The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-09-04
WONDERS
OF OCEAN DEPTHS
Contrary to Former Conceptions
There Is Only One Blind
Fish in Deep Waters.

uoy III Tic ueplHS OIL the OCedn Inc
Able Theo Moreau, director of he
Observatory of Bourges, is putting the
finishing touches to a work which will,
1t is said, subvert the previous theo-
ries of savants concerning the dwell
ers in the sea. The Able is one Of
the most learned men of the day, and
he and Prince Albert of Monaco are
said to be the best versed men living
on the subject of oceanography
Before the marvellous discoveries
of oceanography, naturalists had no
conception of the possibilities of life
"fathoms down." They knew that
one of the principal factors of life is
light, and they long ago knew that
light, or the rays of the sun, do not
penetrate deep waters.
Recent experiments show" says
the Able Moreau, that beyond 2225
yards no luminous wave can con-
tinue it's journey through liquid
bodies. Light, therefore, is entirely
absent, and we are in the region of
eternal night. What beings, there
fore. could live in these depths? was
the query of past scientists. And
naturalists of the first order con-
cluded that if one day we discovered
fish dwelling in the depths Of the
ocean, these strange creatures would
not have the sense of light. Theoret-
ically, all the animals Of the great
deep should be not only blind, but
colorless. Yet practically nothing is
farther from the TRUTH
Only One Blind Fish
OF all the animals taken from the
depths. the learned Able declares
there is only one known which has no
eyes. This fish is called the Ipnops
de Murray, and its absent orbs are
replaced by another organ, the pre-
else function of which is not yet de-
termined. All the other animals have
eyes, and some of them have very
large ones. If they have, visual, or
gans they, must be for the purpose
of seeing; yet how can they see, at a
depth of from 5000 to 1000 or $4,000
yards, where ray of light never en-
ters? This is the problem which the
discoveries of oceanography pro-
pound. ~9s .t&er7 .at
The Able Moreaul offers this solu:
ton: The fishes themselves of these
oceanic abysses produce the Digit
which they have need. Nature makes
up for the lack of penetration of the
suns rays with its usual rule of COM
pensation.
These vast depths can only be Wis
tied in imagination, for there is no
other way of reaching them as yet.
Suppose a submarine boat were con-
structed of sufficient strength to bear
the tremendous pressure of these OBJ
scure depths, and further suppose
that as in it we descend beneath the
surface of this moving aquarium, our
astonished eyes would gaze upon
animals stranger than which it is pos
sible for the human mind to conjure.
These extraordinary beings are quite
at home in their own domain of the
cavern's deep of the sea.
Fish that Garry Lanterns
On the earth's surface man ex-
hausts his intelligence in creating a
light to take place at night of the abb
sent rays of the sun. He deems HIM
self happy if he can capture for this
purpose per cent of the forces at his
disposal for the production of lumin-
Gus rays. Down in the deep waters
fish transform vital energy into light,
the rays of which are chemical and
heating; and they can transform not
per cent but SO per cent of the re-
sources which they control.
The mechanism by which this is
done is still unknown Here is the
ideal light, the real cold light which
physicists have sought in vain. What
matters ii then that the sun does not
shine in these abysmal depths? Like
the myriads of animalculae which on
certain nights make the ocean phos-
phorescent, the fish themselves gen.
crate their own illumination.
Names have been given to these
fish. Some of them are the stomi-
ads, the geratias, the erdypharnx and
the melanocitus. Consider the stom-
ladies'. These fish present luminous
organs scattered over their faces and
sides. Other species of fish are even
better equipped. Some are furnished
with natural light projectors or magic
lanterns, whose lenses concentrate the
luminous rays and cast them in the
necessary direction. Often this APP
paratus provided by nature has re-
flecting mirror which unites it's eff
IeClS Win Indt Oh the leuSs anu GER
tain species of these deep-sea fish are
endowed by nature with colored disks
which catch the rays of light and
vary their effects giving them sort
| of natural cinema show.
While the stomiades blaze their
way by means of luminous spots dis
posed along the stomach, the ceratias
carry a lantern supplied by nature.
This fish goes a fishing as it were with
hook and line. 1t glides along on its
stomach, exploring the depth which il
visits and attracts little attention. AS
on the earth one carries a lantern
when the night is dark, so the cera-
tias is similarly equipped. 1t shakes
its luminous apparatus suspended al
| the end of a line. Little fishes come
and go suspecting no harm. The
| fisher is the ceratias; the lantern is a
hook and the line is extended, RICH,
over that bright light is the trar
which catches and kills.
Another species of fishing fish Is
the himantolophus. 1t also fishes with
a line. throwing out a ramifying ten
| tacle whose luminous branches spread
out fan-lilxe. their light giving effect
being like that of fuse.
Fish Use Telescope
The lenophyryne carries a dou1 81,
lantern and its way Is blazed NOR,
brilliantly than any of the kindred
species already mentioned, but the