conducting wire. these ir-
uole outburstS Of undersea torrents
reno and destroy it, causing endless Ia.
III ol replacement by the never resting
rnr,n, shiPs. But this is only one of the
ocea1o,,rply interesting features of
- recent growth, but full of gigantic pos
nIIniIitIes Ior the future knowledge of this
p .r"e ax Inc researches of the Challen-
eApeuitlon, embodied in fifty portly
Volumes, afford vast mass of material
nUI discussion, and yet il is evident that
WHAT they reveal is but the merest tenta-
Land thp pt ny INTO the great mysterious
surface or the inscrutable sea.
Dwarfluu the Hima,avas.
That veteran man of science Sir John
ttnuiray' mas in a recent paper ORoval
GEOGRAPHICAL Society's Journal Octoher1
Puphshed his presidential address 10 the
ldPhlcdl section of the British Asso-
clatlon at Dover, and even To the ordi
nary non-scentific reader bis wondorf,,I
lesGme OF what has been don i'm the wav
Vi exploring the oceans depth must be
a. enhancing as fairy tale. The mere
mention of such a chasm as that exist-
ing IN the South Pacific between the Ker-
maCecs and the Friendly Islands where
a depth of 5,155 fathoms, or $50 feet more
snnn I'VE geographical miles, has been
FOUND, strikes the lay mind with awe
Mount Everest, that stupendous Hima-
Iayah peak whose summit scars far above
the utmost efforts of even the most de-
NOttu houhtalneerS, a virgin fastness
nocking mans soaring ambition if sunk
IN the ocean at the spot just mentioned
would disappear until it's highest point
MAS TWO thousand feet below the surface
iet out OF that abyss rises the volcanic
mass of Sunday Island in the Kermadecs.
whose crater is probably 1000 feet above
the sea level But in no less than forty
three areas visited by the CHALLENGE
depths of over 5000 fathoms have been
found, and their total area is estimated
az ',l1Z,VO square miles, or about I per
cent or the total water surface of the
globe. Within these deeps are found
many lower deeps, strangely enough gen.
orally IN comparatively close proximity
70 land, such as the Tuscarora Deep. near
japan, one in the Banda Sea, that is to
say, in the heart Of the East India Archi-
pelago, etc. Down, down into these mys-
ferrous waters the ingenious sounding
machine runs, taking out it's four miles
sudden stoppage of the swift descent
marks the dial on deck with the exact
number OF fathoms reached. And vet so
vast Is the ocean bed that none can say
with any certainty that far greater
depths may not yet be found than any
that have hitherto been recorded, amaz-
ing as they are.
The character of the ocean floor at ali
these vast depths, as revealed by the
sounding tube, bringing specimens to the
surface, is identical-red clay-which
strikes the fancy queerly, as being, ac-
ccrding to most ancient legends, the sub
stance out of which our first ancestor
was builded and from whence he derived
mis- name. Mingled with this primordial
ooze IL found the debris of once living
forms. many of them of extinct species
or species at any rate that have never
come under modern mans observation
except as fossils. The whole story how
ever, demands far more space than can
here be allowed, but one more instance
must be given of the wonders of the sea-
bed In conclusion. Let violent storm
dtsplace any considerable body of warm
surface water, and To- to take it's place
up rises an equal volume of cold under
layers That have been resting far below
the influence of the sun. Like a uesti
lential miasma, these chill waves seize
upon the myriads of the sea folk and
they die. The tale of death is incalcul-
able, but one example Is mentioned of
TINS Kind off the eastern coast of North
America in the spring of 1882, when a law
er or dead fish and other marine animals
six feet in thickness was believed to COW
CT the ocean floor for many miles