The Washington herald., 1915-05-02

that ventured among their tortuous arms
| and branches. And tide pools abound in
! sea urchins with sharp barbed spines.
| hundreds OF them. that break of inside
| wound. also in sea anemones POSSESSED
| of powerful singing apparatus. which
| dangers the big fish could not avoid In
shadows and narrow passages. whereas
the little pretty fellows, butterflies of
the sea-" by some ancient instinct steer
safely among them.
Soundings and Temperatures.
In addition to her work with nets one
Of the duties of the Albatross is to take
deep soundings. this being done By a
small winch on the deck operated By
little steam engine. that swiftly lowers
over the stern a long length Of piano
wire. held taught by a sixty-pound iron
shot. This shot is released from the
wire as soon as It strikes tho bottom.
whereupon the engine stops and the
depth Is registered automatically-ac0o,
1900. 400 fathoms-by a cyclometer ar
rangement connected with the winch, In
sailing unknown seas tho Albatross takes
soundinss every half hour. day and
night
The Albatross also makes records of
deep sea temperatures BY means Of sct-
registering Thermometers secured to the
sounding line above the iron shot. These
temperature observations prove that The
ocean has a far more limited range .of
heat and cold than the land, its ma1f-
mum surface temperature being about
IS degrees Fahrenheit and its minimum
about . degrees Fahrenheit In the most
frigid depths. the cold puddles'' between
Greenland and Norway. The ave,,..
ocean temperature at a depth Of six Or
seven hundred fathoms is IS degrees
Fahrenheit
one OF the mysteries OF the sea Is a
regular nightly temperature rise of half
degree at a depth Of 100 fathoms. Tb,,
unaccountable temperature variation has
been observed by the Albatross over anil
over again.
Another regular task of the ocean
ographers is to take observations Of tn.
saltiness Of the sea, which yarIe, rre.t.
ly in different localities. They do this
by sending down on the trawl line brass
specimen bottles arranged to fill and
close at any desired depth. Thus it has
been learned that the north Atlantic is
considerably saltIer than the north Pa
Ci6C and that ho
seas are the Mediterranean, the Red. and
especially the Adriatic. Also, on either
side of the equator, in both Atlantic and
Pacific. there have been discovered
trade wind patches that are excess
sively salt. Some patient statis.lcian has
calculated that II all the salt in the sea
were evaporated and spread over this
country, it would cover the entire Unit
ed States with salt more than a mile and
a half deep.
A Wealth of Food Supplies.
During my stay in Washington for this
Investigation I had several conversations
with Commissioner of Fisheries Hugh
NJ. Smith regarding the immensely VAL
udDi0 locu supplies tndt we might take
from our oceans after the fashion of
more thrifty nations. but that we allow
to go to waste. Thus. the total value of
marine vegetables gathered annually by
the United States Is only about $4,000
as against 100000 worth gathered by
Japan. with far less to draw upon In
our Alaskan waters we have inexhaust-
ible kelp beds, hundreds Of millions of
tons Of an important food product that
We entirely neglect. although in Japan
the kelp industry is zcalously prosecuted.
Another marine vegetable highly priced
In the East Is ono from which . nutri-
tious isinglass or Jelly Is produced. This
vegetable is very abundant along our
New England coast and might be had
for the gathering. but no one takes the
trouble to gather 1t. owing to general ig-
norance. The same is true of sea Gu
cur,bers and the sea urchins and numer-
Gus mollusks that We have in immense
numbers along our coasts. and that
would support great population. IL
people were taught to make use of them,