The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-28
THE DEEP SEA HAUNT

This dreariest of all life's abodes begins about 1,500 feet above the sur face, where sunlight is stopped, and extends to the bottom of the oceans. In some places the oceans are as deep as Mt. Everest is high and there even at 15.oo0 feet (2,6o0 fathoms) the pressure is two and one-half tons on every square inch. Into these depths the cold waters from the poles finally settle, so the temperature is always close to the freezing point. Eternal night, uninterrupted calm, complete silence, almost freezing cold, with never any changing seq sons, where nothing ever comes to disturb the worse than midnight monotony but the compressed remains or carcasses and ships-why should living creatures choose such a hor- rible haunt for a home? Nothing ever rots upon the ocean floor because the bacteria, which cause purtefaction cannot live there.
 Strange as 1t may seem, only the most delicately constructed creatures can withstand the pressure of the deep seas. The weight of the waters would smash in the ribs of whale, yet sponges, worms, coraIs, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, quaint sea spiders. lamp shells, sea squirts, sea mats, flat fishes and all kinds of mollusks are at home in the depts.
 In the abysmal depths there are no plants, so the denizens must feed upon one another or be satisfied with the crumbs that seep down from the sun lighted waters. The indicators sub- sist on ooze, upon which falls a ceaseless rain of minute organisms from higher waters.
 During the Challenger expedition a glass tube inside copper casing was lowered 1,200 feet and upon being drawn up both were found to have looked as if 1t had been struck with a hammer. And as for the glass tube, 1t was represented by what looked like snow-the glass reduced to fine powder"
 Hair is about the only part of the human body which would not be im- ploded at the bottom of the ocean.
 When a body of any kind sinks" says Thomson, ito @ great depth any cavities 1t may contain will be quick ly filed with water. but if there are cavities which cannot be quickly reached, like tight compart- ments, they will be imploded, and the respondingly. There is no warrant at all for the common sailors belief that ships and men sink until they reach their level and there remain suspended. Everything sinks to the bottom"
 Then what must the bottom of the ocean look like, cluttered with the jetsam of the ages? Since nothing decays, the remains of all the fishes that ever sank lie there, save for tho house-cleaning done by the deep sea carnivores.
 Many kinds of deep sea animals are oftentimes mistaken for plants. Sea- lilies, for example, stand on long slender stalks. but their leaves are tentacles and they are genuine cri- holds closely related to star-fishes. Walt whitman, in 'yrhe World Below the Brine" mistook animals for plants. though his picture is other wise very graphic:
 Forests at the bottom of the sea,
 the branches and leaves,
 Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange
 flowers and seeds
 Dumb swimmers there among tho
 rocks. corals, gluten. grass, rustes
 and the ailment of swimmers, Sluggish existence grazing there or
 suspended close to the bottom. Sight in these ocean depths, wars,
 pursuitp tribes breathing that
 ck-breathing afr. as so many do."
 Perhaps if we could understand why some human tribes prefer to dwell amid malarial surroundings, as on the Orinoco delta, instead of the temperate zone. we might also com- prehend why peculiar animals have made their home in the deep sea haunt