The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1900-06-23
On THE OCEANS BED.
MARVELLOUS LIFE BENEATH
THE WAVES.
Uncanny Creatures That Light Their
Own Ways by Electricity In the
Sunless Depths - squids Seventy Feet
Long. "

For those unfamiliar with the in
vestigations of students of the deep
sea it is difficult to realize how life
can exist where the pressure is many
tons to the square inch, where a ray
OF sunlight has never reached and
where eternal silence reigns.
10 make the ocean depths a reality,
writes Prof. Charles F. Holder, | will
ask the reader to imagine hat he is
equipped with a divers armor capable
OF resisting pressure and accompany
me into the deep sea. AS we descend
into the blue depths we realize that
we have entered Another world, where
to all intents and purposes water is
the atmosphere. If we entered the
ocean on the Pacific coast from the
beach we would gradually walk down
an easy descent for many miles; and
the same is true of the Atlantic. AL
most Immediately the light fades, so
that at a depth of 500 feet it is COM
paratively dark and intensely cold.
Deeper we descend, the sunlight
s. ouudiiy ldull6, uuIIl at d uopLu vi q
quarter OF a mile the darkness is in
tense, SO far as the sun is concerned.
In shallow water we have passed
through the region of abundant life.
Along the shore are schools of por-
poises, immense whales that occasion
ally venture far below the surface,
and a number of air-breathing, fish
like animals that are kept near the
surface by their structure and require
ments. Here are schools of fish-sal-
mon and sardines; and passing is a
migrating herd of seals. Deeper we
pass and leave them behind, descend
ing to a depth of 1900 feet in dark
ness profound.
Everywhere there is life. Every
drop of water is alive; and standing
in this strange region, at a depth of a
mile or so, we find ourselves in a
ralnstorm beneath the sea. All about
are countless objects dropping upon
us, invisible to the eye, but so result
producing in the aggregate hat the
rain drops pile and heap up in such
masses that with those that die on
the bottom they round off the tops of
submarine hills and mountains, fill
up valleys, and the thick gelatinous
ooze through which we have walked
with so much difficulty is the visible
result of the rain. In brief, we are
in the region of the globigerina ooze.
1t has been estimated that if lime
secreting organisms are as numerous
down to a depth of 600 feet as they are
neal the surface there would be more
than sixteen tons of calcareous shells
100 fathoms of every square mile of
the ocean.
The rainstorm is the falling of these
countless shells to the bottom. They
are ever dying; the animal is destroy
ed, and the little shell sinks, piling up
at the bottom and forming the well
known ooZe.
Descending into deeper depths we
still find life. Many of the fish are
blind; nearly all have phosphorescent
lights, and their shapes and forms
are strange and uncanny. Sunlight
does not reach below 1000 fathoms;
beyond this no plant life exists, and
the various forms of life prey upon
n another. Among the deep sea fish
especially there is constant warfare.
Assuming that we are walking on
the ocean bottom at the depth of over
a mile, we 10Y cautiously along in
water icy cold, and suddenly are con-
fronted with a blaze of light and find
ourselves in a field of light givers. I'M
agine a cornfield with stalks from two
to four feet in hight, the tips gleam-
ing with light and waving gently to
and fro. Such an appearance the
fields of umbellularia present. Off St.
Vincent the Challenger dredged in a
field of light giving g%orgonias, with
stems about two feet long. The trawl
came up choked with them from a
region a mile below the surface, each
one emitting a vivid, lilac-colored
light.
In all probability the largest and
most remarkable fishes have not been
seen and escape the dredge. Many of
these strange forms of the abysmal
ueplLS are " pes VI ehtlucJ IOTllS,
and we can only imagine what Won
ders the deep sea hides. In the At
lantic and Pacific gigantic squids
from fifty to seventy feet in length
are found, and glimpses Of strange
snake or eel-like sharks are suggestive
of the uncaught mysteries and I'M
seen jewellers in the deep sea. Among
the curious light givers is a shark
which was caught by DR.. Bennett. 1t
was perfectly black, but emitted a
strange phosphorescent light, which
remained some time after the animals
death. The shark was placed in a
jar in the cabin of the vessel, and is
described as presenting a ghostly ap-
pearance, emitting a rich green light,
almost sufficient to read by.
In descending into the intermedi-
ate depths, the jellyfish and forms that
live in the open water attract our at
tention. Here is a jellyfsh, its disk
six feet across, its train of tentacles
possibly emitting a vivid light and
stretching away in a maze of bril-
liant lines for perhaps 100 feet.