The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-13

than sixteen tons of calcareous shells or
carbonate of lime in the uppermost one
hundred fathcms of every square mile of
ocean.
The rainstorm is the falling of these
countless shells to the bottom. They are
ever dying; the animal is destroyed, and
the little shell sinks, pilng up at the
bottom and forming the well known glo-
b'ger!na ooze. The increasing weight
grinds up the lower stratum into an i'm
palpable powder and slowly piles up the
bottom, forming a mass which if ele-
waited above the surface would resemble
the chalk cliffs of Dover which were
formed at the bottom of the ocean in
much the same way.
Descending into deeper depths we still
find life. Many of the fish are Blind near
ly all have phophorescent lights, and their
shapes and forms are strange and uncan-
ny. Sunlight does not reach below 1000
fathoms; beyond this no plant life exists.
and the various forms of life prey upon
one 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 move cautiously along in water icy
cold, and suddenly are confronted with
blaze of light and find ourselves In fed
of light givers. Imagine a cornneld with
stalks from two to four feet in hight, the
tips cleaning with light and wavir gent
ly 90 and fro Such an appearance the
fields of umbellularia present. Off St.
Vincent the Challenger dredged in a feld
of light giving gorgonias. with stems about
two feet long. The trawI came up chok-
ed with them from region mile below
the surface, each one emitting a vivid, Ii
lac colored light.
Above this forest Of living lights strange
and weird fish are passing, which we re :
ogniZe as forms that have been ore 1ged
from dnptbe v 10 ha h
Challenger and others, One, the chiasmo-
don, dashes by emitting light from is
own body, and, wonder of wonders! we
see it seize fish five times its own bulk
and draw itself over it like a glove. It's
jaws by a special arrangement separate,
and the mouth is cavern of India rubber
like possibilities. similar fish, mala-
costeus is of rich black velvet hue, and
as it poises we see upon its head two large
lights. One ernifs a golden light The 9TH
err throws out fitful green rays, whi.h have
some hidden meaning In the economy of
nature Some of the fish seem TO be lit
eral mouths scuh is the surypharnyx, or
pelican fish. The mouth is enormous, the
bones of the jam being attached 10 he
skull by movable joints, SO that IL has
enormous powers of distension.
A curious black fish, called echiostoma,
has it's lanterns arranged about its head
two are just below the eyes while there
q, . several others at various portions CT
the head. AT a depth of two miles find
the fish bythites, and at three miles we
shall find others more remarkable. A hid
eous snakelike creature Is stomias, with
pointed teeth and a row of lights along
it's ventral surface like the lights that axe
seen in a dark night in the car window s
the train dashes along. This fish has been
taken from a mile and quarter beneath
the surface by an English dredger.
Beneath our feet are forms equally
weird the bottom blazing with light at ev-
ery step. Here are phosphorescent crabs
and sea fans that emit golden, green ard
lilac hues. Blue scintilations come from
sea pens, while others give out CLEANS of
gold and green. Almost every animal is
a light glver. Some of the crabs are phos-
phorescent over the entire surface, others
have their lights on stalled eyes, while
the very mud that rises seems 10 scienul-
late with light that would appear to be an
essential feature Of the deep sea. We
might in this walk of the imagination de-
scend to a depth OF six miles beneath The
sea and still find life.
squids Seventy Feet Long.
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 depths are types of
extinct forms, and we can only imagine
what wonders the deep sea hides. In the
Atlantic and Pacinc glsantic squlds from
fifty to seventy feet in length are found,
and glimpses of strange snake or eellike
sharks are suggestive Of the uncaught
mysteries and unseen jewellers in the deep
sea. Among the curious light givers il a
shark which was caught by DR.. Bennett.
1t was perfectly black but emitted
strange phosphorescent light. which re-
mained some time after the animals
death. The shark was placed in Jar Ia
the cabin of the vessel. and is described as
presenting a ghostly appearance emitting
a rvh green light, almost sufficiently to
read by.
In descending into the intermediate
depths. the jellyhsh and forms that live
in the open water attract our attention.
Here Is a jellyflsh, its disk six feet across,
its train of tentacles possibly emitting
vivid light and stretching away in maze
Of brilliant lines for perhaps one hundred
feet. Such is the Cayane, one of about
this dimension being seen by Mrs. Agassiz
off Nahant. Such jellyhsh moving
through the upper depths might well be
compared to a great comet.
other forms-huge disks-are the moons
and lesser planets of this submarine
world OF space. The variety OF tints and
eolors emitted by the jellyhsh is almost