The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1911-04-27
Life of the Ocean Depths.

will be guilty of next September.
Life of the Ocean Depths.
Food Components of the Water Described
by Sir John Murray in Lowell Institute
Lecture.
In his fifth Lowell lecture on the
Ocean," Sir John Murray spoke par
ticularly of the food components of the
water, and somewhat of their economic
relations to man. AS depression in
answer to question asked OF, him he
noted the uniformity Of temperature of
the surface of the ocean, varying but
little throughout the twenty-four hours
and contrasted with this the enormous
range-nearly one hundred degrees in
the Sahara desert. In his opinion it is
such areas as the latter that produce the
heatings of the atmosphere to which the
movements of the air are related. He
spoke then Of the circulation of water in
the ocean, stating that the colder water
from the poles sinks and flows towards
the tropics, while the surface warm water
moves towards the poles. On account of
this circulation life is possible in the
deepest oceans, although there are some
modifying conditions. Where barrier
exists conditions of life are changed and
it is on account of the lack of free
oceanic circulation that in the Black Sea,
for example, there is no organic life be-
low one hundred fathoms.
The lecturer called attention to the
fact that the temperature of the ocean is
changing. The Atlantic deeps are colder
now than at the time of the Challenger
expedition, thirty-five years ago, and
there is apparently a cycle of this change
in the North Atlantic. For the purpose
of investigating this question Sir John
Murray expressed the opinion that the
United States ought to take observations
on this side of the ocean at the same
time as the English ones. The value of
these observations he showed by means
IF charts. These depicted the observa-
tons of the eggs and young of various
food fishes, the cod, haddock and plaace
among them. In the North Sea the
spawning grounds are distinctly the
places of current from the Atlantic, and
for the different fish correspond with the
degree of salinity of the water What
the reason for this is has not yet been
determined, but it is important from the
food-of-man standpoint to know where
the fish are to be found and why the
places to which they resort change.
The story showed by means of charts
how the different fish select spawning
grounds and how they distribute them
selves from given center, this having
been determined by means of marked in
dividuals. Another interesting story was
the means Of telling the age of the fish.
The otoliths, or as they are popularity
called, ear bones, can be used for this
purpose on much the same principle as
the trunk Of tree gives evidence of it's
growth. In both there are rings, one for
each year. The scales of certain of the
fishes give similar indications. The her
ring may grow to eleven or twelve years.
By the width in the earlier rings the fish
may be located as to spring or fall hatch.
Further than this there is evidence of
certain years being better for the propa-
cation of fishes than Others The catches
of number of seasons point to 1904 as
a prolific year and the fish born in that
year formed an important portion of the
catch till within year or two.
Ocean farms were discussed by this
expert, who showed how the sea is
crowded with life. So minute are the
forms that nets of hardly greater coarse
ness than silk pocket handkerchief are
used, it having been found that what
were formerly considered to be fine nets
caught less than per cent of the actual
life in the water through which it was
taken. The surface growth. plank ton,
it is called, consists of plants and ami
mails, and these require food just as any
other plants or animals do. 1.-THE sur
face Of the sea is a great floating mead
ow, SAID the speaker, land there is
more vegetable matter in it. including to
the depth of one hundred fathoms, than
on any meadow or forest tract on land"
He suggested that it might be possible
to cultivate the ocean by furnishing to
the water, perhaps by means of sewage,
some lacking elements, so that certain
places might be made attractive to food
fish and be economically valuable. He
noted further how at the meeting of cold
and warm currents the life is particularly
abundant. One such place is off the ell
bow of Cape Cod and there the plants
and animals congregate. These small
plants are the fundamental food supply
not only of the surface larger organisms
but of those at all depths below
The lecturer showed series of lantern
views of the organisms mostly beyond
reach VI Cue uIldluGu VlSlOll, CIldC are TO
be found in the sea. These included some
of the lowest of the plants, among them
the diatoms, and great many of the
lower orders of animals like the Radio
laria. These secrete from the sea water
different kinds of coverings, lime or silica
or other materials, making beautiful pat
terms He showed number of examples
of symbiosis, as it is termed, the living
together of plant and animal; the animal
exhaling carbonic acid for which the
plant is hungry, while the latter pro-
duces oxygen, which is necessary to the
life of the animal. There were stories
of distribution, of the materials in the
water that determined why the organ
isms live in certain places in greater
numbers than in others and other stories
of phosphorescence, these organisms be-
ing concerned in the production of it,
that were astonishing
A Reliable Medicine-Not a Narcotic.