Gilpin observer. (Central City, Colo.) 1897-1921, 1900-02-22
Sea Floor,
Possible Revelations of the Bcd
of the Ocean Do Sunken
Ships Go to the Dottoms


seen q lake. n pond or river bed laid
| dry that has not felt an almost child
| ish interest and curiosity in the aspect
| of 4 portion of the earth's surface hith
erto concealed from our gaze? says f.
/ T. Bellen in the London Spectator. The
feeling is probably universal, arising
from the natural desire to penetrate
/ the unknown, and also from print
tive anxiety to know what sort of
| abode the inhabitants of the water
possess, since we almost always con-
slider the water folk to live as do the
birds-really on land. with the water
| for an atmosphere. But, if this curl
| osity be so general with regard to the
| petty depths mentioned above, how
greatly is it increased in respect of the
recesses of the sea, for there is truly
the great unknown. the undiscoverable
country of which, in spite of the con-
slant efforts of deep sea expeditions.
we know next to nothing. Here i'm
agination may (and does) run riot. at
tempting the impossible task of repro
ducing to our minds the state of things
in the lightless, silent depths, where
life is impossible.
Suppose that it were possible for
some CONFUSION Of nature to lay bare.
let us say, the entire bed of the north
Atlantic ocean. With one bound the
fancy leaps ut the prospect of redis-
covery of the lost continent. the tabled
Atlantis. whose wonders have had so
powerful an effect upon the imagina-
tons of mankind. Should we be able
to roam through those stupendous
| halls. climb those towering temple
heights reared by the giants of an
elder world or gaze with stupefied
wonder upon the majestic ruins of
cities to which Babylon and Palmyra.
with all their mountainous ediiices.
We're but as Il suburban townlet? Who
knows? Yet maybe the natural WON
ders apparent in the foundations of
such soaring masses as the Azores.
| the Cape Verde islands or the Ca
naries. or, greater still. the altitude of
such remote and lonely pinnacles as
those of st. Paul's rocks would
strike us as more marvellous yet. TO
thread the cool intricacies of the still
veXt Bermoothes" at their Easements
and seek out the caves where the sea
monsters dwell who never saw the
light of day. to wander at will among
the winding of that strange maze of
reefs that cramp up the outpouring of
the beneficent gulf stream and make
it issue from its source with that tur-
bulent energy that carries 1t. laden
with blessings. to our shores-what
great pilgrimage that would be. I'M
agne the vision of that great chain of
islands which we call the West Indies
soaring up from the vast plain G,000
feet below. with all the diversity of
form and color belonging to the lovely
homes of the coral insects. that build
ceaselessly for themselves, yet all I'M
consciously rear stable abodes for man.
kind!
1t would be an awful country to
view, this suddenly exposed floor Of
the sea. a barren land of weird out
line, of almost unimaginable complex
ty of contour. but without any beau-
ty such as is bestowed upon the dry
earth by the kindly sun. for its beauty
depends upon the sea, whose prolific
waters are peopled with life so abun-
dainty that even the teeming earth
is barren as compared with the ocean.
But at its greatest depths all the re-
searches that man has been able to
prosecute go to prove that there is lit
tie life.
The most that goes on there is a
steady accumulation Of the dead husks
Of once living organisms settling slow
ly down to form who knows what new
granite. marbles. porphyries. against
the time when another race on reor-
ganized earth shall need them. Here
there is nothing fanciful, for If we
know anything at all of prehistoric
times 1t is that what is now high land.
not to say merely dry land. was once
lying cold and dormant at the bottom
of the sea being prepared throughout
who can say what unrealiZable periods
of time for the use and enjoyment of
! its present lords. Not until we leave
the rayless gloom. the incalculable
pressures and universal cold of those
tremendous depths do we find the sea
floor beginning to abound with life. 1t
may even be doubted whether any
thing of mans handiwork. such as
there Is about n ship laundering In
midocean. would ever reach in n recog-
niZable form the bottom of the sea at
n depth of more than 5000 fathoms.
There is an idea. popularity current
among sea farers. that sunken ships in
the deep sea only go down II certain
distance. no matter what their build or
how ponderous their cargo.
Having reached n certain stratum.
they then drift about. slowly disiutc-
grating. derellcts of the depths. swarm
ing with strange denzens. the shadowy
fleets of the lost and loved and mourn
ed. In time. of course. as the great
solvent gets in It's work they disappear.
becoming part of their surroundings.
but not for hundreds Of years. during