The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-08-26

may exist, but the present dredges are
incapable of capturing creatures more
than about five feet in length.
To obtain the temperature and the
specific gravity of the water at the sea
floor a self-registering thermometer
and a water specimen cup are sent
down with the sinker. The water cup
closes automatically after it is started
on the return trip to the surface. The
deep sea thermometer is enclosed in a
brass tube and protected from the
enormous water pressure
Immediately after the sounding rod
is released from the sinker the Their
mometer, which is pivoted in the case,
turns bulb up. The temperature at the
turn is registered by the breaking of
the column of mercury at bend near
the bulk. No more mercury can get
into the bulk until the thermometer is
reversed again and the officer at the
sounding machine on deck attends to
this after he reads the thermometer
The Albatross has two laboratories
and a staff of naturalists who analyze,
preserve and classify all specimens.
Much care must be taken in the hand
ling of deep sea fishes, as they will go
to pieces at touch sometimes.
Microscopic analysis is made of all
bottom specimens brought up in the
sounding rod. By this means the exact
nature of the bottom at every depth
has been discovered. Much of the sur
face bottom is made up of animalculae,
that dying on the surface, have drop
ped down, forming ooZe and becoming
the food of the creatures below.
The covering of the extreme bed
consists of what the explorers call red
clay. 1t is smooth, sticky mud, vary
ing in color from fawn to dark choco-
late, and is made up mostly of hydrated
aluminium debris, remains of calcerous
organisms, mineral fragments of vol
canic origin, sponge and skeletons of
radiolaria. The scientists, with char
acteristic simplicity of speech, describe
radiolaria as "a class of gymnomyXan
protozoans with the protoplasmic body
emitting radiate flamentous pseudo
podia and mostly enclosing a spherical
or conform perforated SHE'LL Above
$500 fathoms the bottom consists Of
globiberina ooze, which is a soft mud
filed with the shells of this minute sea
animal; diatom ooze, mud surcharged
with the remains of diatoms, resem-
bling little pill boxes.
In the deep water bordering CONT
blue mud, which is matter carried out
into the sea by the rivers and other
currents. The great depths never have
been photographed because of the
darkness and the vast pressure, but
cameras have been used successfully in
few hundred fathoms, where marine
life is pretty much what it is at the
surface. In the neighborhood of vol
canic islands the sea bottom is covered
with minerals of volcanic origin.
1t requires the careful attention of
six men to operate the Sigsbee sound
ing machine. -Four attend to the pure
ly mechanical work, such as guiding
the wire on the reel, oiling the wire,
running the reeiing engine and attach
ing and detaching the thermomete,
and specimen water cup. One officer,
who stands aft, has general charge and
another, called the recorder, reads the
thermometer, does all the figuring on |
speed, depth, time, etc, and takes |
charge of the specimens. Great pa
thence is necessary in deep sea sound |
ing and dredging. Nothing can be |
done quickly 1t took the Albatross |
ten hours 20 complete her deepest haul |
with her big beam trawl when she |
brought up great quantities of squid, |
devil fish and starfsh.
The simplest and buckets method of
getting bottom creatures that cannot
be secured with the. dredges Is by use !
Of the ''tangies, a moplike sweeper
here pictured. 1t can be lowered rapid
~. It enmeshes starfsh, sea urehins,
crinouds, corals and occasionally fish of
some size.
The Prince of Monaco has the dis
Of h raS ltS
as deem sea investigator than any
other Individual oceanographer. He
has yachts especially equipped with
quite as good as that used
IN the Albatross. He has spent many