The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-13
WONDERS UNDER WAVES.
Curious and Marvellous Forms of
Deep Sea Life.

Curious and Marvellous Forms of
Deep Sea Life.
BY Prof Charles F. Holder, author of
"Along a Florida Reef" etc.
To the layman the reader who has not
followed the Investigations Of students Of
the deep sea, it is difficult 10 realize Row
life can exist where the pressure is so
great that it is compared to a train CT
cars loaded with pig iron bearing down
upon a mans shoulders, or many tons to
the square inch. Neither are the cond tons
of life readily understood at a dep.h where
a raw of sunlight never has reached, where
eternal night apparently reigns, where the
temperature is nearly at the freezing point,
and where, in all probability, silence 50
profound exists that a sound has never
broken the quiet of ages.
Such a region. finding It's extreme dep n
in five or six miles, does net appsar 10
offer many inducements to the invest ga
tor; yet it has been most fruitful tel1,
and the discoveries which have been made
during the last few years have entlrely
changed public sentiment regarding II.
The deep sea, while forbidding and unln-
wiling. has its inhabitants that are Wen
adaDted to the strange conditions wltnla
its borders where eternal darkness was
10 believe that there is at times wonde,-
full assenblage Of light givers, who illumine
the dark. unfathomed caves of the ocelh
and change it's abysmal regions into
scenes of weird splendor
If the ocean bed, which Is popularity SUD
posed to occupy three-fourthS Oh me
worlds surface. should suddenly be lana
hare we should in the main find dupl-
cate of terrestrial conditions. The eed OF
the present ocean has at some time zen
dry land, has been cut by wind ana Wea'h-
err. washed into river beds by streams
thrown I'D by volcanic acton into moun-
tains or elevated and depressed by os-
oiIIations Of the crust. It has undergone
oil the changes of the land with which we
are familiar, and in a measure resemb es
it.
Reyond the Light of Day.
To make the ocean bed a reality, viii
ask the reader to imagine that ne i
equipped with a divers armor capaple OF
resisting pressure and accompany me -
the deep sea. AS we descend into the pius
dapths we realize that we have entered
another world. where to all intents and PUT
noses water is the atmosphere. III we
entered the ocean on the Pacf coast
IRON, the beach we would gradually walk
down an easy descent for many niles am
the same is true of the Atlantic. Almost
irnmediately the light fades, so that when
af a
dark and intensely cold. Deeper we-de-
scend. the sunlight gradually fading, until
al a depth of quarter of mile the dark
mess Is intense, so far as the sun is con-
cerned. 1900,
In shallow water we have passed
through the region of abundant llte.AlohS
the shore are schools of porpoises, I'M
,nense whales that occasionally venture
far below the surface. and number OF
air breathing, hshlike animals that are
kent near the surface by their structure
and requirements. Here are schools OF
fish-salmon and sardines; and passing Is
a migrating herd OF seals. Deeper we pass
and leave them behind, descending to
denth of $50 feet in darkness profound.
An electric light would show singular
change. Many of the fish of gay colors,
and could we Whisk one to the surface
ira ewes would be popping from its head
when it arrived, from the sudden change:
Strange animals inhabit this region,and
the deeper we go the more remarkable
they appear, and finally al a mile or so
thew fairly compel our admiration. Here
are scarlet shrimps: crabs on stiltlike legs;
n hers that are blind; more that carry
their own lights, for long ago we saw
living stars, moons and comets in this
abysmal region that serve variety or
purposes in the economy OF nature. Every
where there Is life Every drop OF water
Is alive; and standing in this strange re-
g'on, at a depth of mile or so, we find
ourselves in rainstorm beneath the sea.
All about are countless objects dropping
from us. invisible to the eye, but so re-
suit producing in the aggregate that the
raindrops pile and heap up In such masses
thar with those that die on the bottom
they round off the tops of submarine hills
and mountains. iii up the 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-a condition found in great depths,
but not always in the greatest 1t has
been estimated that IL lime secreting or
ganisms are as numerous down to a
depth Of six hundred feet as they are
near the surface there would be more