The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-21

n
minute development of which he is inter- |
ested, he is now working on a bathymet- |
re survey of the Scotch lochs, and pro- |
noting Scottish Antarctic expedition, it |
being his firm belief that a thorough |
survey of the sea bottom in the region |
of the South Pole will yield profoundly !
scientific results, especially as regards !
scientific knowledge of deep-sea life.
Murray tells you that he is an Ameri- |
can by birth-he was born in Canada |
but he has lived nearly all his life in
Scotland. His home is just in the out
skirts of Edinburgh, on the shore of the
Firth of Forth, where he can always hear
the sound of the sea. 1t is a fine old
stone building, pillared in front and sur
rounded by wide green lawns and ample
grounds. He calls it challenger
Lodge" He is a worldwide traveller
when I saw him he was planning voy-
age to Java-a broad thinker, and a most
entertaining talker-a man whom it is
good to meet.
When Murray began his work in
oceanography some thirty-eight years
ago, scientific knowledge of the sea was
meager and unsatisfactory. Something
over three-ffths of the globe is covered
amount of life-Iar greater-both vege-
table and animal in the water than on
the land, and yet this storehouse of WON
der-the great swarming seas of the
World-has been almost UNEMPLOYED. Hulk
ley had awakened interest in the deep
sea by the enthusiastic announcement of
his famous Bathybius theory. In the
course Of examining q number of deep
water dredgings he had discovered traces
of gray gelatinous mass, somewhat re-
sembling protoplasm. This he designat-
ed the primeval living slime, the unor-
ganized beginning of life. 1t was a sug-
gestion that caught the imagination;
/ here deep in the sea bottom, in darkness
and cold. fioated, as it had fioated from
( the beginning, the essence of life from
which the whole earth had been clothed
with the green OF plants and populated
with thousands of varying forms of ami
NAL life. And if all life on land were
: to be laid low in night, here varied
the slow, dull livestock upon which
could be built anew the fabric of crea-
ton.
But when Sir John Murray and the 9TH
err scientists on the Challenger began to
study the problem, they found that Hulk
ley had been misled by the fact that
strong alcohol, such as had been used
for preserving the specimens collected.
will throw down a chemical gelatinoas
precipitate from sea water; this f1occu-
lent mass Huxley had enormously called
the Bathybius. A beautiful theory was
thus demolished. but the structure Of
facts reared in it's place was QUITE as
/ wonderful.
Instead of being the first place on the
earth to be inhabited, the deep sea, ac-
cording to the conclusions of the Scien-
lists of the Challenger, was the last. AS
life became multitudinous in shallow wa
ter, and competition for food grew
stronger, the weak species were slowly
driven into the deeper, colder and darker
depths of the sea where they could live
their lives with less interference, and
thir bodies became slowly modified to suit
the new conditions. AS consequence,
&c hern in no
in those awful deeps five miles and more
below the surface of the water. The ell
tire surface of the worlds oceans
though the water may seem ever so
clear, is filled with life To depth OF
800 feet there both animals and
plants; below that plant life ceases, and
there are only animals. Indeed, the
whole sea surface is vast, rich meadow
which supports the life of countless
millions OF animals, both in the surface
! waters and on the ocean floor miles be-
meath. These animals, feeding in their
own waving green pastures, are in turn
the prey of larger animals, and in dying
I, they drop down where the slow, crawl
ing creatures of the great depths are
! lying in wait for them. If it were not
for this swarming life the ocean would
appear a dense black, for these little
I creatures serve to reflect the rays OF the
: sun and give the appearance of color 70
1 the water. In the greater depths OF the
d,
2 no light whatever, the rays of the sun
4 penetrating only a few hundred feet.
9 Some of the fish that live here have
: therefore, developed a curious, whiplike
;, projection above their heads, on the end
\ of which grows real lantern, a small
e bulb producing phosphorescent light
Most of them have huge mouths, and as
e they swim slowly about through the wa
n ter other fish, perhaps some of those
g which have developed enormously large
e eyes, are lured straight into the cavern
d Gus mouth of the lantern-bearer. there
e TO be digested at leisure. Other fist
= there are that creep their lives out on thu
: sea floor, sluggishly taking in the ooz'
: and digesting the bits of vegetable q
v animal substances that remain to 1t afte
v it has fallen through miles of sea water
n Sir John Murray thinks it probable tina
= fully three-quarters of the deposits nov
e covering the ocean bottom have passet
V through the alimentary canals of tn
millions InOn millions of marine animals