The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-05-08
I0NSTERS SELDOM Seen
THE OCEANS DEPTHS
o,u MANY STRANGE FISH.
souids $50 Feet in Length and
', wsigbing 10000 pounds. Eel
VIZ FL sharks go Feet Long.

W. mo,obing 10000 pounds. Eel
like sharks go Feet Long
no occasion the U. S. S. Alba
u.s. VS. passed through many miles OF
s o5 over which cuttlefiisheS OF a
ave .oo species about the size of
] noil we're scattered by the tens
a' .nonsards. All of them without
sntion we're more or less mutilat-
and if was evident that in the
l,.hs below they were being at
/ pod nv some enemy and destroyed
hOlesale.
rsoso cuttles. says the Hartford
100 are known to be the favorite
~ Of abyssal sharks, in which
j. om.cbs have been found great num-
t. Of their parrot-like peaks, undi-
&p.+od Some of the deep-sea sharks
Eme TO the surface occasionally to
- and one of them, of eel-like
IN attains a length of SO feet.
& rrn5onbtedly creature of the great
lntbs is the giant squid, which is
fsr the largest of the cuttlefshes.
\ fuu grown specimen weighs 49,
s Ia pounds. Its body is 20 !eet
ng, and besides eight smaller ten
cles it has two great ones for pIr-
bses of attack, each of them 100
Of in length. Thus the total length
4 the creature is not less than $50
4t Swimming backward in its
stomary manner expelling water
om its siphon, with its huge tail
of the water, and the long ten
E cIes undulating over the waves be-
Snd This formidable monster can
& sily be taken for a sea serpent.
bough it appears at the surface
nv rarely it may be not uncom-
Dn species down below.
Even on the brightest day no ray
sunshine penetrates to a greater
9TH than 600 feet in the ocean.
is fact has been positively ascer-
med by exposures made with spe-
& lB constructed marine cameras
Eered into the sea. Consequently
is manifest that the depths of the
ban must be absolutely dark. A
sid blackness, a darkness which
by literally be felt, reigns every
here, illumined only by the Ian
ms which the fishes and certain
: her abyssal creatures themselves
Try. Some of the fishes have lamps
ich are turned on or off at will,
lng under control by the nervous
ktem Of the bearer.
IN Imagination, therefore, one may
pure to oneself endless torchlight
occasions of fishes and luminous
Bhalopods passing through the
|Rck depths of the sea. Even the
bstaceans, or many of them at all
Sents, are luminous; for example,
ktain shrimps which have hind legs
'Pdifed for climbing up the sea
Rhs and sea lilies, their young max
B their way out to the ends of the
Rther's enormously long antennae
"a reaching for food.
THE ocean floor is an intermina-
3 desert of grayish ooZe, largely
imposed of minute shells, in which,
Apne were to walk over it, the feet
suld sink deeply. There is no
mi life whatever, even the sea ILL
being merely animals resembling
'Fers in appearance. 1t is believed
most of the deep sea animals
81 the fishes, but lower forms-live
eating the ooze of mud in the
pom, digesting the organic mat
III It contains. The indicators,
ly OF which are of gigantic size,
D lhe common prey of sharks and
IN rapacious fishes.
ne total absence of light in the
'ns doubtless accounts for the
that all of the fishes without
pron, so far as known, are
x. They are mostly very fierce
nlghly carnivorous, with great
and lance-like teeth. Some of
are almost all head, with jaws
VI seven times as long as the
proper, and so arranged, like
Ee u snake, as to enable them
"aiiow other fishes several times
ig as themselves.