The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1913-12-04
UNDER THE OCEAN
Changes In the Sea Floor From
Shore TO Shore.
THE BIG MIO-ATLANTlC RIDGE.
II Starts at Iceland and Biseets the
Ocean Down Almost to Cape Horn.
In Places II Rises Above the Surface,
Forming Groups Of Islands.

Forming Groups Of Islands.
A sketch Of the landscape" Of the
: ocean bed is given by DIR. A. +. Ship
ley Ia an article In the Edinburgh Re
view:
The passengers and the crew of a
I liner racing over the surface of the
Atlantic are apt TO imagine that under
them Is vast layer of water of vary
Ing depth sparsely inhabited by a few
fish. As a matter Of fact, the whole Of
this great ocean is teeming with life.
If instead Of taking ship We could take
TO the water and walk across the bed
Of the Atlantic 10 America, starting
| from the shores Of western Europe, we
should In effect be travelling through a
! succession of new countries Not only
would the surrounding physical condl-
| tons vary as we advanced. but the
animal and plant life would vary in
correlation with the altering physical
conditions.
Walking farther and farther toward
the depths of the Atlantic we should
soon lose all sight Of the algae, and the
shallow water flsh--the plaiee and sole,
whiting, skates, dogfsh and others and
cod-would give way to the megrlln
and the bake. The sea floor would
gradually change from rock or gravel
or stones TO sands and ultimately TO
.
original cOlOrs often modified by the
action OF the decomposition of organic
particles In them and on them. All
these finer deposits are derived from
the nelghboring land and are blown |
seaward by offshore winds or washed I
down by rains and streams and carried
out TO the sea by rivers.
"The distance to which fine matter In
may be carried is very
great The Kongo is said to carry its
characteristic mud as far out to sea as
300 miles, and the Ganges and the
indus as far as 1000 miles.
Except In the neighborhood of such
'reat rivers subaqueous traveller
would soon pass beyond what Sir John
Murray has called the mud line.' a
me that limits the terrigenous deposits
verywhere surrounding dry land.
iaving reached this limit we must
roceed warily, for at the mud line,
an average depth of a hundred
lthoms, we shall find ourselves at the
fge of the continental shelf, that rim
hich extends seaward to varying
stance from all land areas the rim
which Great Britain rests. Beyond
IS the continental slope, a precipice
ore or less abrupt and more or less !
gh, descending by steep declines or
Traced cliffs until depths of 1000
thoms are reached. I
THE Atlantic, compared with the
her great oceans. has an unusually
rye area of comparatively shallow
ater. OF its total area 27.5 per cent
covered by water less than 1000
thoms deep; Is per cent lies between
200 and 1000 fathoms and Al per cent
tween 1000 and 1900 fathoms; the I
7.5 per cent Is still deeper.
At the foot of the continental slope
IS an illimltable plain of a uniform
Ill, grayish buff color. fiat and fea.
reless as the desert, and only diversi- 9
"a by an occasional as yet uncovered a
OK or wreck or the straight line of n b
Gently luid cable. This plain con-
lues with scarcely a change in seem Y
or In level until we approach the
eat mid-Atlantic ridge. As Bruce h
IS shown, this ridge, which roughly
sects the Atlantic, extends from Ice
nd as far south as fifty-three degrees
south latitude, with a slight and n
lite inexplicable break just under the n
uator. The ridge runs almost parallel n
th the eastern contour of North and
uth America, which, in turn, as the "
dinary map will show, roughly cor n
spends with the western contour of ~
lrope and Africa. From time to time r.
g ridge rises above the surface of the
ater, as In the Azores group. st.
luFs rocks, Ascension. Tristan da
mia and Cough island.
Having ascended the eastern and :,
scended the western slope of this
d-AtIantic ridge, we should again
'verse plains of grayish ooze far -
,re extensive than any level land :,
'ct known to geographers, and as we 4,
preached the American coast we -
ouid gradually pass through, in re-
rse order the zones of life traversed
Zen leaving Europe, On the eastern ;,
lst of America the slope Is much -
're gradual than on the western
lst of southern Europe and Africa"