Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1900-06-02
ON THE OCEANS BED.
MARVELLOUS LIFE BENEATH
THE WAVES.
Unesnny Crsatures That Light Their
Own Ways By Electricity In the
sunless Depths - Gquids Seventy Feet
Long. v

| For those unfamiliar with the in
vestigations of students OF the deep
sea IL is difficult to realize how life
can exist where the pressure is many
tons to the square inch, where ray
| of sunlight has never reached and
where eternal silence reigns.
To make the ocean depths reality,
writes Prof. Charles +. Holder, | will
ask the reader TO imagine that he is
/ equipped with divers armor capable
/ Of resisting pressure and accompany
me into the deep sea. AS we descend
\ into the blue depths we realize tssS
| We have entered another world, where
to all intents and purposes water is
the atmosphere. II we entered the
/ ocean on the Pacific coast from the
beach We would gradual, walk down
/ an easy descent for many miles; and
1 the same is true OF the Atlantic. Al
most Immediately the light fades, SO
that at depth of 500 feet II is COM
| paratively dark and intensely cold.
Deeper we descend, the sunlight
| gradually fading, until at depth of
quarter of mile the darkness is in
tense, SO far as the sun is concerned.
In shallow water We have passed
through the region of abuniant life.
Along the shore are schools of por-
| poises, immense whales that occasion
ally venture far below the surface,
and a number OF air-breatning, fish
like animals that are kept near the
surface by their structure and require
ments. Here are schools OF fsh-sal-
mon and sardines; and passing is a
migrating herd of seals. Deeper we
pass and leave them bel ind, descend
ing to a depth of / 500 feet In dark
ness profound.
Everywhere there "a life. Every
drop of water is alis 3; and standing
In this strange region, at depth OF a
mile or SO. we find ourselves In a
rainstorm beneath the sea. All about
are countless objects dropping upon
us, invisible to the eye. but SO result
producing in the aggregate that the
rain drops pile and heap up in such
masses that with those that die on
the bottom they round of 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.
II has been estimated that IL lime
secreting organisms are as numerous
down to depth of 600 feet as they are
near the surface there would be more
than sixteen tons of calcareous shells
or carbonate of lime In the uppermost
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 she'll 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 uneanny. 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 con-
fronted with blaze of light and find
ourselves in field of light givers I'm
agine 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 on st.
Vincent the Challenger dredged in a
field of light giving gorgonias, with
stems about two feet long. The trawl
came up ehoked with them from a
region a mile below the surface, each
one emitting a vivid, lilae-eolored
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
depths are types of extinct forms,
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 UNI
seen jewellers in the deep sea. Among
the curious light givers is 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 APP
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 jellyhsh. its disk
six feet across, its train of tentacles
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