New-York tribune., 1922-08-06
THE VALLEYS
OF THE SEA
Continued from page fvs


Along its length, at almost cqudstant .u-
tervals, rise three isolated, fiat-topped peaks,
towering skyward TO height of more than
$4,000 feet. AS the rays of western sun
fall upon them they appear as if snow capped.
But we know it cannot be snow that sprinkles
their dizzy slopes. 1t is white coral and coral
debris which have fallen upon them from the
reefs of the Mysteriosa bank and the Grand
Cayman island and from the heights of Little
Cayman and Cayman Brac. Perhaps with
powerful glass can make out upon the fat
topped SUBMITS Of the two furthest peaks
the tbnnest Of green lines, which at this dig
tance is all we can see Of the woods and scrub
that cover them
Twenty y-thousand feet below u.s. almost be-
meath our feet, down slope after slope Of
slithery smoothness, coated for some way
down with the same white coral, we see a long
reddish trough, $50 miles long-the Swan
Island canyon-the nethermost reaches Of
these vastly depths, the very place for "siithy.
toves" or 'jabberwocks. In all the awesome
prospect there is not the faintest sign of plant
life to relieve the gray whteness and the
dreary tones of these lifeless regions-no
patches of red or brown or green to hint of
seaweed growth
Mont Blanc is 1872 feet above the sea
level. Most travellers content themselves with
viewing its towering mass from the mountain
village of Chamounx which is itself 3.46O
feet above the sea; so that the actual height
of the mountain above this we'll known tour
lists resort is only some $4,000 feet Il Mont
Blanc from Chamounix were placed
at the bottom of Swan Islands canyon. while
we are standing at its edge, your gaze would
have to travel down and down 5000 feet
nearly mile and a half-beneath YOU to
discover the proud summit of this king OF
mountains!
Now, you have an isolated section Of
the Pacific ocean bed. From Australia TO
Japan it is land of volcanoes-volcanoes that
burst open the ocean floor belch forth guam
titles of molten earth and then are choked
out by the water. Gigantic avalanches slip
from mountains and plunge thousands of feet
-avalanches that break away and fall with
out a sound Here our imagination NAV run
riot and never reach the limit of it's wonders.
discovered l.
leys, the Planet Deep, falls away from the
coast Of Mlndanao for almost six miles Can
You imagine falling for six miles? 1t reminds
one OF Alce's arrival in Wonderland for NOT
the least Of her adventures was that fall with
which she started But we do know that there
would be no jars of marmalade on the way
down from Mindanao
Against the walls of this vallev Mont
Marcy, the greatest of the Adirondacks sum-
mlts, might be stacked upon itself exactly six
times and then only reach the level of che
Philippine Islands.
The second of the Pacihc's wonder CANYONS
is called the Nero Deep, which measures 81 .6i<
feet from the top of the submarine mountain
"hlcn maps SHOW as the island Of Guam tt
IS mighty fold in the earth's surface he
tween TWO mountain ranges, which have aerial
snmmlts-the Maranas archipelago on ore
side and the Caroline islands on the other
lhe Adrlch Deep-for many years reea rAad
as the nethermost depths-now ranks third.
It Les 5O,930 feet alongside the New Zea-.
land coast and could swallow the British TsIes
IN its blackness. From it's shiny bod to .hs
snowy summit of Mount Cook Of ths New
Zealand Alps is eight miles and i. is not 40
far from perpendicular drop as YOU r.,vht
think
1t is amid the superlative depths and
heights Of the western oceans floor that soma
OF the greatest discoveries Of the future are
to be made now that Americans have utilized
radio to bring before the eyes of the world
the true story of the lands which the Old
Man of the Sea has been keeping for aeons as
his secret
BY setting the radio to this task the sorns.
ings taken by the destroyer Stewart in it's test
trip from Newport, r. T. TO Gibraltar rnasa
the charting of the sea bottom about as simple
as measuring man for suit of clothes. The
sounding device she carried has been perfec.sd
by DR.. Harvey c. Hayes, of the engineering
department of the Naval Academy at Annsp.
oils, or rather, of the experiment station that
contributes its services to the academy and
the navy as a whole
The ides is readily understood, for n g.
just like bouncing ball into dark hole and
learning its depth by counting the seconds that
1t takes to come back on the rebound. Radio
sends sound waves below; they rebound from
the bed OF the ocean, and receiving iastru-
ment tells how long it takes the sound to come
back in any given locality. BY this msshod