Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/352

326 the bottom in shallow water; that they sweep and scour from it the feculences of the sea, as these insect remains may be called, and bear them off into deep water. After reaching a certain depth, then this sediment passes into the stratum of quiet waters that underlie the roaring waves and tossing currents of the surface, and through this stratum these organic remains slowly find their way to the final place of repose as ooze at the bottom of the deep sea. Through such agencies the ooze of the deep sea ought, said the anti-biotics, to be richer than that of shallow water with infusorial remains; mud and all the light sedimentary-matter of river waters are deposited in the deep pools, and not in the shoals and rapids of our fresh-water streams; so we ought, reasoned they of this school, to have the most abundant deposits at the bottom of the deep sea.

610. On the antiseptic properties of sea water.—The anti-biotics referred to the antiseptic properties of sea water, and told how it is customary with mariners, especially with the masters of the sailing packets between Europe and America, to "corn" fresh meat by sinking it to great depths overboard. If they sink it too deep, or let it stay down too long, it becomes too salt. According to them, this process is so quick and thorough, because of the pressure and the affinity which not only forces the water among the fibres of the meat, but which also induces the salt to leave the water and strike into the meat ; and that the fleshy part of these microscopic organisms have been exposed to powerful antiseptic agents is proved by the fact that they are brought up in the middle of the ocean, and remain on board the vessel exposed to the air for months before they reach the hands of the microscopist; some of them have remained so exposed for more than a year, and then been found full of fleshy matter: a sure proof that it had been preserved from putrefaction and decay by processes which it had undergone in the sea, and before it was brought up into the air.

611. On pressure.—Thus the anti-biotics held that these little creatures were preserved for a while after death, and until they reached a certain depth, by salt, and afterwards by pressure. They held that certain conditions are requisite in order that the decay of organic matter may take place; that the animal tissues of these shells during the process of decay are for the most part converted into gases; that these gases, in separating from the animal compound, are capable of exerting only a certain